mu?:^;-

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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

OUTLINES OF
mahAyAna buddhism.

E. J. BRILL, PRINTERS, LEYDEN, HOLLAND.

OUTLINES

OF

MAHAYANA BUDDHISM

DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI

CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
1908

PREFACE.
The object of this book is twofold: (i) To refute
the many wrong opinions which are entertained by
Western critics concerning the fundamental teachings
of Mahayana Buddhism ; (2) To awake interest among
scholars of comparative religion in the development
of the religious sentiment and faith as exemplified
by the growth of one of the most powerful spiritual
forces in the world.- The book is therefore at once
popular and scholarly. It is popular in the sense that
it tries to expose the fallacy of the general attitude
assumed by other religionists towards Mahayanism.
It aims to be scholarly, on the other hand, when it
endeavors to expound some of the most salient
features of the doctrine, historically and systematically.
In attempting the accomplishment of this latter
object, however, the author makes no great claim,
because it is impossible to present within this pres
cribed space all the data that are available for a
comprehensive and systematic elucidation of the
Mahayana Buddhism, whose history began in the
sixth century before the Christian era and ran through
a period of more than two thousand years before it
assumed the form in which it is at present taught
in the Orient. During this long period, the Mahayana

VI

doctrine was elaborated by the best minds that India,
Tibet, China, and Japan ever produced. It is no
wonder then that so many diverse and apparently
contradictory teachings are all comprised under the
general name of Mahayana Buddhism. To expound
all these theories even tentatively would be altogether
outside the scope of such a work as this. All that I
could or hoped to do was to discuss a few of the
most general and most essential topics of Mahayanism,
making this a sort of introduction to a more detailed
exposition of the system as a whole as well as in
particular. To attain the first object, I have gone occasionally
outside the sphere within which I had properly to
confine the work. But this deviation seemed imperative
for the reason that some critics are so prejudiced
that even seemingly self-evident truths are not com
prehended by them. I may be prejudiced in my own
way, but very frequently I have wondered how com
pletely and how wretchedly some people can be made
the prey of self-delusion.
The doctrinal history of Mahayana Buddhism is
very little known to Occidental scholars. This is
mainly due to the inaccessibility of material which is
largely written in the Chinese tongue, one of the
most difficult of languages for foreigners to master.
In this age of liberal culture, it is a great pity that
so few of the precious stones contained in the religion
of Buddha are obtainable by Western people. Human
nature is essentially the same the world over, and

VII
whenever and wherever conditions mature we see
the same spiritual phenomena; and this fact ever
strengthens our faith in the universality of truth and
in the ultimate reign of lovingkindness. It is my
sincere desire that in so far as my intellectual attain
ment permits I shall be allowed to pursue my study
and to share my findings with my fellow beings.
In concluding this prelude, the author wishes to
say that this little book is presented to the public
with a full knowledge of its many defects, to revise
which he will not fail to make use of every oppor
tunity offered him. Daisetz T. Suzuki.

CONTENTS.
Preface . .  v
Introduction  . . . . i
(i) The Mahdy dna and Hinayana Buddhism. Why the
Two Doctrines? — The Original Meaning of Mahay
ana. — An Older Classification of Buddhists. — Mahay
ana Buddhism defined  i
(2) Is the Mahdydna Buddhism the genuine teaching
of Buddha > No Life Without Growth — Mahayanism a
Living Religion  11
(3) Some Misstatements about the Mahdy dnism. Why
Injustice Done to Buddhism. — Examples of Injustice.
— Monier Monier- Williams. — Beal. — Waddell . . 16
(4) The Significance of Religion. No Revealed Religion.
— The Mystery. — Intellect and Imagination. — The
Contents of Faith vary  24
Chapter i. A General Characterisation of Buddhism 32
No God and No Soul. — Karma. — Avidya. — Non-
atman. — The Non-atmanness of Things. — Dharma-
kaya. — Nirvana. — Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism.
Chapter ii. Historical Characterisation of Maha
yanism  • . . 60
Sthiramati's Conception of Mahayanism. — Seven
Principal Features of Mahayanism. — Ten Essential
Features of Mahayanism.

Speculative MahayAnism.
Chapter iii. Practice and Speculation ... 77
Relation of Feeling and Intellect. — Buddhism and
Speculation. — Religion and Metaphysics.
Chapter iv. Classification of Knowledge. . . 87
Three Forms of Knowledge. — Illusion. — Relative
Knowledge. — Absolute Knowledge. — World- Views
founded on the three Forms of Knowledge. — Trans
cendental Truth and Relative Understanding.
Chapter v. Bhutatathata (Suchness)  99
Indefinability. — The "Thundrous Silence." — Such
ness Conditioned. — Questions Defying Solution. — The
Theory of Ignorance. — Dualism and Moral Evil.
Chapter vi. The Tathagata-garbha and the Alaya-
vijnana  125
The Garbha and Ignorance. — The Alaya-vijfiana and
its Evolution. — The Manas. — The Samkhya Philosophy
and Mahayanism.
Chapter vii. The Theory of Non-atman or Non-ego 140
Atman. — Buddha's First Line of Inquiry. — The
Skandha. — King Milinda and Nagasena. — Ananda's
Attempts to Locate the Soul. — Atman and the "Old
Man." — The Vedantic Conception. — Nagarjunaonthe
Soul. — Non-atman-ness of Things. — Svabhava. — The
Real Significance of Emptiness.
Chapter viii. Karma  181
Definition. — The Working of Karma. — Karma and
Social injustice. — An Individualistic View of Karma.
— Karma and Determinism. — The Maturing of Good
Stock and the Accumulation of Good Merits. — Immor
tality.

XI

Practical MahAyAnism.
Chapter ix. The DharmakAya  217
God. — Dharmakaya. — Dharmakaya as Religious
Object. — More Detailed Characterisation. — The
Dharmakaya and Individual Beings. — The Dharmakaya
as Love. — Later Mahayanists' View of the Dharmakaya.
— The Freedom of the Dharmakaya. — The Will of
the Dharmakaya.
Chapter x. The Doctrine of TrikAya. . . . 242
The Human and the Super-human Buddha. — An
Historical View. — Who was Buddha ? — The Trikaya
as Explained in the Suvarna-Prabhd. — Revelation in
All Stages of Culture. — The Sambhogakaya. — A
Mere Subjective Existence. — Attitude of Modern
Mahayanists. — Recapitulation.
Chapter xi. The Bodhisattva  277
The Three Yanas. — Strict Individualism. — The
Doctrine of Parivarta. — Bodhisattva in "Primitive"
Buddhism. — We are all Bodhisattvas. — The Bud
dha's Life. — The Bodhisattva and Love. — The
Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta. — Love and
Karuna. — Nagarjuna and Sthiramati on Bodhicitta.
— The Awakening of the Bodhicitta. — The Bodhi
sattva' s Pranidhina.
Chapter xii. Ten Stages of Bodhisattvahood .311
Gradation in our Spiritual Life. — PramuditS. —
Vimala. — Prabhakan. — Arcismati. — Sudurjana. —
Bhimukhi. — Durangama. — Acala. — Sadhumati. —
Dharmamegha.

XIIChapter xiii. NirvAna  331
Nihilistic Nirvana not the First Object. — Nirvana is
Positive. — The Mahayanistic Conception of Nirvana.
— Nirvana as the Dharmakaya. — Nirvana in its Fourth
Sense. — Nirvana and Samsara are One. — The Middle
Course. — How to Realise Nirvana. — Love Awakens
Intelligence. — Conclusion
Appendix, Hymns of MahAyAna Faith. . . . 375
Index  409

INTRODUCTION.
i. THE MAHAYANA AND THE HlNAYANA
BUDDHISM.
'""pHE terms "Mahayana" and "Hinayana" may
sound unfamiliar to most of our readers, per
haps even to those who have devoted some .time to
the study of Buddhism. They have hitherto been
induced to believe that there is but one form of
Buddhism, and that there exists no such distinction
as Mahayanism and Hinayanism. But, as a matter of
fact, there are diverse schools in Buddhism just as
in other religious systems. It is said that, within a
few hundred years after the demise of Buddha, there
were more than twenty different schools, l all claiming
1 According to Vasumitra's Treatise on the Points of Con
tention by the Different Schools of Buddhism, of which there
are three Chinese translations, the earliest being one by
Kumarajiva (who came to China in A. D. 401), the first
great schism seems to have broken out about one hundred
years after the Buddha. The leader of the dissenters was
Mahadeva, and his school was known as the Mahasangika
(Great Council), while the orthodox was called the school
of Sthaviras (Elders). Since then the two schools subdivided
themselves into a number of minor sections, twenty of which
are mentioned by Vasumitra. The book is highly interesting
as throwing light on the early pages of the history of Bud
dhism in India. 1

introduction

to be the orthodox teaching of their master. These,
however, seem to have vanished into insignificance
one after another, when there arose a new school
quite different in its general constitution from its
predecessors, but far more important in its signifi
cance as a religious movement. This new school or
rather system made itself so prominent in the mean
time as to stand distinctly alone from all the other
schools, which latter became a class by itself. Essen
tially, it taught everything that was considered to
be Buddhistic, but it was very comprehensive in its
principle and method and scope. And, by reason of
this, Buddhism was now split into two great systems,
Mahayanism and Hinayanism, the latter indiscriminately
including all the minor schools which preceded Ma
hayanism in their formal establishment.
Broadly speaking, the difference between Mahayanism
and Hinayanism is this : Mahayanism is more liberal
and progressive, but in many respects too metaphys
ical and full of speculative thoughts that frequently
reach a dazzling eminence : Hinayanism, on the other
hand, is somewhat conservative and may be considered
in many points to be a rationalistic ethical system
simply. Mahayana literally means "great vehicle" and Hina
yana "small or inferior vehicle," that is, of salvation.
This distinction is recognised only by the followers
of Mahayanism, because it was by them that the
unwelcome title of Hinayanism was given to their
rival brethren, — thinking that they were more pro-

introduction 3
gressive and had a more assimilating energy than
the latter. The adherents of Hinayanism, as a matter
of course, refused to sanction the Mahayanist doc
trine as the genuine teaching of Buddha, and insisted
that there could not be any other Buddhism than
their own, to them naturally the Mahayana system
was a sort of heresy.
Geographically, the progressive school of Buddhism
found its supporters in Nepal, Tibet, China, Corea,
and Japan, while the conservative school established
itself in Ceylon, 1 Siam, and Burma. Hence the Maha
yana and the Hinayana are also known respectively
Northern and Southern Buddhism.
En passant, let me remark that this distinction,
however, is not quite correct, for we have some
1 The Anagarika Dharmapala of Ceylon objects to this
geographical distinction. He does not see any reason why
the Buddhism of Ceylon should be regarded as Hinayanism,
When it teaches a realisation of the Highest Perfect Knowl
edge (Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi) and also of the six Virtues
of Perfection {P&ramita), — these two features, among some
others, being considered to be characteristic of Mahayanism.
It is possible that when the so-called Mahayanism gained
great power all over Central India in the times of Nagarjuna
and Aryadeva, it also found its advocates in the Isle of Lion,
or at least the followers of Buddha there might have been
influenced to such an extent as to modify their conservative
views. At the present stage of the study of Buddhism, how
ever, it is not yet perfectly clear to see how this took place.
When a thorough comparative review of Pali, Singhalese,
Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese Buddhist documents is effected,
we shall be able to understand the history and development
of Buddhism to its full extent.

4 introduction
schools in China and Japan, whose equivalent or
counterpart cannot be found in the so-called Northern
Buddhism, that is, Buddhism flourishing in Northern
India. For instance, we do not have in Nepal or in
Tibet anything like the Siikhavati sects of Japan or
China. Of course, the general essential ideas of the
Sukhavati philosophy are found in the sutra literature
as well as in the writings of such authors as Acva-
ghosa, Asanga, and Nagarjuna. But those ideas were
not developed and made into a new sect as they
were in the East. Therefore, it may be more proper
to divide Buddhism into three, instead of two, geo
graphical sections: Southern, Northern, and Eastern.
Why the two Doctrines}
In spite of this distinction, the two schools, Hina
yanism and Mahayanism, are no more than two main
issues of one original source, which was first discov
ered by Cakyamu'ni; and, as a matter of course, we
find many common traits which are essential to both
of them. The spirit that animated the innermost
heart of Buddha is perceptible in Southern as well
as in Northern Buddhism. The difference between
them is not radical or qualitative as imagined by
some. It is due, on the one hand, to a general unfold
ing of the religious consciousness and a constant
broadening of the intellectual horizon, and, on the
other hand, to the conservative efforts to literally
preserve the monastic rules and traditions. Both
schools started with the same spirit, pursuing the

introduction 5
same course. But after a while one did not feel any
necessity for broadening the spirit of the master and
adhered to his words as literally as possible; whilst
the other, actuated by a liberal and comprehensive
spirit, has drawn nourishments from all available
sources, in order to unfold the germs in the original
system that were vigorous and generative. These
diverse inclinations among primitive Buddhists natu
rally led to the dissension af Mahayanism and Hi
nayanism. We cannot here enter into any detailed accounts
as to what external and internal forces were acting
in the body of Buddhism to produce the Mahayana
system, or as to how gradually it unfolded itself so
as to absorb and assimilate all the discordant thoughts
that came in contact with it. Suffice it to state and
answer in general terms the question which is fre
quently asked by the uninitiated: "Why did one
Buddhism ever allow itself to be differentiated into
two systems, which are apparently in contradiction
in more than one point with each other?" In other
words, "How can there be two Buddhisms equally
representing the true doctrine of the founder?"
The reason is plain enough. The teachings of a
great religious founder are as a rule very general,
comprehensive, and many-sided : and, therefore, there
are great possibilities in them to allow various liberal
interpretations by his disciples. And it is on this
very account of comprehensiveness that enables fol
lowers of diverse needs, characters, and trainings to

o introduction
satisfy their spiritual appetite universally and severally
with the teachings of their master. This comprehensive
ness, however, is not due to the intentional use by the
leader of ambiguous terms, nor is it due to the ob
scurity and confusion of his own conceptions. The
initiator of a movement, spiritual as well as intel
lectual, has no time to think out all its possible
details and consequences. When the principle of the
movement is understood by the contemporaries and
the foundation of it is solidly laid down, his own
part as initiator is accomplished; and the remainder
can safely be left over to his successors. The latter
will take up the work and carry it out in all its
particulars, while making all necessary alterations and
ameliorations according to circumstances. Therefore,
the role to be played by the originator is necessa
rily indefinite and comprehensive.
Kant, for instance, as promotor of German philo
sophy, has become the father of such diverse philo
sophical systems as Jacobi's Fichte's, Hegel's, Scho
penhauer's, etc., while each of them endeavored to
develop some points indefinitely or covertly or indi
rectly stated by Kant himself. Jesus of Nazareth,
as instigator of a revolutionary movement against
Judaism, did not have any stereotyped theological
doctrines, such as were established later by Christian
doctors. The indefiniteness of his views was so ap
parent that it caused even among his personal disci
ples a sort of dissension, while a majority of his
disciples cherished a visionary hope for the advent

introduction. 7
of a divine kingdom on earth. But those externali
ties which are doomed to pass, do not prevent the
spirit of the movement once awakened by a great
leader from growing more powerful and noble.
The same thing can be said of the teachings of the
Buddha. What he inspired in his followers was the
spirit of that religious system which is now known
as Buddhism. Guided by this spirit, his followers
severally developed his teachings as required by their
special needs and circumstances, finally giving birth
to the distinction of Mahayanism and Hinayanism.
The Original Meaning of Mahayana.
The term Mahayana was first used to designate
the highest principle, or being, or knowledge, of which
the universe with all its sentient and non-sentient
beings is a manifestation, and through which only
they can attain final salvation (moksa or nirvana).
Mahayana was not the name given to any religious
doctrine, nor had it anything to do with doctrinal
controversy, though later it was so utilised by the
progressive party.
Acvaghosa, the first Mahayana expounder known to
us, — living about the time of Christ, — used the
term in his religio-philosophical book ca\\ed Discourse
on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana ' as
synonymous with Bhutatathata, or Dharmakaya, 2 the
1 Translated into English by the author, 1900. The Open
Court Pub. Co. Chicago.
2 These terms are explained elsewhere.

8 INTRODUCTION
highest principle of Mahayanism. He likened the
recognition of, and faith in, this highest being and
principle into a conveyance which will carry us safely
across the tempestuous ocean of birth and death
(samstira) to the eternal shore of Nirvana.
Soon after him, however, the controversy between
the two schools of Buddhism, conservatives and
progressionists as we might call them, became more
and more pronounced ; and when it reached its climax
which was most probably in the times of Nagarjuna
and Aryadeva, i. e., a few centnries after Agvaghosa,
the progressive party ingeniously invented the term
Hinayana in contrast to Mahayana, the latter having
been adopted by them as the watchword of their
own school. The Hinayanists and the Tirthakas ' then
were sweepingly condemned by the Mahayanists as
inadequate to achieve a universal salvation of sentient
beings. An Older Classification of Buddhists.
Before the distinction of Mahayanists and Hinayanists
became definite, that is to say, at the time of Nagar
juna or even before it, those Buddhists who held a
more progressive and broader view tried to distinguish
three yanas among the followers of the Buddha, viz.,
Bodhisattva-yana, Pratyekabuddha-yana, and CJravaka-
yana ; yana being another name for class.
1 Followers of any religious sects other than Buddhism.
The term is sometimes used in a contemptuous sense, like
heathen by Christians.

INTRODUCTION 9
The Bodhisattva is that class of Buddhists who,
believing in the Bodhi (intelligence or wisdom), which
is a reflection of the Dharmakaya in the human soul,
direct all their spiritual energy toward realising and
developing it for the sake of their fellow-creatures.
The Pratyekabuddha is a "solitary thinker'' or a
philosopher, who, retiring into solitude and calmly
contemplating on the evanescence of worldly pleasures,
endeavors to attain his own salvation, but remains
unconcerned with the sufferings of his fellow-beings.
Religiously considered, a Pratyekabuddha is cold,
impassive, egotistic, and lacks love for all mankind.
The Cravaka which means "hearer" is inferior in
the estimate of Mahayanists even to the Pratyeka
buddha, for he does not possess any intellect that
enables him to think independently and to find out
by himself the way to final salvation. Being endowed,
however, with a pious heart, he is willing to listen
to the instructions of the Buddha, to believe in him,
to observe faithfully all the moral precepts given by
him, and rests fully contented within the narrow
horizon of his mediocre intellect.
To a further elucidation of Bodhisattvahood and
its important bearings in the Mahayana Buddhism, we
devote a special chapter below. For Mahayanism is
no more than the Buddhism of Bodhisattvas, while
the Prayekabuddhas and the Cravakas are considered
by Mahayanists to be adherents of Hinayanism.

10 INTRODUCTION
The Mahayana Buddhism Defined.
We can now form a somewhat definite notion as
to what the Mahayana Buddhism is. It is the Buddhism
which, inspired by a progressive spirit, broadened its
original scope, so far as it did not contradict the
inner significance of the teachings of the Buddha,
and which assimilated other religio-philosophical be
liefs within itself, whenever it felt that, by so doing,
people of more widely different characters and intel
lectual endowments could be saved. Let us be satis
fied at present with this statement, until we enter
into a more detailed exposition of its doctrinal
peculiarities in the pages that follow.
It may not be out of place, while passing, to remark
that the term Mahayanism is used in this work
merely in contradistinction to that form of Buddhism,
which is flourishing in Ceylon and Burma and other
central Asiatic nations, and whose literature is princi
pally written in the language called Pali, which comes
from the same stock as Sanskrit. The term "Mahayana"
does not imply, as it is used here, any sense of
superiority over the Hinayana. When the historical
aspect of Mahayanism is treated, it may naturally
develop that its over-zealous and one-sided devotees
unnecessarily emphasised its controversial and dogmat
ical phase at the sacrifice of its true spirit ; but the
reader must not think that this work has anything
to do with those complications. In fact, Mahayanism
professes to be a boundless ocean in which all form

INTRODUCTION I I
of thought and faith can find its congenial and welcome
home; why then should we make it militate against
its own fellow -doctrine, Hinayanism?
2. IS THE MAHAYANA BUDDHISM THE GE
NUINE TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA ?
What is generally known to the Western nations
by the name of Buddhism is Hinayanism, whose
scriptures as above stated are written in Pali and
studied mostly in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. It was
through this language that the first knowledge of
Buddhism was acquired by Orientalists; and nat
urally they came to regard Hinayanism or Southern
Buddhism as the only genuine teachings of the
Buddha. They insisted, and some of them still in
sist, that to have an adequate and thorough knowl
edge of Buddhism, they must confine themselves
solely to the study of the Pali, that whatever may
be learned from other sources, i. e., from the Sans
krit, Tibetan, or Chinese documents should be con
sidered as throwing only a side-light on the reliable
information obtained from the Pali, and further that
the knowledge derived from the former should in
certain cases be discarded as accounts of a degene
rated form of Buddhism. Owing to these unfortu
nate hypotheses, the significance of Mahayanism as
a living religion has been entirely ignored; and even
those who are regarded as best authorities on the
subject appear greatly misinformed and, what is worse,
altogether prejudiced,

1 2 INTRODUCTION
No Life Without Growth.
This is very unfair on the part of the critics, be
cause what religion is there in the whole history of
mankind that has not made any development what
ever, that has remained the same, like the granite,
throughout its entire course? Let us ask whether
there is any religion which has shown some signs of
vitality and yet retained its primitive form intact
and unmodified in every respect. Is not changeable-
ness, that is, susceptibility to irritation the most
essential sign of vitality? Every organism grows,
which means a change in some way or other. There
is no form of life to be found anywhere on earth,
that does not grow or change, or that has not any
inherent power of adjusting itself to the surrounding
conditions. Take, for example, Christianity. Is Protestantism
the genuine teaching of Jesus of Nazareth? or does
Catholicism represent his true spirit? Jesus himself
did not have any definite notion of Trinity doctrine,
nor did he propose any suggestion for ritualism.
According to the Synoptics, he appears to have
cherished a rather immature conception of the king
dom of God than a purely ideal one as conceived
by Paul, and his personal disciples who were just
as illiterate philosophically as the master himself were
anxiously waiting in all probability for its mundane
realisation But what Christians, Catholics or Protes
tants, in these days of enlightenment, would dare

INTRODUCTION 1 3
give a literal explanation to this material conception
of the coming kingdom ?
Again, think of Jesus's view on marriage and social
life. Is it not an established fact that he highly ad
vocated celibacy and in the case of married people
strict continence, and also that he greatly favored
pious poverty and asceticism in general? In these
respects, the monks of the Medieval Ages and the
Catholic priests of the present day (though I cannot
say they are ascetic and poor in their living) must
be said to be in more accord with the teaching of
the master than their Protestant brethren. But what
Protestants would seriously venture to defend all
those views of Jesus, in spite of their avowed decla
ration that they are sincerely following in the steps
of their Lord ? Taking all in all, these contradictions
do not prevent them, Protestants as well as Catho
lics, from calling themselves Christians and even good,
pious, devoted Christians, as long as they are con
sciously or unconsciously animated by the same
spirit, that was burning in the son of the carpenter
of Nazareth, an obscure village of Galilee, about two
thousand years ago.
The same mode of reasoning holds good in the
case of Mahayanism, and it would be absurd to insist
on the genuineness of Hinayanism at the expense of
the former. Take for granted that the Mahayana
school of Buddhism contains some elements absorbed
from other Indian religio-philosophical systems; but
what of it? Is not Christianity also an amalgama-

14 INTRODUCTION.
tion, so to speak, of Jewish, Greek, Roman, Babylo
nian, Egyptian, and other pagan thoughts? In fact
every healthy and energetic religion is historical, in
the sense that, in the course of its development, it
has adapted itself to the ever-changing environment,
and has assimilated within itself various elements
which appeared at first even threatening its own ex
istence. In Christianity, this process of assimilation,
adaptation, and modification has been going on from
its very beginning. As the result, we see in the
Christianity of to-day its original type so metamor
phosed, so far as its outward appearance is concern
ed, that nobody would now take it for a faithful
copy of the prototype.
Mahayanism a Living Faith.
So with Mahayanism. Whatever changes it has
made during its historical evolution, its spirit and
central ideas are all those of its founder. The ques
tion whether or not it is genuine, entirely depends on
our interpretation of the term "genuine." If we take
it to mean the lifeless preservation of the original,
we should say that Mahayanism is not the genuine
teaching of the Buddha, and we may add that Ma
hayanists would be proud of the fact, because being
a living religious force it would never condescend to
be the corpse of a by-gone faith. The fossils, how
ever faithfully preserved, are nothing but rigid inor
ganic substances from which life is forever departed.

INTRODUCTION 1 5
Mahayanism is far from this ; it is an ever-growing
faith and ready in all times to cast off its old gar
ments as soon as they are worn out. But its spirit
originally inspired by the "Teacher of Men and Gods"
{castadevamanusyanam) is most jealously guarded
against pollution and degeneration. Therefore, as far
as its spirit is concerned, there is no room left to
doubt its genuineness ; and those who desire to have
a complete survey of Buddhism cannot ignore the
significane of Mahayanism.
It is naught but an idle talk to question the histo
rical value of an organism, which is now full of vital
ity and active in all its functions, and to treat it
like an archeological object, dug out from the depths
of the earth, or like a piece of bric-a-brac, discov
ered in the ruins of an ancient royal palace. Mahaya
nism is not an object of historical curiosity. Its vital
ity and activity concern us in our daily life. It is a
great spiritual organism ; its moral and religious for
ces are still exercising an enormous power over mil
lions of souls ; and its further development is sure to
be a very valuable contribution to the world-progress
of the religious consciousness. What does it matter,
then, whether or not Mahayanism is the genuine
teaching of the Buddha ?
Here is an instance of most flagrant contradictions
present in our minds, but of which we are not
conscious on account of our preconceived ideas.
Christian critics vigorously insist on the genuineness
of their own religion, which is no more than a

1 6 INTRODUCTION.
hybrid, at least outwardly ; but they want to condemn
their rival religion as denegerated, because it went
through various stages of development like theirs.
It is of no practical use to trouble with this nonsen
sical question, — the question of the genuineness
of Mahayanism, which by the way is frequently
raised by outsiders as well as by some unenlightened
Buddhists themselves.
3. SOME MISSTATEMENTS ABOUT THE
MAHAYANA DOCTRINES.
Before entering fully into the subject proper of
this work, let us glance over some erroneous opinions
about the Mahayana doctrines, which are held by
some Western scholars, and naturally by all uniniti
ated readers, who are like the blind led by the
blind. It may not be altogether a superfluous work
to give them a passing review in this chapter and
to show broadly what Mahayanism is not.
Why Injustice is done to Buddhism.
The people who have had their thoughts and sen
timents habitually trained by one particular set of
religious dogmas, frequently misjudge the value of
those thoughts that are strange and unfamiliar to
them. We may call this class of people bigots or
religious enthusiasts. They may have fine religious
and moral sentiments as far as their own religious
training goes; but, when examined from a broader
point of view, they are to a great extent vitiated

INTRODUCTION. 1 7
with prejudices, superstitions, and fanatical beliefs,
which, since childhood, have been pumped into their
receptive minds, before they were sufficiently devel
oped and could form independent judgments. This
fact so miserably spoils their purityof sentiment and
obscures their transparency of intellect, that they are
disqualified to perceive and appreciate whatever is
good and true and beautiful in the so-called heathen
religions. This is the main reason why those Chris
tian missionaries are incapable of rightly understand
ing the spirit of religion generally — I mean, those
missionaries who come to the East to substitute one
set of superstitions for another.
This strong general indictment against the Christian
missionaries, however, is by no means prompted by
any partisan spirit. My desire, on the contrary, is
to do justice to those thoughts and sentiments that
have been working consciously or unconsciously in
the human mind from time immemorial and shall
work on till the day of the last judgment, if there
ever be such a day. To see what these thoughts and
sentiments are, which, by the way, constitute the
kernel of every religion, we must without any reluc
tance throw off all the prejudices we are liable to
cherish, though quite unknowingly; and keeping
always in view what is most essential in the religious
consciousness, we must not confound it with its
accessories, which are doomed to die in the course
of time.

1 8 INTRODUCTION.
Examples of Injustice.
As specimen of injustice done to the Mahayana
Buddhism by Christian critics, we quote the following
passages from Monier- William's Buddhism, Wad-
dell's Buddhism in Tibet, and Samuel Beal's Buddhism
in China, all of which are representative works each
in its own field. Monier Monier- Williams.
Monier Monier-Williams is a well-known authority
on Sanskrit literature, and his works in this depart
ment will long remain as a valuable contribution to
human knowledge. But, unfortunately, as soon as
he attempts to enter the domain of religious contro
versy, his intellect becomes pitiously obscured by his
preconceived ideas. He thinks, for instance, that the
principal feature of Mahayanism consists merely in
amplifying the number of Bodhisattvas, who are con
tented, according to his view, with their "perpetual
residence in the heavens, and quite willing to put
off all desires for Buddhahood and Parinirvana."
(P. 190.)
This remark is so absurd that it will at once be
rejected by any one who has a first-hand knowledge
of the Mahayana system, as even unworthy of refu
tation, but Monier-Williams takes special pains to
give to his characterisation of the Mahayana doctrine
a show of rational explanation. "Of course," says
he, "men instinctively recoiled from utter self-annihi-

INTRODUCTION. 19
lation, and so the Buddha's followers ended in chan
ging the true idea of Nirvana and converting it from
a condition of non-existence into a state of lazy
beatitude in celestial regions (!), while they encour
aged all men — whether monks or laymen — to make
a sense of dreamy bliss in Heaven (!), and not total
extinction of life, the end of all their efforts."
(P. 156.)
This view of the. Buddhist heaven as interpreted
by Monier-Williams is nothing but the conception
of the Christian heaven colored with paganism. Noth
ing is more foreign to Buddhists than this distin
guished Sankritist's interpretation of celestial exist
ence. The life of devas (celestial beings) is just as
much subject to the law of birth and death as that
of men on earth. What consolation would there be
for the Mahayanists striving after the highest princi
ple of existence, only to find themselves transmi
grated to a celestial abode, that is also full of sor
rows and sufferings ? Always working for the welfare
of their fellow-creatures, the Bodhisattvas never
desire any earthly or heavenly happiness for them
selves. Whatever merits, according to the law of
karma, there be stored up for their good work, they
do not have any wish to enjoy them by themselves,
but they will have all these merits turned over
(parivarta) to the interests of their fellow-beings.
This is the ideal of Bodhisattvas, i.e., of the followers
of Mahayanism.

20 INTRODUCTION. Beal.
Samuel Beal who is considered by Western scholars
to be an authority on Chinese Buddhism, refering to
the Mahayana conception of Dharmakaya, i says in
his Buddhism in China (p. 1 56) : "We can have little
doubt, then, that from early days worship was offered
by Buddhists at several spots, consecrated by the
presence of the Teacher, to an invisible presence.
This presence was formulated by the later Buddhists
under the phrase, 'the Body of the Law', Dhar
makaya." Then, alluding to Buddha's instruction that says
after his Parinirvana the Law given by him should
be regarded as himself, Beal proceeds to say : "Here
was the germ from which proceeded the idea or
formula of an invisible presence : teaching and power
of the Law {Dharma) represented the Dharmakaya
or Law-Body of Buddha, present with the order, and
fit for reverence."
To interpret Dharmakaya as the Body of the Law
is quite inadequate and misleading. To the Hinaya
nists, there is nothing beside the Tripitaka as the
object of reverence, and, therefore, the notion of the
Body of the Law has no meaning to them. The idea
1 The conception of Dharmakaya constitutes the central
point in the system of Mahayanism, and the right compre
hension of it is ot vital importance. The Body of the Law,
as it is commonly rendered in English, is not exact and leads
frequently to a misconception of the entire system. The point
is fully discussed below.

INTRODUCTION. 21
is distinctly Mahayanistic, but Beal is not well in
formed about its real significance as understood by
the Buddhists. The chief reason of his misinterpre
tation, as I judge, lies in his rendering dharma by
"law", while dharma here means "that which sub
sists," or "that which maintains itself even when all
the transient modes disappear," in short, "being,"
or "substance." Dharmakaya, therefore, would be a
sort of the Absolute, or Essence-Body of all things.
This notion plays such an important role in Maha
yanism that an adequate knowledge of it is indispen
sable to understand the constitution of Mahayanism
as a religious system.
Waddell.
Let us state one more case of misrepresentation
by Western scholars of the Mahayana Buddhism.
Waddell, author of Buddhism in Tibet, referring
to the point of divergence between the so-called
Northern Buddhism and the Southern, says (pp. io —
u): "It was the theistic Mahayana doctrine which
substituted, for the agnostic idealism and simple
morality of Buddha, a speculative theistic system
with a mysticism of sophistic nihilism in the back
ground." And again : "This Mahayana [meaning Nagarjuna' s
Madhyamika school] was essentially a sophistic nihil
ism, or rather Parinirvana, while ceasing to be ex
tinction of life, was converted a mystic state which
admitted of no definition."

22 INTRODUCTION.
It may not be wrong to call Mahayanism a specu
lative theistic system in a wide sense, but it must
be asked on what ground Waddell thinks that it has
in its background "a mysticism of sophistic nihilism "
Could a religious system be called sophistry when it
makes a close inquiry into the science of dialectics,
in order to show how futile it is to seek salvation
through the intellect alone? Could a religious system
be called a nihilism when it endeavors to reach the
highest reality which transcends the phenomenality
of concrete individual existences ? Could a doctrine
be called nihilistic when it defines the absolute as
neither void {gunya) nor not-void (agunyd) ?
I could cull some more passages from other Bud
dhist scholars of the West and show how far Maha
yanism has been made by them a subject of mis
representation. But since this work is not a polemic,
but devoted to a positive exposition of its basic doc
trines, I refrain from so doing. Suffice it to state
that one of the main causes of the injustice done to
Buddhism by the Christian critics comes from their
preconceptions, of which they may not be aware,
but which all the more vitiate their "impartial"
judgments. 4- THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGION.
Those misconceptions about Buddhism as above
stated induce me to digress in this introductory part
and to say a few words concerning the distinction

INTRODUCTION. 23
between the form and the spirit of religion. A clear
knowledge of this distinction will greatly facilitate the
formation of a correct notion about Mahayanism and
will also help us duly to appreciate its significance
as a living religious faith.
By the spirit of religion I mean that element in
religion which remains unchanged throughout its
successive stages of development and transformation :
while the form of it is the external shell which is
subject to any modification required by circumstances.
No Revealed Religion.
It admits of no doubt that religion, as everything
else under the sun, is subject to the laws of evolution,
and that, therefore, there is no such thing as a
revealed religion, whose teachings are supposed to
have been delivered to us direct from the hands of
an anthropomorphic or anthropopsychic supernatural
being, and which, like an inorganic substance, remains
forever the same, without changing, without growing,
without modifying itself in accord with the surrounding
conditions. Unless people are so blinded by a belief
in this kind of religion as to insist that its dogmas
have suffered absolutely no change whatever since
its "revelation," they must recognise like every clear
headed person the fact that there are some ephemeral
elements in every religion, which must carefully be
distinguished from its quintessence which remains
eternally the same.
When this discrimination is not observed, prejudice

24 INTRODUCTION.
will at once assert itself, inducing them to imagine
that the religion in which they were brought up with
all its truths and superstitions is the only orthodox
religion in the world, and all the other religions are
nothing else than heathenism, idolatry, atheism, apos
tasy, and the like. This attitude of such religionists,
however, serves only to betray their own narrowness
of mind and dimness of spiritual insight. No one who
desires to penetrate into the innermost recesses of
the human heart and who longs to feel the fullest
meaning of life, should foster in himself in the least
degree a disposition of bigotry.
The Mystery.
Religion is the inmost voice of the human heart
that under the yoke of a seemingly finite existence
groans and travails in pain. Mankind, from their first
appearance on earth, have never been satisfied with
the finiteness and impermanency of life. They have
always been yearning after something that will liberate
them from the slavery of this mortal coil, or from
the cursed bondage of metempsychosis, as Hindu
thinkers express it. This something, however, on
account of its transcending all the principles of
separation and individuation, which characterise the
phenomena of this mundane existence, has always
remained as something indefinite, inadequate, chaotic,
and full of mystery. And, according to different
degrees of intellectual development in different ages
and nations, people have endeavored to invest this

INTRODUCTION. 2$
mysterious something with all sorts of human feelings
and intelligence. Most of modern scientists are now
content with the hypothesis that the mystery is
unfathomable by the human mind, which is conditioned
by the law of relativity, and that our business here,
moral as well as intellectual, can be executed without
troubling ourselves with this ever-haunting problem
of mystery; — this doctrine is called agnosticism.
But this hypothesis can in no wise be considered
the final sentence passed on the mystery. From the
scientific point of view, the maxim of agnosticism is
excellent, as science does not pretend to venture into
the realm of non- relativity Dissatisfaction, however,
presents itself, when we attempt to silence by this
hypothesis the last demand of the human heart.
Intellect and Imagination.
The human heart is not an intellectual crystal.
When the intellect displays itself in its full glory,
the heart still aches and struggles to get hold of
something beyond. The intellect may sometimes de
clare that it has at last laid its hand on what is demanded
by the heart. Time passes on, and the mystery is
examined from the other points that escaped consid
eration before, and, to the great disappointment of
the heart, the supposed solution is found to be
wanting. The intellect is baffled. But the human heart
never gets tired of its yearnings and demands a
satisfaction ever more pressingly. Should they be
considered a mere nightmare of imagination ? Surely

26 INTRODUCTION.
not, for herein lies the field where religion claims
supreme authority, and its claim is perfectly right.
But religion cannot fabricate whatever it pleases;
it must work in perfect accord with the intellect. As
the essential nature of man does not consist solely
in intellect, or will, or feeling, but in the coordination
of these psychical elements, religion must guard her
self against the unrestrained flight of imagination.
Most of the superstitions fondly cherished by a pious
heart are due to the disregard of the intellectual element
in religion.
The imagination creates : the intellect discriminates.
Creation without discrimination is wild : discrimination
without creation is barren. Religion and science,
when they do not work with mutual understanding,
are sure to be one-sided. The soul makes an ab
normal growth at one point, loses its balance, and is
finally given up to a collapse of the entire system.
Those pious religious enthusiasts who see a natural
enemy in science and denounce it with all their
energy, are, in my opinion, as purblind and distorted
in their view, as those men of science who think that
science alone must claim the whole field of soul-
activities as well as those of nature. I am not in
sympathy with either of them : for one is just as
arrogant in its claim as the other. Without a careful
examination of both sides of a shield, we are not
competent to give a correct opinion upon it.
But the imagination is not the exclusive possession
of religion, nor is discrimination or ratiocination the

INTRODUCTION. 27
monopoly of science. They are reciprocal and com
plementary : one cannot do anything without the
other. The difference between science and religion
is not that between certitude and probability. The
difference is rather in their respective fields of acti
vity. Science is solely concerned with things condi
tional, relative, and finite. When it explains a given
phenomenon by some fixed laws which are in turn
nothing but a generalisation of particular facts, the
task of science is done, and any further attempt to
go beyond this, i. e., to make an inquiry into the
whence, whither, and w h y of things, is beyond
its realm. But the human soul does not remain
satisfied here, it asks for the ultimate principle under
lying all so-called scientific laws and hypotheses.
Science is indifferent to the teleology of things : a
mechanical explanation of them appeases its intellec
tual curiosity. But in religion teleology is of para
mount importance, it is one of the most fundamental
problems, and a system which does not give any
definite conception on this point is no religion.
Science, again, does not care if there is something
beyond or outside its manifold laws and theories ;
but a religion which does not possess a God or
anything corresponding to it, ceases to be so, for it
fails to give consolation to the human heart
The Contents of Faith vary.
The solution of religious problems, as far as they
fall within the sphere of relative experience, is large-

28 INTRODUCTION.
ly a matter of personal conviction, determined by
one's intellectual development, external circumstances,
education, disposition, etc. The conceptions of faith
thus formulated are naturally infinitely diversified;
even among the followers of a certain definite set of
dogmas, each will understand them in his own way,
owing to individual peculiarities. If we could subject
their conceptions of faith to a strict analysis as a
chemist does his materials, we should detect in them
all the possible forms of differentiation. But all these
things belong to the exterior of religion and have
nothing to do with the essentials which underlie them.
The abiding elements of religion come from within,
and consist mainly in the mysterious sentiment that
lies hidden in the deepest depths of the human heart,
and that, when awakened, shakes the whole structure
of personality and brings about a great spiritual
revolution, which results in a complete change of
one's world-conception. When this mysterious sen
timent finds expression and formulates its conceptions
in the terms of intellect, it becomes a definite system
of beliefs, which is popularly called religion, but
which should properly be termed dogmatism, that is,
an intellectualised form of religion. On the other
hand, the outward forms of religion consist of those
changing elements that are mainly determined by the
intellectual and moral development of the times as
well as by individual esthetical feelings.
True Christians and enlightened Buddhists may,
therefore, find their point of agreement in the recog-

INTRODUCTION. 29
nition of the inmost religious sentiment that consti
tutes the basis of our being, though this agreement
does by no means prevent them from retaining their
individuality in the conceptions and expressions of
faith. My conviction is : If the Buddha and the
Christ changed their accidental places of birth,
Gautama might have been a Christ rising against the
Jewish traditionalism, and Jesus a Buddha, perhaps
propounding the doctrine of non-ego and Nirvana
and Dharmakiya.
However great a man may be, he cannot but be
an echo of the spirit of the times. He never stands,
as is supposed by some, so aloof and towering above
the masses as to be practically by himself. On the
contrary, "he," as Emerson says, "finds himself in the
river of the thoughts and events, forced onward by the
ideas and necessities of his contemporaries." So it was
with the Buddha, and so with the Christ. They were
nothing but the concrete representatives of the ideas
and feelings that were struggling in those times against
the established institutions, which were degenerating
fast and menaced the progress of humanity. But at
the same time those ideas and sentiments were the
outburst of the Eternal Soul, which occasionally
makes a solemn announcement of its will, through
great historical figures or through great worldevents.
* *
Believing that a bit of religio-philosophical expo
sition as above indulged will prepare the minds of

30 INTRODUCTION.
my Christian readers sincerely to take up the study
of a religious system other than their own, I now
proceed to a systematical elucidation of the Maha
yana Buddhism, as it is believed at present in the
Far East.

CHAPTER I.
A GENERAL CHARACTERISATION OF BUDDHISM.
No God and no Soul.
OUDDHISM is considered by some to be a religion
without a God and without a soul. The state
ment is true and untrue according to what meaning
we give to those terms.
Buddhism does not recognise the existence of a
being, who stands aloof from his ''creations," and
who meddles occasionally with human affairs when
his capricious will pleases him. This conception of
a supreme being is very offensive to Buddhists. They
are unable to perceive any truth in the hypotheses,
that a being like ourselves created the universe out
of nothing and first peopled it with a pair of sentient
beings ; that, owing to a crime commited by them,
which, however, could have been avoided if the cre
ator so desired, they were condemned by him to
eternal damnation ; that the creator in the meantime
feeling pity for the cursed, or suffering the bite of
remorse for his somewhat rash deed, despatched his
only beloved son to the earth for the purpose of
rescuing mankind from universal misery, etc., etc.
If Buddhism is called atheism on account of its

32 CHAPTER I.
refusal to take poetry for actual fact, its followers
would have no objection to the designation.
Next, if we understand by soul atman, which,
secretly hiding itself behind all mental activities, direct
them after the fashion of an organist striking different
notes as he pleases, Buddhists outspokenly deny the
existence of such a fabulous being. To postulate an
independent atman outside a combination of the five
Skandhas *, of which an individual being is supposed
by Buddhists to consist, is to unreservedly welcome
egoism with all its pernicious corollaries. And what
distinguishes Buddhism most characteristically and
emphatically from all other religions is the doctrine
of non-atman or non-ego, exactly opposite to the
postulate of a soul-substance which is cherished by
most of religious enthusiasts. In this sense, Buddhism
is undoubtedly a religion without the soul.
To make these points clearer in a general way,
let us briefly treat in this chapter of such principal
tenets of Buddhism as Karma, Atman, Avidya, Nirvana,
Dharmakaya, etc. Some of these doctrines being the
common property of the two schools of Buddhism,
Hinayanism and Mahayanism, their brief, comprehen
sive exposition here will furnish our readers with a
general notion about the constitution of Buddhism,
and will also prepare them to pursue a further specific
exposition of the Mahayana doctrine which follows.
1 They are: (i) form or materiality {r&pa), (2) sensation
(vedand), (3) conception (sam/na), (4) action or deeds {samk&ra),
and (5) consciousness {vijndna). These terms are explained
elsewhere.

CHAPTER I. 33

Karma.

One of the most fundamental doctrines established
by Buddha is that nothing in this world comes
from a single cause, that the existence of a universe
is the result of a combination of several causes
(ketu) and conditions (pratyaya), and is at the
same time an active force contributing to the pro
duction of an effect in the future. As far as phe
nomenal existences 'are concerned, this law of cause
and effect holds universally valid. Nothing, even God,
can interfere with the course of things thus regulated,
materially as well as morally. If a God really exists
and has some concern about our worldly affairs, he
must first conform himself to the law of causation.
Because the principle of karma, which is the Buddhist
term for causation morally conceived, holds supreme
everywhere and all the time.
The conception of karma plays the most important
r61e in Buddhist ethics. Karma is the formative prin
ciple of the universe. It determines the course of
events and the destiny of our existence. The reason
why we cannot change our present state of things
as we may will, is that it has already been determined
by the karma that was performed in our previous
lives, not only individually but collectively. But, for
this same reason, we shall be able to work out our
destiny in the future, which is nothing but the resultant
of several factors that are working and that are being
worked by ourselves in this life. 3

34 CHAPTER I.
Therefore, says Buddha:
"By self alone is evil done,
By self is one disgraced;
By self is evil left undone,
By self alone is he purified;
Purity and impurity belong to self:
No one can purify another." '
Again, "Not in the sky
Nor in the midst of the sea,
Nor entering a cleft of the mountains,
Is found that realm on earth
Where one may stand and be
From an evil deed absolved." 2
This doctrine of karma may be regarded as an
application in our ethical realm of the theory of the
conservation of energy. Everything done is done once
for all; its footprints on the sand of our moral and
social evolution are forever left ; nay, more than left,
they are generative, good or evil, and waiting for
further development under favorable conditions. In
the physical world, even the slightest possible movement
of our limbs cannot but affect the general cosmic
motion of the earth, however infinitesimal it be; and
if we had a proper instrument, we could surely
measure its precise extent of effect. So is it even ,
with our deeds. A deed once performed, together
with its subjective motives, can never vanish without
leaving some impressions either on the individual
1 The Dhammapada, v. 165. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
2 The Dhammapada, v. 127.

CHAPTER I. 35
consciousness or on the supra-individual, i. e., social
consciousness. We need not further state that the conception of
karma in its general aspect is scientifically verified.
In our moral and material life, where the law of
relativity rules supreme, the doctrine of karma must
be considered thoroughly valid. And as long as its
validity is admitted in this field, we can live our
phenomenal life without resorting to the hypothesis of
a personal God, as declared by Lamarck when his
significant work on evolution was presented to
Emperor Napoleon.
But it will do injustice to Buddhism if we desig
nate it agnosticism or naturalism, denying or ignoring
the existence of the ultimate, unifying principle, in
which all contradictions are obliterated. Dharmakaya
is the name given by Buddhists to this highest prin
ciple, viewed not only from the philosophical but also
from the religious standpoint. In the Dharmakaya,
Buddhists find the ultimate significance of life, which,
when seen from its phenomenal aspect, cannot escape
the bondage of karma and its irrefragable laws.
Avidyd.
What claims our attention next, is the problem of
nescience, which is one of the most essential features
of Buddhism. Buddhists think, nescience (in Sans
krit avidya) is the subjective aspect of karma, involv
ing us in a series of rebirths. Rebirth, considered
by itself, is no moral evil, but rather a necessary

36 CHAPTER I.
condition of progress toward perfection, if perfection
ever be attainable here. It is an evil only when it
is the outcome of ignorance, — ignorance as to the
true meaning of our earthly existence.
Ignorant are they who do not recognise the eva
nescence of wordly things and who tenaciously cleave
to them as final realities ; who madly struggle to
shun the misery brought about by their own folly;
who savagely cling to the self against the will of
God, as Christians would say; who take particulars
as final existences and ignore one pervading reality
which underlies them all ; who build up an adaman
tine wall between the mine and thine : in a word,
ignorant are those who do not understand that there
is no such thing as an ego-soul, and that all indiv
idual existences are unified in the system of Dhar
makaya. Buddhism, therefore, most emphatically
maintains that to attain the bliss of Nirvana we must
radically dispel this illusion, this ignorance, this root
of all evil and suffering in this life.
The dotrine • of nescience or ignorance is technically
expressed in the following formula, which is com
monly called the Twelve Nidanas or Pratyayasamut-
pada, that is to say Chains of Dependence:
(i) There is Ignorance (avidyd) in the beginning;
(2) from Ignorance Action (sanskard) comes forth;
(3) from Action Consciousness (vijndna) comes forth;
(4) from Consciousness Name-and-Form (namarupa)
comes forth; (5) from Name-and-Form the Six Organs
{sadayatana) come forth ; (6) from the Six Organs

CHAPTER I. 37
Touch (sparga) comes forth; (7) from Touch Sensa
tion (vedana) comes forth ; (8) from Sensation Desire
(trsna) comes forth ; (9) from Desire Clinging (upa-
dana) comes forth; (10) from Clinging Being (bhdva)
comes forth; (11) from Being Birth (jati) comes
forth; and (12) from Birth Pain (duhkka) comes
forth. According to Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakoga, the
formula is explained as follows : Being ignorant in our
previous life as to the significance of our existence,
we let loose our desires and act wantonly. Owing
to this karma, we are destined in the present life to
be endowed with consciousness (vijndna), name-and-
form (ndmarupa), the six organs of sense (sadaya
tana), and sensation (vedana). By the exercise of
these faculties, we now desire for, hanker after, cling
to, these illusive existences which have no ultimate
reality whatever. In consequence of this "Will to
Live" we potentially accumulate or make up the
karma that will lead us to further metempsychosis
of birth and death.
The formula is by no means logical, nor is it
exhaustive, but the fundamental notion that life
started in ignorance or blind will remains veritable.
Non-Atman.
The problem of nescience naturally leads to the
doctrine usually known as that of non-Atman, i. e.,
non-ego, to which allusion was made at the beginning

38 CHAPTER I.
of this chapter. This doctrine of Buddhism is one
of the subjects that have caused much criticism by
Christian scholars. Its thesis runs: There is no such
thing as ego-soul, which, according to the vulgar
interpretation, is the agent of our mental activities.
And this is the reason why Buddhism is sometimes
called a religion without the soul, as aforesaid.
This Buddhist negation of the ego-soul is perhaps
startling to the people, who, having no speculative
power, blindly accept the traditional, materialistic
view of the soul. They think, they are very spiritual
in endorsing the dualism of soul and flesh, and in
making the soul something like a corporeal entity,
though far more ethereal than an ordinary object of
the senses. They think of the soul as being more
in the form of an angel, when they teach that it
ascends to heaven immediately after its release from
the material imprisonment.
They further imagine that the soul, because of its
imprisonment in the body, groans in pain for its
liberty, not being able to bear its mundane limita
tions. The immortality of the soul is a continuation
after the dismemberment of material elements of this
ethereal, astral, ghost-like entity, — very much resem
bling the Samkhyan Lingham or the Vedantic su-
hsama-garira. Self-consciousness will not a whit
suffer in its continued activity, as it is the essential
function of the soul. Brothers and sisters, parents
and sons and daughters, wives aud husbands, all
transfigured and sublimated, will meet again in the

CHAPTER I. 39
celestial abode, and perpetuate their home life much
after the manner of their earthly one. People who
take this view of the soul and its immortality must
feel a great disappointment or even resentment, when
they are asked to recognise the Buddhist theory of
non-atman. The absurdity of ascribing to the soul a sort of
astral existence taught by some theosophists is due
to the confusion of the name and the object corres
ponding to it. The soul, or what is tantamount
according to the vulgar notion, the ego, is a name
given to a certain coordination of mental activities.
Abstract names are invented by us to economise our
intellectual labors, and* of course have no correspond
ing realities as particular presences in the concrete
objective world. Vulgar minds have forgotten the
history of the formation of abstract names. Being
accustomed always to find certain objective realities
or concrete individuals answering to certain names,
they— those naive realists — imagine that all names,
irrespective of their nature, must have their concrete
individual equivalents in the sensual world. Their
idealism or spiritualism, so called, is in fact a gross
form of materialism, in spite of their unfounded fear
for the latter as atheistic and even immoral ; — curse
of ignorance !
The non-atman theory does not deny that there is
a coordination or unification of various mental oper
ations. Buddhism calls this system of coordination
vijnana, not atman. Vijnana is consciousness, while

40 CHAPTER I.
atman is the ego conceived as a concrete entity, —
a hypostatic agent which, abiding in the deepest recess
of the mind, directs all subjective activities according
to its own discretion. This view is radically rejected
by Buddhism.
A familiar analogy illustrating the doctrine of non-
atman is the notion of a wheel or that of a house.
Wheel is the name given to a combination in a fixed
form of the spokes, axle, tire, hub, rim, etc. ; house
is that given to a combination of roofs, pillars, win
dows, floors, walls, etc., after a certain model and
for a certain purpose. Now, take all these parts
independently, and where is the house or the wheel
to be found ? House or wheel is merely the name
designating a certain form in which parts are sys
tematically and definitely disposed. What an absurd
ity, then, it must be to insist on the independent
existence of the wheel or of the house as an agent
behind the combination of certain parts thus definite
ly arranged!
It is wonderful that Buddhism clearly anticipated the
outcome of modern psychological researches at the
time when all other religious and philosophical sys
tems were eagerly cherishing dogmatic superstitions
concerning the nature of the ego. The refusal of
modern psychology to have soul mean anything more
than the sum-total of all mental experiences, such as
sensations, ideas, feelings, decisions, etc., is precisely
a rehearsal of the Buddhist doctrine of non-atman.
It does not deny that there is a unity of consciousness,

CHAPTER I 4 1
for to deny this is to doubt our everyday experiences,
but it refuses to assert that this unity is absolute,
unconditioned, and independent. Everything in this
phenomenal phase of existence, is a combination of
certain causes (hetu) and conditions (pratyaya) brought
together according to the principle of karma; and
everything that is compound is finite and subject to
dissolution, and, therefore, always limited by something
else. Even the soul-life, as far as its phenomenality
goes, is no exception to this universal law. To maintain
the existence of a soul-substance which is supposed
to lie hidden behind the phenomena of consciousness,
is not only misleading, but harmful and productive
of some morally dangerous conclusions. The supposition
that there is something where there is really nothing,
makes us cling to this chimerical form, with no other
result than subjecting ourselves to an eternal series
of sufferings. So we read in the Lankavatara Sutra, III :
"A flower in the air, or a hare with horns,
Or a pregnant maid of stone:
To take what is not for what is,
'Tis called a judgment false.
"In a combination of causes,
The vulgar seek the reality of self.
As truth they understand not,
From birth to birth they transmigrate."
The Non-Atman-ness of Things.
Mahayanism has gone a step further than Hina
yanism in the development of the doctrine of non-
atman, for it expressly disavows, besides the denial

42 CHAPTER I.
of the existence of the ego- substance, a noumenal
conception of things, i. e., the conception of particu
lars as having something absolute in them. Hinaya
nism, indeed, also disfavors this conception of thing-
iness, but it does so only implicitly. It is Mahayanism
that definitely insists on the non-existence of a personal
(pudgala) as well as a thingish (dharma) ego.
According to the vulgar view, particular existences
are real, they have permanent substantial entities,
remaining forever as such. They think, therefore,
that organic matter remains forever organic just as
much as inorganic matter remains inorganic ; that,
as they are essentially different, there is no mutual
transformation between them. The human soul is
different from that of the lower animals and sentient
beings from non-sentient beings ; the difference being
well-defined and permanent, there is no bridge over
which one can cross to the other. We may call this
view naturalistic egoism.
Mahayanism, against this egoistic conception of the
world, extends its theory of non-atman to the realm
lying outside us. It maintains that there is no irre
ducible reality in particular existences, so long _as
they are combinations of several causes and condi
tions brought together by the principle of karma.
Things are here because they are sustained by karma.
As soon as its force is exhausted, the conditions
that made their existence possible lose efficience and
dissolve, and in their places will follow other con
ditions and existences. Therefore, what is organic

CHAPTER I. 43
to-day, may be inorganic to-morrow, and vice versa.
Carbon, for instance, which is stored within the earth
appears in the form of coal or graphite or diamond ;
but that which exists on its surface is found some
times combined with other elements in the form of
an animal or a vegetable, sometimes in its free ele
mentary state. It is the same carbon everywhere ;
it becomes inorganic or organic, according to its
karma, it has no atman in itself which directs its
transformation by its own self-determining will. Mutual
transformation is everywhere observable; there is a
constant shifting of forces, an eternal transmigration
of the elements, — all of which tend to show the
transitoriness and non-atman- ness of individual ex
istences. The universe is moving like a whirl-wind,
nothing in it proving to be stationary, nothing in it
rigidly adhering to its own form of existence.
Suppose, on the other hand, there were an atman
behind every particular being; suppose, too, it were
absolute and permanent and self-acting ; and this
phenomenal world would then come to a standstill,
and life be forever gone. For is not changeability
the most essential feature and condition of life, and
also the strongest evidence for the non-existence of
individual things as realities? The physical sciences
recognise this universal fact of mutual transformation
in its positive aspect and call it the law of the con
servation of energy and of matter. Mahayanism,
recognising its negative side, proposes the doctrine
of the non-atman-ness of things, that is to say, the

44 CHAPTER I.
impermanency of all particular existences. Therefore,
it is said, "Sarvam anityam, sarvam gunyam, sarvam
andtman." (All is transitory, all is void, all is with
out ego.)
Mahiyanists condemn the vulgar view that denies
the consubstantiality and reciprocal transformation of
all beings, not only because it is scientifically unten
able, but mainly because, ethically and religiously
considered, it is fraught with extremely dangerous
ideas, — ideas which finally may lead a "brother to
deliver up the brother to death and the father the
child," and, again, it may constrain "the children to
rise up against their parents and cause them to be
put to death." Why? Because this view, born of
egoism, would dry up the well of human love and
sympathy, and transform us into creatures of bestial
selfishness ; because this view is not capable of inspiring
us with the sense of mutuality and commiseration
and of making us disinterestedly feel for our fellow-
beings. Then, all fine religious and humane sentiments
would depart from our hearts, and we should be nothing
less than rigid, lifeless corpses, no pulse beating, no
blood running. And how many victims are offered
every day on this altar of egoism I They are not
necessarily immoral by nature, but blindly led by the
false conception of life and the world, they have been
rendered incapable of seeing their own spiritual doubles
in their neighbors. Being ever controlled by their
sensual impulses, they sin against humanity, against
nature, and against themselves.

CHAPTER I. 45
We read in the Mahayana-abhisamaya Sutra
(Nanjo, no. 196) :
"Empty and calm and devoid of ego
Is the nature of all things :
There is no individual being
That in reality exists.
"Nor end nor beginning having
Nor any middle course,
All is a sham, here's no reality whatever:
It is like unto a vision and a dream.
"It is like unto clouds and lightning,
It is like unto gossamer or bubbles floating
It is like unto fiery revolving wheel,
It is like unto water-splashing.
''Because of causes and conditions things are here :
In them there's no self-nature [i. e., atman] :
All things that move and work,
Know them as such.
"Ignorance and thirsty desire,
The source of birth and death they are:
Right contemplation and discipline by heart,
Desire and ignorance obliterate.
"All beings in the world,
Beyond words they are and expressions:
Their ultimate nature, pure and true,
Is like unto vacuity of space." 1
The Dharmakaya.
The Dharmakaya, which literally means "body or
system of being," is, according to the Mahayanists,
1 This last passage should not be understood in the sense
of a total abnegation of existence. It means simply the tran-
scendentality of the highest principle.

46 CHAPTER I.
the ultimate reality that underlies all particular phe
nomena; it is that which makes the existence of
individuals possible; it is the raison d'etre of the
universe; it is the norm of being, which regulates
the course of events and thoughts. The conception
of Dharmakaya is peculiarly Mahayanistic, for the
Hinayana school did not go so far as to formulate
the ultimate principle of the universe; its adherents
stopped short at a positivistic interpretation of Bud
dhism. The Dharmakaya remained for them to be the
Body of the Law, or the Buddha's personality as
embodied in the truth taught by him.
The Dharmakaya may be compared in one sense
to the God of Christianity and in another sense to
the Brahman or Paramatman of Vedantism. It is
different, however, from the former in that it does
not stand transcendentally above the universe, which,
according to the Christian view, was created by God,
but which is, according to Mahayanism, a manifesta
tion of the Dharmakaya himself. It is also different
from Brahman in that it is not absolutely impersonal,
nor is it a mere being. The Dharmakaya, on the
contrary, is capable of willing and reflecting, or, to
use Buddhist phraseology, it is Karuna. (love) and
Bodhi (intelligence), and not the mere state of being.
This pantheistic and at the same time entheistic
Dharmakaya is working in every sentient being, for
sentient beings are nothing but a self-manifestation
of the Dharmakaya. Individuals are not isolated
existences, as imagined by most people. If isolated,

CHAPTER. I. 47
they are nothing, they are so many soap-bubbles
which vanish one after another in the vacuity of
space. All particular existences acquire their meaning
only when they are thought of in their oneness in
the Dharmakaya. The veil of Maya, i. e., subjective
ignorance may temporally throw an obstacle to our
perceiving the universal light of Dharmakaya, in
which we are all one. But when our Bodhi or intellect,
which is by the way a reflection of the Dharmakaya
in the human mind, is so fully enlightened, we no
more build the artificial barrier of egoism before our
spiritual eye; the distinction between the meum and
teum is obliterated, no dualism throws the nets of
entanglement over us ; I recognise myself in you and
you recognise yourself in me ; tat tvam asi. Or,
"What is here, that is there ;
What is there, that is here :
Who sees duality here,
From death to death goes he." '
This state of enlightenment may be called the
spiritual expansion of the ego, or, negatively, the
ideal annihilation of the ego. A never-drying stream
of sympathy and love which is the life of religion
will now spontaneously flow out of the fountain-
head of Dharmakaya.
The doctrine of non-ego teaches us that there is
no reality in individual existences, that we do not
have any transcendental entity called ego-substance.

The Kathopanis.ad, IV. io.

48 CHAPTER I.
The doctrine of Dharmakaya, to supplement this,
teaches us that we all are one in the System of
Being and only as such are immortal. The one
shows us the folly of clinging to individual exist
ences and of coveting the immortality of the ego-
soul; the other convinces us of the truth that we
are saved by living into the unity of Dharmakaya.
The doctrine of non-atman liberates us from the
shackle of unfounded egoism ; but as mere liberation
does not mean anything positive and may perchance
lead us to asceticism, we apply the energy thus
released to the execution of the will of Dharmakaya.
The questions : "Why have we to love our neigh
bors as ourselves ? Why have we to do to others all
things whatsoever we would that they should do to
us?" are answered thus by Buddhists: "It is because
we are all one in the Dharmakaya, because when the
clouds of ignorance and egoism are totally dispersed,
the light of universal love and intelligence cannot
help but shine in all its glory. And, enveloped in
this glory, we do not see any enemy, nor neighbor,
we are not even conscious of whether we are one in
the Dharmakaya. There is no 'my will' here, but
only 'thy will,' the will of Dharmakaya, in which we
live and move and have our being."
The Apostle Paul says : "For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Why ?
Buddhists would answer, "because Adam asserted
his egoism in giving himself up to ignorance, (the
tree of knowledge is in truth the tree of ignorance,

CHAPTER I. -j
for from it comes the duality of me and thee) ; while
Christ on the contrary surrendered his egoistic asser
tion to the intelligence of the universal Dharmakaya.
That is why we die in the former and are made
alive in the latter." Nirvana.
The meaning of Nirvana has been variously inter
preted by non-Buddhist students from the philologi
cal and the historical standpoint ; but it matters little
what conclusions they have reached, as we are not
going to recapitulate them here ; nor do they at all
affect our presentation of the Buddhists' own view as
below. For it is the latter that concerns us here most
and constitutes the all-important part of the problem.
We have had too much of non-Buddhist speculation
on the question at issue. The majority of the critics,
while claiming to be fair and impartial, have, by
some preconceived ideas, been led to a conclusion,
which is not at all acceptable to intelligent Buddhists.
Further, the fact has escaped their notice that Pali
literature from which they chiefly derive their infor
mation on the subject represents the views of one
of the many sects that arose soon after the demise
of the Master and were constantly branching off at
and after the time of King Acoka. The probability
is, that Buddha himself did not have any stereotyped
conception of Nirvana, and, as most great minds do,
expressed his ideas outright as formed under various
circumstances ; though of course they could not be
4

48

CHAPTER I.

in contradiction with his central beliefs, which must
have remained the same throughout the course of his
religious life. Therefore, to understand a problem in
all its apparently contradictory aspects, it is very
necessary to grasp at the start the spirit of the
author of the problem, and when this is done the
rest will be understood comparatively much easier.
Non-Buddhist critics lack in this most important qual
ification ; therefore, it is no wonder that Buddhists
themselves are always reluctant to accede to their
interpretations. Enough for apology. Nirvana, according to Bud
dhists, does not signify an annihilation of conscious
ness nor a temporal or permanent suppression of
mentation ', as imagined by some ; but it is the
' Guyau, a French sociologist, refers to the Buddhist con
ception of Nirvana in his Non-Religion of the Future I take
his interpretation as typical of those non-Buddhist critics
who are very little acquainted with the subject but pretend
to know much. (English translation, pp 472—474.)
"Granted the wretchedness of life, the remedy that pessi
mists propose is the new religious salvation that modern
Buddhists are to make fashionable. . . The conception is that
of Nirvana. To sever all the ties which attach you to the
external world ; to prune away all the young offshoots of
desire, and recognise that to be rid of them is a deliverance ;
to practise a sort of complete psychial circumcision; to recoil
upon yourself and to believe that by so doing you enter
into the society of the great totality of things (the mystic
would say, of God); to create an inner vacuum, and to feel
dizzy in the void and, nevertheless, to believe that the void
is plenitude supreme, pleroma, these have always constituted
temptations to mankind. Mankind has been tempted to
meddle with them, as it has been tempted to creep up to

CHAPTER I. 51
annihilation of the notion of ego-substance and of
all the desires that arise from this erroneous concep
tion. But this represents the negative side of the
doctrine, and its positive side consists in universal
love or sympathy (karund) for all beings.
These two aspects of Nirvana, i. e., negatively,
the destruction of evil passions, and, positively, the
practice of sympathy, are complementary to each
other ; and when we have one we have the other.
Because, as soon as the heart is freed from the
cangue of egoism, the same heart, hitherto so cold
and hard, undergoes a complete change, shows ani
mation, and, joyously escaping from self -imprisonment,
finds its freedom in the bosom of Dharmakaya. In
this latter sense, Nirvana is the "humanisation" of
Dharmakaya, that is to say, "God's will done in
earth as it is in heaven." If we make use of the
the verge of dizzy precipices and look over . . . Nirvana leads,
in fact, to the annihilation of the individual and of the race,
and to the logical absurdity that the vanquished are the vic
tors over the trials and miseries of life "
Then, the author recites the case of one of his acquain
tances, who made a practical experiment of Nirvana, rejecting
variety in his diet, giving up meat, wine, every kind of ragout,
every form of condiment, and reducing to its lowest possible
terms the desire that is most fundamental in every living
being — the desire of food, and substituting a certain number
of cups of pure milk. "Having thus blunted his sense of
taste and the grosser of his appetites, having abandoned all
physical activity, he thought to find a recompense in the pleas
ure of abstract meditation and of esthetic contemplation.
He entered to a state which was not that of dreamland, but
neither was it that of real life, with its definite details."

52

CHAPTER I.

terms, subjective and objective. Nirvana is the former,
and the Dharmakaya is the latter, phase of one and
the same principle. Again, psychologically, Nirvana
is enlightenment, the actualisation of the Bodhicitta1
(Heart of Intelligence).
The gospel of love and the doctrine of Nirvana
may appear to some to contradict each other, for
they think that the former is the source of energy
and activity, while the latter is a lifeless, inhuman,
ascetic quietism. But the truth is, love is the emo
tional aspect and Nirvana the intellectual aspect of
the inmost religious consciousness which constitutes
the essence of the Buddhist life.
That Nirvana is the destruction of selfish desires
is plainly shown in this stanza :
"To the giver merit is increased ;
When the senses are controlled anger arises not,
The wise forsake evil,
By the destruction of desire, sin, and infatuation,
A man attains to Nirvana." -
The following which was breathed forth by Buddha
against a certain class of monks, testifies that when
Nirvana is understood in the sense of quietism or
pessimism, he vigorously repudiated it :
"Fearing an endless chain of birth and death,
And the misery of transmigration,
Their heart is filled with worry,
But they desire their safety only.
1 For detailed explanation of this term see Chapter XI.
2 The Ud&na, Ch. VIII, p. n8. Translation by General
Strong

CHAPTER I. 53
"Quietly sitting and reckoning the breaths,
They're bent on the Anapanam. i
They contemplate on the filthiness of the body, —
Thinking how impure it is !
"They shun the dust of the triple world,
And in ascetic practise their safety they seek :
Incapable of love and sympathy are they,
For on Nirvana abides their thought." a
Against this ascetic practise of some monks, the
Buddha sets forth what might be called the ideal of
the Buddhist life :
"Arouse thy will, supreme and great,
Practise love and sympathy, give joy and protection ;
Thy love like unto space,
Be it without discrimination, without limitation.
Merits establish, not for thy own sake,
But for charity universal ;
Save and deliver all beings,
Let them attain the wisdom of the Great Way."
It is apparent that the ethical application of the
doctrine of Nirvana is naught else than, the Golden
1 This is a peculiarly Indian religious practice, which con
sists in counting one's exhaling and inhaling breaths. When a
man is intensely bent on the practise, he gradually passes to
a state of trance, forgetting everything that is going on around and
within himself. The practise may have the merit of alleviating
nervousness and giving to the mind the bliss of relaxation,
but it oftentimes leads the mind to a self-hypnotic state.
2 Here Nirvana is evidently understood to mean self-abne
gation or world-flight or quietism, which is not in accord with
the true Buddhist interpretation of the term.

J4 CHAPTER I.
Rule, 1 so called. The Golden Rule, however, does
not give any reason why we should so act, it is a
mere command whose authority is ascribed to a cer
tain superhuman being. This does not satisfy an
intellectually disposed mind, which refuses to accept
anything on mere authority, for it wants to go to
the bottom of things and see on what ground they
are standing. Buddhism has solved this problem by
finding the oneness of things in Dharmakaya, from
which flows the eternal stream of love and sym
pathy. As we have seen before, when the cursed
barrier of egoism is broken down, there remains
nothing that can prevent us from loving others as
ourselves. Those who wish to see nothing but an utter bar
renness of heart after the annihilation of egoism, are
much mistaken in their estimation of human nature.
For they think its animation comes from selfishness,
and that all forms of activity in our life are propelled
simply by the desire to preserve self and the race.
They, therefore, naturally shrink from the doctrine
that teaches that all things worldly are empty, and
that there is no such thing as ego-substance whose
1 The sentiment of the Golden Rule is not the monopoly of
Christianity; it has been expressed by most of the leaders
of thought, thus, for instance : "Requite hatred with virtue"
(Lao-tze). "Hate is only appeased by love" (Buddha). "Do
not do to others what ye would not have done to you by
others" (Confucius). "One must neither return evil, nor do
any evil to any one among men, not even if one has to suffer
from them" (Plato, Crito, 49).

CHAPTER I. 55
immortality is so much coveted by most people. But
the truth is, the spring of love does not lie in the
idea of self, but in its removal. For the human heart,
being a reflection of the Dharmakaya which is love
and intelligence, recovers its intrinsic power and good
ness, only when the veil of ignorance and egoism is
cast aside. The animation, energy, strenuousness,
which were shown by a self-centered will, and which
therefore were utterly desplicable, will not surely die
out with the removal of their odious atmosphere in
which egoism had enveloped them. But they will
gain an ever nobler interpretation, ever more elevating
and satisfying significance ; for they have gone through
a baptism of fire, by which the last trace of egoism
has been thoroughly consumed The old evil master
is eternally buried, but the willing servants are still
here and ever ready to do their service, now more
efficiently, for their new legitimate and more autho
ritative lord.
Destruction is in common parlance closely associ
ated with nothingness, hence Nirvana, the destruction
of egoism, is ordinarily understood as a synonym of
nihilism. But the removal of darkness does not bring
desolation, but means enlightenment and order and
peace. It is the same chamber, all the furniture is
left there as it was before. In darkness chaos reigned,
goblins walked wild; in enlightenment everything is
in its proper place. And did we not state plainly that
Nirvana was enlightenment?

56 CHAPTER I.
The Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism.
One thing which in this connection I wish to refer
to, is what makes Buddhism appear somehow cold
and impassive. By this I mean its intellectuality.
The fact is that anything coming from India greatly
savors of philosophy. In ancient India everybody of
the higher castes seems to have indulged in intellec
tual and speculative exercises. Being rich in natural
resources and thus the struggle for existence being
reduced to a minimum, the Brahmans and the Ksatriyas
gathered themselves under most luxuriously growing
trees, or retired to the mountain-grottoes undisturbed
by the hurly-burly of the world, and there they
devoted all their leisure hours to metaphysical specu
lations and discussions. Buddhism, as a product of
these people, is naturally deeply imbued with intel-
lectualism. Further, in India there was no distinction between
religion and philosophy. Every philosophical system
was at the same time a religion, and vice versa.
Philosophy with the Hindus was not an idle display
of logical subtlety which generally ends in entangling
itself in the meshes of sophistry. Their aim of philos
ophising was to have an intellectual insight into the
significance of existence and the destiny of humanity.
They did not believe in anything blindly nor accept
anything on mere tradition. Buddha most character
istically echoes this sentiment when he says, "Follow
my teachings not as taught by a Buddha, but as

CHAPTER I. 57
being in accord with truth." This spirit of self-reliance
and self- salvation later became singularly Buddhistic.
Even when Buddha was still merely an enthusiastic
aspirant for Nirvana, he seems to have been strongly
possessed of this spirit, for he most emphatically
declared the following famous passage, in response
to the pathetic persuation of his father's ministers,
who wanted him to come home with them : "The
doubt whether there exists anything or not, is not
to be settled for me by another's words. Arriving at
the truth either by mortification or by tranquilisation,
I will grasp myself whatever is ascertainable about
it. It is not mine to receive a view which is full of
conflicts, uncertainties, and contradictions. What
enlightened men would go by other's faith? The
multitudes are like the blind led in the darkness by
the blind." *
To say simply, "Love your enemy," was not satis
factory to the Hindu mind, it wanted to see the reason
why. And as soon as the people were convinced
intellectually, they went even so far as to defend the.
faith with their lives. It was not an uncommon event
that before a party of Hindu philosophers entered
into a discussion they made an agreement that the
penalty of defeats should be the sacrifice of the life.
They were, above all, a people of intellect, though
of course not lacking in religious sentiment.
It is no wonder, then, that Buddha did not make
the first proclamation of his message by "Repent, for
' The Buddhacarita, Book IX, 63 -64.

58 CHAPTER 1.
the kingdom of heaven is at hand," but by the estab
lishment of the Four Noble Truths. * One appeals
to the feeling, and the other to the intellect. That
which appeals to the intellect naturally seems to be
less passionate, but the truth is, feeling without the
support of intellect leads to fanaticism and is always
ready to yield itself to bigotry and superstition.
The doctrine of Nirvana is doubtless more intellec
tual than the Christian gospel of love. It first recog
nises the wretchedness of human life as is proved by
our daily experiences ; it then finds its cause in our
subjective ignorance as to the true meaning of exis
tence, and in our egocentric desires which, obscuring
our spiritual insight, make us tenaciously cling to
things chimerical ; it then proposes the complete
annihilation of egoism, the root of all evil, by which,
subjectively, tranquillity of heart is restored, and,
objectively, the realisation of universal love becomes
possible. Buddhism, thus, proceeds most logically in
the development of its doctrine of Nirvana and uni
versal love.
Says Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, vol. II): "The
reduction of the universe to a single being, the ex
pansion of a single being even to God, this is love."
When a man clings to the self and does not want
1 According to one Northern Buddhist tradition, Buddha is
recorded to have exclaimed at the time of his supreme spir
itual beatitude : "Wonderful ! All sentient beings are univer
sally endowed with the intelligence and virtue of the
Tathagata !"

CHAPTER I. 59
to identify himself with other fellow-selves, he cannot
expand his being to God. When he shuts himself in
the , narrow shell of ego and keeps all the world
outside, he cannot reduce the universe to his innermost
self. To love, therefore, one must first enter Nirvana.
The truth is everywhere the same and is attained
through the removal of ignorance. But as individual
disposition differs according to the previous karma,
some are more prone to intellectualism, while the
others to sentimentality (in its psychological sense).
Let us then follow our own inclination conscientiously
and not . speak evil of others. This is called the
Doctrine of Middle Path.

CHAPTER II.
HISTORICAL CHARACTERISATION OF
MAHAYANISM
T T 7E are now in a position to enter into a specific
* " exposition of the Mahayana doctrine. But, before
doing so, it will be well for us first to consider the
views that were held by the Hindu Buddhist thinkers
concerning its characteristic features ; in other words,
to make an historical survey of its peculiarities.
As stated in the Introduction, the term Mahayana
was invented in the times of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva
(about the third or fourth century after Christ), when
doctrinal struggles between the (Jiravaka and the Bo
dhisattva classes reached a climax. The progressive
Hindu Buddhists, desiring to announce the essential
features of their doctrine, did so naturally at the
expense of their rival and by pointing out why theirs
was greater than, or superior to, Hinayanism. Their
views were thus necessarily vitiated by a partisan
spirit, and instead of impartially and critically enume
rating the principal characteristics of Mahayanism,
they placed rather too much stress upon those points
that do not in these latter days appear to be very
essential, but that were then considered by them to
be of paramount importance. These points, never-

CHAPTER II. 6 1
theless, throw some light on the nature of Mahayana
Buddhism as historically distinguished from its consan
guineous rival and fellow-doctrine.
Sthiramati's Conception of Mahayanism.
Sthiramati1 in his Indroduction to Mahayanism
states that Mahayanism is a special doctrine for the
Bodhisattvas, who are to be distinguished from the
other two classes, viz, the Cjavakas and the Pratyeka-
buddhas. The essential difference of the doctrine
consists in the belief that objects of the senses
are merely phenomenal and have no absolute reality,
that the indestructible Dharmakaya which is all-per
vading constitutes the norm of existence, that all
Bodhisattvas 2 are incarnations of the Dharmakaya, who
not by their evil karma previously accumulated, but
by their boundless love for all mankind, assume
1 His date is not known, but judging from the contents of
his works, of which we have at present two or three among
the Chinese Tripitaka, it seems that he lived later than
Acvaghosa, but prior to, or simultaneously with, Nagarjuna.
This little book occupies a very important position in the
development of Mahayanism in India. Next to Acvaghosa's
Awakening of Faith, the work must be carefully studied by
scholars who want to grasp every phase of the history of
Mahayana school as far as it can be learned through the
Chinese documents.
1 Be it remarked here that a Bodhisattva is not a particu
larly favored man in the sense of chosen people or elect.
We are all in a way Bodhisattvas, that is, when we recognise
the truth that we are equally in possession of the Samyak-
sambodhi, Highest True Intelligence, and through which every
body without exception can attain final enlightenment.

62 CHAPTER II.
corporeal existences, and that persons who thus ap
pear in the flesh, as avatars of the Buddha supreme,
associate themselves with the masses in all possible
social relations, in order that they might thus lead
them to a state of enlightenment.
While this is a very summary statement of the
Mahayana doctrine, a more elaborate and extended
enumeration of its peculiar features in contradistinc
tion to those of Hinayanism, is made in the Miscel
lanea on Mahayana Metaphysics, ' The Spiritual
Stages of the Yogdcdra, 2 An Exposition of the Holy
Doctrine, 3 A Comprehensive Treatise on Mahaya
nism, 4 and others. Let us first explain the "Seven
General Characteristics" as described in the first three
works here mentioned.
Seven Principal Features of Mahayanism.
According to Asanga, who lived a little later than
Nagarjuna, that is, at the time when_Mahayanism was
further divided into the Yogacarya and the Madhya-
mika school, the seven features peculiar to Mahayanism
as distinguished from Hinayanism, are as follows:
(i) Its Comprehensiveness. Mahayanism does not
confine itself to the teachings of one Buddha alone;
1 Mahayana-dbhidharma-sangiti-rastra, by Asanga. Nanjo,
No. 1 1 99.
2 Yogacarya-bhumi-fastra, Nanjo, No. n7o. The work is sup
posed to have been dictated to Asanga by a mythical Bo
dhisattva. 3 By Asanga. Nanjo, 11 77.
4 Mahdydna-samparigraha-fdslra, by Asanga. Nanjo, 1183.

CHAPTER II. 63
but wherever and whenever truth is found, even under
the disguise of most absurd superstitions, it makes
no hesitation to winnow the grain from the husk and
assimilate it in its own system. Innumerable good
laws taught by Buddhas * of all ages and localities
are all taken up in the coherent body of Mahayanism.
(2) Universal love for All Sentient Beings. Hinaya
nism confines itself to the salvation of individuals
only ; it does not extend its bliss universally, as each
person must achieve his own deliverance. Mahayanism,
on the other hand, aims at general salvation; it
endeavors to save us not only individually, but univer
sally. All the motives, efforts, and actions of the
Bodhisattvas pivot on the furtherance of universal
welfare. (3) Its Greatness in Intellectual Comprehension.
Mahayanism maintains the theory of non-atman not
only in regard to sentient beings but in regard to
things in general. While it denies the hypothesis of
a metaphysical agent directing our mental operations,
it also rejects the view that insists on the noumenal
or thingish reality of existences as they appear to
our senses.
(4) Its Marvelous Spiritual Energy. The Bodhisattvas
never become tired of working for universal salvation,
1 Perceiving an incarnation of the Dharmakaya in every
spiritual leader regardless of his nationality and professed
creed, Mahayanists recognise a Buddha in Socrates, Moham
med, Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Confucius, Laotze, and many
others.

64 CHAPTER II.
nor do they despair because of the long time required
to accomplish this momentous object. To try to
attain enlightenment in the shortest possible period
and to be self-sufficient without paying any attention
to the welfare of the masses, is not the teaching of
Mahayanism. (5) Its Greatness in the Exercise of the Updya.
The term updya literally means expediency. The
great fatherly sympathetic heart of the Bodhisattva
has inexhaustible resources at his command in order
that he might lead the masses to final enlightenment,
each according to his disposition and environment.
Mahayanism does not ask its followers to escape the
metempsychosis of birth and death for the sake of
entering into the lethargic tranquillity of Nirvana;
for metempsychosis in itself is no evil, and Nirvana
in its coma is not productive of any good. And as
long as there are souls groaning in pain, the Bodhi
sattva cannot rest in Nirvana; there is no rest for
his unselfish heart, so full of love and sympathy,
until he leads all his fellow-beings to the eternal bliss
of Buddhahood. To reach this end he employs innume
rable means (upaya) suggested by his disinterested
lovingkindness. (6) Its Higher Spiritual Attainment. In Hinayanism
the highest bliss attainable does not go beyond
Arhatship which is ascetic saintliness. But the followers
of Mahayanism attain even to Buddhahood with all
its spiritual powers.
(7) lis Greater Activity. When the Bodhisattva

CHAPTER II. 65
reaches the stage of Buddhahood, he is able to manifest
himself everywhere in the ten quarters of the universe '
and to minister to the spiritual needs of all sentient
beings. These seven peculiarities are enumerated to be
the reasons why the doctrine defended by the pro
gressive Buddhists is to be called Mahayanism, or the
doctrine of great vehicle, in contradistinction to
Hinayanism, the doctrine of small vehicle. In each
case, therefore, Asanga takes pains to draw the line
of demarcation distinctly between the two schools
of Buddhism and not between Buddhism and all
other religious doctrines which existed at his time.
The Ten Essential Features of Buddhism.
The following statement of the ten essential fea
tures of Mahayanism as presented in the Comprehen
sive Treatise on Mahayanism, is made from a diffe
rent standpoint from the preceding one, for it is
the pronunciamento of the Yogacara school of Asanga
1 Ancient Hindu Buddhists, with their fellow-philosophers,
believed in the existence of spiritually transfigured beings,
who, not hampered by the limitations of space and time, can
manifest themselves everywhere for the benefit of all sentient
beings. We notice some mysterious figures in almost all Mahayana
sutras, who are very often described as shedding innumerable
rays of light from the forehead and illuminating all the three
thousand worlds simultaneously. This may merely be a poetic
exaggeration. But this Sambhogakaya or Body of Bliss (see
Acvaghosa's Awakening of Faith, p. 101) is very difficult for
us to comprehend as it is literally described. For a fuller
treatment see the chapter on "Trikaya." 5

66 CHAPTER II.
and Vasubandhu rather than that of Mahayanism
generally. This school together with the Madhyamika
school of Nagarjuna constitute the two divisions of
Hindu Mahayanism. *
The points enumerated by Asanga and Vasubandhu
as most essential in their system are ten.
(i) It teaches an immanent existence of all things
in the Alayavijnana or All-Conserving Soul. The
conception of an All-Conserving Soul, it is claimed,
was suggested by Buddha in the so-called Hinayana
sutras; but on account of its deep meaning and of
the liability of its being confounded with the ego-soul
conception, he did not disclose its full significance
in their sutras; but made it known only in the
Mahayana sutras.
According to the Yogacara school, the Alaya is
not an universal, but an individual mind or soul,
whatever we may term it, in which the "germs" of
all things exist in their ideality. 2 The objective
world in reality does not exist, but by dint of sub-
' Though I am very much tempted to digress and to enter
into a specific treatment concerning these two Hindu Maha
yana doctrines, I reluctantly refrain from so doing, as it
requires a somewhat lengthy treatment and does not entirely
fall within the scope of the present work.
2 That Acvaghosa's conception of the Alaya varies with the
view here presented may be familiar to readers of his Awak
ening of Faith. This is one of the most abstruse problems
in the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, and there are
several divergent theories concerning its nature, attributes,
activities, etc. In a work like this, it is impossibje to give
even a general statement of those controversies, however

CHAPTER II. £9
jective illusion that is created by ignorance, we pro
ject all these "germs" in the Alayavijnana to the
outside world, and imagine that they are there really
as they are ; while the Manovijfiana (ego-consciousness)
which is too a product of illusion, tenaciously clin
ging to the Alayavijnana as the real self, never aban
dons its egoism. The Alayavijnana, however, is indif
ferent to, and irresponsible for, all these errors on
the part of the Manovijfiana. '
(2) The Yogacara school distinguishes three kinds
of knowledge: 1. Illusion (parikalpita), 2. Discrimi
native or Relative Knowledge (paralantra), and 3.
Perfect Knowledge (farinispanna).
The distinction may best be illustrated by the well-
known analogy of a rope and a snake. Deceived by
a similarity in appearance, men frequently take a
rope lying on the ground for a poisonous snake and
interesting they may be to students of the history of intellec
tual development in India.
The Alayavijnana, to use the phraseology of Samkhya phi
losophy, is a composition, so to speak, of the Soul (purusa)
and Primordial Matter (prakrti). It is the Soul, so far as it
is neutral and indifferent to all those phenomenal manifesta
tions, that are going on within as well as without us. It is
Primordial Matter, inasmuch asit is the reservoir of everything,
whose lid being lifted by the hands of Ignorance, there in
stantly springs up this universe of limitation and relativity.
Enlightenment or Nirvana, therefore, consists in recognising
the error of Ignorance and not in clinging to the products
of imagination.
' For a more detailed explanation of the ideal philosophy
of the Yogacara, see my article on the subject in Le Musion,
1905.

66 CHAPTER II.
are terribly shocked on that account. But when they
approach and carefully examine it, they become at
once convinced of the groundlessness of this apprehen
sion, which was the natural sequence of illusion. This
may be considered to correspond to what Kant calls
Schein. Most people, however, do not go any further in
their inquiry. They are contented with the sensual,
empirical knowledge of an object with which they
come in contact. When they understand that the
thing they mistook for a snake was really nothing
but a yard of innocent rope, they think their knowl
edge of the object is complete, and do not trouble
themselves with a philosophical investigation as to
whether the rope which to them is just what it
appears to be; has any real existence in itself. They do
not stop a moment to reflect that their knowledge
is merely relative, for it does not go beyond the
phenomenal significance of the things they perceive.
But is an object in reality such as it appears to
be to our senses? Are particular phenomena as such
really actual? What is the value of our knowledge
concerning those so-called realities? When we make
an investigation into such problems as these, the
Yogacara school says, we find that their existence is
only relative and has no absolute value whatever
independent of the perceiving subject. They are the
"ejection" of our ideas into the outside world, which
are centred and conserved in our Alayavijnana and
which are awakened into activity by subjective

CHAPTER II. 69
ignorance. This clear insight into the nature of things,
i.e., into their non-realness as atman, constitutes perfect
knowledge. (3) When we attain to the perfect knowledge, we
recognise the ideality of the universe. There is no
such thing as an objective world, which is really an
illusive manifestation of the mind called Alayavijnana,
But even this supposedly real existence of the
Alayavijnana is a product of particularisation called
forth by the ignorant Manovijfiana. The Manovijfiana,
or empirical ego, as it might be called, having no
adequate knowledge as to the true nature of the
Alaya, takes the latter for a metaphysical agent, that
like the master of a puppet-show manages all mental
operations according to its humour. As the silkworm
imprisons itself in the cacoon created by itself, the
Manovijfiana, entangling itself in ignorance and con
fusion, takes its own illusory creations for real
realities. (4) For the regulation of moral life, the Yogacara
with the other Mahayana schools, proposes the prac
tising of the six Paramitas (virtues of perfection),
which are: 1. Dana (giving), 2. Cila (moral precept),
3. Ksdnli (meekness), 4. Virya (energy), 5. Dhydna
(meditation), 6. Prajnd (knowledge or wisdom). In
way of explanation, says Asanga: "By not clinging
to wealth or pleasures (1), by not cherishing any
thoughts to violate the precepts (2), by not feeling
dejected in the face of evils (3), by not awakening
any thought of indolence while practising goodness (4),

70 CHAPTER II.
by maintaining serenity of mind in the midst of
disturbance and confusion of this world (5), and finally
by always practising ekacitta * and by truthfully
comprehending the nature of things (6), the Bodhisat
tvas recognise the truth of vijndnamatra, — the truth
that there is nothing that is not of ideal or subjective
creation. (5) Mahayanism teaches that there are ten spiritual
stages of Bodhisattvahood, viz., 1. Pramudita, 2. Vimala,
3 Prabhakari, 4. Arcismati, 5. Sudurjaya, 6. Abhimukhi,
7. Durangama, 8. Acala, 9. Sadhumati, 10. Dharmame-
gha2. By passing through all these stages one after
another, we are believed to reach the oneness of
Dharmakaya. (6) The Yogacarists claim that the precepts that
are practised by the followers of Mahayanism are far
superior to those of Hinayanists. The latter tend to
externalism and formalism, and do not go deep into
our spiritual, subjective motives. Now, there are
physical, verbal, and spiritual precepts observed by
the Buddha. The Hinayanists observe the first two
neglecting the last which is by far more important
than the rest. For instance, the Cravaka's interpreta
tion of the ten Ciksas 3 is literal and not spiritual;
* "One mind" or "one heart" meaning the mental attitude
which is in harmony with the monistic view of nature in its
broadest sense.
2 These ten stages of spiritual development are somewhat
minutely explained below. See Chapter XII.
" The ten moral precepts of the Buddha are : (1) Kill no
living being ; (2) Take nothing that is not given ; (3) Keep

CHAPTER II. 71
further, they follow these precepts because they wish
to attain Nirvana for their own sake, and not for
others'. The Bodhisattva, on the other hand, does not
wish to be bound within the narrow circle of moral
restriction. Aiming at an universal emancipation of
mankind, he ventures even violating the ten ciksas,
if necessary. The first ciksa, for instance, forbids the
killing of any living being; but the Bodhisattva does
not hesitate to go to war, in case the cause he espous
es is right and beneficient to humanity at large.
(7) As Mahayanism insists on the purification of
the inner life, its teaching applies not to things
outward, its principles are not of the ascetic and
exclusive kind. The Mahayanists do not shun to
commingle themselves with the "dust of worldliness" ;
they aim at the realisation of the Bodhi; they are
not afraid of being thrown into the whirlpool of
metempsychosis; they endeavor to impart spiritual
benefits to all sentient beings without regard to
their attitude, whether hostile or friendly, towards
themselves ; having immovable faith in the Mahayana,
they never become contaminated by vanity and
worldly pleasures with which they may constantly
be in touch ; they have a clear insight into the doc
trine of non-atman ; being free from all spiritual
faults, they live in perfect accord with the laws of
Suchness and discharge their duties without the
matrimonial sanctity; (4) Do not lie; (5) Do not slander;
(6) Do not insult; (7) Do not chatter; (8) Be not greedy;
<9) Bear no malice ; (10) Harbor no scepticism.

72 CHAPTER II.
least conceit or self-assertion: in a word, their inner
life is a realisation of the Dharmakaya.
(&) The intellectual superiority of the Bodhisattva
is shown by his possession of knowledge of non-par-
ticularisation (andndrtha). ' This knowledge, philoso
phically considered, is the knowledge of the absolute,
or the knowledge of the universal. The Bodhisattva's
mind is free from the dualism of samsara (birth-and-
death) and nirvana, of positivism and negativism, of
being and non-being, of object and subject, of ego
and non-ego. His knowledge, in short, transcends
the limits of final realities, soaring high to the
realm of the absolute and the abode of non-par-
ticurality. (g) In consequence of this intellectual elevation,
the Bodhisattva perceives the working of birth and
death in nirvana, and nirvana in the transmigration
of birth and death. He sees the "ever-changing
many" in the "never-changing one," and the "never -
1 Mahayanism recognises two "entrances" through which a
comprehensive knowledge of the universe is obtained. One
is called the "entrance of sameness" (samata) and the other
the "entrance of diversity" (n&ndtva). The first entrance
introduces us to the universality of things and suggests a
pantheistic interpretation of existence. The second leads us
to the particularity of things culminating in monotheism or
polytheism, as it is viewed from different standpoints. The
Buddhists declare that neither entrance alone can lead us to
the sanctum sanctorum of existence ; and in order to obtain
a sound, well-balanced knowledge of things in general, we
must go through both the entrances of universality and parti
cularity.

CHAPTER II. 73
changing one" in the "ever-changing many." His
inward life is in accord at once with the laws of
transitory phenomena and with those of transcenden
tal Suchness. According to the former, he does not
recoil as ascetics do when he comes in contact with
the world of the senses ; he is not afraid of suffering
the ills that the flesh is heir to; but, according to
the latter, he never clings to things evanescent, his
inmost consciousness forever dwells in the serenity
of eternal Suchness.
(io) The final characteristic to be mentioned as
distinctly Mahayanistic is the doctrine of Trikaya.
There is, it is asserted, the highest being which is
the ultimate cause of the universe and in which all
existences find their essential origin and significance.
This is called by the Mahayanists Dharmakaya. The
Dharmakaya, however, does not remain in its abso
luteness, it reveals itself in the realm of cause and
effect. It then takes a particular form. It becomes
a devil, or a god, or a deva, ot a human being, or
an animal of lower grade, adapting itself to the
degrees of the intellectual development of the people.
For it is the people's inner needs which necessitate
the special forms of manifestation. This is called
Nirmanakaya, that is, the body of transformation.
The Buddha who manifested himself in the person
of Gautama, the son of King of Cuddhodana about two
thousand five hundred years ago on the Ganges, is
a form of Nirmanakaya. The third one is called
Sambhogakaya, or body of bliss. This is the spiri-

74

CHAPTER II.

tual body of a Buddha, invested with all possible
grandeur in form and in possession of all imaginable
psychic powers. The conception of Sambhogakaya
is full of wild imaginations which are not easy of
comprehension by modern minds. '
These characteristics enumerated at seven or ten
as peculiarly Mahayanistic are what the Hindu Bud
dhist philosophers of the first century down to the
fifth or sixth century of the Christian era thought
to be the most essential points of their faith and
what they thought entitled it to be called the "Great
Vehicle" (Mahayana) of salvation, in contradistinction
to the faith embraced by their conservative brethren.
But, as we view them now, the points here specified
are to a great extent saturated with a partisan spirit,
and besides they are more or less scattered and
unconnected statements of the so-called salient fea
tures of Mahayanism. Nor do they furnish much
information concerning the nature of Mahayanism
as a coherent system of religious teachings. They
give but a general and somewhat obscure delineation
of it, and that in opposition to Hinayanism. In point
of fact, Mahayanism is a school of Buddhism and
has many characteristics in common with Hinaya
nism. Indeed, the spirit of the former is also that
of the latter, and as far as the general trend of
Buddhism is concerned there is no need of em-

1 The doctrine ol Trikaya will be given further elucidation
in the chapter bearing the same title.

CHAPTER II. 75
phasising the significance of one school over the
other. On the following pages I shall try to present
a more comprehensive and impartial exposition of
the Buddhism, which has been persistently designated
by its followers as Mahayanism.

SPECULATIVE MAHAYANISM.
CHAPTER III.
PRACTISE AND SPECULATION.
A TAHAYANISM perhaps can best be treated in two
¦*-"•* main divisions, as it has distinctly two principal fea
tures in its doctrinal development. I may call one
the speculative phase of Mahayanism and the other
practical. The first part is essentially a sort of
Buddhist metaphysics, where the mind is engaged
solely in ratiocination and abstraction. Here the
intellect plays a very prominent part, and some of
the most abstruse problems of philosophy are freely
discussed. Speculative followers of Buddhism have
taken great interest in the discussion of them and
have written many volumes on various subjects. '
1 No efforts have yet been made systematically to trace
the history of the development of the Mahayana thoughts in
India as well as in China and Japan. We have enough ma
terial at least to follow the general course it has taken, as
far as the Chinese and Tibetan collections of Tripitaka are
concerned. When a thorough comparison by impartial, un
prejudiced scholars of these documents has been made with
the Pali and Sanskrit literature, then we shall be able to
write a comprehensive history of the human thoughts that

CHAPTER III. 77
The second or practical phase of Mahayanism deals
with such religious beliefs that constitute the life
and essence of the system. Mahayanists might have
reasoned wrongfully to explain their practical faith,
but the faith itself is the outburst of the religious
sentiment which is inherent in human nature. This
practical part, therefore, is by far more important,
and in fact it can be said that the speculative part
is merely a preparatory step toward it. Inasmuch as
Mahayanism is a religion and not a philosophical sys
tem, it must be practical, that is, it must directly
appeal to the inmost life of the human heart.
Relation of Feeling and Intellect in Religion.
So much has been said about the relation between
philosophy and religion ; and there are many scholars
who so firmly believe in the identity of religion
either with superstitions or with supernatural revela
tion, that the denial of this assertion is considered
by them practically to be the disavowal of all religions.
For, according to them, there is no midway in religion.
A religion which is rational and yet practical is no
religion. Now, Buddhism is neither a vagary of imagi
nation nor a revelation from above, and on this account
it has been declared by some to be a philosophy.
The title "Speculative Mahayanism" thus, is apt to
have governed the Oriental people during the last two thou
sand years. When this is done, the result can further be
compared with the history of other religious systems, thus
throwing much light on the general evolution of humanity

78 CHAPTER III.
be taken as a confirmation of such opinion. To remove
all the misconceptions, therefore, which might be
entertained concerning the religious nature of Mahaya
nism and its attitude toward intellectualism, I have
deemed it wise here to say a few words about the
relation between feeling and intellect in religion.
There is no doubt that religion is essentially prac
tical; it does not necessarily require theorisation.
The latter, properly speaking, is the business of
philosophy. If religion was a product of the intellect
solely, it could not give satisfaction to the needs of
man's whole being. Reason constitutes but a part of
the organised totality of an individual being. Abstrac
tion however high, and speculation however deep, do
not as such satisfy the inmost yearings of the human
heart. But this they can do when they enter into
one's inner life and constitution ; that is, when abstrac
tion becomes a concrete fact and speculation a living
principle in one's existence ; in short, when philosophy
becomes religion.
Philosophy as such, therefore, is generally distin
guished from religion. But we must not suppose that
religion as the deepest expression of a human being
can eliminate altogether from it the intellectual
element. The most predominant role in religion may
be played by the imagination and feeling, but ratio
cination must not fail to assert its legitimate right in
the co-ordination of beliefs. When this right is denied,
religion becomes fanaticism, superstition, fata morgana,
and even a menace to the progress of humanity.

CHAPTER III. 79
The intellect is critical, objective, and always tries
to stand apart from the things that are taken up for
examination. This alienation or keeping itself aloof
from concrete facts on the part of the intellect,
constantly tends to disregard the real significance of
life, of which it is also a manifestation. Therefore,
the conflict between feeling and reason, religion and
science, instinct and knowledge, has been going on
since the awakening of consciousness.
Seeing this fact, intellectual people are generally
prone to condemn religion as barring the freedom
and obstructing the progress of scientific investiga
tions. It is true that religion went frequently to the
other extreme and tried to suppress the just claim
of reason; it is true that this was especially the
case with Christianity, whose history abounds with
regretable incidents resulting from its violent encroach
ments upon the domain of reason. It is also true
that the feeling and the intellect are sometimes at
variance, that what the feeling esteems as the most
valuable treasure is at times relentlessly crushed by
the reason, while the feeling looks with utmost con
tempt at the results that have been reached by the
intellect after much lucubration. But this fatal con
flict is no better than the fight which takes place
between the head and the tail of a hydra when it
is cut in twain ; it always results in self-destruction.
We cannot live under such a miserable condition
forever; when we know that it is altogether due to
a myopia on the part of our understanding. The

80 CHAPTER III.
truth is that feeling and reason "cannot do with
out one another, and must work together insepa
rably in the process of human development, since
reason without feeling could have nothing to act for
and would be impotent to act, while feeling without
reason would act tyrannically and blindly — that
is to say, if either could exist and act at all with
out the other; for in the end it is not feeling nor
reason, which acts, but it is the man who acts ac
cording as he feels and reasons". (H. Maudsley's
Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings, p. vn).
If it is thus admitted that feeling and reason, must
co-ordinate and co-operate in the realisation of hu
man ideals, religion, though essentially a phenomenon
of the emotional life, cannot be indifferent to the
significance of the intellect. Indeed, religion, as much
as philosophy, has ever been speculating on the pro
blems that are of the most vital importance to hu
man life. In Christianity speculation has been car
ried on under the name of theology, though it claims
to be fundamentally a religion of faith. In India,
however, as mentioned elsewhere, there was no divi
ding line between philosophy and religion ; and every
teaching, every system, and every doctrine, however
abstract and speculative it might appear to the Western
mind, was at bottom religious and always aimed
at the deliverance of the soul. There was no philos
ophical system that did not have some practical
purpose. Indian thinkers could not separate religion from

CHAPTER III. 8 1
philosophy, practice from theory. Their philosophy
flowed out of the very spring of the human heart
and was not a mere display of fine intellectuation.
If their thinking were not in the right direction
and led to a fallacy which made life more miserable,
they were ever ready to surrender themselves to a
superior doctrine as soon as it was discovered. But
when they thought they were in the right track,
they did not hesitate to sacrifice their life for it.
Their philosophy had as much fire as religion.
Buddhism and Speculation.
Owing to this fact, Buddhism as much as Hinduism
is full of abstract speculations and philosophical reflec
tions so much so that some Christian critics are
inclined to deny the religiosity of Buddhism. But no
student of the science of comparative religion would
indorse such a view nowadays. Buddhism, in spite of
its predominant intellectualism, is really a religious
system. There is no doubt that it emphasises the ra
tional element of religion more than any other religious
teachings, but on that account we cannot say that
it altogether disregards the importance of the part
to be played by the feeling. Its speculative, philoso
phical phase is really a preparation for fully appre
ciating the subjective significance of religion, for
religion is ultimately subjective, that is to say, the
essence of religion is love and faith, or, to use Buddhist
phraseology, it is the expression of the Bodhi which

82 CHAPTER III.
consists in prajna l (intelligence or wisdom) and
karuna (love or compassion). Mere knowledge (not
prajna) has very little value in human life. When not
guided by love and faith, it readily turns out to be
the most obedient servant of egoism and sensualism.
What Tennyson says in the following verses is
perfectly true with Buddhism :
"Who loves not knowledge ? Who shall rail
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
"But on her forehead sits a fire ;
She sets her forward countenance
And leaps into the future chance,
Submitting all things to desire.
"Half grown as yet, a child, and vain —
She cannot fight the fear of death.
What is she, cut from love and faith,
But some wild Pallas from the brain
"Of demons ? fiery-hot to burst
All barriers in her onward race
For power. Let her know her place;
She is the second, not the first.
"A higher hand must make her mild,
If all be not in vain, and guide
Her footsteps, moving side by side
With Wisdom, like the younger child."
1 Prajna, bodhi, buddhi, vidya and jna or jn&na are all syn
onymous and in many cases interchangeable. But they allow
a finer discrimination. Speaking in a general way, prajnd is
reason, bodhi wisdom or intelligence, buddht enlightenment,
vidya ideality or knowledge, and jn& or jn&na intellect. Of
these five terms, prajh& and bodhi are essentially Buddhistic

CHAPTER III. 83
But it must be remembered that Buddhism never
ignores the part which is played by the intellect in
the purification of faith. For it is by the judicious
exercise of the intellect, that all religious superstitions
and prejudices are finally destroyed.
The intellect is so far of great consequence, and
we must respect it as the thunderbolt of Vajrapani,
which crushes everything that is mere sham and false.
But at the same time we must also remember that
the quintessence of religion like the house built on
the solid rock never suffers on account of this destruc
tion. Its foundation lies too deeply buried in human
and have acquired technical meaning. In this work both
prajna and bodhi are mostly translated by intelligence, for
their extent of meaning closely overlaps each other. But
this is rather vague, and wherever I thought the term intel
ligence alone to be misleading, I either left the originals un
translated, or inserted them in parentheses. To be more
exact, prajnd in many cases can safely be rendered by faith,
not a belief in revealed truths, but a sort of immediate
knowledge gained by intuitive intelligence. Prajna corres
ponds in some respects to wisdom, meaning the foundation
of all reasonings and experiences. It may also be considered
an equivalent for Greek sophia. Bodhi, on the other hand,
has a decidedly religious and moral significance. Besides
being prajna itself, it is also love (karuna) : for, according
to Buddhism, these two, prajna and karuna, constitute the
essence of Bodhi. May Bodhi be considered in some respects
synonymous with the divine wisdom as understood by Chris
tian dogmatists ? But there is something in the Buddhist
notion of Bodhi that cannot properly be expressed by wisdom
or intelligence. This seems to be due to the difference of
philosophical interpretation by Buddhists and Christians of
the conception of God. It will become clearer as we proceed
farther.

84 CHAPTER III.
heart to be damaged by knowledge or science. So
long as there is a human heart warm with blood and
burning with the fire of life, the intellect however
powerful will never be able to trample it underfoot
Indeed, the more severely the religious sentiment is
tested in the crucible of the intellect, the more glo
rious and illuminating becomes its intrinsic virtue.
The true religion is, therefore, never reluctant to appear
before the tribunal of scientific investigation. In fact
by ignoring the ultimate significance of the religious
consciousness, science is digging its own grave. For
what purpose has science other than the unravelling
of the mysteries of nature and reading into the
meaning of existence? And is this not what consti
tutes the foundation of religion? Science cannot be
final, it must find its reason in religion; as a mere
intellectual exercise it is not worthy of our serious
consideration. Religion and Metaphysics.
The French sociologist, M. Guyau, says in his
Irreligion of the Future (English translation p. 10) :
"Every positive and historical religion presents
three distinctive and essential elements: (i) An at
tempt at a mythical and non-scientific explanation
of natural phenomena (divine intervention, miracles,
efficacious prayers, etc.), or of historical facts (incar
nation of Jesus Christ or of Buddha, revelation, and
so forth); (2) A system of dogmas, that is to say,
of symbolic ideas, of imaginative beliefs, forcibly

CHAPTER III. 85
imposed upon one's faith as absolute verities, even
though they are susceptible of no scientific demon
stration or philosophical justification; (3) A cult and
a system of rites, that is to say, of more or less
immutable practices regarded as possessing a mar
velous efficacy upon the course of things, a propi
tiatory virtue. A religion without myth, without dogma,
without cult, without rite, is no more than that
somewhat bastard product, 'natural religion,' which
is resolvable to a system of metaphysical hypotheses."
M. Guyau seems to think that what will be left
in religion, when severed from its superstitions and
imaginary beliefs and mysterious rites, is a system
of metaphysical speculations, and that, therefore, it
is not a religion. But in my opinion the French so
ciologist shares the error that is very prevalent
among the scientific men of to-day. He is perfectly
right in trying to strip religion of all its ephemeral
elements and external integuments, but he is entirely
wrong when he does this at the expense of its very
essence, which consists of the inmost yearings of
the human heart. And this essence has no affinity
with the superstitions which grow round it like
excrescences as the results of insufficient or abnormal
nourishment. Nor does it concern itself with mere
philosophising and constructing hypotheses about
metaphysical problems. Far from it. Religion is a
cry from the abysmal depths of the human heart,
that can never be silenced, until it finds that something
and identifies itself with it, which reveals the teleo-

86 CHAPTER III.
logical significance of life and the universe. But this
something has a subjective value only, as Goethe
makes Faust exclaim, "Feeling is all in all, name
for it I have none." Why? Because it cannot objec
tively or intellectually be demonstrated, as in the
case with those laws which govern phenomenal exis
tences, — the proper objects of the discursive human
understanding. And this subjectivity of religion is
what makes "all righteousnesses as filthy garments."
If religion deprived of its dogmas and cults is to
be considered, as M. Guyau thinks, nothing but a
system of metaphysics, we utterly lose sight of its
subjective significance or its emotional element, which
indeed constitutes its raison d'etre.
* *
*
Having this in view we proceed to see first on
what metaphysical hypothesis speculative Mahayana
Buddhism is built up ; but the reader must remember
that this phase of Mahayanism is merely a preliminary
to its more essential part, which we expound later
under the heading of "Practical Mahayanism," in
contradistinction to "Speculative Mahayanism."

CHAPTER IV.
CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Three Forms of Knowledge.
A l\ AHAyANISM generally distinguishes two or three
forms of knowledge. This classification is a sort
of epistemology, inasmuch as it proposes to ascertain
the extent and nature of human knowledge, from a re
ligious point of view. Its object is to see what kind of
human knowledge is most reliable and valuable for the
annihilation of ignorance and the attainment of enlight
enment. The Mahayana school which has given most
attention to this division of Buddhist philosophy is
the Yogacara of Asanga and Vasubandhu. The Lan-
kdvatara and the Sandhinirmocana and some other
Sutras, on which the school claims to have its doctrinal
foundation, teach three forms of knowledge. The
sutra literature, however, as a rule does not enter
into any detailed exposition of the subject ; it merely
classifies knowledge and points out what form of
knowledge is most desirable by the Buddhists. To
obtain a fuller and more discursive elucidation, we
must come to the Abhidharma Pitaka of that school.
Of the text books most generally studied of the

88 CHAPTER IV.
Yogacara, we may mention Vasubandhu's Vijnctnamatra
with its commentaries and Asanga's Comprehensive
Treatise on Mahayanism The following statements
are abstracted mainly from these documents.
The three forms of knowledge as classified by the
Yogacara are : (i) Illusion (parikalpita), (2) Relative
Knowledge (paratantra), and (3) Absolute Knowledge
(parinispanna). Illusion.
Illusion (parikalpita), to use Kantian phraseology,
is a sense-perception not co-ordinated by the categories
of the understanding; that is to say, it is a purely
subjective elaboration, not verified by objective reality
and critical judgment. So long as we make no practical
application of it, it will harbor no danger; there is
no evil in it, at least religiously. Perceptual illusion
is a psychical fact, and as such it is justified. A
straight rod in water appears crooked on account of
the refraction of light ; a sensation is often felt in
the limb after it has been amputated, for the nervous
system has not yet adjusted itself to the new condition.
They are all illusions, however. They are doubtless
the correct interpretation of the sense-impressions
in question, but they are not confirmed by other
sense-impressions whose coordination is necessary
to establish an objective reality. The moral involved
in this is : all sound inferences and correct behavior
must be based on critical knowledge and not on
illusory premises.

CHAPTER IV. 89
Reasoning in this wise, the Mahayanists declare
that the egoism fostered by vulgar minds belongs to
this class of knowledge, though of a different order,
and that those who tenaciously cling to egoism as
their final stronghold are believers in an intellectual
fata morgana, and are like the thirsty deer that madly
after the visionary water in the desert, or like the
crafty monkey that tries to catch the lunar reflection
in the water. Because the belief in the existence of
a metaphysical agent behind our mental phenomena
is not confirmed by experience and sound judgment,
it being merely a product of unenlightened subjectivity.
Besides this ethical and philosophical egoism, all
forms of world-conception which is founded on the
sandy basis of subjective illusion, such as fetichism,
idolatry, anthropomorphism, anthropopsychism, and
the like, must be classed under the parikalpita-laksana
as doctrines having illusionary premises.
Relative Knowledge.
Next comes the paratantra-laksana , a welt-an-
schauung based upon relative knowledge, or better,
upon the knowledge of the law of relativity. Accord
ing to this view, everything in the world has a
relative and conditional existence, and nothing can
claim an absolute reality free from all limitations.
This closely corresponds to the theory advanced by
most of modern scientists, whose agnosticism denies
our intellectual capability of transcending the law of
relativity.

90 CHAPTER IV.
The paratantra-laksana, therefore, consists in the
knowledge derived from our daily intercourse with
the outward world. It deals with the highest ab
stractions we can make out of our sensuous expe
riences. It is positivistic in its strictest sense. It
says : The universe has only a relative existence, and
our knowledge is necessarily limited. Even the highest
generalisation cannot go beyond the law of relativity.
It is impossible for us to know the first cause and
the ultimate end of existence; nor have we any
need to go thus beyond the sphere of existence, which
would inevitably involve us in the maze of mystic
imagination. The paratantra-laksana, therefore, is a positivism,
agnosticism, or empiricism in its spirit. Though the
Yogacara Buddhists do not use all these modern phi
losophical terms, the interpretation here given is really
what they intended to mean by the second form of
knowledge. A world-conception based on this view,
it is declared by the Mahayanists, is sound as far
as our perceptual knowledge is concerned ; but it
does not exhaust the entire field of human experi
ence, for it does not take into account our spiritual
life and our inmost consciousness. There is some
thing in the human heart that refuses to be satisfied
with merely systematising under the so-called laws
of nature those multitudinous impressions which we
receive from the outside world. There is a singular
feeling, or sentiment, or yearning, whatever we may
call it, in our inmost heart, which defies any plainer

CHAPTER IV. 91
description than a mere suggestion or an indirect
statement. This somewhat mystic consciousness
seems despite its obscureness to contain the meaning
of our existence as well as that of the universe. The
intellect may try to persuade us with all its subtle
reasonings to subdue this disquieting feeling and to
remain contented with the systematising of natural
laws, so called. But it is deceiving itself by so doing ;
because the intellect is but a servant to the heart,
and so far as it is not forced to self-contradiction,
it must accommodate itself to the needs of the heart.
That is to say, we must transcend the narrow limits-
of conditionality and see what indispensable postulates
are underlying our life and experiences. The recog
nition of these indispensable postulates of life con
stitutes the Yogacara's third form of knowledge called
parinispanna-laksana. Absolute Knowledge.
Parinispanna-laksana literally means the world-
view founded on the most perfect knowledge. Ac
cording to this view, the universe is a monistico-
pantheistic system. While phenomenal existences
are regulated by natural laws characterised by condi
tionality and individuation, they by no means exhaust
all our experiences which are stored in our inmost
consciousness. There must be something, — this is
the absolute demand of humanity, the ultimate postu
late of experience, — be it Will, or Intelligence,
which, underlying and animating all existences, forms

92 CHAPTER IV.
the basis of cosmic, ethical, and religious life. This
highest Will, or Intelligence, or both may be term
ed God, but the Mahayanists call it religiously Dhar
makaya, ontologically Bhutatathata, and psycholog
ically Bodhi or Sambodhi. And they think it must
be immanent in the universe manifesting itself in
all places and times; it must be the cause of per
petual creation ; it must be the principle of morality.
This being so, how do we come to the recognition
of its presence? The Buddhists say that when our
minds are clear of illusions, prejudices, and egotistic
assumptions, they become transparent and reflect
the truth like a dust-free mirror. The illumination
thus gained in our consciousness constitutes the
so-called parinispanna, the most perfect knowledge,
that leads to Nirvana, final salvation, and eternal bliss.
World-views Founded on the Three
Froms of Knowledge.
The reason will be obvious to the reader
why the Yogacara school distinguishes three class
es of world-conception founded on the three kinds
of knowledge. The parikalpita-laksana is most
primitive and most puerile. However, in these days
of enlightenment, what is believed by the masses is
naught else than a parikalpita conception of the world.
The material existence as it appears to our senses
is to them all in all. They seem to be unable to
shake off the yoke of egoistic illusion and naive
realism. Their God must be transcendent and anthro-

CHAPTER IV. 93
popathic, and always willing to meddle with worldly
affairs as his whim pleases. How different the world
is, in which the multitudes of unreflecting minds are
living, from that which is conceived by Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas! Hartmann, a German thinker, is right,
when he says that the masses are at least a century
behind in their intellectual culture. But the most
strange thing in the world is that, in spite of all
their ignorance and superstitious beliefs, the waves of
universal transformation are ever carrying them onward
to a destination, of which, perhaps, they have not the
slightest suspicion.
The paratantra-laksana advances a step further,
but the fundamental error involved in it is its persis
tent self-contradictory disregard for what our inmost
consciousness is constantly revealing to us. The intellect
alone can by no means unravel the mystery of our
entire existence. In order to reach the highest truth,
we must boldly plunge with our whole being into a
region where absolute darkness defying the light of
intellect is supposed to prevail. This region which is
no more nor less than the field of religious conscious
ness is shunned by most of the intellectual people
on the plea that the intellect by its very nature is
unable to fathom it. But the only way that leads us
to the final pacification of the heart-yearnings is to
go beyond the horizons of limiting reason and to
resort to the faith that has been planted in the heart
as the sine qua non of its own existence and vitality.
And by faith I mean Prajna (wisdom), transcendental

94 CHAPTER IV.
knowledge, that comes direct from the intelligence-
essence of the Dharmakaya. A mind, so tired in
vainly searching after truth and bliss in the verbiage
of philosophy and the nonsense of ritualism, finds
itself here completely rested bathing in the rays of
divine effulgence, — whence this is, it does not
question, being so filled with supramundane blessings
which alone are felt. Buddhism calls this exalted
spiritual state Nirvana or Moksa; and parinispanna-
laksana is a world-conception which naturally follows
from this subjective, ideal enlightenment.1
Two Forms of Knowledge.
The other Hindu Mahayanism, the Madhyamika
school of Nagarjuna, distinguishes two, instead of
three, orders of knowledge, but practically the
Yogacara and the Madhyamika come to the same
conclusion. 2
1 For detailed exposition of the three forms of knowledge,
the reader is requested to peruse Asanga's Comprehensive
Treatise on Mahayanism (Nanjo's Catalogue, No. 1183), Vasu
bandhu's work on Mahayana idealism ( Vijnanamatra Casira,
Nanjo, No. 1215), the Sutra on Ike Mystery of Deliverance
(Sandhinirmocana-sutra, Nanjo. Nos. 246 aud 247), etc
2 When the eminent representatives of both parties, such
as Dharmapala and Bhavaviveka, were at the height of their
literary activity in India about the fifth or sixth century after
Christ, their partisan spirit incited them bitterly to denounce
each other, forgetting the common ground on which their
principles were laid down. Their disagreement in fact on
which they put an undue emphasis was of a very trifling
nature. It was merely a quarrel over phraseology, for one
insisted on using certain words just in the sense which the
other negated.

CHAPTER IV. 95
The two kinds of knowledge or truth distinguished
by the Madhyamika philosophy are Samvrtti-satya
and Paramdrtha-satya, that is, conditional truth

and transcendental truth. We readin NagarjunaT
Madhyamika "fSsWjr1 (Buddhist Text Society edition,
pp. 180, 181) :
"On two truths is founded
The holy doctrine of Buddhas:
Truth conditional,
And truth transcendental.
"Those who verily know not
The distinction of the two truths.
Know not the essence
Of Buddhism which is meaningful."
The conditional truth includes illusion and relative
knowledge of the Yogacara school, while the tran
scendental truth corresponds to the absolute knowledge.
In explaining these two truths, the Madhyamika
philosophers have made a constant use of the terms,
gunya and agunya, void and not-void, which unfor
tunately became a cause of the misunderstanding
by Christian scholars of Nagarjuna's transcendental
philosophy. Absolute truth is void in its ultimate
nature, for it contains nothing concrete or real or
individual that makes it an object of particularisation.
But this must not be understood, as is done by
some superficial critics, in the sense of absolute
1 Dve satye samupacritya buddhanam dhardecana
Lokasamvrttisatyan ca satyan ca paramarthatah.
Ye ca anayor na jananti vibhagam satyayor dvayoh,
Te tatvam na vijananti gambhirabuddhagasane."

96 CHAPTER IV.
nothingness. The Madhyamika philosophers make the
satya (transcendental truth) empty when contrasted
with the realness of phenomenal existences. Because
it is not real in the sense a particular being is
real; but it is empty since it transcends the prin
ciple of individuation. When considered absolutely,
it can neither be empty nor not-empty, neither gunya
nor agunya, neither asti nor ndsti, neither abhdva
nor bhdva, neither real nor unreal. All these terms
imply relation and contrast, while the Paramartha
Satya is above them, or better, it unifies all con
trasts and antitheses in its absolute oneness. There
fore, even to designate it at all may lead to the mis
understanding of the true nature of the Satya, for
naming is particularising. It is not, as such, an
object of intellectuation or of demonstrative knowl
edge. It underlies everything conditional and pheno
menal, and does not permit itself to be a particular
object of discrimination.
Transcendental Truth and Relative
Understanding
One may say: If transcendental truth is of such
an abstract nature, beyond the reach of the under
standing, how can we ever hope to attain it and
enjoy its blessings? But Nagarjuna says that it is
not absolutely out of the ken of the understanding;
it is, on the contrary, through the understanding
that we become acquainted with the quarter towards
which our spiritual efforts should be directed, only

CHAPTER IV. 97
let us not cling to the means by which we grasp
the final reality. A finger is needed to point at
the mootv, hut- wh^n wphavp recognised fne moon,
h3t_j^-j»o-moi^^JxcaibIe ourselves with the finger. The
fisherman carries a basket to take the" fish home,
but what need has he to worry about the basket
when the contents are safely on the table? Only so
long as we are not yet aware of the way to enlight
enment, let us not ignore the value of relative knowl
edge or conditional truth or lokasamvrttisatya as
Nagarjuna terms it.
"If not by worldly knowledge,
The truth is not understood;
When the truth is not approached,
Nirvana is not attained." '
From this, it is to be infered that Buddhism never
discourages the scientific, critical investigation of
religious beliefs. For it is one of the functions of
science that it should purify the contents of a belief
and that it should point out in which direction our
final spiritual truth and consolation have to be sought.
Science alone which is built on relative knowledge
is not able to satisfy all our religious cravings, but
it is certainly able to direct us to the path of enlight
enment. When this path is at last revealed, we shall
know how to avail ourselves of the discovery, as
then Prajna (or Sambodhi, or Wisdom) becomes the
1 Vyavaharam anacritya paramartho na decyate,
Paramartham anagamya nirvanam na adhigamyata.
The Madhyamika, p. 181.
7

98 CHAPTER IV.
guide of life. Here we enter into the region of the
unknowable. The spiritual facts we experience are not
demonstrable, for they are so direct and immediate
that the uninitiated are altogether at a loss to get a
glimpse of them.

CHAPTER V.
BHUTATATHATA (SUCHNESS).
T7R0M the ontological point of view, Paramartha-satya
or Parinispanna (transcendental truth) is called
Bhutatathata, which literally means "suchness of exist
ence." As Buddhism does not separate being from
thought nor thought from being, what is suchness in
the objective world, is transcendental truth in the
subjective world, and vice versa Bhutatathata, then,
is the Godhead of Buddhism , and it marks the con
summation of all our mental efforts to reach the
highest principle, which unifies all possible contradic
tions and spontaneously directs the course of world-
events. In short, it is the ultimate postulate of exist
ence. Like Paramartha-satya, as above stated, it does
not belong to the domain of demonstrative knowledge
or sensuous experience ; it is unknowable by the
ordinary processes of intellectuation, which the natural
sciences use in the formulation of general laws; and
it is grasped, declare the Buddhists, only by the
minds that are capable of exercising what might be
called religious intuition.
Acvaghosa argues, in his Awakening of Faith for
the indefinability of this first principle. When we say
it is cunya or empty, on account of its being indepen-

IOO CHAPTER V.
dent of all the thinkable qualities, which we attribute
to things relative and conditional, people would take
it for the nothingness of absolute void But when we
define it as a real reality, as it stands above the
evanescence of phenomena, they would imagine that
there is something individual and existing outside the
pale of this universe, which, though as concrete as
we ourselves are, lives an eternal life. It is like
describing to the blind what an elephant looks like;
each one of them gets but a very indistinct and
imperfect conception of the huge creature, yet every
one of them thinks he has a true and most comprehen
sive idea of it. ' Acvaghosa, thus, wishes to eschew all
definite statements concerning the ultimate nature of
being, but as language is the only mode with which
we mortals can express our ideas and communicate
them to others, he thinks the best expression that
can be given to it is Bhutatathata, i.e., "suchness of
existence," or simply, "suchness."
Bhutatathata (suchness), thus absolutely viewed, does
not fall under the category of being and non-being;
and minds which are kept within the narrow circle
of contrasts, must be said to be incapable of grasping
it as it truly is. Says Nagarjuna in his Castra (Ch. XV.) :
"Between thisness (svabh&va) and thatness (parabhdvd),
Between being and non-being,
Who discriminates,
The truth of Buddhism he perceives not." a
1 Cf. The Udana, chapter VI.
1 Svabhavam parabhavanca, bhavancabhavameva ca,
Ye pacyanti, na pagyante tatvam hi buddhagasane.

Or,

CHAPTER V. IOI

"To think ' it is ', is eternalism,
To think ' it is not ', is nihilism :
Being and non-being,
The wise cling not to either." '

Again,

"The dualism of 'to be ' and ' not to be, '
The dualism of pure and not-pure :
Such dualism having abandoned,
The wise stand not even in the middle." *
To quote, again, from the Awakening of Faith
(pp. 58—59): "In its metaphysical origin, Bhutata
thata has nothing to do with things defiled, i. e.,
conditional: it is free from all signs of individuali-
sation, such as exist in phenomenal objects : it is
independent of an unreal, particularising consciousness."
Indefinability.
Absolute Suchness from its very nature thus defies
all definitions. We cannot even say that it is, for
everything that is presupposes that which is not:
existence and non-existence are relative terms as
much as subject and object, mind and matter, this
and that, one and other: one cannot be conceived
1 Astiti gagvatagraho, nastityucchedadarganam :
Tasmadastitvanastitve nagriyeta vicaksanah
2 Astiti nastiti ubhe ' pi anta
Quddhi aguddhiti ime ' pi anta;
Tasmadubhe anta vivarjayitva
Madhye ' pi syanam na karoti panditah.

102 CHAPTER V.
without the other. "It is not so (na iti) i," therefore,
may be the only way our imperfect human tongue
can express it. So the Mahayanists generally desig
nate absolute Suchness as Qunyata or void.
But when this most significant word, cunyata, is
to be more fully interpreted, we would say with
Acvaghosa that "Suchness is neither that which is
existence nor that which is non-existence; neither
that which is at once existence and non-existence,
nor that which is not at once existence and non
existence; it is neither that which is unity nor that
which is plurality; neither that which is at once unity
and plurality, nor that which is not at once unity
and plurality." 2
1 This is the famous phrase in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
occurring in several places (II, 3, 6 ; III, 9, 26 ; IV, 2, 4 ; IV,
4, 22 ; IV, 5, 5). The Atman or Brahman, it says, "is to
be described by No, No ! He is incomprehensible, for he
cannot be comprehended ; he is imperishable, for he cannot
perish; he is unattached, for he does not attach himself;
unfettered, he does not suffer, he does not fail. Him (who
knows), these two do not overcome, whether he says that for
some reason he has done evil, or for some reason he has done
good— he overcomes both, and neither what he has done, nor
what he has omitted to do, affects him."
. 4 The Awakening of Faith, p. 59. Cf. this with the utterances
of Dionysius the Areopagite, as quoted by Prof. W.James
in his Varieties of Religious Experience, pp. 416— 4i7: "The
cause of all things is neither soul nor intellect; nor has
it imagination, opinion, or reason, or intelligence; nor is it
spoken or thought. It is neither number, nor order, nor
magnitude, nor littleness, nor equality, nor inequality, nor
similarity, nor. dissimilarity. It neither stands, nor moves,
nor rests  It is neither essence, nor eternity, nor time.

CHAPTER V. 103
Nagarjana's famous doctrine of "The Middle Path
of Eight No's" breathes the same spirit, which declares:
"There is no death, no birth, no destruction, no persistence,
No oneness, no manyness, no coming, no departing, '
Elsewhere, he expresses the same idea in a some
what paradoxical manner, making the historical Buddha
a real concrete manifestation of Suchness :
"After his passing, deem not thus :
' The Buddha still is here, '
, He is above all contrasts,
To be and not to be.
"While living, deem not thus :
' The Buddha is now here. '
He is above all contrasts,
To be and not to be." *
This view of Suchness as no-ness abounds in the
literature of the Dhyana school of Mahayanism. To
cite one instance : When Bodhi-Dharma 3, the founder
Even intellectual contact does not belong to it. It is neither
science nor truth. It is not even royalty nor wisdom ; not
one ; not unity ; not divinity or goodness ; nor even spirit as
we know it.". . . . ad libitum.
1 Anirodham anutpadam anucchedam agagvatam,
Anekartham ananartham anagamam anirgamam.
(Madhyamika C&stra, first stanza.)
0 Param nirodhadbhagavan bhavatityeva nohyate,
Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate :
Atisthamano ' pi bhagavan bhavatityeva nohyate,
Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate.
(Madhyamika, p. 199).
"He was the third son of king of Kagi(?) in southern India.
He came to China A. D. 527 and after a vain attempt to con
vert Emperor Wu to his own view, he retired to a monastery,
where, it is reported, he spent all day in gazing at the wall

IC4 CHAPTER VT
of the Dhyana sect, saw Emperor Wu of Liang dynasty
(A D. 502 — 556), he was asked what the first principle
of the Holy Doctrine was, he did not give any lengthy,
periphrastic statement after the manner of a philosopher,
but laconically replied, "Vast emptiness and nothing
holy." The Emperor was bewildered and did not know
how to take the words of his holy adviser. Naturally,
he did not expect such an abrupt answer, and, being
greatly disappointed, ventured another question:
"Who is he, then, that stands before me?" By this
he meant to repudiate the doctrine of absolute Such
ness. His line of argument being this : If there is
nothing in the ultimate nature of things that distin
guishes between holiness and sinfulness, why this
world of contrasts, where some are revered as holy,
for instance, Bodhi-Dharma who is at this very
moment standing in front of him with the mission
of propagating the holy teachings of Buddha ? Bodhi-
Dharma, however, was a mystic and was fully con
vinced of the insufficiency of the human tongue to
express the highest truth which is revealed only
without making any further venture to propagate his mysticism.
But finally he found a most devoted disciple in the person
of Shen Kuang, who was once a Confucian, and through whom
the Dhyana school became one of the most powerful Mahayana
sect in China as well as in Japan. Dharma died in the year
535. Besides the one here mentioned, he had another audience
with the Emperor. At that time, the Emperor said to Dharma:
"I have dedicated so many monasteries, copied so many
sacred books, and converted so many bhiksus and bhiksunis :
what do you think my merits are or ought to be?" To this,
however, Dharma replied curtly, "No merit whatever."

CHAPTER V. 105
intuitively to the religious consciousness. His con
clusive answer was, "I do not know" 1
This "I do not know" is not to be understood
in the spirit of agnosticism, but in the sense of
"God when understood is no God," for in se est
et per se conceptur. This way of describing Suchness
by negative terms only, excluding all differences of
name and form (ndmarupa) to reach a higher kind
of affirmation, seems to be the most appropriate
one, inasmuch as the human understanding is limited
in so many respects ; but, nevertheless, it has caused
much misinterpretation even among Buddhists them
selves, not to mention those Christian Buddhist schol
ars of to-day, who sometimes appear almost wilfully
to misconstrue the significance of the cunyata philo
sophy. It was to avoid these unfortunate misinter
pretations that the Mahayanists frequently made the
paradoxical assertion that absolute Suchness is
empty and not empty, cunya and agunya, being and
non-being, sat and asat, one and many, this and that.
The "Thundrous Silence."
There yet remains another mode of explaining
absolute Suchness, which though most practical and
most effective for the religiously disposed minds,
may prove very inadequate to a sceptical intellect.
1 Another interesting utterance by a Chinese Buddhist, who,
earnestly pondering over the absoluteness of Suchness for
several years, understood it one day all of a sudden, is:
"The very instant you say it is something (or a nothing),
you miss the mark."

IC»6 CHAPTER V.
It is the "thundrous silence" of Vimalakirti in response
to an inquiry concerning the nature of Sudaaess or
the "Dharma of Non-duality,, " -as it is termed in
the Sutra *
Bodhisattva Vimalakirti once asked a host of Bodhi
sattvas led by Manjucri, who came to visit him,
to express their views as to how to enter into the
Dharma of Non-duality. Some replied, "Birth and
death are two, but the Dharma itself was never born
and will never die. Those who understand this are
said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality." Some
said, " T and 'mine' are two. Because I think 'I am'
there are things called 'mine.' But as there is no
'I am' where shall we look for things 'mine'? By
thus reflecting we enter into the Dharma of Non-
duality." Some replied, "Samsara and Nirvana are
two. But when we understand the ultimate nature
of Samsara, Samsara vanishes from our consciousness,
and there is neither bondage nor release, neither
birth nor death. By thus reflecting we enter into
the Dharma of Non-duality " Others said, "Ignorance
and enlightenment are two. No ignorance, no enlight
enment, and there is no dualism. Why? Because
those who have entered a meditation in which there
is no sense-impression, no cogitation, are free from
ignorance as well as from enlightenment. This holds
true with all the other dualistic categories. Those
who enter thus into the thought of sameness are
* The Vimalakirti Sutra, Kumarajiva's translation, Part II,
Chapter 5.

CHAPTER V. 107
said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality." Still
others answered, "To long for Nirvana and to shun
worldliness are of dualism. Long not for Nirvana,
shun not worldliness, and we are free from dualism.
Why ? Because bondage and release are relative terms,
and when there is no bondage from the beginning,
who wishes to be released ? No bondage, no release,
and therefore no longing, no shunning: this is called
the entering into the Dharma of Non-duality."
Many more answers of similar nature came forth
from all the Bodhisattvas in the assembly except the
leader Manjucri. Vimalakirti now requested him to
give his own view, and to this Manjucri responded,
"What I think may be stated thus: That which is
in all beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs,
is not possible of cognisance, and is above all ques
tionings and answerings, — to know this is said to
enter into the Dharma of Non-duality."
Finally, the host Vimalakirti himself was demanded
by Manjucri to express his idea of Non-duality, but
he kept completely silent and uttered not a word.
Thereupon, Manjucri admiringly exclaimed, "Well
done, well done ! The Dharma of Non-duality is truly
above letters and words!" '
1 Deussen relates, in his address delivered before the Bombay
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a similar attitude
of a Vedantist mystic in regard to the highest Brahma. ''The
Bhava, therefore, when asked by the king Vaksalin, to explain the
Brahman, kept silence. And when the king repeated his request
again and again, the rishi broke out into the answer : 'I tell it you,
but you don't understand it ; fdnto 'yam dtmd, this atma is silence !"

1 68 CHAPTER V.
Now, of this Suchness, the Mahayanists distinguish
two aspects, as it is comprehended by our conscious
ness, which are conditional and non-conditional, or
the phenomenal world of causality and the transcen
dental realm of absolute freedom. This distinction
corresponds to that, in the field of knowledge, of
relative truth and transcendental truth. *
' It is a well-known fact that the Vedanta philosophy, too,
makes a similar distinction between Brahman as sagunam
(qualified) and Brahman as nirgunam (unqualified). The former
is relative, phenomenal, and has characteristics of its own;
but the latter is absolute, having no qualification whatever
to speak of, it is absolute Suchness. (See Max Mueller's The
Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, p. 220 et seq.)
Here, a very interesting question suggests itself: Which
is the original and which is the copy, Mahayanism or Vedan-
tism? Most of European Sanskrit scholars would fain wish to
dispose of it at once by declaring that Buddhism must be
the borrower. But I am strongly inclined to the opposite
view, for there is reliable evidence in favor of it. In a writing
of Agvaghosa, who dates much earlier than £ankara 0r
Badarayana we notice this distinction of absolute Suchness
and relative Suchness. He writes in his Awakening of Faith
(p. 55 et seq.) that though Suchness is free from all modes
of limitation and conditionality, and therefore it cannot be
thought of by our finite consciousness, yet on account of
Avidya. inherent in the human mind absolute Suchness mani
fests itself in the phenomenal world, thereby subjecting itself
to the law of causality and relativity and proceeds to say
that there is a twofold aspect in Suchness from the point
of view of its explicability. The first aspect is trueness as
negation (funyatd) in the sense that it is completely set
apart from the attributes of all things unreal, that it is a
veritable reality. The second aspect is trueness as affirmation
(afiinyata), in the sense that it contains infinite merits, that
it is self-existent. Considering the fact that Agvaghosa comes

CHAPTER V. 109
Suchness Conditioned.
Absolute transcendental Suchness defying all means
of characterisation does not, as long as it so remains,
have any direct significance in the phenomenal world
and human life. When it does, it must become condi
tional Suchness as Gesetzmassigkeit in nature and as
ethical order in our practical life. Suchness as absolute
is too remote, too abstract, and may have only a
metaphysical value. Its existence or non-existence
seems not to affect us in our daily social life, inasmuch
as it is transcendental. In order to enter into our
limited consciousness, to become the norm of our
conscious activities, to regulate the course of the
evolutionary tide in nature, Suchness must surrender
its "splendid isolation," must abandon its absoluteness.
When Suchness thus comes down from its sovereign-
seat in the realm of unthinkability, we have this
universe unfolded before our eyes in all its diversity
and magnificence. Twinkling stars inlaid in the vaulted
sky; the planet elaborately decorated with verdant
meadows, towering mountains, and rolling waves'; the
birds cheerfully singing in the woods ; the beasts
wildly running through the thickets; the summer
heavens ornamented with white fleecy clouds and on
earlier than any Vedanta philosophers, it stands to reason to-
say that the latter might have borrowed the idea of distin
guishing the two aspects of Brahma from their Buddhist
predecessors. Cankara also makes a distinction between saguna and nirguna
vidya, whose parallel we find in the Mahayanist samvrtti and
paramdrtha satya.

IIO CHAPTER V.
earth all branches and leaves growing in abundant
luxury; the winter prairie destitute of all animation,
only with naked trees here and there trembling in
the dreary north winds; all these manifestations, not
varying a hair's breadth of deviation from their
mathematical, astronomical, physical, chemical, and
biological laws, are naught else than the work of
conditional Suchness in nature.
When we turn to human life and history, we have
the work of conditional Suchness manifested in all
forms of activity as passions, aspirations, imagina
tions, intellectual efforts, etc. It makes us desire
to eat when hungry, and to drink when thirsty; it
makes the man long for the woman, and the woman
for the man; it keeps children in merriment and
frolic ; it braces men and women bravely to carry
the burden of life. When we are oppressed, it
causes us to cry, "Let us have liberty or die";
when we are treated with injustice, it leads us even
to murder and fire and revolution ; when our noble
sentiments are aroused to the highest pitch, it makes
us ready to sacrifice all that is most dear to us. In
brief, all the kaleidoscopic changes of this phenomenal
world, subjective as well as objective, come from the
playing hands of conditional Suchness It not only
constitutes the goodness and blessings of life, but
the sins, crimes, and misery which the flesh is heir to. i
' While passing, I cannot help digressing and entering on
a polemic in this footnote. The fact is, Western Buddhist
critics stubbornly refuse to understand correctly what is

CHAPTER V. Ill
Agvaghosa in his Awakening of Faith speaks of
the Heart (hrdaya) of Suchness and of the Heart
of Birth-and-Death. By the Heart of Suchness he
means the absolute and by the Heart of Birth-and-
Death a manifestation of the absolute in this world
of particulars. "They are not separate," however,
says he, but they are one, for the Heart of
insisted by Buddhists themselves. Even scholars who are sup
posed to be well informed about the subject, go astra"y and
make false charges against Buddhism. Max Mueller, for exam
ple, declares in his Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (p. 242)
that "An important distinction between Buddhists and Vedan-
tists is that the former holds the world to have arisen from
what is not, the latter from what is, the Sat or Brahman."
The reader who has carefully followed my exposition above
will at once detect in this Max Mueller's conclusion an incor
rect statement of Buddhist doctrine As I have repeatedly
said, Suchness, though described in negative terms, is not a
state of nothingness, but the highest possible synthesis that
the human intellect can reach. The world did not come from
the void of Suchness, but from its fulness of reality. If it were
not so, to where does Buddhism want us to go after deliver
ance from the evanescence and nothingness of the phenomenal
world ?
Max Mueller in another place (op. cit. p. 210) speaks of the
Vedantists' assertion of the reality of the objective world for
practical purposes (yyavahardrtham) and of their antagonistic
attitude toward "the nihilism of the Buddhists." "The Bud
dhists" this seems to refer to the followers of the Midhyamika
school, but a careful perusal of their texts will reveal that
what they denied was not the realness of the world as a
manifestation of conditional Suchness, but its independent
realness and our attachment to it as such The Madhyamika
school was not in any sense a nihilistic system. True, its
advocates used many negative terms, but what they meant by
them was obvious enough to any careful reader.

112 CHAPTER V.
Suchness is the Heart of Birth-and-Death. It is on
account of our limited senses and finite mind that
we have a world of particulars, which, as it is, is
no more than a fragment of the absoulte Bhutatathata.
And yet it is through this fragmentary manifestation
that we are finally enabled to reach the fundamental
nature of being in its entirety. Says Agvaghosa,
"Depending on the Tathagata-garbha, there evolves
the Heart of Birth-and-Death. What is immortal and
what is mortal are harmoniously blended, for they
are not one, nor are they separate  Herein all
things are organised. Hereby all things are created."
The above is from the ontological standpoint.
When viewed psychologically, the Heart of Suchness
is enlightenment, for Buddhism makes no distinction
between being and thought, world and mind. The
ultimate nature of the two is considered to be absolutely
one. Now, speaking of the nature of enlightenment,
Agvaghosa says : "It is like the emptiness of space
and the brightness of the mirror in that it is true,
and real, and great. It completes and perfects all
things. It is free from the condition of destructibility.
In it is reflected every phase of life and activity
in the world. Nothing goes out of it, nothing enters
into it, nothing is annihilated, nothing is destroyed.
It is one eternal soul, no forms of defilement can
defile it. It is the essence of intelligence. By reason
of its numerous immaculate virtues which inhere
in it, it perfumes the hearts of all beings." Thus,
the Heart of Suchness, which is enlightenment and

CHAPTER V. 113
the essence of intelligence, constantly works in
and through the hearts of all human beings, that is,
in and through our finite minds. In this sense, Bud
dhism declares that truth is not to be sought in
highly abstract philosophical formulae, but in the
phenomena of our everyday life such as eating,
dressing, walking, sleeping, etc. The Heart of Suchness
acts and does not abstract ; it synthes ises and does
not "dissect to murder."
Questions Defying Solution.
Speaking of the world as a manifestation of
Suchness, we are here beset with the most puzzling
questions that have baffled the best minds ever since
the dawn of intellect. They are : Why did Suchness
ever leave its abode in the mysterious realm of
transcendentality and descend on earth where every
form of misery greets us on all sides ? What inherent
necessity was there for it to mingle in the dust of
worldliness while it could enjoy the unspeakable
bliss of its own absoluteness ? In other words, why
did absolute Suchness ever become conditional
Suchness ? To dispose of these questions as not con
cerning human interests is the creed of agnosticism
and positivism ; but the fact is, they are not questions
whimsically framed by the human mind when it was
in the mood of playing with itself. They are queries
of the most vital importance ever put to us, and
the significance of life entirely hangs on our inter
pretation of them. 8

114 CHAPTER V.
Buddhism confesses that the mystery is unsolvable
purely by the human mind, for it is absolutely
beyond the region of finite intellect and the power
of a logical demonstrability. The mystery can only
be solved in a practical way when we attain the
highest spiritual enlightenment of Buddhahood, in
which the Bodhi with its unimpeded supernatural
light directly looks into the very abyss of Suchness.
The Bodhi or Intelligence which constitutes the
kernel of our being, is a partial realisation in us
of Suchness. When this intelligence is merged and
expands in the Body of Suchness, as the water in a
vessel poured into the waters of the boundless
ocean, it at once perceives and realises its nature,
its destiny, and its significance in life.
Buddhism is a religion and leaves many topics
of metaphysics unsolved, at least logically. Though
it is more intellectual and philosophical than any
other religion, it does not pretend to build a complete
system of speculation. As far as theorisation is
concerned, Buddhism is dogmatic and assumes
many propositions without revealing their dialectical
processes. But they are all necessary and fundamental
hypotheses of the religious consciousness ; they are
the ultimate demands of the human soul. Religion has
no positive obligation to prove its propositions after
the fashion of the natural sciences. It is enough for
religion to state the facts as they are, and the intellect,
though hampered by limitations inherent in it, has to
try her best to put them together in a coherent system.

CHAPTER V. 115
The solution, then, by Buddhism of those queries
stated above cannot be said to be very logical and
free from serious dufficulties, but practically it
serves all required purposes and is conducive to
religious discipline. By this I mean the Buddhist
theory of Nescience or Ignorance (avidyd).
Theory of Ignorance.
The theory of nescience or ignorance (avidyd) is
an attempt by Buddhists to solve the relation between
the one and the many, between absolute Suchness
and conditional Suchness, between Dharmakaya and
Sarvasattva, between wisdom (bodhi) and sin (klega),
between Nirvana and Samsara. But Buddhism does
not give us any systematic exposition of the doctrine.
What it says is categorical and dogmatic. "This
universe is really the Dharmadhatu; * it is character
ised by sameness (samata) ; there is no differentiation
(visama) in it ; it is even emptiness itself (gunyatd) ;
all things have no pudgala (self). But, because of
nescience, there are four or six mahdbhuta (elements),
five skandha (aggregates), six (or eight) vijndna
(senses), and twelve niddna (chains of causation).
All these names and forms (ndmarupa) are of nes
cience or ignorance." Or, according to Agvaghosa,
"The Heart of Suchness is the vast All of one
Dharmadhatu ; it is the essence of all doctrines.
The ultimate nature does not perish, nor does it
1 Dharmadhatu is the world as seen by an enlightened mind,
where all forms of particularity do not contradict one another,
but make one harmonious whole.

I 1 6 CHAPTER V.
decay. All particular objects exist because of con
fused subjectivity (smrti). 1 Independent of confused
subjectivity, there is no outside world to be perceived
and discriminated." "Everything that is subject to
the law of birth and death exists only because of
ignorance and karma." Such statements as these
are found almost everywhere in the Buddhist lite
rature ; but as to the question how and why this
negative principle of ignorance came to assert itself
in the body of Suchness, we are at a loss where
to find an authoritative and definite answer to it.
One thing, however, is certain, which is this:
Ignorance (avidyd) is principium individium, that
creates the multitudinousness of phenomena in the
absolute oneness of being, that tosses up the roaring
billows of existence in the eternal ocean of Suchness,
that breaks the silence of Nirvana and starts the
wheel of metempsychosis perpetually rolling, that,
veiling the transpicuous mirror of Bodhi, affects the
reflection of Suchness therein, that transforms the
sameness (samata) of Suchness to the duality of
thisness and thatness and leads many confused
minds to egoism with all its pernicious corollaries.
Perhaps, the best way to attack the problem of
ignorance is to understand that Buddhism is a tho
roughly idealistic doctrine as every true religion
should be, and that psychologically, and not ontologic-
'The word literally means recollection or memory. Agva
ghosa uses it as a synonym of ignorance, and so do many
other Buddhist philosophers.

CHAPTER V. 117
ally, should Suchness be conceived, and further, that
nescience is inherent in Suchness, though only hypo-
thetically, illusively, apparently, and not really in any
sense. According to Brahmanism, there was in the begin
ning only one being ; and this being willed to be two ;
which naturally resulted in the differentiation of sub
ject and object, mind and nature. In Buddhism, how
ever, Suchness is not explicitly stated as having had
any desire to be other than itself, at least when it
is purely metaphysically conceived. But as Buddhism
interprets this world of particularisation as a manifes
tation of Suchness conditioned by the principle of
ignorance, ignorance must be considered, however
illusory in its ultimate nature, to have potentially or
rather negatively existed in the being of Suchness ;
and when Suchness, by its transcendental freedom of
will, affirmed itself, it did so by negating itself, that
is, by permitting itself to be conditioned by the
principle of ignorance or individuation. The latter,
as is expressly stated everywhere in Buddhist sutras
and gastras, is no more than an illusion and a
negative quantity, it is merely the veil of Maya.
This chimerical nature of ignorance preserves the
essential absoluteness of the first principle and
makes the monism of the Mahayana doctrine tho
roughly consistent. What is to be noted here, however,
is this: Buddhism does not necessarily regard this
world of particulars as altogether evanescent and
dream-like. When ignorance alone is taken notice

Il8 CHAPTER V.
of and the presence of Suchness in all this multitu-
dinousness of things is denied, this existence is
positively declared to be void. But when an en
lightened mind perceives Suchness even in the
midst of the utter darkness of ignorance, this life
assumes an entirely new aspect, and we come to
realise the illusiveness of all evils.
To return to the subject, ignorance or nescience
is defined by Agvaghosa as a spark of conscious
ness1 that spontaneously flashes from the unfathom
able depths of Suchness. According to this, ignorance
and consciousness are interchangeable terms, though
with different shades of meaning. Ignorance is, so
to speak, the raison d'etre of consciousness, is that
which makes the appearance of the latter possible,
while ignorance itself is in turn an illusive emanation
of Suchness. It is then evident that the awakening
of consciousness marks the first step toward the
rising of this universe from the abyss of the self-
identity of Suchness. For the unfolding of con
sciousness implies the separation of the perceiving
and the perceived, the visayin and the visaya, of
subject and object, mind and nature.
The eternal abyss of Suchness, so called, is the
point where subjectivity and objectivity are merged
in absolute oneness. It is the time, though strictly
1 Smrti or citta or vijndna. They are all used by Agvaghosa
and other Buddhist authors as synonymous. Smrti literally
means memory; citta, thought or mentation; and vijndna is
generally rendered by consciousness, though not very accurately.

CHAPTER V. 119
speaking chronology does not apply here, when all
"the ten thousand things" of the world have not
yet been differentiated and even when the God
who "created the heaven and earth" has not yet
made his debut. To use psychological terms, it is
a state of transcendental or transmarginal consciousness,
where all sense-perceptions and conceptual images
vanish, and where we are in a state of absolute
unconsciousness. This sounds mystical ; but it is an
established fact that in the field of our mental
activities there is an abyss where consciousness
sometimes suddenly disappears. This region beyond
the threshold of awaredness, though often a trysting
place for psychical abnormalities, has a great religious
significance, which cannot be ignored by superficial
scientific arguments. Here is the region where the
consciousness of subject and object is completely
annihilated, but here we do not have the silence
and darkness of a grave, nor is it a state of absolute
nothingness. The self is here lost in the presence
of something indescribable, or better, it expands so
as to embrace the world-all within itself, and is
not conscious of any egoistic elation or arrogance ;
but it merely feels the fulness of reality and a
touch of celestial joy that cannot be imparted to
others by anything human. The most convincing
spiritual insight into the nature of being comes from
this source. Enlightenment is the name given by
Buddhists to the actual gaining of this insight.
Bodhi or Prajna or intelligence is the term for the

120 CHAPTER V.
spiritual power that brings about this enlightenment.
When the mind emerges from this state of sameness,
consciousness spontaneously comes back as it vanished
before, retaining the memory of the experience so
unique and now confronting the world of contrasts
and mutual dependence, in which our empirical ego
moves. The transition from one state to the other
is like a flash of lightning scintilating from behind
the clouds; though the two, the subliminal and the
superficial consciousness, seem to be one continuous
form of activity, permitting no hiatus between them.
At any rate, this awakening of subjectivity and the
leaving behind of transmarginal consciousness marks
the start of ignorance. Therefore, psychologically
speaking, ignorance must be considered synonymous
with the awakening of consciousness in a sentient
being. Here we have the most mysterious fact that baffles
all our intellectual efforts to unravel, which is: How
and why has ignorance, or what is tantamount, con
sciousness, ever been awakened from the absolute
calmness (ganti) of being? How and why have the
waves of mentation ever been stirred up in the ocean
of eternal tranquillity ? Agvaghosa simply says,
"spontaneously." This by no means explains anything,
or at least it is not in the line with our so-called
scientific interpretations, nor does it give us any reason
why. Nevertheless, religiously and practically viewed,
"spontaneous" is the most graphic and vigorous
term there is for describing the actual state of things

CHAPTER V. 121
as they pass before our mental eye. In fact, there
is always something vague and indefinite in all our
psychological experiences. With whatever scientific
accuracy, with whatever objective precision we may
describe the phenomena that take place in the mind,
there is always something that eludes our scrutiny,
is too slippery, as it were, to take hold of ; so that
after all our strenuous intellectual efforts to be exact
and perspicuous in our expositions, we are still
compelled to leave much to the imagination of the
reader. In case' he happens to be lacking in the
experience which we have endeavored to describe
we shall vainly hope to awaken in him the said
impression with the same degree of intensity and
realness It is for this reason that Agvaghosa and other
Mahayanists declare that the rising of consciousness
out of the abysmal depths of Suchness is felt by
Buddhas and other enlightened minds only that have
actually gone through the experience. The why of
ignorance nobody can explain as much as the why
of Suchness. But when we personally experience this
spiritual fact, we no more feel the need of harboring
any doubt about how or why. Everything becomes
transparent, and the rays of supernatural enlightenment
shine like a halo round our spiritual personality. We
move as dictated by the behest of Suchness, i. e.,
by the Dharmakaya, and in which we feel infinite bliss
and satisfaction. This religious experience is the most
unique phenomenon in the life of a sentient being.

122 CHAPTER V.
Dualism and Moral Evil.
As we cannot think that the essence of the external
world to be other than that of our own mind, that
is to say, as we cannot think subject and object to
be different in their ultimate nature, our conclusion
naturally is that the same principle of Ignorance
which gathers the clouds of -subjectivity, calls up the
multitudinousness of phenomena in the world-mind
of Suchness The universe in its entirety is an
infinite mind, and our limited mind with its transmar
ginal consciousness is a microcosm. What the finite
mind feels in its inmost self, must also be what the
cosmic mind feels, nay, we can go one step further,
and say that when the human mind enters the region
lying beyond the border of subjectivity and objectivity,
it is in communion with the heart of the universe,
whose secrets are revealed here without reserve.
Therefore, Buddhism does not make any distinction
between knowing and being, enlightenment and
Suchness. When the mind is free from ignorance and
no more clings to things particular, it is said to be
in harmony and even one with Suchness.
We must, however, remember that ignorance as
the principle of individuation and a spontaneous
expression of Suchness, is no moral evil. The awa
kening of subjectivity or the dawn of consciousness
forms part of the necessary cosmic process. The
separation of subject and object, or the appearance
of a phenomenal world, is nothing but a realisation

CHAPTER V. 123
of the cosmic mind (Dharmakaya). As such Ignorance
performs an essential function in the evolution of
the world-totality. Ignorance is inherent in Buddhas
as well as in all sentient beings. Every one of us
cannot help perceiving an external world (visaya)
and forming conceptions and reasoning and feeling
and willing. We do not see any moral fault here.
If there is really anything morally wrong, then we
cannot do anything with it, we are utterly helpless
before it, for it is not our fault, but that of the
cosmic soul from which and in which we have our
being. Ignorance has produced everywhere a state of
relativity and reciprocal dependence. Birth is insepar
ably linked with death, congregation with segregation,
evolution with involution, attraction with repulsion,
the centripetal with the centrifugal force, the spring
with the fall, the tide with the ebb, joy with sorrow,
God with Satan, Adam with Eve, Buddha with
Devadatta, etc., ect., ad infinitum. These are neces
sary conditions of existence; and if existence is an
evil, they must be abolished, and with their abolition
the very reason of existence is abolished, which
means absolute nothingness, - an impossibility as
long as we exist. The work of ignorance in the world
of conditional Suchness is quite innocent, and Bud
dhists do not recognise any fault in its existence, if
not contaminated by confused subjectivity. Those
who speak of the curse of existence, or those who
conceive Nirvana to be the abode of non-existence

124 CHAPTER V.
and the happiness of absolute annihilation, are consi
dered by Buddhists to be unable to understand the
significance of Ignorance.
Is there then no fault to be found with Ignorance ?
Not in Ignorance itself, but in our defiled attachment
to it, that is, when we are ignorant of Ignorance.
It is wrong to cling to the dualism of subject and
object as final and act accordingly. It is wrong to
take the work of ignorance as ultimate and to
forget the foundation on which it stands. It is wrong,
thinking that the awakening of consciousness reveals
the whole world, to ignore the existence of unseen
realities. In short, evils quickly follow our steps
when we try to realise the conclusions of ignorance
without knowing its true relation to Suchness.
Egoism is the most fundamental of all errors and evils.
When we speak of ignorance as hindering the
light of intelligence from penetrating to the bottom
of reality, we usually understand the term ignorance
not in the philosophical sense of principium individuum,
but in the sense of confused subjectivity, which
conceives the work of Ignorance as the final reality
culminating in egoism. So, we might say that while
the principle of Ignorance is philosophically justified,
its unenlightened actualisation in our practical life
is altogether unwarranted and brings on us a series
of dire calamities.

CHAPTER VI.
the tathagata-garbha and the
Alaya-vijnAna.
OUCHNESS (Bhutatathata), the ultimate principle of
existence, is known by so many different names,
as it is viewed in so many different phases of its
manifestation. Suchness is the Essence of Buddhas,
as it constitutes the reason of Buddhahood ; it is
the Dharma, when it is considered the norm of
existence ; it is the Bodhi when it is the source of
intelligence ; Nirvana, when it brings eternal peace
to a heart troubled with egoism and its vile passions ;
Prajna (wisdom), when it intelligently directs the
course of nature ; the Dharmakaya, when it is
religiously considered as the fountain-head of love
and wisdom ; the Bodhicitta (intelligence-heart), when
it is the awakener of religious consciousness ; Cunyatl
(vacuity), when viewed as transcending all particular
forms ; the summum bonum (kugalam), when its
ethical phase is emphasised; the Highest Truth
(paramattha), when its epistemological feature is put
forward; the Middle Path (mddhyamdrga), when it
is considered above the onesidedness and limitation
of individual existences ; the Essence of Being
(bhutakott), when its ontological aspect is taken into

126 CHAPTER VI.
account ; the Tathagata-garbha (the Womb of Tatha-
gata), when it is thought of in analogy to mother
earth, where all the germs of life are stored, and
where all precious stones and metals are concealed
under the cover of filth. And it is of this last aspect
of Suchness that I here propose to consider at
some length. The Tathdgata-Garbha and Ignorance.
Tathigata-Garbha literally means Tathagata's womb l
or treasure or store, in which the essence of Ta-
thagatahood remains concealed under the veil of Igno
rance. It may rightly be called the womb of uni
verse, from which issues forth the multitudinousness
of things, mental as well as physical.
The Tathagata-Garbha, therefore, may be explained
ontologically as a state of Suchness quickened by Igno
rance and ready to be realised in the world of parti
culars, that is, when it is about to transform itself
to the duality of subject and object, though there is
yet no perceptible manifestation of motility in any
form. Psychologically, it is the transcendental soul of
man just coming under the bondage of the law of
karmaic causation Though pure and free in its nature
as the expression of Suchness in man, the transcen-
1 Cf. the Bhagavadgitd (S. B E. Vol. VIII, chap. XIV, p. 107):
"The Brahman is a womb for me, in which I cast the seed.
From that, O descendant of Bharata ! is the birth of all
things. Of the bodies, 0 son of Kunti ! which are born from
all wombs, the main womb is the great Brahman, and I am
the father, the giver of the seed."

CHAPTER VI. 127
dental soul or pure intelligence is now influenced by
the principle of birth- and-death and subjects itself to
organic determinations. As it is, it is yet devoid of
differentiation and limitation, save that there is a
bare possibility of them. It will, however, as soon as
it is actualised in a special form, unfold all its
particularities subject to their own laws ; it will hunger,
desire, strive, and even be annoyed by its material
bonds, and then, beginning to long for liberation,
will struggle inwardly. Here is then no more of the
absolute freedom of Suchness, as long as its pheno
menal phase alone is considered, since the Garbha
works under the constraint of particularisation. The
essence of Tathagatahood, however, is here preserved
intact, and, whenever it is possible, our finite minds
are able to feel its presence and power. Hypothetic-
ally, therefore, the Garbha is always in association
with passions and desires that are of Ignorance.
We read in the Crimdld-Sutra : "With the storage
of passions attached we find the Tathagata-Garbha,"
or, "The Dharmakaya of the Tathagata not detached
from the storage of passions is called Tathagata-
Garbha." In Buddhism, passion or desire or sin (Mega)
is generally used in contrast to intelligence or Bodhi
or Nirvana. As the latter, religiously considered,
represents a particular manifestation in the human
mind of the Dharmakaya or Bhutatathata, so the former
is a reflection of universal Ignorance in the microcosm.
Therefore, the human soul in which, according to
Buddhism, intelligence and desire are merged, should

128 CHAPTER VI.
be regarded as an individuation of the Tathagata-
Garbha. And it is in this capacity that the Garbha
is called Alayavijnana.
The Alayavijnana and its Evolution.
As we have seen, the Alayavijnana or All-Conserving
Soul is a particularised expression in the human mind
of the Tathagata-Garbha. It is an individual, ideal
reflex of the cosmic Garbha. It is this "psychic germ,"
as the Alaya is often designated, that stores all the
mental possibilities, which are set in motion by the
impetus of an external world, which works on the
Alaya through the six senses (vijndna).
Mahayanism is essentially idealistic and does not
make a radical, qualitative distinction between subject
and object, thought and being, mind and nature,
consciousness and energy. Therefore, the being and
activity of the Alaya are essentially those of the
Garbha; and again, as the Garbha is the joint cre
ation of universal Ignorance and Suchness, so is the
Alaya the product of desire (klega) and wisdom (bodhi).
The Garbha and the Alaya, however, are each in
itself innocent and absolutely irresponsible for the
existing state of affairs. And let it be remarked
here that Buddhism does not condemn this life, and
universe for their wickedness as was done by some reli
gious teachers and philosophers. The so-called wick
edness is not radical in nature and life. It is merely
superficial. It is the work of ignorance and desire,
and when they are converted to do service for the

CHAPTER VI. 129
Bodhi, they cease to be wicked or sinful or evil.
Buddhists, therefore, strongly insist on the innate and
intrinsic goodness of the Alaya and the Garbha
Says Agvaghosa in his Awakening of Faith (p.
75) : "In the All- Conserving Soul (Alaya) Ignorance
obtains, and from non-enlightenment [thus produced]
starts that which sees, that which represents, that
which apprehends an objective world, and that which
constantly particularises." Here we have the evolution
of the Garbha in its psychological manifestation; in
other words, we have here the evolution of the
Alayavijnana. When the Garbha or Alaya comes
under the influence of birth-and-death (samsara), it
no longer retains its primeval indifference or sameness
(samata) ; but there come to exist that which sees
(visayin) and that which is seen (visaya), a mind
and an objective world. From the interaction of
these two forms of existence, we have now before
our eyes the entire panorama of the universe swiftly
and noiselessly moving with its never-tiring steps
A most favorite simile with Buddhists to illustrate
these incessant activities of the phenomenal world,
is to compare them to the waves that are seen for
ever rolling in a boundless ocean, while the body of
waters which make up the ocean is compared to
Suchness, and the wind that stirs up the waves to
the principle of birth-and-death or ignorance which
is the same thing So we read in the Lankdvatdra
Sutra :

130 CHAPTER VI.
"Like unto the ocean-waves,
Which by a raging storm maddened
Against the rugged precipice strike
Without interruption ;
Even so in the Alaya-sea
Stirred by the objectivity-wind
All kinds of mentation-waves
Arise a-dancing, a-rolling." '
But all the psychical activities thus brought into
full view, should not be conceived as different from
the Mind (citta) itself. It is merely in the nature of
our understanding that we think of attributes apart
from their substance, the latter being imagined to
be in possession and control of the former. There
is, however, in fact no substance per se, independent
of its attributes, and no attributes detached from that
which unites them. And this is one of the fundamen
tal conceptions of Buddhism, that there is no soul-
in-itself considered apart from its various manifesta
tions such as imagination, sensation, intellectuation,
etc. The innumerable ripples and waves and billows
of mentation that are stirred in the depths of the
Tathagata-Garbha, are not things foreign or external
to it, but they are all particular expressions of the
same essence, they are working out its immanent
destiny. So continues the Lankdvatdra Sutra :
1 This is translated from the Chinese of Ciksananda; the
Sanskrit reads as follows :
"Taranga hi udadher yadvat pavanapratyaya irita,
Nrtyamanah pravartante vyucchedag ca na vidhyate :
Alayodhyas tatha. nityam visayapavana iritah,
Cittais tarangavijfianair nrtyamanah pravartate."

CHAPTER VI. 131
"The saline crystal and its red-bluishness,
The milky sap and its sweetness,
Various flowers and their fruits,
The sun and the moon and their luminosity :
These are neither separable nor inseparable.
As waves are stirred in the water,
Even so the seven modes of mentation
Are awakened in the Mind and united with it.
When the waters are troubled in the ocean,
We have waves that roll each in its own way:
So with the Mind All-Conserving.
When stirred, therein diverse mentations arise :
Citta, Manas, and Manovijfiana.
These we distinguish as attributes,
In substance they differ not from each other ;
For they are neither attributing nor attributed.
The sea-water and the waves,
One varies not from the other:
It is even so with the Mind and its activities ;
Between them difference nowhere obtains.
Citta is karma-accumulating,
Manas reflects an objective world,
Manovijfiana is the faculty of judgment,
The five Vijnanas are the differentiating senses." *
1 From the Chinese. The Sanskrit reads as follows :
"Nile rakte ; tha lavane gankhe ksire ca carkare,
Kasayaih phalapuspadyaih kirana. yatha bhaskare :
No ' nyena ca nananyena taranga hi udadher mata ;
Vijnanani tatha sapta, cittena saha samyukta.
Udadheh parinamo ' sau taranganam vicitrata,
Alayam hi tatha. cittam vijfianakhyam pravartate;
Cittam manag ca vijfianam laksanartham prakalpyate ;
Abhinna laksana hi astau na laksya na ca laksana.
Udadheg ca taranganam yatha nasti vigesana..
Vijfiananam tatha citte parinamo na labhyate.
Cittena ciyate karmah, manasa ca viciyate,
Vijfianena vijanati, drgyam kalpeti pancabhih."

132

The Manas.
The Alayavijnana which is sometimes, as in the
preceding quotations, simply called citta (mind), is,
as such, no more than a state of Suchness, allowing
itself to be influenced by the principle of birth-and-
death, i. e., by Ignorance ; and there has in it taken
place as yet no "awakening" or "stirring up" (vrtti),
from which results a consciousness. When the Manas
is evolved, however, we have a sign of mentality there
by set in motion, for the Manas, according to the
Mahayanists, marks the dawn of consciousness in the
universe. The Manas, deriving its reason of consciousness
from the Citta or Alaya, reflects on it as well as on
an external world, and becomes conscious of the
distinction between me and not- me. But since this
not-I or external world is nothing but an unfoldment
of the Alaya itself, the Manas must be said really to
be self-reflecting, when it discriminates between sub
ject and object. If the Alaya is not yet conscious
of itself, the Manas is, as the latter comes to realise
the state of self-awareness. The Alaya is perhaps to
be compared in a sense to the Kantian "ego of
transcendental apperception"; while the Manas is the
actual center of self-consciousness. But the Manas
and the Alaya (or Citta) are not two different things in
the sense that one emanates from the other or that
one is created by the other. It is better to under-

CHAPTER VI. 133
stand the Manas as a state or condition of the Citta
in its evolution.
Now, the Manas is not only contemplative, but
capable of volition. It awakens the desire to cling
to the state of individuation, it harbors egoism,
passion, and prejudice ; it wills and creates : for
Ignorance, the principle of birth-and-death, is there
in its full force, and the absolute identity of Suchness
is here forever departed. Therefore, the Manas
really marks the beginning of concrete, particularising
consciousness-waves in the eternal ocean of the All-
Conserving Mind. The mind which was hitherto
indifferent and neutral here acquires a full consciousness ;
discriminates between ego and non-ego; feels pain
and pleasure ; clings to that which is agreeable and
shrinks from that which is disagreeable ; urges activities
according to judgments, false or truthful; memorises
what has been experienced, and stores it all: — in
short, all the modes of mentation come into play
with the awakening of the Manas.
According to Agvaghosa, with the evolution of
the Manas there arise five important psychical
activities which characterise the human mind. They
are : ( 1 ) motility, that is the capability of creating
karma ; (2) the power to perceive ; (3) the power
to respond; (4) the power to discriminate; and
(5) individuality. Through the exercise of these five
functions, the Manas is able to create according
to its will, to be a perceiving subject, to respond to
the stimuli of an external world, to deliver judgments

134 CHAPTER VI.
over what it likes and what it dislikes, and finally
to retain all its own "karma-seeds" in the past
and to mature them for the future, according to
circumstances. With the advent of the Manas, the evolution of
the Citta is complete. Practically, it is the consumma
tion of mentality, for self-consciousness is ripe now.
The will can affirm its ego-centric, dualistic activities,
and the intellect can exercise its discriminating, rea
soning, and image-retaining faculties. The Manas now
becomes the center of psychic coordination It receiv
es messages from the six senses and pronounces
over the impressions whatever judgments, intellectual
or volitional, which are needed at the time for its
own conservation. It also reflects on its own sanctum,
and, perceiving there the presence of the Alaya,
wrongfully jumps to the conclusion that herein lies
the real, ultimate ego-soul, from which it derives the
notions of authority, unity, and permanency.
As is evident, the Manas is a double-edged sword.
It may destroy itself by clinging to the error of ego-
conception, or it may, by a judicious exercise of its
reasoning faculty, destroy all the misconceptions that
arise from a wrong interpretation of the principle of
Ignorance. The Manas destroys itself by being over
whelmed by the dualism of ego and alter, by taking
them for final, irreducible realities, and by thus fos
tering absolute ego-centric thoughts and desires, and by
making itself a willing prey of an indomitable egoism,
religiously and morally. On the other hand, when it

CHAPTER VI. 135
sees an error in the conception of the absolute reality
of individuals, when it perceives a play of Ignorance
in the dualism of me and not-me, when it recognises
the raison d'etre of existence in the essence of
Tathagatahood, i. e., in Suchness, when it realises
that the Alaya which is mistaken for the ego is no
more than an innocent and irreproachable reflection
of the cosmic Garbha, it at once transcends the
sphere of particularity and becomes the very harbinger
of eternal enlightenment.
Buddhists, therefore, do not see any error or evil
in the evolution of the Mind (alaya). There is nothing
faulty in the awakening of consciousness, in the
dualism of subject and object, in the individualising
operation of birth-and-death (samsara), only so long
as our Manas keeps aloof from the contamination
of false egoism. The gravest error, however, perme
ates every fiber of our mind with all its wickedness
and irrationality, as soon as the nature of the evol
ution of the Alaya is wrongfully interpreted by the
abuse of the functions of the Manas. 1
1 A little digression here It has frequently been affirmed
of the ethics of Mahayanism that as it has a nihilistic tendency
its morality turns towards asceticism ignoring the significance
of the sentiment and instinct It is true that Mahayanism
perfectly agrees with Vedantism when the latter declares :
"If the killer thinks that he kills, if the killed thinks that he
is killed, they do not understand; for this one does not kill,
nor is that one killed." (The Katopanishad, II 19.) This belief
in non-action (Laotzean Wu Wei) apparently denies the ex
istence of a world of relativity, but he will be a superficial
critic who will stop short at this absolute aspect of Mahayana

I36 CHAPTER VI.
Though Mahayanism most emphatically denies the
existence of a personal ego which is imagined to be
lodging within the body and to be the spiritual master
of it, it does not necessarily follow that it denies the
unity of consciousness or personality or individuality.
In fact, the assumption of Manovijfiana by Buddhists
most conclusively proves that they have an ego in
a sense, the denial of whose empirical existence is
tantamount to the denial of the most concrete facts
of our daily experiences. What is most persistently
negated by them is not the existence of ego, but its
final, ultimate reality. But to discuss this subject
more fully we have a special chapter below devoted
to "Atman." The Samkhya Philosophy and Mahayanism
If we draw a comparison between the Samkhya
philosophy and Mahayanism, the Alayavijnana may
philosophy and refuses to consider its practical side. As we
have seen above, Buddhists do not conceive the evolution of
the Manovijfiana as a fault on the part of the cosmic mind,
nor do they think the assertion of Ignorance altogether wrong
and morally evil. Therefore, Mahayanism does not deny the
claim of reality to the world of the senses, though of course
relatively, and not absolutely.
Again, "Tat tvam asi" (thou art it) or "I am the Buddha"
— this assertion, though arrogant it may seem to some, is
perfectly justifiable in the realm of absolute identity, where
the serene light of Suchness alone pervades. But when we
descend on earth and commingle in the hurly-burly of our
practical, dualistic life, we cannot help suffering from its
mundane limitations. We hunger, we thirst, we grieve at the
loss of the dearest, we feel remorse over errors committed.

CHAPTER VI. 137
be considered an unification of Soul (purusa) and
Nature (prakrti), and the Manovijfiana a combination
of Buddhi (intellect) or Mahat (great element) with
Ahankara (ego). According to the Sdmkhyakdrika (11),
the essential nature of Prakrti is the power of creation,
or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is blind activity;
while that of Purusa is witnessing (saksitvd) and
perceiving (drastttvd). (The Kdrika, 19.) A modern
philosopher would say, Purusa is intelligence and
Prakrti the will ; and when they are combined and
blended in one, they make Hartmann's Unbewusste
Geist (unconscious spirit). The All-Conserving Mind
(Alaya) in a certain sense resembles the Unconscious,
as it is the manifestation of Suchness, the principle
of enlightenment, in its evolutionary aspect as condi
tioned by Ignorance; and Ignorance apparently
Mahayanism does not teach the annihilation of those human
passions and feelings.
There was once a recluse-philosopher, who was considered
by the villagers to have completely vanquished all natural
desires and human ambitions They almost worshipped him
and thought him to be superhuman. Qne day early in Winter,
a devotee approached him and reverentially inquired after his
health. The sage at once responded in verse :
"A hermit truly I am, world-renounced ;
Yet when the ground is white with snow,
A chill goes through me and I shiver."
A false conception of religious saintliness . as cherished by
so many pious-hearted, but withal ignorant, minds, has led
them into some of the grossest superstitions, whose curse is
still lingering even among us. Our earthly life has so many
limitations and tribulations. The ills that the flesh is heir to
must be relieved by some material, scientific methods.

I38 CHAPTER VI
corresponds to the will as the principle of blind
activity. The Samkhya philosophy is an avowed
dualism and permits the existence of two principles
independent of each other. Mahayanism is fundamen
tally monistic and makes Ignorance merely a condition
necessary to the unfolding of Suchness ' Therefore,
what the Samkhya splits into two, Mahayanism puts
together in one.
So is the parallelism between the Manovijfiana,
and Buddi and Ahankara. Buddhi, intellect, is de
fined as adhyavasdya (Kdrika, 23), while Ahankara
is interpreted as abhimanas (Kdrika, 24), which is
evidently self-consciousness. As to the exact meaning
of adhyavasdya, there is a divergence of opinion :
"ascertainment," "judgment," "determination," "ap
prehension" are some of the English equivalents
chosen for it. But the inner signification of Buddhi
is clear enough ; it indicates the awakening of knowl
edge, the dawn of rationality, the first shedding of
light on the dark recesses of unconsciousness ; so the
commentators give as the synonyms mati (understand
ing), khydti (cognition), jiidnam, prajiid, etc , the
last two of these, which mean knowledge or intelli
gence, being also technical terms of Mahayanism. And,
as we have seen above, these senses are what the
Buddhists give to their Manovijfiana, save that the
1 That the Buddhist Ignorance corresponds to the Samkhya
Prakrti can be seen also from the fact that some Samkhya
commentators give to Prakrti as its synonyms such terms as
fdkti (energy) which reminds of karma or sankara, lamas
(darkness), mayd, and even the very word avidyd (ignorance)

CHAPTER VI. 139
latter in addition has the faculty of discriminating
between tetim and meum, while in the -Samkhya this
is reserved for Ahankara. Thus, here, too, in place
of the Samkhya dualism, we have the Buddhist unity.
Another point we have to take notice here in
comparing the two great Hindu religio-philosophical
systems, <s that the Samkhya philosophy pluralises
the Soul (furusa, Kdrika, 18), while Buddhism pos
tulates one universal Citta or Alaya. According to
the followers of Kapila, therefore, there must be as
many souls as there are individuals, and at every
departure or advent of an individual there must be
assumed a corresponding soul passing away or coming
into existence, though we do not know its whence
and whither. Buddhism, on the other hand, denies the
existence of any individual mind apart from the All-
Conserving Mind (Alaya) which is universal. Individu
ality first appears at the awakening of the Manovijfiana.
The quintessence of the Mind is Suchness and is not
subject to the limitations of time and space as well
as the law of causation. But as soon as it asserts
itself in the world of particularisation, it negates
itself thereby, and, becoming specialised, gives rise
to individual souls '
1 This view of the oneness of the Alaya or Citta (mind)
may not be acceptable to some Mahayanists, particularly to
those who advocate the Yogacara philosophy ; but the present
author is here trying to expound a more orthodox and more
typical and therefore more wide'y-recognised doctrine of
Mahayanism, i. e.. that of Agvaghosa.

CHAPTER VII.
THE THEORY OF NON-ATMAN OR NON-EGO.
TF I am requested to formulate the ground-principles
of the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, and,
indeed, of all the schools of Buddhism, I would sug
gest the following :
(i) All is momentary (sarvam ksanikam),
(2) All is empty (sarvam gunyam).
(3) All is without self (sarvam andtmam).
(4) All is such as it is (sarvam tathdtvam).
These four tenets, as it were, are so closely inter
related that, stand or fall, they all inevitably share
one and the same fate together. Whatever different
views the various schools of Buddhism may hold on
points of minor importance, they all concur at least
on these four principal propositions.
Of these four propositions, the first, the second,
and the fourth have been elucidated above, more or
less explicitly. If the existence of a relative world
is the work of ignorance and as such has no final
reality, it must be considered illusory and empty ;
though it does not necessarily follow that on this
account our life is not worth living. We must not

CHAPTER VII. 141
confuse the moral value of existence with the on-
tological problem of its phenomenality. It all depends
on our subjective attitude whether or not our world
and life become full of significance. When the illu-
siveness or phenomenality of individual existences is
granted and we use the world accordingly, that is,
"as not abusing it," we escape the error and curse
of egoism and take, things as they are presented to
us, as reflecting the Dharma of Suchness. We no
more cling to forms of particularity as something
ultimate and absolutely real and as that in which lies
the essence of our life. We take them for such as
they are, and recognise their reality only in so far
as they are considered a partial realisation of Such
ness, and do not go any further. Suchness, indeed,
lies not hidden behind them, but exists immanently
in them. Things are empty and illusory so long as
they are particular things and are not thought of in
reference to the All that is Suchness and Reality.
From this, it logically follows that in this world
of relativity all is momentary, that nothing is permanent,
so far as isolated, particular existences are concerned.
Even independently of the statement made above,
the doctrine of universal impermanency is an almost
self-evident truth experienced everywhere, and does
not require any special demonstration to prove its
validity. The desire for immortality which is so
conspicuous and persistent in all the stages of devel
opment of the religious consciousness that the very
desire has been thought to be the essence of all

142 CHAPTER VII.
religious systems, is the most conclusive proof that
things on this earth are in a constant flux of
becoming, and that there is nothing permanent or
stationary in our individual existences; if otherwise,
people would never have sought for immortality.
If this be granted as a fact of our everyday
experience, we naturally ask: "Why are things so
changeable? Why is life so fleeting/1 What is it
that makes things so mutable and transitory?" To
this, the Buddhist's answer is: Because the universe
is a resultant product of many efficient forces that
are acting according to different karmas ; — the
destiny of those forces being that no one force or
no one set of forces can constantly be predominant
over all the others, but that when one has exhausted
its potential karma, it is replaced by another that
has been steadily coming forward in the meantime.
Hence the universal cadence of birth and death,
of the spring and the fall, of the tide and the ebb,
of integration and disintegration. Where there is
attraction, there is repulsion; where there is the
centripetal force, there is the centrifugal force.
Because it is the law of karma that at the very
moment of birth the arms of death are around the
neck of life. The universe is nothing but a grand
rhythmic manifestation of certain forces working
in conformity to their predetermined laws ; or, to
use Buddhist terminology, this lokadhdtu (material
world) consists in a concatenation of ketus (causes)
and pratyayas (conditions) regulated by their karma.

CHAPTER VII. 143
If this were not so, there would be either a certain
fixed state of things in which perfect equillibrium
would be maintained, or an inexpressible confusion
of things of which no knowledge or experience
would be possible. In the former case, we should
have universal stagnation and eternal death; in the
latter case, there would be no universe, no life,
nothing but absolute chaos. Therefore, so long as
we have the world before us, in which all the
possible varieties of particularisation are manifested
it cannot be otherwise than in a state of constant
vicissitudes and therefore of universal transitoriness.
Now, the Buddhist argument for the theory of
non-ego is this : If individual existences are due to
relations obtaining between diverse forces, which
act sometimes in unison with and sometimes in
opposition to one another as predetermined by their
karma, they cannot be said to have any transcendental
agency behind them, which is a permanent unity
and absolute dictator. In other words, there is no
atman or ego-soul behind our mental activities, and
no thing-in-itself (svabhdva), so to speak, behind
each particular form of existence. This is called the
Buddhist theory of non-atman or non-ego.
Atman
Buddhists use the term "atman" in two senses :
first, in the sense of personal ego, l and secondly, in
1 Pudgala or pudgalasamjha is sometimes used by Maha
yanists as a synonym of atman. The Buddhist atman in the

144 CHAPTER VII.
that of thing-in-itself, perhaps, with a slight modifi
cation of its commonly accepted meaning. Let us
use the term "atman" here in its first sense as
equivalent to bhutdlman, for we are going first to
treat of the doctrine of non-ego, and later of that of
no-thing-in-itself. Atman is usually translated "life," "ego," or "soul," '
and is a technical term used both by Vedanta
philosophers and Buddhists. But we have to note
at the beginning that they do not use the term in
the same sense. When the Vedanta philosophy, espe
cially the later one, speaks of atman as our inmost
self which is identical with the universal Brahma, it
is used in its most abstract metaphysical sense and
does not mean the soul whatever, as the latter is
sense of ego-substratum may be considered to correspond to
the Vedantist Jivatman, which is used in contradistinction to
Paramatman, the supreme being or Brahma.
1 Mahayana Buddhists generally understand the essential
characteristic of atman to consist in freedom, and by freedom
they mean eternality, absolute unity, and supreme authority.
A being that is transitory is not free, as it is conditioned by
other beings, and therefore it has no atman. A being that
is an aggregate of elemental matter or forms of energy is
not absolute, for it is a state of mutual relationship, and
therefore it has no atman. Again, a being that has no author
itative command over itself and other beings, is not free, for
it will be subjected to a power other than itself, and there
fore it has no atman. Now, take anything that we come
across in this world of particulars ; and does it not possess
one or all of these three qualities : transitoriness, composite-
ness, and helplessness or dependence ? Therefore, all concrete
individual existences not excepting human beings have no
atman, have no ego, that is eternal, absolute, and supreme.

CHAPTER VII. 145
commonly understood by vulgar minds. On the other
hand, Buddhists understand by atman this vulgar,
materialistic conception of the soul (bhutdtman) and
positively denies its existence as such. If we, for
convenience' sake, distinguish between phenomenal
and noumenal in our notion of ego or soul, the
atman of Buddhism is the phenomenal ego, namely,
a concrete agent that is supposed to do the acting,
thinking, and feeling; while the atman of Vedantists
is the noumenal ego as the raison d' etre of our
psychical life. The one is in fact material, however
ethereal it might be conceived. The other is a highly
metaphysical conception transcending the reach of
human discursive knowledge. The latter may be
identified with Paramatman and the former with
Jivatman. Paramatman is a universal soul from which,
according to Vedantism, emanates this world of
phenomena, and in a certain sense it may be said
to correspond to the Tathagata-garbha of Buddhism.
Jivatman is the ego-soul as it is conceived by ignorant
people as an independent entity directing all the
mental activities. It is this latter atman that was
found to be void by Buddha when he arose from his
long meditation, declaring :
"Many a life to transmigrate,
Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,
Tent-designer ' inquisitive for :
Painful birth from state to state.
1 Tent-designer is a figurative term for the ego-soul. Fol
lowing the prevalent error, the Buddha at first made an
10

I46 CHAPTER VII.
"Tent-designer! I know thee now;
Never again to build art thou :
Quite out are all thy joyful fires,
Rafter broken and roof-tree gone,
Gain eternity — dead desires." '
Buddha's First Line of Inquiry.
Buddhism finds the source of all evils and sufferings
in the vulgar material conception of the ego-soul,
and concentrates its entire ethical force upon the
destruction of the ego-centric notions and desires.
The Buddha seems, since the beginning of his wan
dering life, to have conceived the idea that the way
of salvation must lie somehow in the removal of
this egoistic prejudice, for so long as we are not
liberated from its curse we are liable to become the
prey of the three venomous passions: covetousness,
infatuation, and anger, and to suffer the misery of
birth and death and disease and old age. Thus, when
he received his first instructions from the Samkhya
philosopher, Arada, he was not satisfied, because he
did not teach how to abandon this ego-soul itself.
The Buddha argued : "I consider that the embodied
ego-soul, though freed from the evolvent-evolutes, 2
earnest search after the ego that was supposed to be snugly
sitting behind our mental experiences, and the result was
this utterance.
1 The Dharmapada, vs. 153 — 154. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
a Prakrlivikrtayas. This is a technical term of Samkhya
philosophy and means the modes of Prakrti, as evolved from
it and as further evolving on. See Satis Chandra Banarji,
Samkhya-Philosophy, p. XXXIII et seq.

CHAPTER VII. 147
is still subject to the condition of birth and has
the condition of a seed. The seed may remain dor
mant so long as it is deprived of the opportunity
of coming into contact with the requisite conditions
of quickening and being quickened, but since its
germinating power has not been destroyed, it will
surely develop all its potentialities as soon as it is
brought into that necessary contact. Even though
the ego-soul free from entanglement [i. e. from the
bondage of Prakrti] is declared to be liberated, yet,
so long as the ego-soul remains, there can be no
absolute abandonment of it, there can be no real
abandonment of egoism." '
The Buddha then proceeds to indicate the path
through which he reached his final conclusion and
declares: "There is no real separation of the qualities
and their subject ; for fire cannot be conceived apart
from its heat and form." When this argument is
logically carried out, it leads nowhere but to the
Buddhist doctrine of non-atman, that says : The
existence of an ego-soul cannot be conceived apart
from sensation, perception, imagination, intelligence,
volition, etc., and, therefore, it is absurd to think
that there is an independent individual soul-agent
which makes our consciousness its workshop.
To imagine that an object can be abstracted
from its qualities, not only logically but in reality,
that there is some unknown quantity that is in
1 The passages quoted here as well as one in the next pa
ragraph are taken from Agvaghosa's Buddhacarita.

I48 CHAPTER VII.
possession of such and such characteristic marks
(laksana) whereby it makes itself perceivable by
our senses, says Buddhism, is wrong and unwarranted
by reason. Fire cannot be conceived apart from its
form and heat; waves cannot be conceived apart
from the water and its commotion ; the wheel cannot
exist outside of its rim, spokes, axle, etc. All things,
thus, are made of hetus and pratyayas, of causes
and conditions, of qualities and attributes; and it
is impossible for our pudgala or atman or ego or
soul to be any exception tp this universal condition
of things.
Let me in this connection state an interesting
incident in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Hui-K'e,
the second patriarch of the Dhyana sect in China,
was troubled with this ego-problem before his con
version. He was at first a faithful Confucian, but
Confucianism did not satisfy all his spiritual wants.
His soul was wavering between agnosticism and
scepticism, and consequently he felt an unspeakable
anguish in his inmost heart. When he learned of
the arrival of Bodhidharma in his country, he hastened
to his monastery and implored him to give him some
spiritual advice. But Bodhidharma did not utter a
word, being seemingly absorbed in his deep medi
tation. Hui-K'e, however, was determined to obtain
from him some religious instructions at all hazards.
So it is reported that he was standing at the same
spot seven days and nights, when he at last cut off
his left arm with the sword he was carrying (being

CHAPTER VII. I49
a military officer) and placed it before Dharma, Saying :
"This arm is a token of my sincere desire to be
instructed in the Holy Doctrine. My soul is troubled
and annoyed; pray let your grace show me the way
to pacify it." Dharma quietly arose from his medita
tion and said : "Where is your soul ? Bring it here
and I will have it pacified." Hui-K'e replied : "I have
been searching for it all these years, but I have never
succeeded in laying a hand on it." Dharma then
exclaimed: "There, I have your soul pacified!" At
this, it is said, a flash of spiritual enlightenment went
across the mind of Hui-K'e, and his "soul" was
pacified once for all. The Skdndhas.
When the five skandhas are combined according to
their previous karma and present a ternporal existence
in the form of a sentient being, vulgar minds imagine
that they have here an individual entity sustained by
an immortal ego-substratum. In fact, the material
body (rupakdya) alone is not what makes the ego-
soul, nor the sensation (vedana), nor the deeds (sdns-
kdrd), nor the consciousness (viffidna), nOr the con
ception (samjnd) ; but only when they are all corhbined
in a certain form they make a sentient being. Yet
this combination is not the work of a certain inde
pendent entity, which, according to its own will,
combines the five skandhas in one fdfm and then
hides itself in it; The coriibination of the constituent

150 CHAPTER VII.
elements, Buddhism declares, is achieved by them
selves after their karma.. When a certain number of
atoms of hydrogen and of oxygen are brought to
gether, they attract each other on their own accord
or owing to their own karma, and the result is
water. The ego of water, so to speak, did not will
to bring the two elements and make itself out of
them. Even so is it with the existence of a sentient
being, and there is no need of hypostasising a fabu
lous ego-monster behind the combination of the five
skandhas. Skandha (khanda in Pali) literally means "aggregate"
or "aglomeration", and, according to the Chinese
exegetists, it is called so, because our personal
existence is an aggregate of the five constituent
elements of being, because it comes to take a definite
individual form when the skandhas are brought together
according to their previous karma. The first of the
five aggregates is matter (rupa), whose essential qual
ity is thought to consist in resistance. The material
part of our existence in the five sense-organs called
indryas: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the body.
The second skandha is called sensation or sense-
impression (vedand), which results from the contact
of the six vijnanas (senses) with the visaya (external
world). The third is called samjiid which corresponds
to our conception. It is the psychic power by which
we are enabled to form the abstract images of par
ticular objects. The fourth is sanskdra which may be
rendered action or deed. Our intelligent consciousness,

CHAPTER VII. I5l
responding to impressions received which are either
agreeable or disagreeable or indifferent, acts accor
dingly; and. these acts bear fruit in the coming
generations. Sanskara, the fourth constituent of being, comprises
two categories, mental (caitta) and non-mental (cittavi-
prayukta). And the mental is subdivided into six :
fundamental (mahdbhumi), good (kugala), tormenting
(klega), evil (akugald), tormenting minor (upaklega),
and indefinite (aniyata). It may be interesting to
enumerate what all these sankaras are, as they shed
light on the practical ethics of Buddhism.
There are ten fundamental sanskaras belonging
to the category of mental or psychic activities : 1 .
cetana (mentation), 2. sparga (contact), 3. chanda
(desire), 4. mati (understanding), 5. smrti (recollec
tion), 6. manaskara (concentration), 7. adhimoksa
(unfettered intelligence), 8. samadhi (meditation). The
ten good sanskaras are: 1. graddha (faith), 2. virya
(energy), 3. upeksa (complacency), 4. hri (modesty),
5. apatrapa (shame), 6 alobha (non-covetousness), 7.
advesa (freedom from hatred), 8. ahimsa (gentleness
of heart), 9. pragradbhi (mental repose), 10. apramada
(attentiveness). The six tormenting sanskaras are as follows : 1 .
moha (folly), 2. pramada (wantonness), 3. kausidya
(indolence), 4. agraddhya (scepticism), 5 . styana (sloth-
fulness), 6. auddhatpa (unsteadiness).
The two minor evil sanskaras are : 1 . ahrikata,
state of not being modest, or arrogance, or self-

152 CHAPTER VII.
assertiveness, and 2. anapatrapa, being lost to shame,
or to be without conscience.
The ten minor tormenting sanskaras are : 1 . krodha
(anger), 2. mraksa (secretiveness), 3. matsarya (niggard
liness), 4. irsya (envy), 5. pradaga (uneasiness), 6.
vihimsa (noxiousness), 7. upanaha (malignity), 8. maya
(trickiness), 9. gathya (dishonesty), 10. mada (arrogance).
The eight indefinite sanskaras are: 1 . kaukrtya (repent
ance), 2. middha (sleep), 3. vitarka (inquiry), 4. vicara
(investigation), 5. raga (excitement), 6. pratigha (wrath),
7. mana (self-reliance), 8. vicikitsa (doubting).
The second grand category of sanskara which is
not included under "mental" or "psychic," comprises
fourteen items as follows : 1. prapti (attainment), 2.
aprapti (non-attainment), 3. sabhagata (grouping), 4
asanjnika (unconsciousness), 5. asanjnisamapatti (un
conscious absorption in religious meditation), 6. niro-
dhasamapatti (annihilation-trance of a heretic), 7. jivita
(vitality), 8. jati (birth), 9. sthiti (existing), 10. jara
(decadence), 1 1 . anityata (transitoriness), 12. namakaya
(name), 13. padakaya (phrase), 14. vyanjanakaya
(sentence). Now, to return to the main problem. The fifth
skandha is called vijndna, commonly rendered consci
ousness, which, however, is not quite correct. The
vijnana is intelligence or mentality, it is the psychic
power of discrimination, and in many cases it can
be translated by sense. There are, according to
Hinayanists, six vijnanas or senses : visual, auditory,
olfactory, gustatory, tactual, and cogitative ; according

CHAPTER VII. 153
to Mahayanism there are eight vijnanas : the manovij
fiana and the alayavijnana, being added to the above
six. This psychological phase of Mahayana philosophy
is principally worked out by the Yogacara school,
whose leading thinkers are Asanga and Vasubandhu.
King Milinda and Ndgasena
Buddhist literature, Northern as well as Southern,
abounds with expositions of the doctrine of non -ego,
as it is one of the most important foundation-stones
on which the magnificent temple of Buddhism is built.
The dialogue ' between King Milinda and Nagasena,
among many others, is very interesting for various
reasons and full of suggestive thoughts, and we have
the following discussion of theirs concerning the
problem of ego abstracted from the Dialogue.
At their first meeting the King asks Nagasena,
"How is your Reverence known, and what is your name ?"
To this the monk-philosopher replies : "I am known
as Nagasena, and it is by that name that my brethren
in the faith address me. But although parents give
such a name as Nagasena, or Surasena, Virasena,
or Sihasena, yet this Nagasena and so on— is only a
generally understood term, a designation in common
use. For there is no permanent self involved in the
matter." Being greatly surprised by this answer, the King
1 The Questions of King Milinda, Sacred Books of the East,
Vol. XXXV.

154 CHAPTER VII.
volleys upon Nagasena a series of questions as follows :
"If there be no permanent self involved in the matter,
who is it, pray, who gives to you members of the
Order your robes and food and lodging and neces
saries for the sick? Who is it who enjoys such
things when given? Who is it who lives a life of
righteousness ? Who is it who devotes himself to
meditation ? Who is it who attains to the goal of the
Excellent Way, to the Nirvana of Arhatship? And
who is it who destroys living creatures? who is it
who takes what is not his own? who is it. who lives
an evil life of worldly lusts, who speaks lies, who
drinks strong drink, who in a word commits any one
of the five sins which work out their bitter fruit
even in this life? If that be so, there is neither
merit nor demerit; there is neither doer nor cause
of good or evil deeds; there is neither fruit nor
result of good or evil karma. If we are to think
that were a man to kill you there would be no
murder, ' then it follows that there are no real masters
or teachers in your Order, that your ordinations are
void. You tell me that your brethren in the Order
are in the habit of addressing you as Nagasena. Now,
what is that Nagasena? Do you mean to say that
the hair is Nagasena?"
This last query being denied by the Buddhist sage,
the King asks: "Or is it the nails, the skin, the
flesh, the nerves, the bones, the marrow, the kidneys,
1 This reminds us of the passage quoted elsewhere from
the Katha-Upanishad ; cf. the footnote to it.

CHAPTER VII. 155
the heart, the liver, the abdomen, the spleen, the
lungs, the larger intestines, the smaller intestines, the
faeces, the bile, the phlegm, the pus, the blood, the
sweat, the fat, the tears, the serum, the saliva, the
mucus, the oil that lubricates the joints, the urine,
or the brain or any or all of these, that is Nagasena ?
"Is it the material form that is Nagasena, or the
sensations, or the ideas, or the confections (deeds),
or the consciousness, that is Nagasena ?"
To all these questions, the King, having received
a uniform denial, exclaims in excitement : "Then,
thus, ask as I may, 1 can discover no Nagasena.
Nagasena is a mere empty sound. Who then is the
Nagasena that we see before us ? * It is a falsehood
that your Reverence has spoken, an untruth?"
Nagasena does not give any direct answer, but
quietly proposes some counter-questions to the King.
Ascertaining that he came in a carriage to the Buddhist
philosopher, he asks : "Is it the wheel, or the
framework, or the ropes, or the spokes of the wheels,
or the goad, that are the chariot?"
To this, the king says, "No," and continues: "It
is on account of its having all these things that it
1 As cited elsewhere, Bodhi-Dharma of the Dhyana sect,
when questioned in a similar way, replied, "I do not know."
Walt Whitman echoes the same sentiment in the following
lines :
"A child said, what is the grass ? fetching it to me with
full hands ;
How could I answer the child ? I do not know what it is,
any more than he."

156 CHAPTER VII.
comes under the generally understood term, the
designation in common use, of 'chariot.'"
"Very good," says Nagasena, "Your Majesty has
rightly grasped the meaning of 'chariot.' And just
even so it is on account of all these things you
questioned me about the thirty-two kinds of organic
matter in a human body, and the five skandhas
(constituent elements of being) that I come under
the generally-understood term, the designation in
common use, of 'Nagasena.'"
Then, the sage quotes in way of confirmation a
passage from the Samyutta Nikdya : "Just as it is
by the condition precedent of the co-existence of
its various parts that the word 'chariot' is used, just
so it is that when the skandhas are there we talk
of a 'being.'"

* *
*

To further illustrate the theory of non-atman from
earlier Buddhist literature, let me quote the following
from the Jdtaka Tales (No. 244) :
The Bodhisattva said to a pilgrim. "Will you have
a drink of Ganges- water fragrant with the scent of
the forest?"
The pilgrim tried to catch him in his words : "What
is the Ganges? Is the sand the Ganges? Is the water
the Ganges? Is the hither bank the Ganges? Is the
further bank the Ganges?"
But the Bodhisattva retorted, "If you except the

CHAPTER VII.

157

water, the sand, the hither bank, and the further
bank, where can you find any Ganges?"
Following this argument we might say, "Where
is the ego-soul, except imagination, volition, intellec
tion, desire, aspiration, etc.?"
Ananda's Attempts to Locate the Soul.
In the Surangama Sutra \ Buddha exposes the
absurdity of the hypothesis of an individual concrete
soul-substance by subverting Andanda's seven succes
sive attempts to determine its whereabouts. Most
people who firmly believe in personal immortality,
will see how vague and chimerical and logically
untenable is their notion of the soul, when it is
critically examined as in the following case. Ananda's
conception of the soul is somewhat puerile, but I
doubt whether even in our enlightened age the belief
1 There seem to be two Chinese translations of this Sutra,
one by Kumarajiva and the other by Paramartha, but appar
ently they are different texts bearing the same title. Besides
these two, there is another text entirely in Chinese trans
literation. Owing to insufficiency of material at my disposal
here, I cannot say anything definite about the identity or
diversity of these documents. The following discussion that
is reported to have taken place between the Buddha and
Ananda is an abstract prepared from the first and the second
fasciculi of Paramartha's (?) translation. Beal gives in his
Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese (pp. 286 — 369)
an English translation of the first four fasc. of the Surangama.
Though this translation is not quite satisfactory in many
points the reader may find there a detailed account of the
discussion which is here only partially and roughly recap
itulated.

1 58 CHAPTER VII.
entertained by the multitude is any better than his.
When questioned by the Buddha as to the locality
of the soul, Ananda asserts that it resides within the
body. Thereupon, the Buddha says: "If your intel
ligent soul resides within your corporeal body, how
is it that it does not see your inside first ? To illustrate,
what we see first in this lecture hall is the interior
and it is only when the windows are thrown open
that we are able to see the outside garden and woods.
It is impossible for us who are sitting in the hall
to see the outside only and not to see the inside.
Reasoning in a similar way, why does not the soul
that is considered to be within the body see the
internal organs first such as the stomach, heart, veins
etc. ? If however it does not see the inside, surely
it cannot be said to reside within the body."
Ananda now proposes to solve the problem by
locating the soul outside the body. He says that the
soul is like a candle-light placed without this hall.
Where the light shines everything is visible, but
within the room there are no candles burning, and
therefore here prevails nothing but darkness. This
explains the incapacity of the soul to see the inside
of the body. But the Buddha argues that "it is
impossible for the soul to be outside. If so, what the
soul feels may not be felt by the body, and what
the body feels may not be felt by the soul, as there
is no relationship between the two. The fact, however,
is that when you, Ananda, see my hand thus stretched,
you are conscious that you have the perception of

CHAPTER VII. 159
it. As far as there is a correspondence between the
soul and the ^ body, the soul cannot be said to be
residing outside the body."
The third hypothesis assumed by Ananda is that
the soul hides itself just behind the sense-organs.
Suppose a man put a pair of lenses over his eyes.
Cannot he see the outside world through them? The
reason why it cannot see the inside is that it resides
within the sense-organs.
But says the Buddha: "When we have a lens
over an eye, we perceive this lens as well as the
outside world. If the soul is hidden behind the sense-
organ, why does it not see the sense-organ itself?
As it does not in fact, it cannot be residing in the
place you mention."
Ananda proposes another theory. "Within, we have
the stomach, liver, heart, etc. : without, we have so
many orifices. Where the internal organs are, there
is darkness; but where we have openings, there is
light. Close the eyes and the soul sees the darkness
inside. Open the eyes and it sees the brightness
outside. What do you say to this theory?"
The Buddha says: "If you take the darkness you
see when the eyes are closed for your inside, do
you consider this darkness as something confronting
your soul, or not? In the first case, wherever there
prevails a darkness, that must be thought to be your
interior organs. In the latter case, seeing is impossible,
for seeing presupposes the existence of subject and
object. Besides this, there is another difficulty. Grant-

l60 CHAPTER VII.
ing your supposition that the eye could turn itself
inward or outward and see the darkness of the
interior or the brightness of the external world, it
could also see your own face when the eye is opened.
If it could not do so, it must be said to be incapable
of turning the sight inward."
The fifth assumption as made by Ananda is that
the soul is the essence of understanding or intellig
ence, which is not within, nor without, nor in the
middle, but which comes into actual existence as
soon as it confronts the objective world, for it is
taught by the Buddha that the world exists on account
of the mind and the mind on account of the world.
To this the Buddha replies : "According to your
argument, the soul must be said to exist before it
comes in contact with the world ; otherwise, the con
tact cannot have any sense. The soul, then, exists as
an individual presence, not after nor at the time of
a contact with the external world, but assuredly before
the contact. Granting this, we come back again to the
old difficulties : Does the soul come out of your in
side, or does it come in from the outside? In case
of the first alternative, the soul must be able to see
its own face."
Ananda interrupts: "Seeing is done by the eyes,
and the soul has nothing to do with it."
The Buddha objects : "If so, a dead man has eyes
just as perfect as a living man. 1 He must be able
1 Cf the following which is extracted from the Questions
of King Milinda (Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXXV,

CHAPTER VU. l6l
to see things, but if he sees at all, he cannot be dead.
Well, if your intelligent soul has a concrete existence,
should it be thought simple or compound ? Should
it be thought of as filling the body or being present
only in a particular spot ? If it is a simple unit, when
one of your limbs is touched, all the four will at
once be conscious of the touch, which really means
no touch. If the soul is a compound body, how can
it distinguish itself from another soul? If it is filling
the body all over, there will be no localisation of
sensation, as must be the case according to the first
supposition of a simple soul-unit. Finally, if it occu
pies only a particular part of the body, you may ex
perience certain feelings on that spot only, and all
the other parts will remain perfectly anesthetic. All
these hypotheses are against the actual facts of our
experience and cannot be logically maintained."
For the sixth time, Ananda ventures tQ untie the
Gordian knot of the soul-problem. "As the soul cannot
be located neither within nor without, it must be
somewhere in the middle." But the Buddha again re
futes this, saying: "This'middle' is extremely indefinite.
Should it be located as a point in space or some
where on the body? If it is on the surface of the body,
133) : "If there be a soul [distinct from the body] which does
all this, then if the door of the eye were thrown down fif
the eye were plucked out] could it stretch out its head, as
it were, through the larger aperture and [with greater range]
see forms much more clearly than before? Could one hear
sounds better if the ears were cut off, or taste better if the
tongue were pulled out, or feel touch better if the body were
destroyed?" 11

1 62 CHAPTER VII.
it is not the middle; if it is in the body,
it is then within. If it is said to occupy a point in
space, how should that point be indicated? Without
an indication, a point is no point ; and if an indica
tion is needed, it can be fixed anywhere arbitrarily,
and then there will be no end of confusion."
Ananda interposes and says that he does not mean
this kind of "middle." The eye and the color condi
tioning each other, there comes to exist visual percep
tion. The eye has the faculty to discriminate, and
the color-world has no sensibility ; but the perception
takes place in their "middle," that is, in their interac
tion; and then it is said that there exists a soul.
Says the Buddha: "If the soul, as you say, exists
in the relation between the sense-organs (indrya) and
their respective sense-objects (visaya), should we
consider the soul as uniting and partaking the natures
of these two incongruous things, visaya and indrya?
If the soul partakes something of each, it has no
characteristics of its own. If it unites the two natures,
the distinction between subject and object exists no
more, 'In the middle' is an empty word; that is to
say, to conceive the soul as the relation between the
indryas and the visayas is to make it an airy nothing."
The seventh and final hypothesis offered by Ananda
is that the soul is the state of non-attachment, and that,
therefore, it has no particular locality in which it
abides. But this is also mercilessly attacked by the
Buddha who declares: "Attachment presupposes the
existence of beings to which a mind may be attached.

CHAPTER VII. I63
Now, should we consider these things (dharmas) such
as the world, space, land, water, birds, beasts, etc.
as existing or not existing ? If the external world does
not exist, we cannot speak about non-attachment, as
there_ is nothing to attach from the first. If the external
world really is, how can we manage not to come in
contact with it ? When we say that things are devoid
of all characteristic marks, it amounts to the declara
tion that they are non-existent. But they are not
non-existent, they must have certain characteristics
that distinguish themselves. Now, the external world
has certainly some marks (laksana) and it must by
all means be considered as existing. There then is
no room for your theory of non-attachment."
At this, Ananda surrenders and the Buddha discloses
his theory of Dharmakaya, which we shall expound
at some length in the chapter specially devoted to it.
*
* *
By way of a summary of the above , let me remark
that the Buddhists do not deny the existence of the
so-called empirical ego in contradistinction to the
noumenal ego, which latter can be considered to cor
respond to the Buddhist atman. Vasubandhu in his
treatise on the Yogacara's idealistic philosophy declares
that the existence of atman and dharma is only hy
pothetical, provisional, apparent, and not in any sense
real and ultimate. To express this in modern terms,
the soul and the world, or subject and object, have
only relative existence, and no absolute reality can

1 64 CHAPTER VII.
be ascribed to them. Psychologically speaking, every
one of us has an ego or soul which means the unity
of consciousness ; and physically, this world of phe
nomena is real either as a manifestation of one energy
or as a composite of atoms or electrons, as is con
sidered by physicists.
To confine ourselves to the psychological question,
what Buddhism most emphatically insists on is the
non-existence of a concrete, individual, irreducible
sdul-substance, whose immortality is so much coveted
by most unenlightened people. Individuation is only
relative and not absolute. Buddhism knows how
far the principle could safely and consistently be
carried out, and its followers will not forget where
to stop and destroy the wall, almost adamantine to
some religionists, of individualism. Absolute indivi
dualism, as the Buddhists understand it, incapacitates
us to follow the natural flow of sympathy; to bathe
in the eternal sunshine of divinity which not only
surrounds but penetrates us ; to escape the curse of
individual immortality which is strangely so much
sought after by some people; to trace this mundane
life to its fountainhead of which it drinks so freely,
yet quite unknowingly; to rise rejuvenated from the
consuming fire of Kaia (Chronos). To think that there
is a mysterious something behind the empirical ego
ahd that this something comes out triumphantly after
the fashion of the immortal phoenix from the funeral
pyre of corporeality, is not Buddhistic.
What I would remark here in connection with this

CHAPTER VII. 165
problem of the soul, is its relation to that of Alaya
vijnana, of which it is said that the Buddha was very
reluctant to talk, on account of its being easily con
founded with the notion of the ego. The Alaya, as
was explained, is a sort of universal soul from which
our individual empirical souls are considered to have
evolved. The Manas which is the first offspring of
the Alaya is endowed with the faculty of discrimi
nation, and from the wrongful use of this faculty
there arises in the Manas the conception of the Alaya
as the ego, — the real concrete soul-substratum.
The Alaya, however, is not a particular phenome
non, for it is a state of Suchness in its evolutionary
disposition and has nothing in it yet to suggest its
concrete individuality. When the Manas finds out its
error and lifts the veil of Ignorance from the body
of the Alaya, it soon becomes convinced of the ul
timate nature of the soul, so called. For the soul is
not individual, but supra-individual.
Atman and the "Old Man."
When the Buddhists exclaim : "Put away your
egoism, for the ego is an empty notion, a mere word
without reality," some of our Christian readers may
think that if there is no ego, what will become of
our personality or individuality? Though this point
will become clearer as we proceed, let us remark
here that what Buddhism understands by ego or
atman may be considered to correspond in many
respects to the Christian notion of "flesh" or the

1 66 CHAPTER VII.
"old man," which is the source of all our sinful
acts. Says Paul: "I am crucified with Christ; never
theless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which 1 live now in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." (Gal. ii, 20.) When this passage is
interpreted by the Buddhists, the "I" that was anni
hilated through crucifixion, is our false notion of
an ego-soul (atman); and the "I" that is living through
the grace of God is the Bodhi, a reflex in us of the
Dharmakaya. When Christians put the spirit and the flesh in
contrast and advise us to "walk in the spirit" and
not to "fulfil the lust of the flesh," it must be said
that they understand by the flesh our concrete, ma
terial existence whose characteristic is predominantly
individual, and by the spirit, that which transcends
particularity and egoism ; for "love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, faith, meekness, temperance," and suchlike
virtues are possible only when our egocentric, atman-
made desires are utterly abnegated- Buddhism is more
intellectual than Christianity or Judaism and prefers
philosophical terms which are better understood than
popular language which leads often to confusion. Com
pared with the Buddhists' conception of atman, the
"flesh" lacks in perspicuity and exactitude, not to
speak of its dualistic tendency which is extremely
offensive to the Buddhists.

CHAPTER VII. I67
The Vedantic Conception.
Though the doctrine of non-atman is pre-eminently
Buddhistic, other Hindu philosophers did not neglect
to acknowledge its importance in our religious life.
Having grown in the same soil under similar cir
cumstances, the following passage which is taken from
the Yogavdsistha (which is supposed to be a Vedantic
work, Upagama P., ch. LII, 31, 44) sounds almost
like Buddhistic :
"I am absolute, I am the light of intelligence, I
am free from the defilement of egoism. O thou that
art unreal! I am not bound by thee, the seed of
egoism." 1
The author then argues : Where shall we con
sider the ego-soul, so called, to be residing in this
body of flesh and bones? and what does it look
like? We move our limbs, but the movement is
due to the vital airs (vdta). We think, but con
sciousness is a manifestation of the great mind
(mahdcitta). We cease to exist, but extinction belongs
to the body (kayo). Now, take apart what we
imagine to constitute our personal existence. The
flesh is one thing, the blood is another, and so
on with mentation (bodha) and vitality (spanda). The
ear hears, the tongue tastes, the eye sees, the mind

1 Nirvikalpo 'smi ciddipo nirahankaravasanah
Tvaya ahankarabijena na sambaddho 'smi asanmaya (31)

1 68 CHAPTER VII.
thinks, but what and where is that which we call "ego" ?
Then comes the conclusion : "In reality, there is
no such thing as the ego-soul, nor is there any
mine and thine, nor imagination. All this is nothing
but the manifestation of the universal soul which is
the light of pure intelligence." '
Nagarjuna on the Soul.
In conclusion, let me quote some passage bearing
on the subject from Nagarjuna's Discourse on the
Middle Path (chapter 9) : 2 "Some say that there are
seeing, hearing, feeling, etc., because there is something
which exists even prior to those [manifestations]. For
how could seeing, etc. come from that which does
not exist? Therefore, it must be admitted that that
being [i.e. soul] existed prior to those [manifestations],
"But [this hypothesis of the prior (purva) or inde
pendent existence of the soul is wrong, because] how
could that being be known if it existed prior to
seeing, feeling, etc. ? If that being could exist without
seeing, etc., the latter too could surely exist without
that being. But how could a thing which could not
be known by any sign exist before it is known?
How could this exist without that, and how could
1 Yatha bhutataya na ahammano na tvam na vasana
Atma guddhacidabhasah kevalo yam vijrbhate. (44)
* The following is a somewhat free translation of the ori
ginal Chinese of Kumarajiva, which pretty closely agrees with
the Sanskrit text published by the Buddhist Text Society
of India.

CHAPTER VII. I69
that exist without this} [Are not all things relative
and conditioning one another?]
"If that being called soul could not exist prior to
all manifestations such as seeing, etc., how could it
exist prior to each of them taken individually?
"If it is the same soul that sees, hears, feels, etc.,
it must be assumed that the soul exists prior to
each of these manifestations. This, however, is not
warranted by facts. [Because in that case one must
be able to hear with the eyes, see with the ears, as
one soul is considered to direct all these diverse
faculties at its will.]
"If, on the other hand, the hearer is one, and the
seer is another, the feeler must be still another. Then,
there will be hearing, seeing, etc. simultaneously, —
which leads to the assumption of a plurality of souls. '
[This too is against experience.]
"Further, the soul does not exist in the element
(bhutd) on which seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. depend.
[To use modern expression, the soul does not exist
in the nerves which respond to the external stimuli.]
"If seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. have no soul that
exists prior to them, they too have no existence as
such. For how could that exist without this, and this
without that} Subject and object are mutually con
ditioned. The soul as it is has no independent, indi
vidual reality whatever. Therefore, the hypothesis
that contends for the existence of an ego-soul prior
1 The Sanskrit text does not give this passage.

170 CHAPTER VII.
to simultaneous with, or posterior to, seeing, etc., is to
be abandoned as fruitless, for the ego-soul existeth not."
Non-dtman-ness of Things.
The word "atman" is used by the Buddhists not
only psychologically in the sense of soul, self, or ego,
but also ontologically in the sense of substance or
thing-in-itself or thinginess ; and its existence in this
capacity is also strongly denied by them. For the
same reason that the existence of an individual ego-
soul is untenable, they reject the hypothesis of
the permament existence of an individual object as
such. As there is no transcendent agent in our soul-
life, so there is no real, eternal existence of individuals
as individuals, but a system of different attributes,
which, when the force of karma is exhausted,
ceases to subsist. Individual existences cannot
be real by their inherent nature, but they are illu
sory, and will never remain permanent as such; for
they are constantly becoming, and have no selfhood
though they may so appear to our particularising sen
ses on account of our subjective ignorance. They are
in reality cunya and anatman, they are empty and
void of atman. Svabhdva.
The term "sabhava" (self-essence or noumenon)is
sometimes used by the Mahayanists in place of atman,
and they would say that all dharmas have no self-

CHAPTER VII. 171
essence, sarvam dharmam nihsvabhdvam, which is to
say, that all things in their phenomenal aspect are
devoid of individual selves, that it is only due to our
ignorance that we believe in the thinginess of things,
whereas there is no such thing as svabhava or atman or
noumenon which resides in them. Svabhava and atman
are thus habitually used by Buddhists as quite
synonymous. What do they exactly understand by "svabhava"
whose existence is denied in a particular object as
perceived by our senses ? This has never been expli
citly defined by the Mahayanists, but they seem to
understand by svabhava something concrete, indivi
dual, yet independent, unconditional, and not subject
to the law of causation (pratyayasamutpdda). It, there
fore, stands in opposition to gunyata, emptiness, as
well as to conditionality. Inasmuch as all beings are
transient and empty in their inherent being, they
cannot logically be said to be in possession of self-
essence which defies the law of causation. All things
are mutually conditioning and limiting, and apart
from their relativity they are non-existent and cannot
be known by us. Therefore, says Nagarjuna, "If sub
stance be different from attribute, it is then beyond
comprehension." t For "a jag is not to be known
independent of matter et cetera, and matter in turn
is not to be known independent of ether et cetera." 2
1 Laksyal laksanam anyac cet syat tal laksyam alaksanam.
E Rupadi vyatirekena yatha kumbho na vidyate,
Vahyadi vyatirena tatha rupam na vidyate.

172 CHAPTER VII.
As there is no subject without object, so there is no
substance without attribute ; for one is the condition
for the other. Does self-essence then exist in causa
tion ? No, " whatever is subject to conditionality, is
by its very nature tranquil and empty." (Pratitya yad
yad bhavati, tat tac gdntam svabhavatah.) Whatever
owes its existence to a combination of causes and
conditions is without self-essence, and therefore it is
tranquil (gdnta), it is empty, it is unreal (asaf), and
the ultimate nature of this universal emptiness is not
within the sphere of intellectual demonstrability, for
the human understanding is not capable of transcend
ing its inherent limitations.
Says Pingalaka, a commentator of Nagarjuna : "The
cloth exists on account of the thread ; the matting is
possible on account of the rattan. If the thread had
its own fixed, unchangeable self-essence, it could not
be made out of the flax. If the cloth had its own
fixed, unchangeable self-essence, it could not be made
from the thread. But as in point of fact the cloth
comes from the thread and the thread from the flax,
it must be said that the thread as well as the cloth
had no fixed, unchangeable self-essence. It is just
like the relation that obtains between the burning
and the burned. They are brought together under
certain conditions, and thus there takes place a
phenomenon called burning. The burning and the
burned, each has no reality of its own. For when
one is absent the other is put out of existence. It is
so with all things in this world, they are all empty,

CHAPTER VII. 173
without self, without absolute^existence, they are like
the will-'o-the-wisp." 1
The Real Significance of Emptiness.
From these statements it will be apparent that the
emptiness of things (gunyata) does not mean nothing
ness, as is sometimes interpreted by some critics,
but it simply means conditionality or transitoriness
of all phenomenal existences, it is a synonym for
aniyata or pratitya. Therefore, emptiness, according
to the Buddhists, signifies, negatively, the absence of
particularity, the non-existence of individuals as such,
and positively, the ever-changing state of the pheno
menal world, a constant flux of becoming, an eternal
series of causes and effects. It must never be under
stood in the sense of annihilation or absolute nothing
ness, for nihilism is as much condemned by Buddhism
as naive realism-. "The Buddha proclaimed emptiness
as a remedy for all doctrinal controversies, but those
who in turn cling to emptiness are beyond treatment."
A medicine is indispensable as long as there is a
disease to heal, but it turns poisonous when applied
after the restoration of perfect health. To make this
point completely clear, let me quote the following
from NAgarjuna's Madhyamika Cdstra (Chap. XXIV).
"[Some one may object to the Buddhist doctrine of
emptiness, declaring : ] If all is void (giinyd) and
1 Abstracted from Pingalaka's Commentary on the Madhyamika
Cdstra, Chapter VII. The Chinese translation is by Kumarajiva.

174 CHAPTER VII.
there is neither creation nor destruction, then it must
be concluded that even the Fourfold Noble Truth
does . not exist. If the Fourfold Noble Truth does not
exist, the recognition of Suffering, the stoppage of
Accumulation, the attainment of Cessation, and the
advancement of Discipline, — all must be said to be
unrealisable. If they are altogether unrealisable, there
cannot be any of the four states of saintliness ; and
without these states there cannot be anybody who
will aspire for them. If there are no wise men, the
Sangha is then impossible. Further, as there is no
Fourfold Noble Truth, there is no Good Law
(saddhatma); and as there is neither Good Law
nor Sangha, the existence of Buddha himself must
be an impossibility. Those who talk of emptiness,
therefore, must be said to negate the Triple Treasure
(triratna) altogether. Emptiness not only destroys
the law of causation and the general principle of
retribution (phalasadbhdvam), but utterly annihilates
the possibility of a phenomenal world."
"[To this it is to be remarked that ]
" Only he is annoyed over such scepticism who
understands not the true significance and interpretation
of emptiness (gunyata).
"The Buddha 's teaching rests on the discrimination
of two kinds of truth (satya) : absolute and relative.
Those who do not have any adequate knowledge
of them are unable to grasp the deep and subtle
meaning of Buddhism. [The essence of being, dharmata,
is beyond verbal definition or intellectual compre-

CHAPTER VII. 175
hension, for there is neither birth nor death in it,
and it is even like unto Nirvana. The nature of
Suchness, tattva, is fundamentally free from condi
tionality, it is tranquil, it distances all phenomenal
frivolities, it discriminates not, nor is it particularised].*
"But if not for relative truth, absolute truth is
unattainable, and when absolute truth is not attained,
Nirvana is not to be gained.
"The dull-headed who do not perceive the truth
rightfully go to self-destruction, for they are like an
awkward magician whose trick entangles himself, or
like an unskilled snake-catcher who gets himself hurt.
The World-honored One knew well the abstruseness
of the Doctrine which is beyond the mental capacity
of the multitudes and was inclined not to disclose it/
before them.
"The objection that Buddhism onesidedly adheres
to emptiness and thereby exposes itself to grave
errors, entirely misses the mark ; for there are no
errors in emptiness. Why? Because it is on account
of emptiness that all things are at all possible, and
without emptiness all things will come to naught.
Those who deny emptiness and find fault with it, are
like a horseman who forgets that he is on horseback.
"If they think that things exist because of their
self-essence (svabhava), [and not because of their
emptiness,] they thereby make things come out of
causelessness (ahetupratyaya), they destroy those
1 The passage in parentheses is taken from Chandrakirti's
Commentary on Nagarjuna, pp. 180 — 181.

I76 CHAPTER VII.
relations that exist between the acting and the act and
the acted; and they also destroy the conditions that
make up the law of birth and death.
"All is declared empty because there is nothing
that is not a product of universal causation (pratyaya-
samutpdda). This law of causation, however, is merely
provisional, though herein lies the middle path.
"As thus there is not an object (dharma) which
is not conditioned (pratitya), so there is nothing that
is not empty.
"If all is not empty, then there is no death nor
birth, and withal disappears the Fourfold Noble Truth.
"How could there be Suffering, if not for the law
of causation? Impermanence is suffering. But with
self-essence there will be no impermanence. [So long
as impermanence is the condition of life, self-essence
which is a causeless existence, is out of question]
Suppose Suffering is self-existent, then it could not
come from Accumulation, which in turn becomes
impossible when emptiness is not admitted. Again,
when Suffering is self-existent, then there could be
no Cessation, for with the hypothesis of self-essence
Cessation becomes a meaningless term. Again, when
Suffering is self-existent, then there will be no Path.
But as we can actually walk on the Path, the hypothesis
of self-essence is to be abandoned.
"If there is neither Suffering nor Cessation, it must
be said that the Path leading to the Cessation of
Suffering is also non-existent.
"If there is really self-essencej Suffering could not

CHAPTER VII. 177
be recognised now, as it had not been recognised,
for self-essence as such must remain forever the same.!
[That is to say, enlightened minds, through the
teaching of Buddha, now recognise the existence of
Suffering, though they did not recognise it when
they were still uninitiated. If things were all in a fixed,
self-determining state on account of their self-essence,
it would be impossible for those enlightened men to
discover what they had never observed before. The
recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth is only
possible when this phenomenal world is in a state of
constant becoming, that isj when it is empty as it
really is.]
"As it is with the recognition of Suffering, so it is
with the stoppage of Accumulation, the attainment of
Cessation, the realisation of Path as well as with the
four states of saintliness.
"If, on account of self-essence, the four states of
saintliness were unattainable before, how could they
be realised now, still upholding the hypothesis of self-
essence ? [But we can attain to saintliness as a matter of
fact, for there are many holy men who through their
spiritual discipline have emerged from their former life of
ignorance and darkness. If everything had its own
self-essence which makes it impossible to transform
from one state to another, how could a person desire to
ascend, if he ever so desire, higher and higher on
the scale of existence?]
"If there were no four states of saintliness (catvdri
phaldni), then there would be no aspirants for it.

I78 CHAPTER VII.
And if there were no eight wise men (purusapun-
gala), there could exist no Sangha.
"Again, when there could not be the Fourfold
Noble Truth, the Law would be impossible, and with
out the Sangha and the Law how could the Buddha
exist ? You might say : 'A Buddha does not exist on
account of wisdom (Bodhi), nor does wisdom exist on
account of the Buddha.' But if a man did not have
Buddha-essence [that is, Bodhi] he could not hope
to attain to Buddhahood, however strenuously he might
exert himself in the ways of Bodhisattva.
"Further, if all is not empty but has self-essence,
[i. e. if all is in a fixed, unchangeable state of same
ness], how could there be any doing ? How could there
be good and evil ? If you maintain that there is an
effect (phala) which does not come from a cause good
or evil, [which is the practical conclusion of the hypoth
esis of self-essence], then it means that retribution
is independent of our deed, good or evil. [But is this
justified by our experience ?]
"If it must then be admitted that our deed good
or evil becomes the cause of retribution, retribution
must be said to come from our deed, good or evil ; ,
then how could we say there is no emptiness ?
"When you negate the doctrine of emptiness, the law
of universal causation, you negate the possibility of
this phenomenal world. When the doctrine of emptiness
is negated, there remains nothing that ought to be
done; and a thing is called done which is not yet
accomplished; and he is said to be a doer who has

CHAPTER VII. 179
not done anything whatever. If thefe were such a thing]
as self-essence, the multitudinousness of things mustf
be regarded as uncreated and imperishable and eternally
existing which is tantamount to eternal nothingness.
"If there were no emptiness/ there would be no
attainment of what has not yet been attained, nor
would there be the annihilation of pain, nor the
extinction of all the passions (sarvaklega).
"Therefore, it is taught by the Buddha that those
who recognise the law of universal causation, recog
nise the Buddha as well as Suffering, Accumulation,
Cessation, and the Path."

* *

The Mahayanistic doctrines thus formulated and
transmitted down to the present days are: There is
no such thing as the ego ; mentation is produced by
the co-ordination of various vijfianas or senses.
Individual existences have no selfhood or self-essence
or reality, for they are but an aggregate of certain
qualities sustained by efficient karma. The world of
particulars is the work of Ignorance as declared by
Buddha in his Formula of Dependence (Twelve Nidanas).
When this veil of Maya is uplifted, the universal light
of Dharmakaya shines in all its magnificence. Indivi
dual existences then as such lose their significance
and become sublimated and ennobled in the oneness
of Dharmakaya. Egoistic prejudices are forever van
quished, and the aim of our lives is no more the

l8o CHAPTER VII.
gratification of selfish cravings, but the glorification
of Dharma as it works its own way through the
multitudinousness of things. The self does not stand
any more in a state of isolation (which is an illusion),
it is absorbed in the universal body of Dharma, it
recognises itself in other selves animate as well as
inanimate, and all things are in Nirvana. When we
reach this state of ideal enlightenment, we are said
to have realised the Buddhist life.

CHAPTER VIII.
KARMA.
Definition.
Ty^ARMA, or Sanskara which is sometimes used as
its synonym, — though the latter gives a slightly
different shade of meaning, — comes from the Sanskrit
root kr, "to do," "to make," "to perform," "to effect,"
"to produce," etc. Both terms mean activity in its
concrete as well as in its abstract sense, and form
an antithesis to intelligence, contemplation, or ideation
in general. When karma is used in its most abstract
sense, it becomes an equivalent to "beginningless
ignorance," which is universally inherent in nature,
and corresponds to the Will or blind activity of
Schopenhauer; for ignorance as we have seen above
is a negative manifestation of Suchness (Bhuta-
tathdtd) and marks the beginning or unfolding of a
phenomenal world, whose existence is characterised
by incessant activities actuated by the principle of
karma. When Goethe says in Faust, "In Anfang war
die That," he uses the term "That" in the sense of
karma as it is here understood.
When karma is used in its concrete sense, it is the

1 82 CHAPTER VIII.
principle of activity in the world of particulars or
namarupas : it becomes in the physical world the
principle of conservation of energy, in the biological
realm that of evolution and heredity etc., and in the
moral world that of immortality of deeds. Sanskara,
when used as an equivalent of karma, corresponds to
this concrete signification of it, as it is the case in
the Twelve Chains of Dependence (Niddnas, or Pra-
tydyasamutpdda).1 Here it follows ignorance (avidyd)
and precedes consciousness (vijndna). Ignorance in
this case means simply privation of enlightenment,
and does not imply any sense of activity which is
expressed in Sanskara. It is only when it is coupled
with the latter that it becomes the principle of activity,
and creates as its first offspring consciousness or
mentality. In fact, ignorance and blind activity are
one, their logical difference being this : the former
emphasises the epistemological phase and the latter
the ethical ; or, we might say, one is statical and the
other dynamical. If we are to draw a comparison
between the first four of the Twelve Nidanas and
the several processes of evolution that takes place in
the Tathagata-garbha as described above, we can take
Ignorance and the principle of blind activity, san-

1 The Twelve Nidanas are: (t) Ignorance (avidyd), (2) action
(sanskara), (3) Consciousness (vijnana), (4) Name-and-form
(ndmarupa), (5) Six Sense-organs (dyatana), (6) Contact (spared),
(7) Sensation (vedana), (8) Desire (trsnd), (9) Attachment
(updddna), (10) Procreation (bhdva), (n) birth (jati), (12) Old
Age, Death, etc. (jar&, marana, coka, etc.)

CHAPTER VIH. 1 83
skara, in the Twelve Chains as corresponding to
the All-conserving Soul (dlayavyndna), and the Vijnana,
consciousness of the Twelve Chains, to the Manovijfiana,
and the Namarupa to this visible world, visaya, in
which the principle of karma works in its concrete form.
As we have a special chapter devoted to "Ignorance"
as an equivalent of karma in its abstract sense, let
us here treat of the Buddhist conception of karma in
the realm of names and forms, i. e. of karma in its
concrete sense. But we shall restrict ourselves to the
activity of karmaic causation in the moral world, as
we are not concerned with physics or biology.
The Working of Karma. "
The Buddhist conception of karma briefly 'stated
is this : Any act, good or evil, once committed and
conceived, never vanishes like a bubble in water, but
lives, potentially or actively as the case may be, in
the world of minds and deeds. This mysterious moral
energy, so to speak, is embodied in and emanates from
every act and thought, for it does not matter whether
it is actually performed, or merely conceived in the
mind. When the time comes, it is sure to germinate
and grow with all its vitality. Says Buddha:
"Karma even after the lapse of a hundred kalpas,
Will not be lost nor destroyed;
As soon as all the necessary conditions are ready,
Its fruit is sure to ripe." '
1 From a Chinese Mahayana sutra.

I84 CHAPTER VIII.
Again,
"Whatever a man does, the same he in himself will find,
The good man, good: and evil he that evil has designed;
And so our deeds are all like seeds, and bring forth fruit
in kind." *
A grain of wheat, it is said, which was accidentally
preserved in good condition in a tomb more than a
thousand years old, did not lose its germinating energy,
and, when planted with proper care, it actually started
to sprout. So with karma, it is endowed with an
enormous vitality, nay, it is even immortal. However
remote the time of their commission might have been,
the karma of our deeds never dies ; it must work
out its own destiny at whatever cost, if not overcome
by some counteracting force. The law of karma is
irrefragable. The irrefragability of karma means that the law of
causation is supreme in our moral sphere just as much
as in the physical, that life consists in a concatenation
of causes and effects regulated by the principle of
karma, that nothing in the life of an individual or
a nation or a race happens without due cause and
sufficient reason, that is, without previous karma. The
Buddhists, therefore, do not believe in any special
act of grace or revelation in our religious realm and
moral life. The idea of deus ex machina is banned
in Buddhism. Whatever is suffered or enjoyed morally
in our present life is due to the karma, accumulated
1 The Pali Jataka, no. 222. Translation by W. H. Rouse.

CHAPTER VIII. I85
since the beginning of life on earth. Nothing sown,
nothing reaped.
Whatever has been done leaves an ineffable mark
in the individual's life and even in that of the universe ;
and this mark will never be erased save by sheer
exhaustion of the karma or by the interruption of
an overwhelming counter-karma. In case the karma
of an act is not actualised during one's own life-time,
it will in that of one's successors, who may be phys
ical or spiritual. Not only "the evil that men do
lives after them," but also the good, for it will not be
"interred with their bones," as vulgar minds imagine.
We read in the Samyukta Nikdya, III, 1 — 4 :
"Assailed by death, in life's last throes,
At quitting of this human state,
What is it one can call his own?
What with him take as he goes hence?
What is it follows after him,
And like a shadow ne'er departs ?
"His good deeds and his wickedness,
Whate'er a mortal does while here ;
'Tis this that he can call his own,
This with him take as he goes hence.
This is what follows after him,
And like a shadow ne'er departs.
"Let all, then, noble deeds perform,
A treasure-store for future weal;
For merit gained this life within,
Will yield a blessing in the next." '
1 Warren's Buddhism in Translations, p. 214.

1 86 CHAPTER VIII.
In accordance with this karmaic preservation,
Buddhists do not expect to have their sins expatiated
by other innocent people so long as their own hearts
remain unsoftened as ever. But when the all-embracing
love of Buddhas for all sentient beings kindles even
the smallest spark of repentance and enlightenment
in the. heart of a sinner, and when this ever-vacillating
light grows to its full magnitude under propitious
conditions, the sinner gets fully awakened from the
evil karma of eons, and enters, free from all curses,
into the eternity of Nirvana.
Karma and Social Injustice.
The doctrine of karma is very frequently utilised
by some Buddhists to explain a state of things which
must be considered cases of social injustice.
There are some people who are- born rich and
noble and destined to enjoy all forms of earthly
happiness and all the advantages of social life, though
they have done nothing that justifies them in luxu
riating in such a fashion any more than their poor
neighbors. These people, however, are declared by
some pseudo-Buddhists to be merely harvesting the
crops of good karma they had prepared in their
former lives. On the other hand, the poor, needy,
and low that are struggling to eke out a mere ex
istence in spite of their moral rectitude and honest
industry, are considered to be suffering the evil
karma which had been accumulated during their
previous lives. The law of moral retribution is never

CHAPTER VIII. I87
suspended, as they reason, on account of the changes
which may take place in a mortal being. An act,
good or evil, once performed, will not be lost in the
eternal succession and interaction of incidents, but
will certainly find the sufferer of its due consequence,
and it does not matter whether the actor has gone
through the vicissitudes of birth and death. For the
Buddhist conception of individual identity is not that
of personal continuity, but of karmaic conservation.
Whatever deeds we may commit, they invariably
bear their legitimate fruit and follow us even after
death. Therefore, if the rich and noble neglect to do
their duties or abandon themselves to the enjoyment
of sensual pleasures, then they are sure in their
future births, if not in their present life, to gather
the crops they have thus unwittingly prepared for
themselves. The poor, however hard their lot in this
life, can claim their rightful rewards, if they do not
get despaired of their present sufferings and give
themselves up to temptations, but dutifully continue
to do things good and meritorious. Because as their
present fate is the result of their former deeds, so
will be their future fortune the fruit of their present
deeds. This view as held by some pseudo-Buddhists gives
us a wrong impression about the practical working
of the principle of karma in this world of namarupas,
for it tries to explain by karmaic theory the phe
nomena which lie outside of the sphere of its appli
cability. As I understand, what the theory of karma

188 CHAPTER VIII.
proposes to explain is not cases of social injustice
and economic inequality, but facts of moral causation.
The overbearing attitude of the rich and the noble,
the unnecessary sufferings of the poor, the over-pro
duction of criminals, and suchlike social phenomena
arise from the imperfection of our present social or
ganisation, which is based upon the doctrine of abso
lute private ownership. People are allowed to amass
wealth unlimitedly for their own use and to bequeath
it to the successors who do not deserve it in any way.
And they do not pay regard to the injuries this
system may incur upon the general welfare of the
community to which they belong, and upon other
members individually. The rich might have slaughtered
economically and consequently politically and morally
millions of their brethren before they could reach
places of social eminence they now occupy and enjoy
to its full extent. They might have sacrificed hundreds
of thousands of victims on the altar of Mammon in
order to carry out their vast scheme of self-aggran
disement. And, what is worse, the wealth thus accu
mulated by an individual is allowed by the law to be
handed down to his descendants, who are in a sense
the parasitic members of the community. They are
privileged to live upon the sweat and blood of oth
ers, who know not where to lay their heads, and
who are daily succumbing to the heavy burden, not
of their free choice, but forced upon them by society.
Let us here closely see into the facts. There is one
portion of society that does almost nothing toward

CHAPTER VIII. I89
the promotion of the general welfare, and there is
another portion that, besides carrying the burden not
of its own, is heroically struggling for bare existence.
These sad phenomena which, owing to the imperfec
tion of social organisation, we daily witness about
us, — should we attribute them to diversity of indivi
dual karma and make individuals responsible for what
is really due to the faulty organisation of the com
munity to which they belong ? No, the doctrine of
karma certainly must not be understood to explain
the cause of our social and economical imperfection.
The region where the law of karma is made to
work supreme is our moral world, and cannot be
made to extend also over our economic field. Poverty
is not necessarily the consequence of evil deeds, nor
is plenitude that of good acts. Whether a person is
affluent or needy is mostly determined by the prin
ciple of economy as far as our present social system
is concerned. Morality and economy are two different
realms of human activity. Honesty and moral recti
tude do not necessarily guarantee well-being. Dishon
esty and the violation of the moral law, on the con
trary, are very frequently utilised as handmaids of
material prosperity. Do we not thus see many good,
conscientious people around us who are wretchedly
poverty-stricken ? Shall we take them as suffering the
curse of evil karma in their previous lives, when we
can understand the fact perfectly well as a case of
social injustice ? It is not necessary by any means,
nay, it is even productive of evil, to establish a rela-

I90 CHAPTER VIII.
tion between the two. things that in the nature of
their being have no causal dependence. Karma ought
not to be made accountable for economic inequality.
A virtuous man is contented with his cleanliness
of conscience and purity of heart. Obscure as is his
present social position, and miserable as are his present
pecuniary conditions, he has no mind to look back
ward and find the cause of his social insignificance
there, nor is he anxious about his future earthly
fortune which might be awaiting him when his kar
maic energy appears in a new garment. His heart is
altogether free from such vanities and anxieties. He
is sufficent unto himself as he is here and now. And,
as to his altruistic aspect of his moral deeds, he is well
conscious that their karma would spiritually benefit
everybody that gets inspired by it, and also that it
would largely contribute to the realisation of good
ness on this earth. Why, then, must we contrive such
a poor theory of karma as is maintained by some,
in order that they might give him a spiritual solace
for his material misfortune?
Vulgar people are too eager to see everything and
every act they perform working for the accumulation
of earthly wealth and the promotion of material
welfare. They would want to turn even moral deeds
which have no relation to the economic condition of
life into the opportunities to attain things mundane
They would desire to have the law of karmaic causation
applied to a realm, where prevails an entirely different
set of laws. In point of fact, what proceeds from

CHAPTER VIII. igi
meritorious deeds is spiritual bliss only, — contentment,
tranquillity of mind, meekness of heart, and immova
bility of faith, — all the heavenly treasures which
could not be corrupted by moth or rust. And what
more can the karma of good deeds bring to us ? And
what more would a man of pious heart desire to
gain from his being good? "Take no thought for
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body more than
raiment?" Let us then do away with the worldly
interpretation of karma, which is so contrary to the
spirit of Buddhism.
As long as we live under the present state of
things, it is impossible to escape the curse of social
injustice and economic inequality. Some people must
be born rich and noble and enjoying a superabundance
of material wealth, while others must be groaning
under the unbearable burden imposed upon them by
cruel society. Unless we make a radical change in
our present social organisation, we cannot expect
every one of us to enjoy equal opportunity and fair
chance. Unless we have a certain form of socialism
installed which is liberal and rational and systematic,
there must be some who are economically more
favored than others. But this state of affairs is a
phenomenon of worldly institution and is doomed
to die away sooner or later. The law of karma, on
the contrary, is an eternal ordinance of the will of
the Dharmakaya as manifested in this world of

192 CHAPTER VIII
particulars. We must not confuse a transient accident
of human society with an absolute decree issued from
the world-authority. An Individualistic View of Karma.
There is another popular misconception concerning
the doctrine of karma, which seriously mars the true
interpretation of Buddhism. I mean by this an individual
istic view of the doctrine. This view asserts that
deeds, good or evil, committed by a person determine
only his own fate, no other's being affected thereby
in any possible way, and that the reason why we
should refrain from doing wrong is: for we, and not
others, have to suffer its evil consequences. This
conception of karma which I call individualistic,
presupposes the absolute reality of an individual soul
and its continuance as such in a new corporeal exist
ence which is made possible by its previous karma.
Because an individual soul is here understood as
an independent unit, which stands in no relation
to others, and which therefore neither does influence
nor is influenced by them in any wise. All that is
done by oneself is suffered by oneself only and no
other people have anything to do with it, nor do
they suffer a whit thereby.
Buddhism, however, does not advocate this indivi
dualistic interpretation of karmaic law, for it is not
in accord with the theory of non-atman, nor with
that of Dharmakaya.
According to the orthodox theory, karma simply
means the conservation or immortality of the inner

CHAPTER VIII. 193
force of deeds regardless of their author's physical
identity. Deeds once committed, good or evil, leave
permanent effects on the general system of sentient
beings, of which the actor is merely a component
part ; and it is not the actor himself only, but every
body constituting a grand psychic community called
"Dharmadhatu" (spiritual universe), that suffers or
enjoys the outcome of a moral deed.
Because the universe is not a theatre for one par
ticular soul only; on the contrary, it belongs to all
sentient beings, each forming a psychic unit; and
these units are so intimately knitted together in blood
and soul that the effects of even apparently trifling
deeds committed by an individual are felt by others
just as much and just as surely as the doer himself.
Throw an insignificant piece of stone into a vast expanse
of water, and it will certainly create an almost
endless series of ripples, however imperceptible, that
never stop till they reach the furthest shore. The
tremulation thus caused is felt by the sinking stone
as much as the water disturbed. The universe that
may seem to crude observers merely as a system
of crass physical forces is in reality a great spiritual
community, and every one of sentient beings forms
its component part. This most complicated, most
subtle, most sensitive, and best organised mass of
spiritual atoms transmits its current of moral elec
tricity from one particle to another with utmost ra
pidity and surety. Because this community is at bottom
an expression of one Dharmakaya. However diversified '3

194 CHAPTER VIII.
and dissimilar it may appear in its material individual
aspect, it is after all no more than an evolution of
one pervading essence, in which the multitudinousness
of things finds its unity and identity. Therefore, it
is for the interests of the community at large, and
not for their own welfare only, that sincere Buddhists
refrain from transgressing moral laws and are encour
aged to promote goodness. Those whose spiritual
insight thus penetrates deep into the inner unity and
interaction of all human souls are called Bodhisattvas.
It is with this spirit, let me repeat, that pious
Buddhists do not wish to keep for themselves any
merits created by their acts of love and benevolence,
but wish to turn them over (parivarla) to the de
liverance of all sentient creatures from the darkness
of ignorance. The most typical way of concluding
any religious treatise by Buddhists, therefore, runs
generally in the following manner :
"The deep significance of the three karmas as taught by
Buddha.
I have thus completed elucidating in accord with the Dharma
and logic:
By dint of this merit I pray to deliver all sentient beings
And to make them soon attain to perfect enlightenment," '
Or,
"All the merits arising from this my exposition
May abide and be universally distributed among all beings ;
And may they ascend in the scale of existence and
increase in bliss and wisdom,
1 On the Completion of Karma, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, No. 1222.

CHAPTER VIII. I95
And soon attain to an enlightenment supreme, perfect,
great, and far-reaching." '
The reason why a moral deed performed by one
person would contribute to the attainment by others
of supreme enlightenment, is that souls which are
ordinarily supposed to be individual and independent
of others are not so in fact, but are very closely
intermingled with one another, so that a stir produced in
one is sooner or later transmitted to another influencing
it rightfully or wrongfully. The karmaic effect of my
own deed determines not only my own future, but
to a not little extent that of others; hence those
invocations just quoted by pious Buddhists who desire
to dedicate all the merits they can attain to the
general welfare of the masses.
The ever-increasing tendency of humanity to widen
and facilitate communication in every possible way is
a phenomenon illustrative of the intrinsic oneness of
human souls. Isolation kills, for it is another name for
death. Every soul that lives and grows desires to embrace
others, to be in communion with them, to be sup
plemented by them, and to expand infinitely so that
all individual souls are brought together and united
in the one soul. Under this condition only a man's
karma is enabled to influence other people, and his
merits can be utilised for the promotion of general
enlightenment

The Distinguishing of the Mean, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, 1248.

I56 CHAPTER VIII.
Karma and Determinism.
If the irrefragability of karma means the predeter
mination of our moral life, some would reason, the
doctrine is fatalism pure and simple It is quite true
that our present life is the result of the karma
accumulated in our previous existences, and that as
long as the karma preserves its vitality there is no
chance whatever to escape its consequences, good or
evil. It is also true that as the meanest sparrow shall
not fall on the ground without the knowledge of God,
and as the very hairs of our heads are all numbered
by him, so even a single blade of grass does not
quiver before the evening breeze without the force of
karma. It is also true that if our intellect were not
near-sighted as it is, we could reduce a possible
complexity of the conditions under which our life
exists into its simplest terms, and thus predict with
mathematical precision the course of a life through
which it is destined to pass. If we could record all
our previous karma from time immemorial and all its
consequences both on ourselves and on those who
come in contact with us, there would be no difficulty
in determining our future life with utmost certainty.
The human intellect, however, as it happens, is
incapable of undertaking a work of such an enormous
magnitude, we cannot perceive the full significance of
determinism; but, from the divine point of view,
determinism seems to be perfectly justified, for there
cannot be any short-sightedness on the part of a
world-soul as to the destiny of the universe, which

CHAPTER VIII. 197
is nothing but its own expression. It is only from the
human point of view that we feel uncertain about our
final disposition and endeavor to explain existence now
from a mechanical, now from a teleological standpoint,
and yet, strange enough, at the bottom of our soul we feel
that there is something mysterious here which makes us
cry, either in despair or in trustful resignation, "Let
thy will be done." While this very confidence in "thy
will" proves that we have in our inmost consciousness
and outside the pale of intellectual analysis a belief
in the supreme order, which is absolutely preordained
and which at least is not controllable by our finite, limi
ted, fragmentary mind, yet the doctrine of karma must
not be understood in the strictest sense of fatalism.
As far as a general theory of determinism is concerned,
Buddhism has no objection to it. Grant that there is
a law of causation, that every deed, actualised or
thought of, leaves something behind, and that this
something becomes a determining factor for our future
life ; then how could we escape the conclusion that
"each of us is inevitable" as Whitman sings ? Religi
ous confidence in a divine will that is supposed to give
us always the best of things, is in fact no more than
a determinism. But if, in applying the doctrine to our
practical life, we forget to endeavor to unfold all the
possibilities that might lie in us, but could be awa
kened only after strenuous efforts, there will be no
moral characters, no personal responsibility, no noble
aspirations ; the mind will be nothing but a reflex
nervous system and life a sheer machinery.

I98 CHAPTER VIII.
In fact karma is not a machine which is not inca
pable of regeneration and self-multiplication. Karma
is a wonderful organic power; it grows, it expands,
and even gives birth to a new karma. It is like unto
a grain of mustard, the least of all seeds, but,
being full of vitality, it grows as soon as it comes
in contact with the nourishing soil and becometh
a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge
in the branches thereof. Its mystery is like that of
sympathetic waves that pass through all the hearts
which feel the great deeds of a hero or listen to the
story of a self-sacrificing mother. Karma, good or evil,
is contagious and sympathetic in its work. Even a most
insignificant act of goodness reaps an unexpectedly
rich crop. Even to the vilest rogue comes a chance
for repentance by dint of a single good karma ever
effected in his life, which has extended through many
a kalpa. And the most wonderful thing in our spiri
tual world is that the karma thus bringing repentance
and Nirvana to the heart of the meanest awakens and
rekindles a similar karma potentially slumbering in other
hearts and leads them to the final abode of enlightenment.
Inasmuch as we confine ourselves to general, super
ficial view of the theory of karma, it leads to a form of
determinism, but in our practical life which is a product
of extremely complicated factors, the doctrine of karma
allows in us all kinds of possibilities and all chances
of development. We thus escape the mechanical con
ception of life, we are saved from the despair of pre
determination, though this is true to a great extent ;

CHAPTER VIII. 199
and we are assured of the actualisation of hopes,
however remote it may be. Though the curse of evil
karma may sometimes hang upon us very heavily,
there is no reason to bury our aspirations altogether
in the grave ; on the contrary, let us bear it bravely
and perform all the acts of goodness to destroy the
last remnant of evil and to mature the stock of
good karma.
The Maturing of Good Stock (kugalamula) an d the
Accumulation of merits (punyaskandka).
One of the most significant facts, which we cannot
well afford to ignore while treating of the doctrine
of karma, is the Buddhist belief that Cakyamuni
reached his supreme Buddhahood only after a long
practise of the six virtues of perfection (pdramitds)
through many a rebirth. This belief constitutes the
very foundation of the ethics of Buddhism and has
all-important bearings on the doctrine of karma.
The doctrine of karma ethically considered is this :
Sentient beings can attain to perfection not by an
intervention from on high, but through long, steady,
unflinching personal efforts towards the actualisation
of ideals, or, in other words, towards the maturing
of good stock (kugalamula) and the accumulation of
of merits (punyaskandka). This can be accomplished
only through the karma of good deeds untiringly
practised throughout many a generation. Each single
act of goodness we perform to-day is recorded with

200 CHAPTER VIII.
strict accuracy in the annals of human evolution
and is so much the gain for the cause of righteousness.
On the contrary, every deed of ill-will, every thought
of self-aggrandisement, every word1 of impurity, every
assertion of egoism, is a drawback to the perfection
of humanity. To speak concretely, the Buddha repre
sents the crystalisation in the historical person of
Cakyamuni of all the good karma that was accumulated
in innumerable kalpas previous to his birth. And if
Devadatta, as legend has him, was really the enemy
of the Buddha, he symbolises in him the evil karma
that was being stored up with the good deeds of
all Buddhas. Later Buddhism has thus elaborated to
represent in these two historical figures the concrete
results of good and evil karma, and tries to show
in what direction its followers should exercise their
spiritual energy.
The doctrine of karma is, therefore, really the theory
of evolution and heredity as working in our moral
field. As Walt Whitman fitly sings, in every one of
us, "converging objects of the universe" are perpet
ually flowing, through every one of us is "afflatus
surging and surging — the current and index." And
these converging objects and this afflatus are no more
than our karma which is interwoven in our being
and which is being matured from the very beginning
of consciousness upon the earth. Each generation
either retards or furthers the maturing of karma and
transmits to the succeeding one its stock either impaired
or augmented. Those who are blind enough not to

CHAPTER VIII. 201
see the significance of life, those who take their ego
for the sole reality, and those who ignore the spiritual
inheritance accumulated from time immemorial, — are
the most worthless, most ungrateful, and most irres
ponsible people of the world. Buddhism calls them
the children of Mara engaged in the work of destruction.
Dr. G. R. Wilson of Scotland states a very pretty
story about a royal robe in his article on "The Sense
of Danger" (The Monist, 1903, April), which graphi
cally illustrates how potential karma stored from time
out of mind is saturated in every fibre of our subliminal
consciousness or in the Alayavijnana, as Buddhists
might say. The story runs as follows :
"An Oriental robe it was, whose beginning was in
a prehistoric dynasty of which the hieroglyphics are
undecipherable. With that pertinacity and durability
so characteristic of the East, this royal garment has
been handed down, not through hundreds of years,
but through hundreds of generations, — generations,
some of them, unconsciously long and stale and dreary ;
others short and quick and merry. A garment of kings,
this, and of queens, a garment to which, as tradition
prescribed, each monarch added something of quality, — a
jewel of price, a patch of gold, a hem of rich
embroidery, — and with each contribution a legend,
worked into the imperishable fibre, told the story of
the giver. Did something of the personality of these
kings and queens linger in the work of their hands?
If so, the robe was no dead thing, no mere covering
to be lightly assumed or lightly laid aside, but a living

202 CHAPTER VIH.
power, royal influence, and the wearer, all unwitting,
must have taken on something of the character of
the dead. It is a princess of the royal blood, perhaps,
sensitive and mystical, trembling on the apprehensive
verge of monarchy, who dons the robe, and as she
dons it, tingles to its message. These great rubies that
blaze upon its front are the souvenirs of bloody con
querors. As she fingers them idly, she is thrilled with an
emotion she does not understand, for in her blood
something answers to the fighting spirit they embody.
Pearls are for peace. That rope has been strung by
kings and queens who favored art and learning; and
as the girl's fingers stray towards them the inspiration
changes and her mind reverts to the purposes of
the civilised scholar. Here is a gaudy hem, the
legacy of an unfaithful queen, steeped in intrigue
all her life until her murder ended 'it; and as
the maiden lifts it to examine it more closely, she
learns with shame and blushes, yet not knowing what
has wrought this change in her, that, deep down in
her character, are mischievous possibilities, possibilities
of wickedness and disgrace that will dog the footsteps
of her reign. Suchlike are the suggestions which the
hidden parts of the mind bring forth, and in such
subtle manner are they born."
The doctrine of karma thus declares that an act
of love and good-will you are performing here is
not for your selfish interests, but it simply means
the appreciation of the works of your worthy
ancestors and the discharge of your duties towards

CHAPTER VIII. 203
all humanity and your contribution to the world-treasury
of moral ideals. Mature good stock, accumulate merits,
purify evil karma, remove the ego-hindrance, and
cultivate love for all beings; and the heavenly gate
of Nirvana will be opened not only to you, but to
the entire world.
We can sing with Walt Whitman the immortality
of karma and the eternal progress of humanity, thus :
"Did you guess anything lived only its moment?
The world does not so exist — no part palpable or impal
pable so exist;
No consummation exists without being from some long
previous consummation — and that from some other,
Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer
the beginning than any." '
Immortality
We read in the Milinda-panha:
"Your Majesty, it is as if a man were to ascend
to the story of a house with a light, and eat there
and the light in burning were to set fire to the thatch
and the thatch in burning were to set fire to the house
and the house in burning were to set fire to the vil
lage ; and the people of the village were to seize him,
and say, 'Why, O man, did you set fire to the village ?'
and he were to say, 'I did not set fire to the village.
The fire of the lamp by whose light I ate was a
different one from the one which set fire to the village' ;
'"Manhattan's Streets I Saunter'd, Pondering." I might have
quoted the whole poem, if not for limitation of space.

204 CHAPTER VIII.
and they, quarreling, were to come to you. Whose
cause, Your Majesty, would you sustain?"
"That of the people of the village, Reverend Sir," etc.
"And why?"
"Because, in spite of what the man might say, the
latter fire sprang from the former."
"In exactly the same way, Your Majesty, although
the name and form which is born into the next exist
ence is different from the name and form which is
to end at death, nevertheless, it is sprung from it.
Therefore is one not freed from one's evil deeds."
The above is the Buddhist notion of individual
identity and its conservation, which denies the immor
tality of the ego-soul and upholds that of karma.
Another good way, perhaps, of illustrating this
doctrine is to follow the growth and perpetuation of
the seed. The seed is in fact a concrete expression of
karma. When a plant reaches a certain stage of de
velopment, it blooms and bears fruit. This fruit con
tains in it a latent energy which under favorable con
ditions grows to a mature plant of its own kind. The
new plant now repeats the processes which its prede
cessors went through, and an eternal perpetuation
of the plant is attained. The life of an individual plant
cannot be permanent according to its inherent nature,
it is destined to be cut short some time in its course.
But this is not the case with the current of an ever-lasting
vitality that has been running in the plant ever since the
beginning of the world. Because this current is not
individual in its nature and stands above the vicissi-

CHAPTER VIII. 205
tudes which take place in the life of particular plants.
It may not be manifested in its kinetic form all the
time, but potentially it is ever present in the being
of the seed. Changes are simply a matter of form,
and do not interfere with the current of life in the
plant, which is preserved in the universe as the energy
of vegetation.
This energy of vegetation is that which is manifest
ed in a mature plant, that which makes it blossom
in the springtime, that which goes to seed, that which
lies apparently dormant in the seeds, and that which
resuscitates them to sprout among favorable surround
ings. This energy of vegetation, this mysterious force,
when stated in Buddhist phraseology, is nothing else
than the vegetative expression of karma, which in
the biological world constitutes the law of heredity,
or the transmission of acquired character, or some
other laws which might be discovered by the biolo
gist And it is when this force manifests itself in the
moral realm of human affairs that karma obtains its
proper significance as the law of moral causation.
Now, there are several forms of transmission, by
means of which the karma of a person or a people
or a nation or a race is able to perpetuate itself
to eternity. A few of them are described below.
One may be called genealogical, or, perhaps, biolo
gical. Suppose here are descendants of an illustrious
family, some of whose ancestors distinguished them
selves by bravery, or benevolence, or intelligence, or
by some other praiseworthy deeds or faculties. These

206 CHAPTER VIII.
people are as a rule respected by their neighbors as
if their ancestral spirits were transmitted through
generations and still lingering among their consan
guineous successors. Some of them in the line might
have even been below the normal level in their
intellect and morals, but this fact does not altogether
nullify the possibility and belief that others of their
family might some day develop the faculties possessed
by the forefathers, dormant as they appear now,
through the inspiration they could get from the noble
examples of the past. The respect they are enjoying
and the possibility of inspiration they may have are
all the work of the karma generated by the ancestors.
The author or authors of the noble karma are all
gone now, their bones have long returned to their
elements, their ego-souls are no more, their concrete
individual personalities are things of the past ; but
their karma is still here and as fresh as it was on
the day of its generation and will so remain till the
end of time. If some of them, on the other hand,
left a black record behind them, the evil karma will
tenaciously cling to the history of the family, and
the descendants will have to suffer the curse as long
as its vitality is kept up, no matter how innocent
they themselves are.
Here one important thing I wish to note is the
mysterious way in which evil karma works. Evil does
not always generate evils only ; it very frequently
turns out to be a condition, if not a cause, which
will induce a moral being to overcome it with his

CHAPTER VIII. 207
utmost spiritual efforts. His being conscious of the
very fact that his family history is somehow besmirch
ed with dark spots, would rekindle in his heart a
flickering light of goodness. His stock of good karma
finally being brought into maturity, his virtues would
then eclipse the evils of the past and turn a new
page before him, which is full of bliss and glory.
Everything in this world, thus, seems to turn to be
merely a means for the final realisation of Good.
Buddhists ascribe this spiritual phenomenon to the
virtues of the upaya (expediency) of the Dharmakaya
or Amitabha Buddha. i
To return to the subject. It does not need any
further illustration to show that all these things which
have been said about the family are also true of
the race, the tribe, clan, nation, or any other form
of community. History of mankind in all its manifold
aspects of existence is nothing but a grand drama
visualising the Buddhist doctrine of karmaic immortality.
It is like an immense ocean whose boundaries nobody
knows and the waves of events now swelling and
surging, now ebbing, now whirling, now refluxing,
in all times, day and night, illustrate how the laws

1 If we understand the following words of Tolstoi in the
light which we gain from the Buddhist doctrine of karmaic
immortality, we shall perhaps find more meaning in them
than the author himself wished to impart: "My brother who
is dead acts upon me now more strongly than he did in life ;
he even penetrates my being and lifts me up towards him."

208 CHAPTER VIII.
of karma are at work in this actual life. One act
provokes another and that a third and so on to
eternity without ever losing the chain of karmaic
causation. Next, we come to a form of karma which might
be called historical. By this I mean that a man's
karma can be immortalised by some historical objects,
such as buildings, literary works, productions of art,
implements, or instruments. In fact, almost any object,
human or natural, which, however insignificant in
itself, is associated with the memory of a great man,
bears his karma, and transmits it to posterity.
Everybody is familiar with the facts that all literary
work embodies in itself the author's soul and spirit,
and that posterity can feel his living presence in the
thoughts and sentiments expressed there, and that
whenever the reader draws his inspiration from the
work and actualises it in action, the author and the
reader, though corporeally separate and living in
different times, must be said spiritually feeling the
pulsation of one and the same heart. And the same
thing is true of productions of art. When we enter
a gallery decorated with the noble works of Graecean
or Roman artists, we feel as if we were breathing
right in the midst of these art-loving people and
seem to reawaken in us the same impressions that •
were received by them. We forget, as they did, the
reality of our particular existence, we are unconsciously
raised above it, and our imagination is filled with
things not earthly. What a mysterious power it is !— the

CHAPTER VIII. 209
power by which those inanimate objects carry us
away to a world of ideals ! What a mysterious power
it is that reawakens the spirits of by-gone artists on
a sheet of canvas or in a piece of marble ! It was
not indeed entirely without truth that primitive or
ignorant people intuitively believed in the spiritual
power of idols. What they failed to grasp was the
distinction between the subjective presence of a spirit
and its objective reality. As far as their religious
feeling, and not their critical intellect, was concerned,
they were perfectly justified in believing in idolatry.
Taking all in all, these facts unmistakably testify the
Buddhist doctrine of the immortality of karma. A
chord of karma touched by mortals of bygone ages
still vibrates in their works, and the vibration with
its full force is transmitted to the sympathetic souls
down to the present day.
Architectural creations bear out the doctrine of
karma with no less force than works of art and literature.
As the uppermost bricks on an Egyptian pyramid
would fall on the ground with the same amount of
energy that required to raise them up in the times
of Pharaohs ; as a burning piece of coal in the furnace
that was dug out from the heart of the earth emits
the same quantity of heat that it absorbed from the
sun some hundred thousand years ago ; even so every
insignificant bit of rock or brick or cement we may find
among the ruins of Babylonian palaces, Indian topes,
Persian kiosks, Egyptian obelisks, or Roman pantheons,
is fraught with the same spirit and soul that actuated 14

2IO CHAPTER VIII.
the ancient peoples to construct those gigantic archi
tectural wonders. The spirit is here, not in its indivi
dual form, but in its karmaic presence. When we pick
these insignificant, unseemly pieces, our souls become
singularly responsive to inspirations coming from
those of the past, and our mental eyes vividly perceive
the splendor of the gods, glory of the kings, peace
of the nation, prosperity of the peoples, etc., etc.
Because our souls and theirs are linked with the
chain of karmaic causation through the medium of
those visible remains of ancient days. Because the
karma of those old peoples is still breathing its immor
tality in those architectural productions and sending
its sympathetic waves out to the beholders. When
thus we come to be convinced of the truth of the
immortality of karma, we can truly exclaim with
Christians, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave,
where is thy victory?"
It is hardly necessary to give any further illustration
to establish the doctrine of karma concerning its
historical significance. All scientific apparatus and
instruments are an undying eye-witness of the genius
of the inventors. All industrial machines and agricultural
implements most concretely testify the immortality of
karma created by the constructors, in exact proportion
as they are beneficial to the general welfare and
progress of humanity. The instruments or machines or
implements may be superseded by later and better
ones, and possibly altogether forgotten by succeeding
generations, but this does not annul the fact that the

CHAPTER VIII. 211
improved ones were only possible through the knowl
edge and experience which came from the use of
the older ones, in other words, that the ideas and
thoughts of the former inventors are still surviving
through those of their successors, just as much as in
the case of genealogical karma-transmission. Whatever
garb the karma of a person may wear in its way
down to posterity, it is ever there where its inspira
tion is felt. Even in an article of most trivial
significance, even in a piece of rag, or in a slip of
time-worn paper, only let there be an association
with the memory of the deceased ; and an unutterable
feeling imperceptibly creeps into the heart of the
beholder; and if the deceased were known for his
saintliness or righteousness, this would be an opportunity
for our inspiration and moral elevation according to
how our own karma at that moment is made up.
We now come to see more closely the spiritual
purport of karmaic activity. Any intelligent reader
could infer from what has been said above what
important bearing the Buddhist doctrine of karma has
on our moral and spiritual life. The following remarks,
however, will greatly help him to understand the full
extent of the doctrine and to pass an impartial judgment
on its merits.
Here, if not anywhere else, looms up most con
spicuously the characteristic difference between Bud
dhism and Christianity as to their conception of
soul-activity. Christianity, if I understand it rightly,
conceives our soul-phenomena as the work of an

212 CHAPTER VIII.
individual ego-entity, which keeps itself mysteriously
hidden somewhere within the body. To Christians,
the soul is a metaphysical being, and its incarnation
in the flesh is imprisonment. It groans after emanci
pation, it craves for the celestial abode, where, after
bodily death, it can enjoy all the blessings due to its
naked existence. It finds the nectar of immortality
up in Heaven and in the presence of God the father
and Christ the son, and not in the perpetuation of
karma in this universe. The soul of the wicked, on
the other hand, is eternally damned, if it is conceded
that they have any soul. As soon as it is liberated
from the bodily incarceration, it is hurled into the
infernal fire, and is there consumed suffering un
speakable agony. Christianity, therefore, does not
believe in the transmigration or reincarnation of a
soul. A soul once departed from the flesh never
returns to it; it is either living an eternal life in
Heaven or suffering an instant annihilation in Hell.
This is the necessary conclusion from their premises
of an individual concrete ego-soul.
Buddhism, however, does not teach the metaphysical
existence of the soul. All our mental and spiritual
experiences, it declares, are due to the operations of
karma which inherits its efficiency from its previous
"seeds of activity" (karmabija), and which has brought
the five skandhas into the present state of co-ordination.
The present karma, while in its force, generates in
turn the "seeds of activity" which under favorable
conditions grow to maturity again. Therefore, as long

CHAPTER VIII. 213
as the force of karma is thus successively generated,
there are the five skandhas constantly coming into
existence and working co-ordinately as a person.
Karma-reproduction, so to speak, effected in this
manner, is the Buddhist conception of the transmi
gration of a soul.
A Japanese national hero, General Kusunoki Masa-
shige, who was an orthodox Buddhist, is said to have
uttered the following words when he fell in the
battle-field : "I will be reborn seven times yet and
complete discharging my duties for the Imperial
House." And he did not utter these words to no
purpose. Because even to-day, after the lapse of more
than seven hundred years, his spirit is still alive among
his countrymen, and indeed his bronze statue on horse
back is solemnly guarding the Japanese Imperial
palace. He was reborn more than seven times and will
be reborn as long as the Japanese as a nation exist on
earth. This constant rebirth or reincarnation means
no more nor less than the immortality of karma.
Says Buddha : "Ye disciples, take after my death those
moral precepts and doctrines which were taught to
you for my own person, for I live in them." To live
in karma, and not as an ego-entity, is the Buddhist
conception of immortality. Therefore, the Buddhists
will perfectly agree with the sentiment expressed by
a noted modern poet in these lines :
"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not in breaths:
In feelings, not in figures on a dial,
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

214 CHAPTER VIII.
Some may like to call this kind of immortality
unsatisfactory, and impetuously demand that the ego-
soul, instead of mysterious force of karma, should be
made immortal, as it is more tangible and better ap
preciated by the masses. The Buddhist response to
such a demand would be; "If their intellectual and
moral insight is not developed enough to see truth
in the theory of karma, why, we shall let them adhere
as long as they please to their crude, primitive faith
and rest contented with it." Even the Buddha could
not make children find pleasure in abstract meta
physical problems, whatever truth and genuine spiritual
consolation there might be in them. What their hearts
are after are toys and fairy-tales and parables. Therefore,
a motto of Buddhism is : "Minister to the patients
according to their wants and conditions." We cannot
make a plant grow even an inch higher by artificially
pulling its roots ; we have but to wait till it is ready
for development. Unless a child becomes a man, we
must not expect of him to put away childish things.
The conclusion that could be drawn from the above
is obvious If we desire immortality, let there be the
maturing of good karma and the cleansing of the heart
from the contamination of evils. In good karma we
are made to live eternally, but in evil one we are
doomed, not only ourselves but every one that follows
our steps on the path of evils. Karma is always gene
rative ; therefore, good karma is infinite bliss, and evil
one is eternal curse. It was for this reason that at
the appearance of the Buddha in the Jambudvipa

CHAPTER VIII. 215
heaven and earth resounded with the joyous accla
mation of gods and men. It was a signal triumph for
the cause of goodness. The ideal of moral perfection
found a concrete example in the person of Cakyamuni.
It showed how the stock of good karma accumulated
and matured from the beginning of consciousness on
earth could be crystalised in one person and brought
to an actuality even in this world of woes. The
Buddha, therefore, was the culmination of all the good
karma previously stored up by his spiritual ancestors.
And he was at the same time the starting point for
the fermentation of new karma, because his moral
"seeds of activity" which were generated during his
lifetime have been scattered liberally wherever his
virtues and teachings could be promulgated. That is,
his karma-seeds have been sown in the souls of all
sentient beings. Every one of these seeds which
are infinte in number will become a new centre of
moral activity. In proportion how strong it grows and
begins to bear fruit, it destroys the seeds of evil
doers. Good karma is a combined shield and sword,
while it protects itself it destroys all that is against
it. Therefore, good karma is not only statically im
mortal, but it is dynamically so; that is to say, its
immortality is not a mere absence of birth and death,
but a constant positive increase in its moral efficiency.
Pious Buddhists believe that every time Buddha's
name is invoked with a heart free from evil thoughts,
he enters right into the soul and becomes integral
part of his being. This does not mean, however, that

2l6 CHAPTER VIII.
Buddha's ego-substratum which might have been
enjoying its immortal spiritual bliss in the presence
of an anthropomorphic God descends on earth at the
invocation of his name and renders in that capacity
whatever help the supplicant needs. It means, on the
other hand, that the Buddhist awakens in his personal
karma that which constituted Buddhahood in the
Buddha and nourishes it to maturity. That which
constitutes Buddhahood is not the personal ego of
the Buddha, but his karma. Every chemical element,
whenever occasioned to befree itself from a cornbi-
nation, never fails to generate heat which it absorbed
at the time of combination with other elements ; and
this takes place no matter how remote the time of
combination was. It is even so with the karma-seed
of Buddha. It might have been in the barren soil of
a sinful heart, and, being deeply buried there for many
a year, might have been forgotten altogether by the
owner. But, sooner or later, it will never fail to grow
under favorable conditions and generate what it gained
from the Buddha in the beginning of the world. And
this regeneration will not be merely chemical, but
predominantly biological ; for it is the law which
conditions the immortality of karma.

PRACTICAL BUDDHISM.
CHAPTER IX.
THE DHARMAKAYA.
TX7E have considered the doctrine of Suchness
(Bhutatathata) under "Speculative Buddhism,"
where it appeared altogether too abstract to be of
any practical use to our earthly life. The theory as
such did not seem to have any immediate bearings
on our religious consciousness. The fact is, it must
pass through some practical modification before it
fully satisfies our spiritual needs. As there is no
concrete figure in this world that is a perfect type
of mathematical exactitude, — since everything here
must be perceived through our more or less distorted
physical organs ; even so with pure reason : however
perfect in itself, it must appear to us more or less
modified while passing through our affective-intellectual
objectives. This modification of pure reason, however,
is necessary from the human point of view ; because
mere abstraction is contentless, lifeless, and has no
value for our practical life, and again, because our
religious cravings will not be satisfied with empty
concepts lacking vitality.
We may sometimes ignore the claims of reason

2l8 CHAPTER IX.
and rest satisfied, though usually unconsciously,
with assertions which are conflicting when critically
examined, but we cannot disregard by any means
those of the religious sentiment, which finds satisfaction
only in the very fact of things. If it ever harbored
some flagrant contradictions in the name of faith,
it was because its ever-pressing demands had to be
met with even at the expense of reason. The truth
is : the religious consciousness first of all demands
fact, and when it attains that, it is not of much
consequence to it whether or not its intellectual
interpretation is logically tenable. If on the other hand
logic be all-important and demand the first consideration
and the sentiment had to follow its trail without a
murmuring, our life would surely lose its savory
aspect, turn tasteless, our existence would become
void, the world would be a mere succession of
meaningless events, and what remains would be nothing
else than devastation, barreness, and universal misery.
The truth is, in this life the will predominates and
the intellect subserves ; which explains the fact that
while all existing religions on the one hand display
some logical • inaccuracy and on the other hand a
mechanical explanation of the world is gaining ground
more and more, religion is still playing an important
part everywhere in our practical life. Abstraction is
good for the exercises of the intellect, but when it
is the question of life and death we must have
something more substantial and of more vitality than
theorisation. It may not be a mathematically exact

CHAPTER IX. 219
and certain proposition, but it must be a working,
living, real theory, that is, it must be a faith born
of the inmost consciousness of our being.
What practical transformations then has the doctrine
of Suchness, in order to meet the religious demands,
to suffer?
God.
Buddhism does not use the word God. The word
is rather offensive to most of its followers, especially
when it is intimately associated in vulgar minds with
the idea of a creator who produced the world out
of nothing, caused the downfall of mankind, and,
touched by the pang of remorse, sent down his only
son to save the depraved. But, on account of this,
Buddhism must not be judged as an atheism which
endorses an agnostic, materialistic interpretation of
the universe. Far from it. Buddhism outspokenly
acknowledges the presence in the world of a reality
which transcends the limitations of phenomenality,
but which is nevertheless immanent everywhere and
manifests itself in its full glory, and in which we
live and move and have our being.
God or the religious object of Buddhism is generally
called Dharmakaya-Buddha and occasionally Vairocana-
Buddha or Vairocana-Dharmakaya-Buddha ; still an
other name for it is Amitabha-Buddha or Amitayur-
Buddha, — the latter two being mostly used by the
followers of the Sukhavati sect of Japan and China.

220 CHAPTER IX.
Again, very frequently we find Cakyamuni, the Buddha,
and the Tathagata stripped of his historical personality
and identified with the highest truth and reality.
These, however, by no means exhaust a legion of
names invented by the fertile imagination of Buddhists
for their object of reverence as called forth by their
various spiritual needs.
Dharmakaya.
Western scholars usually translate Dharmakaya by
"Body of the Law" meaning by the Law the doctrine
set forth by Cakyamuni the Buddha. It is said that
when Buddha was preparing himself to enter into
eternal Nirvana, he commanded his disciples to revere
the Dharma or religion taught by him as his own
person, because a man continues to live in the work,
deeds, and words left behind himself. So, Dharmakaya
came to be understood by Western scholars as
meaning the person of Buddha incarnated in his
religion. This interpretation of the term is not very
accurate, however, and is productive of some very
serious misinterpretations concerning the fundamental
doctrines of Mahayanism. Historically, the Body of
the Law as the Buddha incarnate might have been
the sense of Dharmakaya, as we can infer from the
occasional use of the term in some Hinayana texts.
But as it is used by Eastern Buddhists, it has acquired
an entirely new significance, having nothing to do
with the body of religious teachings established by
the Buddha.

CHAPTER IX. 221
This transformation in the conception of Dharmakaya
has been effected by the different interpretation the
term Dharma came to receive from the hand of the
Mahayanists. Dharma is a very pregnant word and
covers a wide range of meaning. It comes from the
root dhr, which means "to hold," "to carry", "to
bear," and the primitive sense of dharma was "that
which carries or bears or supports," and then it
came to signify "that which forms the norm, or
regulates the course of things," that is, "law," "in
stitution," "rule," "doctrine," then, "duty," "justice,"
"virtue," "moral merit," "character," "attribute," "essen
tial quality," "substance," "that which exists," "reality,"
"being," etc., etc. The English equivalent most
frequently used for dharma by Oriental scholars is
law or doctrine. This may be all right as far as the
Pali texts go ; but when we wish to apply this inter
pretation to the Mahayana terms, such as Dharmadhatu,
Dharmakaya, Dharmalaksa, Dharmaloka, etc., we are
placed in an awkward position and are at a loss
how to get at the meaning of those terms. There
are passages in Mahayana literature in which the
whole significance of the text depends upon how we
understand the word dharma. And it may even be
said that one of the many reasons why Christian
students of Buddhism so frequently fail to recognise
the importance of Mahayanism is due to their misinter
pretation of dharma. Max Mueller, therefore, rightly
remarks in his introduction to an English translation
of the Vajracchedika Sutra, when he says : "If we

222 CHAPTER IX.
were always to translate dharma by law, it seems to
me that the whole drift of our treatise would become
unintelligible." Not only that particular text of
Mahayanism, but its entire literature would become
utterly incomprehensible.
In Mahayanism Dharma means in many cases "thing,"
"substance," or "being," or "reality," both in its
particular and in its general sense, though it is also
frequently used in the sense of law or doctrine. Kaya
may be rendered "body," not in the sense of personality,
but in that of system, unity, and organised form.
Dharmakaya, the combination of dharma and kaya,
thus means the organised totality of things, or the
principle of cosmic unity, though not as a purely
philosophical concept, but as an object of the religious
consciousness. Throughout this work, however, the
original Sanskrit form will be retained in preference
to any English equivalents that have been used
heretofore ; for Dharmakaya conveys to the minds of
Eastern Buddhists a peculiar religious flavor, which,
when translated by either God or the All or some
abstract philosophical terms, suffers considerably.
Dharmakaya as Religious Object.
As aforesaid, the Dharmakaya is not a product of
philosophical reflection and is not exactly equivalent
to Suchness ; it has a religious signification as the
object of the religious consciousness. The Dharmakaya
is a soul, a willing and knowing being, one that is

CHAPTER IX 223
will and intelligence, thought and action. It is, as
understood by the Mahayanists, not an abstract
metaphysical principle like Suchness, but it is living
spirit, that manifests itself in nature as well as in
thought. The universe as an expression of this spirit
is not a meaningless display of blind forces, nor is it
an arena for the struggle of diverse mechanical powers.
Further, Buddhists ascribe to the Dharmakaya in
numerable merits and virtues and an absolute perfect
intelligence, and makes it an inexhaustible fountain-head
of love and compassion ; and it is in this that the
Dharmakaya finally assumes a totally different aspect
from a mere metaphysical principle, cold and lifeless.
The Avatamsaka Sutra gives some comprehensive
statements concerning the nature of the Dharmakaya
as follows :
"The Dharmakaya, though manifesting itself in the
triple world, is free from impurities and desires. It
unfolds itself here, there, and everywhere responding
to the call of karma. It is not an individual reality,
it is not a false existence, but is universal and pure.
It comes from nowhere, it goes to nowhere ; it does
not assert itself, nor is it subject to annihilation. It
is forever serene and eternal. It is the One, devoid
of all determinations. This Body of Dharma, has no
boundary, no quarters, but is embodied in all bodies.
Its freedom or spontaneity is incomprehensible, its
spiritual presence in things corporeal is incomprehen
sible. All forms of corporeality are involved therein,
it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete

224 CHAPTER IX.
material body as required by the nature and condition
of karma, it illuminates all creations. Though it is the
treasure of intelligence, it is void of particularity.
There is no place in the universe where this Body
does not prevail. The universe becomes, but this
Body forever remains. It is free from all opposites
and contraries, yet it is working in all things to lead
them to Nirvana." More Detailed Characterisation.
The above gives us a general, concise view as to
what the Dharmakaya is, but let me quote the follow
ing more detailed description of it, in order that we
may more clearly and definitely see into the charac
teristically Buddhistic conception of the highest being. i
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! The Tathagata 2 is not a
particular dharma, nor a particular form of activity,
nor has it a particular body, nor does it abide in a
particular place, nor is its work of salvation confined
to one particular people On the contrary, it involves
in itself infinite dharmas, infinite activities, infinite
bodies, infinite spaces, and universally works for the
salvation of all things.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! It is like unto space. Space 3
contains in itself all material existences and all the
vacuums that obtain between them. Again, it establish-
1 The Avatamsaka Sutra, Chinese translation by Buddhabha-
dra, fas. XXXIV.
1 That is the Dharmakaya personified.
3 In Hindu philosophy space is always conceived as an ob
jective entity in which all things exist.

CHAPTER IX. 225
es itself in all possible quarters, and yet we cannot
say of it that it is or it is not in this particular spot,
for space has no palpable form. Even so with the Dhar-
kaya of the Tathagata. It presents itself in all places,
in all directions, in all dharmas, and in all beings;
yet the Dharmakaya itself has not been thereby par
ticularised. Because the Body of the Tathagata has
no particular body but manifests itself everywhere and
anywhere in response to the nature and condition of
things. "O ye, sons of Buddha ! It is like unto space. Space
is boundless, comprehends in itself all existence, and
yet shows no trace of passion [partiality]. It is even
so with the Dharmakaya of the Tathagata. It illumi
nates all good works worldly as well as religious, but
it betrays no passion or prejudice. Why ? Because the
Dharmakaya is perfectly free from all passions and
prejudices. *
"O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto the Sun.
The benefits conferred by the light of the sun upon
all living beings on earth are incalculable : e. g. by
dispelling darkness it gives nourishment to all trees,
herbs, grains, plants, and grass ; it vanquishes humid
ity; it illuminates ether whereby benefitting all the
1 This should be understood in the sense that "God maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust." The Dharmakaya is uni
versal in its love, as space is in its comprehensiveness Because
it is absolutely free from human desires and passions that are
the product of egoism and therefore tend always to be discrim
inative and exclusive. '5

226 CHAPTER IX.
living beings in air ; its rays penetrate into the waters
whereby bringing forth the beautiful lotus- flowers into
full blossom ; it impartially shines on all figures and
forms and brings into completion all the works on
earth. Why? Because from the sun emanate infinite
rays of life-giving light.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! It is even so with the Sun-
Body of the Tathagata which in innumerable ways
bestows benefits upon all beings That is, it benefits us by
destroying evils, all good things thus being quickened to
growth ; it benefits us with its universal illumination
which vanquishes the darkness of ignorance harbored in
all beings ; it benefits us through its great compassionate
heart which saves and protects all beings ; it benefits
us through its great loving heart which delivers all
beings from the misery of birth and death ; it benefits
us by the establishment of a good religion whereby
we are all strengthened in our moral activities ; it
benefits us by giving us a firm belief in the truth
which cleanses all our spiritual impurities ; it benefits
by helping us to understand the doctrine by virtue
of which we are not led to disavow the law of
causation; it benefits us with a divine vision which
enables us to observe the metempsychosis of all beings ;
it benefits us by avoiding injurious deeds which may
destroy the stock of merits accumulated by all beings ;
it benefits us with an intellectual light which unfolds
the mind-flowers of all beings ; it benefits us with an
aspiration whereby we are enlivened to practice all
that constitutes Buddhahood. Why? Because the Sun-

CHAPTER IX. 227
Body of the Tathagata universally emits the rays of
the Light of Intelligence.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! When the day breaks,
the rising sun shines first on the peaks of all the
higher mountains, then on those of high mountains,
and finally all over the plains and fields; but the
sunlight itself does not make this thought : I will
shine first on all the highest mountains and then
gradually ascending higher and higher shine on the
plains and fields. The reason why one gets the
sunlight earlier than another is simply because
there is a gradation of height on the surface of the
earth. "O ye, sons of Buddha ! It is even so with the
Tathagata who is in possession of innumerable and
immeasurable suns of universal intelligence. The in
numerable rays of the Light of Intelligence, emanating
everlastingly from the spiritual Body of the Tathagata,
will first fall on the Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas
who are the highest peaks among mankind, then on
the Nidanabuddhas, then on the Cravakas, then on
those beings who are endowed with definitely good
character, as they will each according to his own
capacity unhesitatingly embrace the doctrine of de
liverance, and finally on all common mortals whose
character may be either indefinite or definitely bad,
providing them with those conditions which will prove
beneficial in their future births But the Light of
Intelligence emanating from the Tathagata does not
make this thought: 'I will first shine on the Bodhi-

228 CHAPTER IX.
sattvas and then gradually pass over to all common
mortals, etc' The Light is universal and illuminates
everything without any prejudice, yet on account of
the diversity that obtains among sentient beings as
to their character, aspirations, etc., the Light of
Intelligence is diversely perceived by them.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! When the sun rises above
the horizon, those people born blind, on account
their defective sight, cannot see the light at all, but
they are nevertheless benefited by the sunlight, for
it gives them just as much as to any other beings
all that is necessary for the maintenance of life: it
dispels dampness and coldness and makes them feel
agreeable, it destroys all the injurious germs that are
produced on account of the absence of sunshine,
and thus keeps the blind as well as the not- blind
comfortable and healthy.
"O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the
Sun of Intelligence of the Tathagata. All those beings
whose spiritual vision is blinded by false doctrine, or
by the violation of Buddha's precepts, or by ignorance,
or by evil influences, never perceive the Light of
Intelligence; because they are devoid of faith. But
they are nevertheless benefited by the Light; for it
disperses indiscriminately for all beings the sufferings
arising from the four elements, and gives them physical
comforts, for it destroys the root of all passions,
prejudices, and pains for unbelievers as well as for believ
ers. . . By virtue of this omnipresent Light of Intelligence,
the Bodhisattvas will attain perfect purity and the

CHAPTER IX. 229
knowledge of all things, the Nidanabuddhas and Cra-
vakas will destroy all passions and desires; mortals
poorly endowed and those born blind will rid of
impurities, control the senses, and believe in the four
views ; 1 and those creatures living in the evil paths
of existence such as hell, world of ghosts, and the
animal realm, will be freed from their evils and torture
and will, after death, be born in the human or celes
tial world . . .
"O ye, sons of Buddha! The Light of Dharmakaya
is like unto the full moon which has four wondrous
attributes: (1) It outdoes in its brilliance all stars and
satellites ; (2) It shows in its size increase and decrease
as observable in the Jambudvipa ; (3) Its reflection is
seen in every drop or body of clear water ; (4) Whoever
is endowed with perfect sight, perceives it vis-a-vis.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! Even so with the Dharmakaya
of theT athagata, that has four wondrous attributes : (1)
It eclipses the . stars of the Nidanabuddhas, Cravakas,
etc. ; (2) It shows in its earthly life a certain variation
which is due to the different natures of the beings
to whom it manifests itself, 2 while the Dharmakaya
1 The four views are : That the physical body is productive
of impurities; that sensuality causes pain; that the individual soul
is not permanent; and that all things are devoid of the Atman.
8 That is to say: The Dharmakaya, that assumes all forms
of existence according to what class of being it is manifesting
itself, is sometimes conceived by the believers to be a short
lived god, sometimes an immortal spirit, sometimes a celestial
being of one hundred kalpas, and sometimes an existence of
only a moment. As there are so many different dispositions,

230 CHAPTER IX.
itself is eternal and shows no increase or decrease
in any way; (3) Its reflection is seen in the Bodhi
(intelligence) of every pure-hearted sentient being; (4)
All who understand the Dharma and obtain deliverance,
each according to his own mental calibre, think that
they have really recognised in their own way the
Tathagata face to face, while the Dharmakaya itself
is not a particular object of understanding, but univer
sally brings all Buddha-works into completion.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! The Dharmakaya is like
unto the Great Brahmaraja who governs three thousand
chiliocosms. The Raja by a mysterious trick makes
himself seen universally by all living beings in his
realm and causes them to think that each of them
has seen him face to face ; but the Raja himself
has never divided his own person nor is he in
possession of diverse features.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! Even so with the Tathagata ;
he has never divided himself into many, nor has he ever
assumed diverse features. But all beings, each ac
cording to his understanding and strength of faith,
recognise the Body of the Tathagata, while he has
never made this thought that he will show himself to
such and such particular people and not to others . . .
"O ye, sons of Buddha! The Dharmakaya is like
unto the maniratna in the waters, whose wondrous
characters, karmas, intellectual attainments, moral environments,
etc., so there are as many Dharmakayas as subjectively
represented in the minds of sentient beings, though the ,
Dharmakaya, objectively considered, is absolutely one.

CHAPTER IX. 231
light transforms everything that comes in contact
with it to its own color. The eyes that perceive it
become purified. Wherever its illumination reaches,
there is a marvelous display of gems of every de
scription, which gives pleasure to all beings to see.
"O ye, sons of Buddha ! It is even so with the
Dharmakaya of the Tathagata, which may rightly be
called the treasure of treasures, the thesaurus of all
merits, and the mine of intelligence. Whoever comes
in touch with this light, is all transformed into the
same color as that of the Buddha. Whoever sees this
light, all obtains the purest eye of Dharma. Whoever
comes in touch with this light, rids of poverty and
suffering, attains wealth and eminence, enjoys the bliss
of the incomparable Bodhi" 
Dharmakaya and Individual Beings.
From these statements it is evident that the
Dharmakaya or the Body of the Tathagata, or the
Body of Intelligence, whatever it may be designated,
is not a mere philosophical abstraction, standing aloof
from this world of birth and death, of joy and sorrow,
calmly contemplates on the folly of mankind ; but
that it is a spiritual existence which is "absolutely
one, is real and true, and forms the raison d'etre of
all beings, transcends all modes of upaya, is free from
desires and struggles [or compulsion], and stands
outside the pale of our finite understanding." d It is
1 Asanga's General Treatise on Mahayanism. (Mahayana
samparigraha).

232 CHAPTER IX.
also evident that the Dharmakaya though itself free
from ignorance (avidyd) and passion (klega) and
desire (trsnd), is revealed in the finite and fragmental
consciousness of human being, so that we can say in
a sense that "this body of mine is the Dharmakaya" —
though not absolutely ; and also in a generalised form
that "the body of all beings is the Dharmakaya, and
the Dharmakaya is the body of all beings," — though
in the latter only imperfectly and fractionally realised.
As we thus partake something in ourselves of the
Dharmakaya, we all are ultimately destined to attain
Buddhahood when the human intelligence, Bodhi, is
perfectly identified with, or absorbed in, that of the
Dharmakaya, and when our earthly life becomes the
realisation of the will of the Dharmakaya.
The Dharmakaya as Love.
Here an important consideration forces itself upon
us which is, that the Dharmakaya is not only an
intelligent mind but a loving heart, that it is not only
a god of rigorism who does not allow a hair's breadth
deviation from the law of karma, but also an incarnation
of mercy that is constantly belaboring to develop the
most insignificant merit into a field yielding rich
harvests. The Dharmakaya relentlessly punishes the
wrong and does not permit the exhaustion of their
karma without sufficient reason ; and yet its hands
are always directing our life toward the actualisation

CHAPTER IX. 233
of supreme goodness. "Pangs of nature, sins of will,
defects of doubt, and stains of blood," — discouraging
and gloomy indeed is the karma of evil-doers ! But
the Dharmakaya, infinite in love and goodness, is
incessantly managing to bring this world-transaction
to a happy terminus. Every good we do is absorbed
in the universal stock of merits which is no more nor
less than the Dharmakaya. Every act of lovingkindness
we practice is conceived in the womb of Tathagata,
and therein nourished and matured, is again brought
out to this world of karma to bear its fruit. Therefore,
no life walks on earth with aimless feet; no chaff is
thrown into the fire unquenchable. Every existence,
great or insignificant, is a reflection of the glory
of the Dharmakaya and as such worthy of its all-
embracing love.
For further corroboration of this view let us cite
at random from a Mahayana sutra: '
"With one great loving heart
The thirsty desires of all beings he quencheth with coolness
refreshing ;
With compassion, of all doth he think,
Which like space knows no bounds ;
Over the world's all creation
With no thought of particularity he revieweth.
"With a great heart compassionate an,d loving,
All sentient beings by him are embraced;
With means (updya) which are pure, free from stain, and
all excellent,
He doth save and deliver all creatures innumerable.
1 The Avatamsaka Sutra, chap. 13, "On Merit."

234 CHAPTER IX.
"With unfathomable love and with compassion
All creations caressed by him universally;
Yet free from attachment his heart is.
"As his compassion is great and is infinite,
Bliss unearthly on every being he confereth,
And himself showeth all over the universe;
He'll not rest till all Buddhahood truly attains."
Later Mahayanists' view of the Dharmakaya.
The above has been quoted almost exclusively from
the so-called sutra literature of Mahayana Buddhism,
which is distinguished from the other religio-philosoph
ical treatises of the school, because the sutras are
considered to be the accounts of Buddha himself as
recorded by his immediate disciples. * Let us now
see by way of further elucidation what views were
held concerning the Dharmakaya by such writers as
Asanga, Vasubandhu, etc.
We read in the General Treatise on Mahayanism
by Asanga and Vasubandhu the following statement :
"When the Bodhisattvas think of the Dharmakaya,
how have they to picture it to themselves?
"Briefly stated, they will think of the Dharmakaya
by picturing to themselves its seven characteristics,
which constitute the faultless virtues and essential
1 This is by no means the case, for some of the Mahayana
sutras are undoubtedly productions of much later writers than
the immediate followers of the Buddha, though of course it
is very likely that some of the most important Mahayana
canonical books were compiled within a few hundred years
after the Nirvana of the Master.

CHAPTER IX. 235
functions of the Kaya. (1) Think of the free, unri
valed, unimpeded activity of the Dharmakaya, which
is manifested in all beings ; (2) Think of the eternality
of all perfect virtues in the Dharmakaya ; (3) Think
of its absolute freedom from all prejudice, intellectual
and affective ; (4) Think of those spontaneous activi
ties that uninterruptedly emanate from the will of the
Dharmakaya; (5) Think of the inexhaustible wealth,
spiritual and physical, stored in the Body of the
Dharma; (6) Think of its intellectual purity which
has no stain of onesidedness ; (7) Think of the earthly
works achieved for the salvation of all beings by the
Tathagatas who are reflexes of the Dharmakaya."
As regards the activity of the Dharmakaya, which
is shown in every Buddha's work of salvation, Asanga
enumerates five forms of operation: (1) It is shown
in his power of removing evils which may befall us
in the course of life, though the Buddha is unable
to cure any physical defects which we may have,
such as blindness, deafness, mental abberration, etc.
(2) It is shown in his irresistible spiritual domination
over all evil-doers, who, base as they are, cannot help
doing some good if they ever come in the presence of
the Buddha. (3) It is shown in his power of destroying
various unnatural and irrational methods of salvation
which are practiced by followers of asceticism, hedon
ism, or Ishvaraism. (4) It is shown in his power of curing
those diseased minds that believe in the reality,
permanency, and indivisibility of the ego-soul, that is,
in the pudgalavada. (5) It is shown in his inspiring

236 CHAPTER IX.
influence over those Bodhisattvas who have not yet
attained to the stage of immovability as well as over
those Cravakas whose faith and character are still in
a state of vacillation.
The Freedom of the Dharmakaya.
Those spiritual influences over all beings of the
Dharmakaya through the enlightened mind of a
Buddha, which we have seen above as stated by
Asanga, are fraught with religious significance.
According to the Buddhist view, those spiritual
powers everlastingly emanating from the Body of
Dharma have no trace of human elaboration or
constrained effort, but they are a spontaneous over
flow from its. immanent necessity, or, as I take it,
from its free will. The Dharmakaya does not make
any conscious, struggling efforts to shower upon all
sentient creatures its innumerable merits, benefits,
and blessings. If there were in it any trace of elabora
tion, that would mean a struggle within itself of divers
tendencies, one trying to gain ascendency over another.
And it is apparent that any struggle and its necessary
ally, compulsion, are incompatible with our conception
of the highest religious reality. Absolute spontaneity
and perfect freedom is one of those necessary attributes
which our religious consciousness cannot help ascribing
to its object of reverence. Buddhists therefore repeated
ly affirm that the activity of the Dharmakaya is
perfectly free from all effort and coercion, external
and internal. Its every act of creation or salvation

CHAPTER IX. 237
or love emanates from its own free will, unhampered
by any struggling exertion which characterises the
doings of mankind. This free will which is divine,
standing in such a striking contrast with our own
"free will" which is human and at best very much
limited, is called by the Buddhists the Dharmakaya's
"Purvapranidhanabala. " l
As the Dharmakaya works of its own accord it
does not seek any recompense for its deed ; and it
is evident that every act of the Dharmakaya is
always for the best welfare of its creatures, for they
are its manifestations and it must know what theyj
need. We do not have to ask for our "daily bread," ;
1 "Purvapranidhanabala" is frequently translated "the power
of original (or primitive) prayer." Literally, piirva means
"former" or "original" or "primitive" ; and pranidhana, "desire"
or "vow or "prayer"; and bala, "power." So far as literary
rendering is concerned, "power of original prayer" seems to
be the sense of the original Sanskrit. But when we speak of
primitive prayers of the Dharmakaya or Tathagata, how shall
we understand it ? Has prayer any sense in this connection ?
The Dharmakaya can by its own free will manifest in any
form of existence and finish its work in whatever way it deems
best. There is no need for it to utter any prayer in the ag
ony of struggle to accomplish. There is in the universe no
force whatever which is working against it so powerfully
as to make it cry for help ; and there cannot be any struggle
or agony in the activity of the Dharmakaya. The term prayer
therefore is altogether misleading and inaccurate and implicates
us in a grave error which tends to contradict the general
Buddhist conception of Dharmakaya. We must dispense with
the term entirely in order to be in perfect harmony with the
fundamental doctrine of Buddhism. This point will receive
further consideration later.

238 CHAPTER IX.
nor have we to praise or eulogise its virtues to court
its special grace, nor is there any necessity for us to
offer prayer or supplication to the Dharmakaya.
Consider the lilies of the field which neither toil nor
spin, — and 1 might add, — which ask not for any
favoritism from above ; yet are they not arrayed even
better than Solomon in all his glory ? The Dharmakaya
shines in its august magnificence everywhere there is
life, nay, even where there is death. We are all living
in the midst of it and yet, strange to say, as "the fish
knows not the presence of water about itself," and also
as "the mountaineers recognise not the mountains
among which they hunt," even so we know not whence
that power comes whose work is made manifest in us
and whither it finally leadeth us. In spite of this profound
ignorance, we really feel that we are here, and thereby
we rest supremely contented. For we believe that
all this is wrought through the mysterious and miracu
lous will of the Dharmakaya, who does all excellent
works and seeks no recompense whatever.
The Will of the Dharmakaya.
Summarily speaking, the Dharmakaya assumes three
essential aspects as reflected in our religious con
sciousness : first, it is intelligence (prajna) ; secondly,
it is love (karuna) ; and thirdly, it is the will (prani-
dhdnabala). We know that it is intelligence from
the declaration that the Dharmakaya directs the
course of the universe, not blindly but rationally ; we
know again that it is love because it embraces all

CHAPTER IX. 239
beings with fatherly tenderness ; i and finally we must
assume that it is a will, because the Dharmakaya
has firmly set down its aim of activity in that good
shall be the final goal of all evil in the universe.
Without the will, love and intelligence will not be
realised; without love, the will and intelligence will
lose their impulse ; without intelligence, love and
the will will be irrational. In fact, the three are co
ordinates and constitute the oneness of the Dharmakaya ;
and by oneness I mean the absolute, and not the numeric
al, unity of all these three things in the being of the
Dharmakaya, for intelligence and love and the will
are differentiated as such only in our human, finite
consciousness. Some Buddhists may not agree entirely with the
view here expounded. They may declare : "We conform
to your view when you say the Dharmakaya is in
telligence and love, as this is expressly stated in the
sutras and cistras ; but we do not see how it could
be made a will. Indeed, the Scriptures say that the
Dharmakaya is in possession of the Pranidhanabala,
but this bala or power is not necessarily the will, it
is the power of prayers or intense vows. The Dhar
makaya actually made solemn vows, and their spiritual
energy abiding in the world of particulars works out
its original plan and makes possible the universal
salvation of all creatures."
It is quite true that the word pranidhanabala means
1 "I am the father of all beings, and they are my children."
(The Avatamsaka, the Pundartka, etc.)

240 CHAPTER IX.
literally "the power of original prayers." But this
literary rendering totally ignores its inner significance
without which the nature of the Dharmakaya would
become unintelligible. We admit that the Dharmakaya
knows no higher existence by which it is conditioned,
nor has it any fragmentary, limited consciousness
like that of human being, nor has it any intrinsic
want by which it is necessitated to appeal to something
other than itself. It is, therefore, utterly nonsensical
to speak of its prayer, "original" or borrowed, as
some Buddhists are inclined to think. On the other
hand, we are perfectly justified in saying that whatever
is done by the Dharmakaya is done by its own free
will independent of all the determinations that might
affect it from outside.
But I can presume the reason why they speak of
the prayers of the Dharmakaya instead of its will.
Here we have an instance of emotional outburst. The
fervency of the intense religious sentiment not in
frequently carries us beyond the limits of the intellect,
landing us in a region full of mysteries and contra
dictions. It anthroposises everything beyond the proper
measure of intellection and ascribes all earthly
human feelings and passions to an object which the
mind well-balanced demands to be above all the
forms of human helplessness. The Buddhists, especi
ally those of the Sukhavati sect, d recognise the exist-
1 To get more fully acquainted with the significance of
the Sukhavati doctrine, the reader is advised to look up the
Sukhavati sutras in the Sacred Books of the East, Vol XLIX.

CHAPTER IX. 241
ence of an all-powerful will, all-embracing love, and
all-knowing intelligence in the Dharmakaya, but they
want to represent it more concretely and in a more
humanly fashion before the mental vision of the less
intellectual followers. The result thus is that the
Dharmakaya in spite of its absoluteness made prayers
to himself to emancipate all sentient beings from the
sufferings of birth and death. But are not these self-
addressed prayers of the Dharmakaya which sprang
out of its inmost nature exactly what constitutes
its will?

o

CHAPTER X.
THE DOCTRINE OF TRIKAYA.
(Buddhist Theory of Trinity.)
The Human and the Super-human Buddha.
NE of the most remarkable differences between the
' Pali and the Sanskrit, that is, between the Hinaya-
na and the Mahayana Buddhist literature, is in the man
ner of introducing the characters or persons who take
principal parts in the narratives. In the former, sermons
are delivered by the Buddha as a rule in such a
natural and plain language as to make the reader
feel the presence of the teacher, fatherly-hearted and
philosophically serene ; while in the latter generally
we have a mysterious, transcendent figure, more
celestial than human, surrounded and worshipped by
beings of all kinds, human, celestial, and even demo
niac, and this mystical central character performing
some supernatural feats which might well be narrated
by an intensely poetical mind.
In the Pali scriptures, the texts as a rule open with
the formula, "Thus it was heard by me" (Evam me
sutam), then relate the events, if any, which induced the
Buddha to deliver them, and finally lead the reader
to the main subjects which are generally written in

CHAPTER X. 243
lucid style. Their opening or introductory matter is
very simple, and we do not notice anything extraor
dinary in its further development. But with the Ma
hayana texts it is quite different. Here we have, as
soon as the curtain rises with the stereotyped formula,
"Evam maya crutam," a majestic prologue dramati
cally or rather grotesquely represented, which prepares
the mind of the audience to the succeeding scenes,
in which some of the boldest religio-philosophical
proclamations are brought forth. The perusal of this
introductory part alone will stupefy the reader by its
rather monstrous grandeur, and he may without much
ado declare that what follows must be extraordinary
and may be even nonsensical.
The following is an illustration showing the typical
manner of introducing the characters in the Mahayana
texts. 1
"Thus it was heard by me. Buddha was once stay
ing at Rajagriha, on the Gridhrakuta mountain. He
was in the Hall of Ratnachandra in the Double Tower
of Chandana. Ten years passed since his attainment of
Buddhahood. He was surrounded by a hundred thousand
Bhiksus and Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas numbering
sixty times as many as the sands of the Ganges. All of
them were in possession of the greatest spiritual energy ;
they had paid homage to thousands of hundred mil-
1 What follows is selected from a short sutra called The
Mahdvaipulya-Tathdgatagarbha Sutra, translated into Chinese
by Buddhabhadra of the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D, 371-420).
Nanjo, No 384.

244 CHAPTER X.
lions of niyutas i of Buddhas; they were able to set
rolling the never-sliding-back Wheel of Dharma; and
whoever heard their names could establish themselves
firmly in the Highest Perfect Knowledge. Their names
were. . . . [Here about fifty Bodhisattvas are mentioned.]
"All these Bodhisattvas numbering sixty times as
many as the sands of the Ganges coming from innume
rable Buddha-countries were accompanied by numberless
Devas, Nagas, Yaksas, Gandharvas, Acuras, Garudas,
Kinnaras, and Mahoragas. 2 This great assembly all
joined in revering, honoring, paying homage to the
Bhagavat, the World-honored One.
"At this time the Bhagavat in the Double Tower
of Chandana seated himself in the assigned seat, entered
upon a samadhi, and displayed a marvelous phenomenon.
There appeared innumerable lotus-flowers with thou
sand-fold petals and each flower as large as a carriage-
wheel. They had perfectly beautiful color and fragrant
odour, but their petals containing celestial beings in
them were not yet unfolded. They all were raised
now by themselves high up in the heavens and hung
over the earth like a canopy of pearls. Each one of
these lotus-flowers emitted innumerable rays of light
and simultaneously grew in size with wonderful vitality.
But through the divine power of Buddha they all of

1 Niyuta is an exceedingly large number, but generally
considered to be equal to one billion.
2 All these are unhuman forms of existence, including
demons, dragon-kings, winged beasts, etc.

CHAPTER X. 245
a sudden changed color and withered. All the celestial
Buddhas sitting cross-legged within the flowers now
came into full view, shone with innumerable hundred
thousand-fold rays of light. At this moment the tran
scendent glory of the spot was beyond description." . . .
As is here thus clearly shown, the Buddha in the
Mahayana scriptures is not an ordinary human being
walking in a sensuous world ; he is altogether dissimilar
to that son of Suddhodana, who resigned the royal
life, wandered in the wilderness, and after six years'
profound meditation and penance discovered the Four
fold Noble Truth and the Twelve Chains of Dependence ;
and we cannot but think that the Mahayana Buddha
is ,the Jicijtiqus_ creation of an intensely poetic mind.
Let it be so. But the question which engages us now
is, "How did the Buddhists come to relegate the
human Buddha to oblivion, as it were, and assign a
mysterious being in his place invested with all possible
or sometimes impossible majesty and supernaturality ?"
This question, which marks the rise of Mahayana
Buddhism, brings us to the doctrine of Trikaya, — which
in a sense corresponds to the Christian theory of trinity.
According to this doctrine, the Buddhists presume
a triple existence of the Tathagata, that is, the Tathagata
is conceived by them as manifesting himself in three
different forms of existence: the^ Body of Trans^
formation, the Body of Bliss, and the Body of Dharma.
Though they are conceived as three, they are in fact
all the manifestations of one Dharmakaya, — the Dhar
makaya that revealed itself in the historical Qakyamuni

246 CHAPTER X.
Buddha as a Body of Transformation, and in the
Mahayana Buddha as a Body of Bliss. However differ
ently theymay appear from trie human point of
view, they are nothing but the expression of one eternal
truth, in which all things have their raison d'etre.
An Historical View.
At present we are not in possession of any historical
documents that will throw light on the question as to
how early this doctrine of Trikaya or Buddhist trinity
conception came to be firmly established among
Northern Buddhists and found its way in an already-
finished form as such into the Mahayana scriptures.
As far as we know, it was Agvaghosa, the first Mahayan
philosopher, who incorjjorateajjvis conception in his

Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
as early as the first century before Christ. This work,
as the author declares, is a sort of synopsis of the
Mahayana teachings, elucidating their principal features
as taught by the Buddha in his various sutras. It is
not an original work which expounds the individual
views of Acvaghosa concerning Buddhism. He wrote
the book in a concise and comprehensive form, in
order that the later generations who remote from the
Buddha could not have the privilege of being inspired
by his august presence, might peruse it with concen
tration of mind and synthetically grasp the whole
significance of many lengthy and voluminous sutras.
Therefore, in the Awakening of Faith, we are supposed

CHAPTER X. 247
not to find any Mahayana doctrines that were not
already taught by the Buddha and incorporated in the
sutras. Everything Agvaghosa treats in his work must
be considered merely a recapitulation of the doctrines
which were not only formulated but firmly established
as the Mahayana faith long before him. His is simply
the work of a recorder. He carefully scanned all
the Mahayana scriptures that had existed prior to his
time and faithfully collected all the principal teachings
of Mahayanism here and there scatteringly told in them.
His merit lies in compilation and systematisation.
This being the case, we must assume that all the
doctrines that are found in Agvaghosa and distinct
from those usually held to be Hinayanistic are the
teachings elaborated by Buddhists from the time of
Buddha's death down to the time of Agvaghosa. But
as the latter apparently believes all these doctrines as
Buddha's own and raises no doubt concerning their
later origin, even if they were so, we must assume
again that, these doctrines were in a state of com
pletion long before Agvaghosa' s time. If our calculation
is correct that he lived in the first century before
Christ, the Mahayana faith must be said to have been
formulated at least two hundred years prior to his
age, — taking this presumably as the time that is
required for the formulation and dogmatical esta
blishment of a doctrine. This calculation places the
development of the Mahayana faith during the first
century after the Buddha, and, we know, it was
during this time that so many schools and divisions, —

248 CHAPTER X.
among which we must also find the so-called "primitive"
Buddhism of Ceylon, arose among the Buddhists, — each
claiming to be the only authentic transmission of
the Buddha's teaching. Did Mahayanism come out of
this turmoil of contention? Did it boldly raise it
self from this chaos and claim to have solved all
the questions and doubts that agitated the minds of
Buddhists after the Nirvana? For certain we do not
know anything concerning the chronology of the
development of Buddhist philosophy and dogmas in
India, at least before Agvaghosa; but, as far as our
Chinese Buddhist literature records, we must conclude
that this was most probably the case.
To give our readers a glimpse of the state of
things that were taking place in those early days of
Buddhism in India, I will quote some passages from
Vasumitra's Discourse on the Points of Controversy
by the Different Schools of Buddhism, — the work
once refered to in the beginning of this book. The
two principal schools that arose soon after the Nir
vana of the Buddha were, as is well known, the
Elders and the Great Council, and though they were
further divided into a number of smaller sections
and their views became so complex and intermixed
that some of the Elders shared similar views with the
Great Council School and vice versa, yet we can
fairly distinguish one from the other and describe the
the essential peculiarities of each school. These points
of difference, generally speaking, are as follows, coil-
fining ourselves to their conceptions about the Buddha :

CHAPTER X. 249
(1) According to the School of the Great Council,
the Buddha's personality is transcendental (lokottara),
and all the Tathagatas are free from the defilements
that might come from the material existence (bhdva-
dgrava). ' For in the Buddha all evil passions hered
itary and acquired were eternally uprooted, and his
presence on earth was absolutely spotless. (The
Vibkasa, CLXXIII.) Contending this view, the Elders
held that the Buddha's personality was not free from
Bhavagrava, though his mind was fully enlightened.
His corporeal existence was the product of blind love
veiled with ignorance and tangled with attachment.
If this were not so, the Buddha's feature would not
have awakened an impure affection in the heart of
a maiden, an ill-will in the heart of a highwayman,
stupidity in the mind of an ascetic, and arrogance in
that of a haughty Brahman. These incidents which
1 Acrava literally means "oozing," or "flowing out," and the
Chinese translators rendered it by lou, dripping, or leaking.
Roughly speaking, it is a general name for evils, principally
material and sensuous. According to an Indian Buddhist scholar,
Acrava has threefold sense: (1) "keeping," for it retains all
sentient beings in the whirlpool of birth and death ; (2)
"flowing," for it makes all sentient beings run in the stream
of birth and death; (3) "leaking," or "oozing," for it lets such
evils as avarice, anger, lust, etc., ooze out from the six
sense-organs after the fashion of an ulcer, which lets out
blood and filthy substance. The cause of Acrava is a blind
will, and its result is birth and death. Specifically, Bhavacrava
is one of the three Acravas, which are (1) kamacrava, (2)
vidyacrava, and (3) bhavacrava. The first is egotistic desires,
the second is ignorance, and the third is the material existence
which we have to suffer on account of our previous karma.

250 CHAPTER X.
happened during the life of the Buddha evince that
his corporeal presence was apt to agitate others'
hearts, and to that extent it was contaminated by
Bhavagrava. (2) The Great Council School insists that every
word uttered by a Tathagata has a religious, spiritual
meaning and purports to the edification of his fellow-
beings ; that his one utterance is variously interpreted
by his audience each according to his own disposition,
but all to his spiritual welfare; that every instruction
given out by the Buddha is . rational and perfect.
Against these views the Elders think that the Buddha
occasionally uttered things which had nothing to do
with the enlightenment of others ; that even with
the Buddha something was out of his attainment,
for instance, he could not make every one of his
hearers perfectly understand his preachings; that
though the Buddha never taught anything irrational
and heretical, yet all his speeches were not perfect,
he said some things which had no concern with ra
tionality or orthodoxy.
(3) The corporeal body (rupakdya) of the Buddha
has no limits (koti) ; his majestic power has no limits ;
every Buddha's life is unlimited; a Buddha knows
no fatigue, knows not when to rest, always occupying
himself with the enlightenment of all sentient beings
and with the awakening in their hearts of pure faith.
Against these tendencies of the Great Council School
to deify the historical Buddha, the Elders generally
insist on the humanity of Buddhahood. Though the

CHAPTER X. 251
Elders agree with the Great Council in that the body
assumed by the Buddha as the result of his untiring
accumulation of good karma through eons of his suc
cessive existences possesses a wonderful power, spir
itual and material, they do not conceive it to be
beyond all limitations.
(4) The Great Council School says that with the
Buddha sleep is not necessary and he has no dreams.
The Elders admit that the Buddha never dreams,
but denies that he does not need any sleep.
(5) As the Buddha is always in the state of a deep,
exalted spiritual meditation, it is not necessary for
him to think what to say when requested to answer
certain questions. Though he might appear to the
inquirers as if he thoroughly cogitates over the problems
presented to him for solution, the Buddha's response
is in fact immediate and without any efforts. The
Elders, on the other hand, presume the Buddha's
mental calculation as to how to express his ideas
as best suited to the understanding of the audience.
Indeed, he does not cogitate over the problem itself,
for with him everything is transparent, but he thinks
over the best method of presenting his ideas before
his pupils. '
1 Our thoughtful readers must have noticed here that the
conceptions of the Buddha as entertained by the Mahasangika
School (Great Council) closely resemble those of the Mahayana
Buddhism. Though we are still unable to trace step by step
the development of Mahayanism in India, the hypothesis
assumed by most of Japanese Buddhist scholars is that the
Mahasangika was Mahayanistic in tendency.

252 CHAPTER X.
Now to return to the doctrine of Dharmakaya and
Trikaya. When we consider these controversies as
above stated, it is apparent that among many other
questions which arose soon after the demise of the Bud
dha (Jakyamuni, there was one, which in all probability
most agitated the minds of his disciples. I mean the
question of the personality of Buddha. Was he merely
a human being like ourselves ? Then, how could he
reach such a height of moral perfection ? Or was he
a divine being ? But Buddha himself did not communi
cate anything to his disciples concerning his divinity,
nor did he tell them to accept the Dharma on account
of his divine personality, but solely for the sake of
truth. But for all that how could the disciples ever
eradicate from their hearts the feeling of sacred
reverence for their teacher, which was so indelibly
engraved there? Whenever they recalled the sermons,
anecdotes, or gathas of their master, the truth and
spirit embodied in them and the author must have
become so closely associated that they could not but
ask themselves : "What in the Buddha caused him
to perceive and declare these solemn profound truths ?
What was it that formed in him such a noble majestic
character? What was there in the mind of Buddha
that raised him to such a perfection of intellectual
and religious life ? How was it possible that, possessed
of such exalted moral and spiritual virtues, Buddha
too had to succumb to the law of birth and death
that is the lot of common mortals ? Some such ques
tions must have been repeatedly asked before they

CHAPTER X. 253
could answer them by the doctrines of Dharmakaya
and Trikaya. Who was the Buddha?
The evidence that these questions were constantly
disturbing the minds of the disciples ever since the
Master's entrance into Parinirvana, is scatteringly
revealed throughout the Buddhist texts both Southern
and Northern. The regret of the immediate followers
that they did not ask the Buddha to prolong his
earthly life, while the Buddha told them that he
could do so if he wished, and their lamentation over
the remains of the Blessed One, "How soon the
Light of the World has passed away!" l — these
utterances may be considered the first drops foreboding
the showers of doubt and speculation as to his
personality. According to the Suvarna Prabhd Sittra, 2 a Bodhi
sattva, by the name of Ruciraketu, was greatly
annoyed by the doubt why Qakyamuni Tathagata
had such a short life terminating only at eighty. He
1 The Mahdparimbbdna sutta.
1 There are three Chinese translations of this sutra : the
first, by Dharmaraksa during the first two decades of the
fifth century A. D. ; the second, by Paramartha of the Liang
dynasty, who came to China A. D. 546 and died A. D. 569 ;
and the third, by I-tsing of the Tang dynasty who came back
from his Indian pilgrimage in the year 695 and translated this
sutra A. D. 703. The last is the only complete Chinese trans
lation of the Suvarnd Prabhd. A part of the orginal Sanskrit
text recovered in Nepal was published by the Buddhist Text
Society of India in 1898. Nanjo, Nos. 126, 127, 130.

254

CHAPTER X.

taught the disciples that those who did not injure
any living beings, and those who generously practised
charity, in their former lives, could enjoy a consider
ably long life on earth; why then was the life of
the Blessed One himself cut so short, who practised
those virtues from time immemorial? The sutra now
records that this doubt was dispelled by the declaration
of four Tathagatas who mysteriously appeared to the
sceptic and told him that "Every drop of water in
the vast ocean can be counted, but the age of
Qakyamuni none can measure. Crush the mount
Sumeru into particles as fine as mustard seeds and
we can count them, but the age of Cakyamuni
none can measure  the Buddha never entered
into Parinirvana ; the Good Dharma will never perish.
He showed an earthly death merely for the benefits
of sentient beings." 
Here we have the conception of a spiritual Dharma
kaya germinating out of the corporeal death of
Cakyamuni. x Here we have the bridge that spans
\ The notion that great men never die seems to be universal.
Spiritually they would never perish, because the ideas that
moved them and made them prominent in the history of
humanity are born of truth. And in this sense every person
who is possessed of worthy thoughts is immortal, while souls
that are made of trumpery are certainly doomed to annihi
lation. But the masses are not satisfied with this kind of
immortality. They must have something more tangible, more
sensual, and more individual. The notion of bodily resurrection
of Christ is a fine illustration of this truth. When the followers
of Christ opened the master's grave, they did not find his
body, so says legend, and they at once conceived the idea

CHAPTER X. 255
the wide gap between the human Cakyamuni Buddha
and the spiritual existence of the Dharmakaya. The
Buddha did not die after he partook of the food
offered by Chunda. His age was not eighty. His life
did not pass to an airy nothingness when his cine
rary urns were divided among kings and Brahmans.
His virtues and merits which were accumulated through
out innumerable kalpas, could not come to naught
so abruptly. What constituted the essence of his
life — and that of ours too — could not perish with
the vicissitudes of the corporeal existence. The Buddha
as a particular individual being was certainly subject
to transformation — so is every mortal, but his truth
must abide forever His^DharrnakayaisabOTeJairth
and death and even aboveNirvana ; but his Body of
Transformation comes out of the womb of Tathagata
as destined by karma and vanishes into it when the
karma exhausts its force. The Buddha who is still
seated at the summit of the Gridhrakuta, delivering
to all beings the message of joy and bliss, and who
among other precious teachings bequeathed to us
of resurrection, for they reasoned that such a great man as
Jesus could not suffer the same fate that befalls common
mortals only. The story of his corporeal resurrection now
took wing and went wild; some heard him speak to them,
some saw him break bread, and others even touched his
wounds. What a grossly materialistic conception early Christians
(and alas, even some of the twentieth century) cherished
about resurrection and immortality ! It is no wonder, therefore,
that primitive Buddhists raised a serious question about the
personality of Buddha which culminated in the conception
of the Sambhogakaya, Body of Bliss, by Mahayanists

256 CHAPTER X.
such sutras as the Avatamsaka, the Pundarika, etc.,
is no more nor less than an expression of the eternal
spirit. Thus came the doctrine of Dharmakaya to be
formulated by the Mahayanists, and from this the
transition to that of Trikaya was but a natural sequence.
Because one without the other could not give an
adequate solution of the problems above cited.
The Trikaya as Explained in the Suvarna Prabhd.
What then is the Trikaya or triple body of the
Tathagata? It is (1) Nirmana Kaya, the Body of
Transformation ; (2) Sambhoga Kaya, the Body of
Bliss; and (3) Dharma Kaya, the Body of Dharma. If
we draw a parallelism between the Buddhist and the
Christian trinity, the Body of Transformation may be
considered to correspond to Christ in the flesh, the
Body of Bliss either to Christ in glory or to Holy
Ghost, and Dharmakaya to Godhead.
Let us again quote from the Suvarna Prabhd, in
which (I-tsing's translation, chap. III.) we find the
following statements concerning the doctrine of
Trikaya. "The Tathagata, when he was yet at the stage of
discipline, practised divers deeds of morality for the
sake of sentient beings. The practise finally attained
perfection, reached maturity, and by virtue of its
merits he acquired a wonderful spiritual power. The
power enabled him to respond to the thoughts, deeds,
and livings of sentient beings. He thoroughly under
stood them and never missed the right opportunity

CHAPTER X. 257
[to respond to their needs]. He revealed himself in
the right place and in the right moment; he act^d
rightly, assuming various bodily forms [in response
to the needs of mortal souls]. These bodily forms
are called the Nirmanakaya of the Tathagata.
"But when the Tathagatas, in order to make the
Bodhisattvas thoroughly conversant with the Dharma,
to instruct them in the highest reality, to let them
understand that birth-and-death (samsara) and Nirvana
are of one taste, to destroy the thoughts of the ego,
individuality, and the fear [of transmigration], and to
promote happiness, to lay foundation for innumerable
Buddha-dharmas, to be truly in accord with Suchness,
the knowledge of Suchness, and the Spontaneous Will,
manifest themselves to the Bodhisattvas in a form
which is perfect with the thirty-two major and eighty
minor features of excellence and shining with the halo
around the head and the back, the Tathagatas are
said to have assumed the Body of Bliss or Sam-
bhogakaya. l
"When all possible obstacles arising from sins
[material, intellectual, and emotional] are perfectly
removed, and when all possible good dharmas are
preserved, there would remain nothing but Suchness and
the knowledge of Suchness, — this is the Dharmakaya.
"The first two forms of the Tathagata are provisional
[and temporal] existences ; but the last one is a
reality, wherein the former two find the reason of
"Compare this to the transfigured Christ. 17

258 CHAPTER X.
their existence. Why? Because when deprived of
the Dharma of Suchness and of knowledge of non-
particularity, no Buddha-dharma can ever exist ; because
it is Suchness and Knowledge of Suchness that absorbs
within itself all possible forms of Buddha-wisdom and
renders possible a complete extinction of all passions
and sins [arising from particularity]."
According to the above, the Dharmakaya which is
tantamount to Suchness or Knowledge of Suchness
is absolute ; but like the moon whose image is reflected
in a drop of water as well as in the boundless expanse
of the waves, the Dharmakaya assumes on itself all
possible aspects from the grossest material form to
the subtlest spiritual existence. When it responds to
the needs of the Bodhisattvas whose spiritual life
is on a much higher plane than that of ordinary
mortals, it takes on itself the Body of Bliss or
Sambhogakaya. This Body is a supernatural existence,
and almost all the Buddhas in the Mahayana scriptures
belong to this class of being. Agvaghosa (p. 10 1) says:
"The Body has infinite forms. The form has infinite
attributes. The attribute has infinite excellences. And
the accompanying fruition, that is, the region where
they are destined to be born [by their previous
karma], also has infinite merits and ornamentations.
Manifesting itself everywhere, the Body of Bliss
is infinite, boundless, limitless, unintermittent [in
its activity] which comes directly from the Mind
[Dharmakaya]." But the Buddhas revealed to the eyes of common

CHAPTER X. 259
mortals are not of this kind. They are common mortals
themselves, and the earthly Qakyamuni who came out of
the womb of Mayadevi and passed away under the sala
trees at the age of eighty years was one of them. He
was essentially a manifestation of the Dharmakaya, and
as such we ordinary people also partake something
of him. But the masses, unless favored by good karma
accumulated in the past, are generally under the spell
of ignorance. They do not see the glory of Dharmakaya
in its perfect purity shining in the lilies of the field
and sung by the fowls of the air. They are blindly
groping in the dark wilderness, they are vainly seeking,
they are wildly knocking. To the needs of these people
the Dharmakaya responds by assuming an earthly form
as a human Buddha.
Revelation in All Stages of Culture.
En passant, let us remark that it is in this sense
that Christ is conceived by Buddhists also as a mani
festation of the Dharmakaya in a human form. He is
a Buddha and as such not essentially different from
CJikyamuni. The Dharmakaya revealed itself as Cakya
muni to the Indian mind, because that was in harmony
with its needs. The Dharmakaya appeared in the person
of Christ on the Semitic stage, because it suited their
taste best in this way. The doctrine of Trikaya, however,
goes even further and declares that demons, animal
gods, ancestor-worship, nature -worship, and what not,
are all due to the activity and revelation of the Dhar
makaya responding to the spiritual needs of barbarous

260 CHAPTER X.
and half-cultured people. The Buddhists think that the
Dharmakaya never does things that are against the
spiritual welfare of its creatures, and that whatever
is done by it is for their best interests at that moment
of revelation, no matter how they comprehend the
nature of the Dharmakaya. The Great Lord of Dharma
never throws a pearl before the swine, for he knows
the animal's needs are for things more substantial.
He does not reveal himself in an exalted spiritual
form to the people whose hearts are not yet capable
of grasping anything beyond the grossly material. As
they understand animal gods better than a metaphysical
or highly abstracted being, let them have them and
derive all possible blessings and benefits through their
worshiping. But as soon as they become dissatisfied
with the animal or human-fashioned gods, there must
not be a moment's hesitation to let them have exactly
what their enlightened understanding can comprehend. 1
1 Cf. I Cor. xiii, n. "When I was a child, I spake as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when
I became a man, I put away childish things." This point of
our ever-ascending spiritual progress is well illustrated in the
Saddharma-pundarika Sutra. See Chapters II, III, IV, V, and XI.
The following passage quoted from chap. II, p. 49 (Kern's
translation) will give a tolerably adequate view concerning
diversity of means and unity of purpose as here expounded:
"Those highest of men have, all of them, revealed most holy
laws by means of illustrations, reasons and arguments, with
many hundred proofs of skillfulness (updyakaufalya). And all
of them have manifested but one vehicle and introduced but
one on earth; by one vehicle have they led to full ripeness
inconceivably many thousands of kotis of beings." As was

CHAPTER X. 26l
They are thus all the while being led, though uncon
sciously on their part, to the higher and higher region
of mystery, till they come fully to grasp the true
and real meaning of the Dharmakaya in its absolute
purity, or, to use Christian terminology, till "we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor m. 18.)
The Mahayanists now argue that the reason why
Cakyamuni entered into Parinirvana when his worldly
career was thought by him to be over is that by
this his resignation to the law of birth and death,
he wished to exemplify in him the impermanency of
worldly life and the folly of clinging to it as final
reality. As for his Dharmakaya, it has an eternal life,
it was never born, and it would never perish; and
when called by the spiritual needs of the Bodhisattvas,
it will cast off the garb of absoluteness and preach
in the form of a Sambhogakaya "never-ceasing ser
mons which run like a stream for ever and aye." It
will be evident from this that Buddhists are ready
to consider all religious or moral leaders of mankind,
whatever their nationality, as the Body of Transfor
mation of the Dharmakaya. Translated into Christian
thoughts, God reveals himself in every being that is
worthy of him. He reveals himself not only at a certain
elsewhere noted, this doctrine is sometimes known as the theory
of Upaya. Upaya is very difficult term to translate into English ;
it literally means "way," "method," or "strategy." For fuller
interpretation see p. 298, footnote.

262 CHAPTER X.
period in history, but everywhere and all the time.
His glory is perceived throughout all the stages of
human culture. This manifestation, from the very
nature of God, cannot be intermittent and sporadic
as is imagined by some "orthodox Christians." The
following from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians
(Chap, xiii), when read in this connection, sounds
almost like a Buddhist philosopher's utterance: "Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are diversities of administrations, but the
same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but
it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the
word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same
Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing by the same
Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ; to another
prophecy ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to an
other the interpretation of tongues; but all these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing
to every man severally as he will. For as the body
is one and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body: so
also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit."

CHAPTER X. 263
The Sambhogakaya.
One peculiar point in the doctrine of Trikaya,
which modern minds find rather difficult to compre
hend, is the conception of the Sambhogakaya, or the
Body of Bliss. We can understand the relation between
the Dharmakaya and Nirmanakaya, the latter being
similar to the notion of God incarnate or to that of
Avatara. Inasmuch as the Dharmakaya does not exist
outside the triple world but in it as the raison d'etre
of its existence, all beings must be considered a
partial manifestation of it ; and in this sense Buddhists
sometimes call themselves Bodhisattvas, that is, beings
of intelligence, because intelligence (Bodhi) is the
psychological aspect of the Dharmakaya as realised
in sentient beings. But the conception of Sambhogakaya
is altogether too mysterious to be fathomed by a
limited consciousness. The fact becomes more apparent
when we are told that the Sambhogakaya, Body of
Bliss, is a corporeal existence and at the same time
filling the universe and that there are two forms of
the Body of Bliss, one for self-enjoyment and the
other as a sort of religious object for the Bodhisattvas.
That the Body of Bliss is corporeal and yet infinite
has already been shown by the quotations from the
Suvarna Prabhd and Agvaghosa on the preceding
pages. For further confirmation of this point no less
authority than Asanga and Vasubandhu will be here
refered to.
In A Comprehensive Treatise on the Mahayana and

264 CHAPTER X.
in its commentary, the author Asanga and the com
mentator Vasubandhu endeavor to prove why the
Body of Bliss cannot be the raison d'etre of the
Dharmakaya, instead of vice versa; and in this connection
they argue that (1) the Body of Bliss consists of the
five Skandhas, that is, of material form (rupa), sen
sation (vedana), ideas (samjnd), deeds (sanskara), and
consciousness (vijndna); (2) it is subject to particu-
larisation ; (3) it reveals different virtues and characters
according to the desires of Bodhisattvas ; (4) even
to the same individual it appears differently at different
times ; (5) when it manifests itself simultaneously
before an assemblage of Bodhisattvas of divers characters
and qualifications, it at once assumes divers forms,
in order to satisfy their infinitely diversified inclinations ;
(6) it is a creation of the Alayavijnana, All-conserving
Mind. These six peculiarities of the Body of Bliss as
enumerated by Asanga and Vasubandhu make it
indeed entirely dependent on the Dharmakaya, but
they do not place us in any better position to penetrate
into the deep mystery of its nature. Its supernatural
incomprehensibility remains the same forever. In a
certain sense, however, the Body of Bliss may be
considered to be corresponding to the Christian idea
of an angel. Supernaturalness and luminosity are the
two characters possessed by both, but angels are
merely messengers of God communicating the latter's
will to human beings. When they reveal themselves
to a specially favored person, it is not of their own

CHAPTER X. 265
account. When they speak to him at all, it is by the
name of the being who sent them. They do not
represent him, they do not act his own will by them
selves. On the contrary, the Body of Bliss is the
master of its own. It is an expression of the Dhar
makaya. It instructs and benefits all the creatures
who come to it. It acts according to its own will
and judgment. In these respects the Body of Bliss
is altogether different from the Christian conception
of angels. But will it be more appropriately compared
to Christ in glory ?
Let us make another quotation from later authorities
than Asanga and his brother Vasubandhu, and let
us see more convincingly what complicated notions
are involved in the idea of the Body of Bliss. According
to the commentators on Vasubandhu's Vijndnamdtra
Cdstra (a treatise on the Yoga philosophy), ' the
Body of Bliss has two distinct aspects: (1) The body
obtained by the Tathagata for his self-enjoyment,
by dint of his religious discipline through eons; (2)
The body which the Tathagata manifests to the
1 This is one of the most important philosophical works
of the Yogacara school. Vasubandhu wrote the text (Nanjo,
No. 1215) which consists only of thirty verses, but there
appeared many commentators after the death of the author,
who naturally entertained widely different views among them
selves on the subject-matter, as it is too tersely treated in
the text. Hsiien Tsang made selections out of the ten noted
Hindu exegetists in A. D. 659 and translated them into the
Chinese language. The compilation consists of ten fascicles
and is known as Discourse on the Ideality of the Universe (a free
rendering of the Chinese title Changwei shilun, Nanjo, No, 1197).

266 CHAPTER X.
Bodhisattvas in Pure Land (sukhavati). This last body
is in possession of wonderful spiritual powers, reveals
the Wheel of Dharma, resolves all the religious doubts
raised by the Bodhisattvas, and lets them enjoy the
bliss of the Mahayana Dharma.
A Mere Subjective Existence.
Judging from all these characterisations, the most
plausible conclusion that suggests itself to modern
sceptical minds is that the Sambhogakaya must be a
mere creation of an intelligent, finite mind, which is
intently bent on reaching the highest reality, but, not
being able, on account of its limitations, to grasp the
object in its absoluteness, the finite mind fabricates
all its ideals after its own fashion into a spiritual-
material being, which is logically a contradiction, but
religiously an object deserving veneration and worship.
And this being is no more than the Body of Bliss. *
It lies half way between the pure being of Dharmakaya
and the earthly form of Nirmanakaya, the Body of
Transformation. It does not belong to either, but
partakes something of both. It is in a sense spiritual
1 May I venture to say that the conception of God as enter
tained by most Christians is a Body of Bliss rather than
the Dharmakaya itself? In some respects their God is quite
spiritual, but in others he is thought of as a concrete material
being like ourselves. It seems to me that the human soul is
ever struggling to free itself from this paradox, though without
any apparent success, while the masses are not so intellectual
and reflective enough as to become aware of this eternal
contradiction which is too deeply buried in their minds.

'chapter x. 267
like the Dharmakaya, and yet it cannot go beyond
material limitations, for it has a form, definite and
determinate. When the human soul is thirsty after a
pure being or an absolute which cannot be compre
hended in a palpable form, it creates a hybrid, an
imitation, or a reflection, and tries to be satisfied
with it, just as a little girl has her innate and not
yet fully developed maternity satisfied by tenderly
embracing and nursing the doll, an inanimate imitation
of a real living baby. And the Mahayanists seem to
have made most of this childish humanness. They
produced as many sutras as their spiritual yearnings
demanded, quite regardless of historical facts, and
made the Body of Bliss of the Tathagata the author
of all these works. For if the Dharmakaya of the
Tathagata never entered into Parinirvana, why then
could he not deliver sermons and cite gatMs as often
as beings of intelligence (Bodhisattvas) felt their needs ?
The Suvarna Prabhd (fas. 2, chap. 3) again echoes
this sentiment as follows :
"To illustrate by analogy, the sun or the moon
does not make any conscious discrimination, nor
does the water-mirror, nor the light [conceived separate
from the body from which it emanates]. But when
all these three are brought together, there is produced
an image [of the sun or the moon in the water]. So
it is with Suchness and Knowledge of Suchness. It
is not possessed of any particular consciousness, but
by virtue of the Spontaneous Will [inherent in the
nature of Suchness, or what is the same thing, in the

268 CHAPTER X.
Dharmakaya], the Body of Transformation or of Bliss
[as a shadow of the Dharmakaya] reveals itself in
response to the spiritual needs of sentient beings.
"And, again, as the water-mirror boundlessly
expanding reflects in all different ways the images
of akasa (void space) through the medium of light,
while space itself is void of all particular marks, so
the Dharmakaya reflects its images severally in the
receiving minds of believers, and this by virtue of
Spontaneous Will. The Will creates the Body of
Transformation as well as the Body of Bliss in all
their possible aspects, while the original, the Dharma
kaya, does not suffer one whit a change on this
account." According to this, it is evident that whenever our
spiritual needs become sufficiently intense there is a
response from the Dharmakaya, and that this response
is not always uniform as the recipient minds show
different degrees of development, intellectually and
spiritually. If we call this communion between sentient
souls and the Dharmakaya an inspiration, all the
phenomena that flow out of fulness of heart and
reflect purity of soul should be called "works of
inspiration" ; and in this sense the Mahayanists consider
their scriptures as emanating directly from the foun-
tainhead of the Dharmakaya.
Attitude of Modern Mahayanists.
Modern Mahayanists in full accordance with this
interpretation of the Doctrine of Trikaya do not place

CHAPTER X. 269
much importance on the objective aspects of the
Body of Bliss (Sambhogakaya). They consider them
at best the fictitious products of an imaginative mind ;
they never tarry a moment to think that all these
mysterious Tathagatas or Bodhisattvas who are
sometimes too extravagantly and generally too tediously
described in the Mahayana texts are objective realities,
that the Sukhavatis or Pure Lands ' are decorated
with such worldly stuff as gold, silver, emerald, cat's
eye, pearl, and other precious stones, that pious
Buddhists would be transfered after their death to
these ostentatiously ornamented heavens, be seated
on the pedestals of lotus-flowers, surrounded by
innumerable Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and would
enjoy all the spiritual enjoyments that human mind
can conceive. On the contrary, modern Buddhists
look with disdain on these egotistic materialistic
conceptions of religious life. For, to a fully en
lightened soul, of what use could those worldly trea-
1 The reader must not think that there is but one Pure
Land which is elaborately described in the Sukhavati Vyuha
Sutra as the abode of the Tathagata Amitabha, situated
innumerable leagues away in the West. On the contrary, the
Mahayana texts admit the existence of as innumerable pure
lands as there are Tathagatas and Bodhisattvas, and every
single one of these holy regions has no boundary and is co
existent with the universe, and, therefore, their spheres
necessarily intercrossing and overlapping one another. It would
look to every intelligent mind that those innumerable Buddha-
countries existing in such a mysterious and incomprehen
sible manner cannot be anything else than our own subjective
creation.

27O CHAPTER X.
sures be? What happiness, earthly or heavenly, does
such a soul dream of, outside the bliss of embracing
the will of the Dharmakaya as his own?
Recapitulatio n .
To sum up, the Buddha in the Pali scriptures was
a human being, though occasionally he is credited to
have achieved things supernatural and superhuman.
His historical career began with the abandonment of
a royal life, then the wandering in the wilderness, and
a long earnest meditation on the great problems of
birth-and-death, and his final enlightenment under
the Bodhi tree, then his fifty years' religious pere
grination along the valleys of the Ganges, and the
establishment of a religious system known as Buddhism,
and finally his eternal entrance into the "Parinirvana
that leaves nothing behind" (anupadhigesanirvdna).
And as far as plain historical facts are concerned,
these seem to exhaust the life of Cakyamuni on
earth. But the deep reverence which was felt by his
disciples could not be satisfied with this prosaic
humanness of their master and made him something
more than a mortal soul. So even the Pali tradition
gives him a supramundane life besides the earthly
one. He is supposed to have been a Bodhisattva in
the Tusita heaven before his entrance into the womb
of Mayadevi. The honor of Bodhisattvahood was
acceded to him on account of his deeds of
self-sacrifice which were praised throughout his
innumerable past incarnations. While he was walk-

CHAPTER X. 271
ing among us in the flesh, he was glorified with
the thirty- two major and eighty minor excellent charac
teristics of a great man. * But he was not the first
Buddha that walked on earth to teach the Dharma,
for there were already seven Buddhas before him, nor
was he the last one that would appear among us, for
1 For a description of these marks see the Dharmasangraha,
pp. S3 ff- A process of mystifying or deifying the person of
Buddha seems to have been going on immediately after the
death of the Master; and the Mahayanistic conception of
Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya is merely the consummation
of this process. Southern Buddhists who are sometimes supposed
to represent a more "primitive" form of Buddhism describe
just as much as Mahayanism the thirty-two major and eighty
minor exellent physical marks of a great man as having been
possessed by Cakyamuni, (for instance, see the Milindapanha,
S.B.E. Vol. XXXV. p. 116). But any person with common
sense will at once see the absurdity of representing any
human being with those physical peculiarities. And this
seems to have inspired more rational Mahayanists to abandon
the traditional way of portraying the human Buddha with
those mysterious signs. They transfered them through the
doctrine of Trikaya to the characterisation of the Sambho
gakaya Buddha, that is, to the Buddha enjoying in a celestial
abode the fruit of his virtuous earthly life. The Buddha who
walked in the flesh as the son of King Suddhodana was,
however, no more than an ordinary human being like ourselves,
because he appeared to us in a form of Nirmanakaya, i. e.
as a Body of Transformation, devoid of any such physical
peculiarities known as thirty-two or eighty laksanas.
Southern Buddhists, so called, seem, however, to have overlook
ed the ridiculousness of attributing these fantastic signs to the
human Buddha; and this fact explains that as soon as the
memory of the personal disciples of Buddha about his person
vanished among the later followers, intense speculation and
resourceful imagination were constantly exercised until the
divers schools settled the question each in its own way.

272 CHAPTER X.
a Bodhisattva by the name of Maitreya is now in
heaven and making preparations for the attainment
of Buddhahood in time to come. But here stopped
the Pali writers, they did not venture to make any
further speculation on the nature of Buddhahood.
Their religious yearnings did not spur them to a
higher flight of the imagination. They recited simple
sutras or gathas, observed the gilas (moral precepts)
as strictly and literally as they could, and thought
the spirit of their Master still alive in these instruc
tions ; — let alone the personality of the Tathagata.
But there was at the same time another group of
the disciples of the Buddha, whose religious and intel
lectual inclinations were not of the same type as their
fellow-believers ; and on that account a simple faith in
the Buddha as present in his teachings did not quite
satisfy them. They perhaps reasoned in this fashion :
"If there were seven Buddhas before the advent of
the Great Muni of Cakya and there would be one
more who is to come, where, let us ask, did they
derive their authority and knowledge to preach ? How
is it that there cannot be any more Buddhas, that
they do not come to us much oftener? If they were
human beings like ourselves, why not we ourselves
be Buddhas?" These questions, when logically carried
out, naturally led them to the theory of Dharmakaya,
that all the past Buddhas, and those to come, and
even we ordinary mortals made of clay and doomed
to die soon, owe the raison d'etre of their existence
to the Dharmakaya, which alone is immortal in us

CHAPTER X. 273
as well as in Buddhas The first religious effort we j
have to make is, therefore, to recognise this archetype
of all Buddhas and all beings. But the Dharmakaya
as such is too abstract for the average mind to become
the object of its religious consciousness ; so they
personified or rather materialised it. In other words,
they idealised (Jakyamuni, endowed him not only with
the physical signs (laksas) of greatness as in the
Pali scriptures, but with those of celestial transfiguration,
and called him a Body of Bliss of the Tathagata ; while
the historical human Buddha was called a Body of
Transformation and all sentient beings Bodhisattvas,
that is, beings of intelligence destined to become
Buddhas. This idealised Buddha, or, what is the same thing,
a personified Dharmakaya, according to the Mahayana
Buddhists, not only revealed himself in the particular
person of Siddhartha Gautama in Central Asia a few
thousand years ago, but is revealing himself in all
times and all places. There is no specially favored
spot on the earth where only the Buddha makes his
appearance ; from the zenith of Akanista heaven down
to the bottom of Naraka, he is manifesting uninterrupt
edly and unintermittently and is working out his ideas,
of which, however, our limited understanding is unable
to have an adequate knowledge. The Avatamsaka
Sutra (Buddhabhadra's translation, fas. 45, chap. 34)
describes how the Buddha works out his scheme of
salvation in all possible ways. (See also the Saddkarma 18

274 CHAPTER X.
pundarika, Kern's translation, chap. 2, p. 30 et seq.,
and also pp. 413-41 1.)
"In this wise the Buddha teaches and delivers all
sentient beings through his religious teachings whose
number is innumerable as atoms. He may reveal some
times in the world of devas, sometimes in that of
Nagas, Yaksas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras,
Mahoragas, etc., sometimes in the world of Brahmans,
sometimes in the world of human beings, sometimes
in the palace of Yamaraja (king of death), sometimes
in the underworld of damned spirits, ghosts, and beasts.
His all-swaying compassion, intelligence, and will would
not rest until all beings had been brought under his
shelter through all possible means of salvation. He may
achieve his work of redemption sometimes by means
of his name, sometimes by means of memory, sometimes
of voice, sometimes of perfect illumination, sometimes
of the net of illumination, Whenever and wherever
conditions are ripe for his appearance, he would never
fail to present himself before sentient beings and also
to manifest views of grandeur and splendor.
"The Buddha does not depart from his own region,
he does not depart from his seat in the tower; yet
he reveals himself in all the ten quarters of the globe.
He would sometimes emanate from his own body the
clouds of Nirmanakayas, or sometimes reveal himself
in an undivided personality, and itinerating in all
quarters would teach and deliver all sentient beings.
He may assume sometimes the form of a Cravaka,
sometimes that of a Brahmadeva, sometimes that of

CHAPTER X. 275
an ascetic, sometimes that of a good physician, some
times that of a tradesman, sometimes that of a Bhiksu
[or honest worker], sometimes that of an artist, some
times that of a deva. Again, he may reveal himself
sometimes in all the forms of art and industry, sometimes
in all the places of congregation, such as towns, cities,
villages, etc. And whatever his subjects for salvation
may be, and whatever his surroundings , he will accom
modate himself to all possible conditions and achieve
his work of enlightenment and salvation" ' . . . .
The practical sequence of this doctrine of Trikaya
is apparent; it has ever more broadened the spirit
of tolerance in Buddhists. As the Dharmakaya uni
versally responds to the spiritual needs of all sentient
beings in all times and in all places and at any stage
of their spiritual development, Buddhists consider all
spiritual leaders, whatever their nationality and perso
nality, as the expressions of the one omnipotent
Dharmakaya. And as the Dharmakaya always manifests
itself for the best interests of sentient creatures, even
those doctrines and their authors that are apparently
against the teachings of Buddhism are tolerated through
the conviction that they are all moving according to the
Spontaneous Will that pervades everywhere and works '
all the time. Though, superficially, they may appear
as evils, their central and final aim is goodness and
harmony which are destined by the Will of the Dhar
makaya to overcome this world of tribulations and
1 Cf. I Cor. xi. 19 et seq.

276 CHAPTER X.
contradictions. The general intellectual tendency of
Buddhism has done a great deal towards cultivating
a tolerant spirit in its believers, and we must say that
the doctrine of Trinity which appears sometimes too
radical in its pantheistic spirit has contributed much
to this cause.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BODHISATWa!

1VTEXT to the conception of Buddha, what ii1 impor
tant in Mahayana Buddhism is that of Bodhisattva
(intelligence-being) and of that which constitutes its
essence, Bodhicitta, intelligence- heart. As stated above,
the followers of Mahayanism do not call themselves
Cravakas or Pratyekabuddhas or Arhats as do those of
Hinayanism ; but they distinguish themselves by the
title of Bodhisattva. What this means will be the
subject-matter of this chapter.
Let us begin with a quotation from the Saddharma-
pundarika Siltra, in which a well-defined distinction
between the Cravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas and
the Bodhisattvas is given. '
The Three Ydnas.
"Now, Cariputra, the beings who have become wise,
have faith in the Tathagata, the father of the world, and
consequently apply themselves to his commandments.
"Amongst them there are some who, wishing to
follow the dictate of an authoritative voice, apply
themselves to the commandment of the Tathagata to
1 Kern's English translation (S.B E. Vol. XXI), Chap. Ill, p. 80.

278 CHAPTER XI.
acquire the knowledge of the Four Great Truths,
for the sake of their own complete Nirvana. These,
one may say, to be those who, seeking the vehicle
of the Cravaka, fly from the triple world 
"Other beings desirous of the unconditioned know
ledge, of self-restraint and tranquillity, apply themselves
to the commandment of the Tathagata to learn to
understand 'the Twelve Chains of Dependence, for the
sake of their own complete Nirvana. These, one may
say, to be those who, seeking the vehicle of the
Pratyekabuddha, fly from the triple world 
"Other beings again desirous of omniscience, Buddha-
knowledge, absolute knowledge, unconditioned know
ledge, apply themselves to the commandment of the
Tathagata and to learn to understand the knowledge,
powers, and conviction of the Tathagata, for the sake
of the common weal and happiness, out of compassion
to the world, for the benefit, weal and happiness of
the world at large, of both gods and men, for the
sake of the complete Nirvana of all beings These,
one may say, to be those who seeking the Great
Vehicle (Mahayana) fly from the triple world. Therefore,
they are called Bodhisattva-mahasattvas." . .
This characterisation of the Bodhisattvas as distinct
from the Cravakas and Pratyekabuddhas constitutes
one of the most significant features of Mahayana
Buddhism. Here the Bodhisattva does not exert
himself in religious discipline for the sake of his
own weal, but for the sake of the spiritual bene
fit of all his fellow-creatures. If he will, he could,

CHAPTER XI. 279
like the Cravakas and Pratyekabuddhas, enter into
eternal Nirvana that never slides back ; he could enjoy
the celestial bliss of undisturbed tranquillity in which
all our worldly tribulations are forever buried ; he could
seclude himself from the hurly-burly of the world, and,
sitting cross-legged in a lonely cave, quietly contemplate
on the evanescence of human interests and the frivolity
of earthly affairs, and then self- contentedly await the
time of final absorption into the absolute All, as
streams and rivers finally run into one great ocean
and become of one taste. But, in spite of all these
self-sufficient blessings, the Bodhisattva would not
seek his own ease, but he would mingle himself in
the turmoil of worldly life and devote all his energy
to the salvation of the masses of people, who, on
account of their ignorance and infatuation, are forever
transmigrating in the triple world, without making
any progress towards the final goal of humanity.
Along this Bodhisattvaic devotion, however, there
was another current of religious thought and practice
running among the followers of Buddha. By this I
mean the attitude of the Cravakas and the Pratyeka
buddhas. Both of them sought peace of mind in
asceticism and cold philosophical speculation. Both of
them were intently inclined to gain Nirvana which may
be likened unto an extinguished fire. It was not theirs
to think of the common weal of all beings, and,
therefore, when they attained their own redemption
from earthly sins and passions, their religious disci
pline was completed, and no further attempt was

280 CHAPTER XI.
made by them to extend the bliss of their personal
enlightenment to their fellow-creatures. ' They recoiled
from mingling themselves among vulgar people lest
their holy life should get contaminated. They did not
have confidence enough in their own power to help
the masses to break the iron yoke of ignorance and
misery. Moreover, everybody was supposed to exert
himself for his own emancipation, however unbearable
his pain was for others could not do anything to
alleviate it. Sympathy was of no avail; because
the reward of his own karma good or evil could be
suffered by himself alone, nor could it be avoidable
even by the doer himself. Things done were done
1 It should be noted here that the idea of universal salva
tion was lacking altogether in the followers of Hinayanism.
But what distinguished it so markedly from Mahayanism is
that the former did not extend the idea wide enough, but
confined it to Buddhahood only. Buddha attained omniscience
in order that he might deliver the world, but we, ordinary
mortals, are too ignorant and too helpless to aspire for Bud
dhahood; let us be contented with paying homage to Buddha
and faithfully observing his precepts as laid down by him for our
spiritual edification. Our knowledge and energy are too limit
ed to cope with such a gigantic task as to achieve a univer
sal salvation of mankind; let a Buddha or Bodhisattva attempt
it while we may rest with a profound confidence in him and
in his work. Thoughts somewhat like these must have been
going about in the minds of the Hinayanists, when their
Mahayana brethren were making bold to strive after Buddha
hood themselves. The difference between the two schools of
Buddhism, when most concisely expressed, is this: While one
has a most submissive confidence in the Buddha, the other
endeavors to follow his example by placing himself in his
position. The following quotation ("the Story of Sumedha,"

CHAPTER XI. 28l
once for all, and their karma made an indelible mark
on the pages of his destiny. Even Buddha who was
supposed to have attained that exalted position by
practising innumerable pious deeds in all his former
lives, could not escape the fruit of evil karma which
was quite unwittingly commited by him. This iron
arm of karma seizes everybody in person and does
not allow any substitute whatever. Those who wish
to give a halt to the working of karma could do so
only by applying a counter-force to it, and this with
no other hand than his own. The Mahayanist concep
tion of Bodhisattvahood may be considered an effort
somewhat to mitigate this ruthless mechanical rigidity
of the law of karma.
a Jataka tale, from Warren's Buddhism, p. 14) in which Su
medha, one of the Buddha's former incarnations, expresses
his resolve to be a Buddha, may just as well be considered
as that of a Mahayanist himself, while the Hinayanists would
not dare to make this wish their own:
"Or why should I, valorous man,
The ocean seek to cross alone?
Omniscience first will I achieve,
And men and gods convey across.
"Since now I make this earnest wish,
In presence of this Best of Men,
Omniscience sometime I'll achieve,
And multitude convey across.
"I'll rebirth' circling stream arrest,
Destroy existence's three modes ;
I'll climb the sides of Doctrine's ship,
And men and gods convey across."

282 CHAPTER XI.

Strict Individualism.

The Buddhism of the Cravakas and the Pratyeka
buddhas is the most unscrupulous application to our
ethico-religious life of the individualistic theory of
karma. All things done are done by oneself ; all things
left undone are left undone by oneself. They would
say: "Your salvation is exclusively your own business,
and whatever sympathy I may have is of no avaiL
All that I can do toward helping you is to let you
see intellectually the way to emancipation. If you do
not follow it, you have but to suffer the fruition of
your folly. I am helpless with all my enlightenment,
even with my Nirvana, to emancipate you from the
misery of perpetual metempsychosis." But with the
Buddhism of the Mahayana Bodhisattvas the case is
entirely different. It is all-sympathy, it is all-compassion,
it is all-love. A Bodhisattva would not seclude himself
into the absolute tranquillity of Nirvana, simply because
he wishes to emancipate his fellow-creatures also from
the bondage of ignorance and infatuation. Whatever
rewards he may get for his self-enjoyment as the
karma of his virtuous deeds, he would turn them
over (parivarta) towards the uplifting of the suffering
masses. And this self-sacrifice, this unselfish devotion
to the welfare of his fellow-beings constitutes the
essence of Bodhisattvahood. The ideal Bodhisattva,
therefore, is thought to be no more than an incarnation
of Intelligence and Love, of Prajfia and Karuna.
The irrefragability of karma seems to be satisfactory

CHAPTER XI. 283
from the intellectual and individualistic standpoint, for
the intellect demands a thorough application of logic,
and individualism does not allow the transfering of
responsibility from one person to another. From this
viewpoint, therefore, a rigorous enforcement as demand
ed by Hinayanism of the principle of self-emancipation
does not show any logical fault ; divine grace must
be suspended as the curse of karma produced by
ignorance tenaciously clings to our soul. But when
viewed from the religious side of the question, this
inflexibility of karma is more than poor mortals can
endure. They want something more elastic and pliable
that yields to the supplication of the feeling. When \
individuals are considered nothing but isolated, discon
nected atoms, between which there is no unifying bond
which is the feeling, they are too weak to resist
and overcome the ever-threatening force of evil, whose
reality as long as a world of particulars exists can
not be contradicted. This religious necessity felt in
our inmost consciousness may explain the reason
why Mahayana Buddhism proposed the doctrine of
parivarta (turning over) founded on the oneness of
Dharmakaya. The Doctrine of Parivarta.
The doctrine of turning over (parivarta) of one's
own merits to others is a great departure from that
which seems to have been the teaching of "primitive
Buddhism." In fact, it is more than a departure, it

284 CHAPTER XI.
is even in opposition to the latter in some measure.
Because while individualism is a predominant feature in
the religious practice of the Cravakas and the Pratye
kabuddhas, universalism or supra-individualism, if I am
allowed to use these terms, is the principle advocated
by the Bodhisattvas. The latter believe that all beings,
being a manifestation of the Dharmakaya, are in their
essence of one nature ; that individual existences are
real so far as subjective ignorance is concerned ; and
that virtues and merits issuing directly from the Dhar
makaya which is intelligence and love, cannot fail to
produce universal benefit and to effect final emanci
pation of all beings. Thus, the religion of the Bodhi
sattvas proposes to achieve what was thought impos
sible by the Cravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas, that
is, the turning over of one's own merits to the service
of others.
It is in this spirit that the Bodhisattvas conceive
the seriousness of the significance of life ; it is in this
spirit that, pondering over the reason of their ex
istence on earth, they come to the following view
of life :
"All ignorant beings are daily and nightly perform
ing evil deeds in innumerable ways; and, on this
account, their suffering beggars description. They do
not recognise the Tathagata, do not listen to his
teachings, do not pay homage to the congregation of
holy men. And this evil karma will surely bring them
a heavy crop of misery. This reflection fills the heart
of a Bodhisattva with gloomy feelings, which in turn

CHAPTER XI. 285
gives rise to the immovable resolution, that he himself
will carry all the burdens for ignorant beings and
help them to reach the final goal of Nirvana. Inesti
mably heavy as these burdens are, he will not swerve
nor yield under their weight. He will not rest until
all ignorant beings are freed from the entangling mesh
es of desire and sin, until they are uplifted above
the darkening veil of ignorance and infatuation ; and
this his marvelous spiritual energy defies the narrow
limitations of time and space, and will extend even
to eternity when the whole system of worlds comes
to a conclusion. Therefore, all the innumerable meri
torious deeds practised by the Bodhisattvas are dedi
cated to the emancipation of ignorant beings.
"The Bodhisattvas do not feel, however, that they
are being compelled by any external force to devote
their lives to the edification and uplifting of the mass
es. They do not recognise any outward authority,
the violation of which may react upon them in the
form of a punishment. They have already passed be
yond this stage of world-conception which implies a
dualism ; they are on the contrary moving in a much
wider and higher sphere of thought. All that is done
by them springs from their spontaneous will, from the
free activity of the Bodhicitta, which constitutes their
reason of existence ; and thus there is nothing compulso
ry in their thoughts and movements. [To use Laotzean ter
minology, they are practising non-action, wu wei, and
whatever may appear to the ignorant and unenlightened
as a strenuous and restless life, is merely a natural

286 CHAPTER XI.
overflow from the inexhaustible fount of energy called
Bodhicitta, heart of intelligence ]" 1
Bodhisattva in "Primitive" Buddhism.
The notion of Bodhisattva was not entirely absent
in "primitive" Buddhism, only it did not have such a
wide signification. All Buddhas were Bodhisattvas in
their former lives. The jataka stories minutely des
cribe what self-sacrificing deeds were done by them
and how by the karma of these merits they finally
attained Buddhahood. fjakyamuni was not the only
Buddha, but there had already been seven or twenty-
four Buddhas prior to him, and the coming Buddha
to be known as Maitreya is believed to be disciplining
himself in the Tusita heaven and going through the stages
of Bodhisattvahood. The one who is thus destined to
be the future Buddha must be extraordinarily gifted in
spiritual energy. He must pass through eons of self-disci
pline, must practise deeds of non-atman with unflinching
courage and fortitude through innumerable existences.
The following quotation from the Jataka tales will
be sufficient to see what ponderous and exacting
conditions were conceived by the so-called Hinayanists
to be necessary for a human being to become a
fully qualified Buddha. 2
1 This is a very rough summary of the doctrine that is known
as Parivarta and expounded in the Avatamsaka Sutra, fas. 21-22
where ten forms of Parivarta are distinguished and explained
at length.
2 Warren's Buddhism in Translations, the "Story of Sumedha,"
pp. 14-15.

CHAPTER XI, 287
"Of men it is he, and only he, who is in a fit
condition by the attainment of saintship in that same
existence, that can successfully make a wish to be
a Buddha. Of those in a fit condition it is only he
who makes the wish in the presence of a living
Buddha that succeeds in his wish ; after the death of
a Buddha a wish made at a relic shrine, or at the
foot of a Bo-tree, will not be successful. Of those
who make the wish in the presence of a Buddha it
is he and only he who has retired from the world
that can successfully make the wish, and not one
who is a layman. Of those who have retired from
the world it is only he who is possessed of the Five
High Powers and is master of the Eight Attainments
that can successfully make the wish, and no one can
do so who is lacking in these excellences. Of those,
even, who possess these excellences, it is he, and
only he, who has such firm resolve that he is ready
to sacrifice his life for the Buddhas that can success
fully make the wish, but no other. Of those who
possess this resolve it is he, and only he, who has
great zeal, determination, strenuousness, and endeavor
in striving for the qualities that make a Buddha that
is successful. The following comparisons will show the
intensity of the zeal. If he is such a one as to think :
"The man who, it all within the rim of the world
were to become water, would be ready to swim
across it with his own arms and get further shore, — •
he is the one to attain the Buddhaship: or, in case
all within the rim of the world were to become a

288 CHAPTER XI.
jungle of bamboo, would be ready to elbow and
trample his way through it and get to the further
side, — he is the one to attain the Buddhaship ; or, in
case all within the rim of the world were to become
a terra firma of thick-set javelins, would be ready
to tread on them and go afoot to the further side, —
he is the one to attain the Buddhaship ; or, in case
all within the rim of the world were to become live
coals, would be ready to tread on them and so get
to the further side, — he is the one to attain the
Buddhaship,' — if he deems not even one of these
feats too hard for himself but has such great zeal,
determination, strenuousness, and power of endeavor
that he would perform these feats in order to attain
the Buddhaship, then, but not otherwise, will his
wish succeed."
From this it is apparent that everybody could not
become a Buddha in "primitive" Buddhism ; the highest
aspiration that could be cherished by him was to
believe in the teachings of Buddha, to follow the
precepts laid down by him, and to attain at most to
Arhatship. The idea of Arhatship, however, was
considered by Mahayanists cold, impassionate, and
hard-hearted, for the saint calmly reviews the sight
of the suffering masses; and therefore Arhatship was
altogether unsatisfactory to be the object for the
Bodhisattvas of their high religious aspirations.
The Mahayanists wanted to go even beyond the
attainment of Arhatship, however exalted its spirituality
may be. They wanted to make every humble soul

CHAPTER XI. 28g
a being like Cakyamuni, they wanted lavishly to
distribute the bliss of enlightenment; they wanted
to remove all the barriers that were supposed to lie
between Buddhahood and the common humanity. But
how could they do this when the iron hands of karma
held tight the fate of each individual ! How was it
possible for him to identify his being with the ideal
of mankind? Perhaps this serious problem could not
very well be solved by Buddhists, when their memory
of the majestic personality of Cjakyamuni was still
vivid before their mental eyes. It was probably no
easy task for them to overcome the feeling of awe
and reverence which was so deeply engraved in their
hearts, and to" raise themselves to such a height as
reached by their Master, even ideally. This was certainly
an act of sacrilege. But, as time advances, the personal
recollection of the Master would naturally wane and
would not play so much influence as their own religious
consciousness which is ever fresh and active. Generally
speaking, all great historical characters that command
the reverence and awe of posterity do so only when
their words or acts or both unravel the deepest
secrets of the human heart. And this feeling of awe
and reverence and even of worship is not due so
much to the great characters themselves as to the
worshiper's own religious consciousness. History passes,
but the heart persists. An individual called Cakyamuni
may be forgotten in the course of time, but the sacred
chord in the inmost heart struck by him reverberates
through eternity. So with the Mahayana Buddhists, '9

29O CHAPTER XI.
the religious sentiment at last asserted itself in spite
of the personal recollection and reverential feeling for
the Master. And perhaps in the following way was
the reasoning then advanced by them relative to the
great problem of Buddhahood.
We are all Bodhisattvas.
As Cakyamuni was a Bodhisattva in his former
lives destined to become a Buddha, so we are all
Bodhisattvas and even Buddhas in a certain sense,
when we understand that all sentient beings, the
Buddha not excepted, are one in the Dharmakaya.
The Dharmakaya manifests in us as Bodhi which is
the essence of Buddhas as well as of Bodhisattvas,
This Bodhi can suffer no change whatever in quantity
even when the Bodhisattva attains finally to the highest
human perfection as Cakyamuni Buddha. In this spirit,
therefore, the Buddha exclaimed when he obtained
enlightenment, "It is marvelous indeed that all beings
animate and inanimate universally partake of the nature
of Tathagatahood." The only difference between a
Buddha and the ignorant masses is that the latter
do not make manifest in them the glory of Bodhi.
They only are not Bodhisattvas who, enveloped in
the divine rays of light in a celestial abode, philo
sophically review the world of tribulations. Even we
mortals made of dust are Bodhisattvas, incarnates of
the Bodhi, capable of being united in the all-embracing
love of the Dharmakaya and also of obliterating the

CHAPTER XI. 291
individual curse of karma in the eternal and absolute
intelligence of the Dharmakaya. As soon as we come
to live in this love and intelligence, individual existences
are no hindrance to the turning over (parivarta) of
one's spiritual merits (punya) to the service of others.
Let us only have an insight into the spirituality of
our existence and we are all Bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
Let us abandon the selfish thought of entering into
Nirvana that is conceived to extinguish the fire of
heart and leave only the cold ashes of intellect. Let
us have sympathy for all suffering beings and turn
over all our merits, however small, to their benefit
and happiness. For in this way we are all made the
Bodhisattvas. '

The Buddha's Life.
This spirit of universal love prevails in all Mahayana
literature, and the Bodhisattvas are everywhere re
presented as exercising it with utmost energy. The
Mahayanists, therefore, could not rest satisfied with
a simple, prosaic, and earthly account of Qakyamuni,
1 It may be interesting to Christian readers to note in this
connection that modern Buddhists do not reject altogether
the idea of vicarious atonement, for their religious conviction
as seen here admits the parivarta of a Bodhisattva's merits
to the spiritual welfare of his fellow-creatures. But they will
object to the Christian interpretation that Jesus was sent
down on earth by his heavenly father for the special mission
to atone for the original sin through the shedding of his innocent
blood, for this is altogether too puerile and materialistic,

292 CHAPTER XI.
they wanted to make it as ideal and poetic as possible,
illustrating the gospel of love, as was conceived by
them, in every phase of the life of the Buddha.
The Mahayanists first placed the Buddha in the
Tusita heaven before his birth, (as was done by the
Hinayanists,) made him feel pity for the distressed
world below, made him resolve to deliver it from
"the ocean of misery which throws up sickness as
its foam, tossing with the waves of old age, and rush
ing with the dreadful onflow of death," and after
his Parinirvana, they made him abide forever on the
peak of the Mount Vulture delivering the sermon of
immortality to a great assemblage of spiritual beings.
In this wise, they explained the significance of the
appearance of Cakyamuni on earth, which was noth
ing but a practical demonstration of the "Great Lov
ing Heart" (mahdkarundcitta). The Bodhisattva and Love.
Nagarjuna in his work on the Bodhicitta * elucidates
the Mahayanist notion of Bodhisattvahood as follows :
"Thus the essential nature of all Bodhisattvas is a
great loving heart (mahdkarundcitta), and all sentient
beings constitute the object of its love. Therefore,
all the Bodhisattvas do not cling to the blissful taste
1 The full title of the work is A Treatise on the Transcen-
dentality of Bodhicitta (Nanjo, No. 1304). It is a little book
consisting of seven or eight sheets in big Chinese type. It
was translated into Chinese by Danapala (Shih Hu) during
the tenth Century of the Christian Era.

CHAPTER XI. 293
that is produced by the divers modes of mental
tranquilisation (dhyana), do not covet the fruit of
their meritorious deeds, which may heighten their own
happiness. "Their spiritual state is higher than that of the
Qravakas, for they do not leave all sentient beings
behind them [as the Cravakas do]. They practise al
truism, they seek the fruit of Buddha-knowledge
[instead of Cravaka-knowledge].
"With a great loving heart they look upon the
sufferings of all beings, who are diversely tortured
in Avici Hell in consequence of their sins — a hell
whose limits are infinite and where an endless round
of misery is made possible on account of all sorts of
karma [committed by sentient creatures] The Bodhi
sattvas filled with pity and love desire to suffer
themselves for the sake of those miserable beings.
"But they are well acquainted with the truth that
all those diverse sufferings causing diverse states of
misery are in one sense apparitional and unreal, while
in another sense they are not so. They know also
that those who have an intellectual insight into the
emptiness (cunyatd) of all existences, thoroughly un
derstand why those rewards of karma are brought
forth in such and such ways [through ignorance and
infatuation]. "Therefore, all Bodhisattvas, in order to emancipate
sentient beings from misery, are inspired with great
spiritual energy and mingle themselves in the filth of
birth and death. Though thus they make themselves

294 CHAPTER XI.
subject to the laws of birth and death, their hearts
are free from sins and attachments. They are like
unto those immaculate, undefiled lotus-flowers which
grow out of mire, yet are not contaminated by it.
"Their great hearts ot sympathy which constitute the
essence of their being never leave suffering creatures
behind [in their journey towards enlightenment]. Their
spiritual insight is in the emptiness (cunyatd) of
things, but [their work of salvation] is never outside
the world of sins and sufferings."
The Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta.
What is the meaning of the word "Bodhisattva"?
It is a Sanskrit term consisting of two words, "Bodhi,"
and "sattva." Bodhi which comes from the root
budh meaning "to wake," is generally rendered
"knowledge" or "intelligence." Sattva(sat-tva) literally
means "state of being"; thus "existence," "creature,"
or "that which is," being its English equivalent.
"Bodhisattva" as one word means "a being of intelli
gence," or "a being whose essence is intelligence." Why
the Mahayanists came to adopt this word in contradis
tinction to Cr&vaka is easily understood, when we see
what special significance they attached to the conception
of Bodhi in their philosophy. When Bodhi was used
by the Cravakas in the simple sense of knowledge, it
did not bear any particular import. But as soon as
it came to express some metaphysical relation to the
conception of Dharmakaya, it ceased to be used in
its generally accepted sense.

CHAPTER XI. 295
Bodhi, according to the Mahayanists, is an expres
sion of the Dharmakaya in the human consciousness.
Philosophically speaking, Suchness or Bhutatathata is
an ontological term, and Dharmakaya or Tathagata
or Buddha bears a religious significance ; while all
these three, Bodhi, Bhutatathata, and Dharmakaya, and
their synonyms are nothing but different aspects of one
and the same reality refracting through the several
defective lenses of a finite intellect.
Bodhi, though essentially an epistemological term,
assumes a psychological sense when it is used in
conjunction with citta, i.e. heart or soul. Bodhicitta,
or Bodhihrdaya which means the same thing, is more
generally used than Bodhi singly in the Mahayana ,
texts, especially when its religious import is empha
sised above its intellectual one. Bodhicitta, viz. intelli
gence-heart is a reflex in the human heart of its
religious archetype, the Dharmakaya.
Bodhicitta when further amplified is called anuttara-
samyak-sambodhicitta, that is, "intelligence-heart that
is supreme and most perfect."
It will be easily understood now that what consti
tutes the essence of the Bodhicitta is the very same
thing that makes up the Dharmakaya. For the former
is nothing but an expression of the latter, though
finitely, fragmentarily, imperfectly realised in us. The
citta is an image and the Dharmakaya the prototype,
yet one is just as real as the other, only the two must not
be conceived dualistically. There is a Dharmakaya,
there is a human heart, and the former reflects itself

2 j6 CHAPTER XI.
in the latter much after the fashion of the lunar
reflection in the water: — to think in this wise is not
perfectly correct ; because the fundamental teaching
of Buddhism is to view all these three conceptions,
the Dharmakaya, human heart, and the reflections of
the former in the latter, as different forms of one and
the same activity.
Love and Karuna.
The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart, therefore, like
the Dharmakaya is essentially love and intelligence,
or, to use Sanskrit terms, karuna and prajna. Here
some may object to the use of the term "love" for
karuna, perhaps on the ground that karuna does not
exactly correspond to the Christian notion of love,
as it savors more of the sense of commiseration. But
if we understand by love a sacrifice of the self for
the sake of others (and it cannot be more than that),
then karuna can correctly be rendered love, even in
the Christian sense. Is not the Bodhisattva willing to
abandon his own Nirvanic peace for the interests of
suffering creatures? Is he not willing to dedicate the
karma of his meritorious deeds performed in his suc
cessive existences to the general welfare of his fellow-
beings ? Is not his one fundamental motive that governs
all his activities in life directed towards a universal
emancipation of all sentient beings? Is he not per
fectly willing to forsake all the thoughts and passions
that arise from egoism and to embrace the will of
the Dharmakaya? If this be the case, then there is

CHAPTER XI. 297
no reason why karuna should not be rendered by love.
Christians say that without love we are become
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal ; and Buddhists
would declare that without karuna we are like unto
a dead vine hanging over a frozen boulder, or like
unto the cold ashes left after a blazing fire.
Some may say, however, that the Buddhist sym
pathy or commiseration somewhat betrays a sense of
passive contemplation on evils. When Christians say
that God loves his creatures, the love implies activity
and shows God's willingness to do whatever for the
actual benefits of his subject -beings. Quite true. Yet
when the Buddha is stated to have declared that all
sentient beings in the triple world are his own child
ren or that he will not enter into his final Nirvana
unless all beings in the three thousand great chilio-
cosms, not a single soul excepted, are emancipated
from the misery of birth and death, his self-sacrificing
love must be considered to be all-comprehensive and
at the same time full of energy and activity. What
ever objections there may be, we do not see any
sufficient reason against speaking of the love-essence
of the Dharmakaya and the Bodhicitta.
Nagarjuna and Sthiramati on the Bodhicitta.
Says Nagarjuna in his Discourse on the Transcen-
dentahty of the Bodhicitta: "The Bodhicitta is free
from all determinations, that is, it is not included
in the categories of the five skandhas, the twelve
ayatanas, and the eighteen dhatus. It is not a particular

298 CHAPTER XI.
existence which is palpable. It is non-atmanic, universal.
It is uncreate and its self-essence is void \tgiinya,
immaterial, or transcendental].
"One who understands the nature of the Bodhicitta
sees everything with a loving heart, for love is the
essence of the Bodhicitta.
"The Bodhicitta is the highest essence.
"Therefore, all Bodhisattvas find their raison d'etre
of existence in this great loving heart.
"The Bodhicitta, abiding in the heart of sameness
(samata) creates individual means of salvation (upaya). '
1 Upaya, meaning "expedient," "stratagem," "device," or
"craft," has a technical sense in Buddhism. It is used in
contrast to intelligence (prajna) and is synonymous with love
{karuna). So, Vimalakirti says in the sutra bearing his name
(chap. 8, verses 1 — 4): "Prajna is the mother of the Bodhisattva
and Upaya his father ; there is no leader of humanity who is
not born of them." Intelligence (prajna) is the one, the univer
sal, representing the principle of sameness (samata), while
Upaya is the many, being the principle of manifoldness (ndndtvd).
From the standpoint of pure intelligence, the Bodhisattvas
do not see any particular suffering existences, for there is
nothing that is not of the Dharmakaya : but when they see
the universe from the standpoint of their love-essence, they
recognise everywhere the conditions of misery and sin that
arise from clinging to the forms of particularity. To remove
these, they devise all possible means that are directed towards
the attainment of the final aim of existence. There is only
one religion, ' religion of truth, but there are many ways, many
means, many upayas, all issuing from the all-embracing love
of the Dharmakaya and equally efficient to lead the masses
to supreme enlightenment and universal good. Therefore,
ontologically speaking, this universe, the Buddhists would say,
is nothing but a grand display of Upayas by the Dharmakaya
that desires thereby to lead all sentient beings to the ultimate

CHAPTER XI. 299
One who understands this heart becomes emancipated
from the dualistic view of birth and death and performs
such acts as are beneficial both to oneself and to others."
Sthiramati advocates in his Discourse on the Mahay dna-
Dharmadhdtu 1 the same view as Nagarjuna's on the
nature of the Bodhicitta, which I summarise here :
"Nirvana, Dharmakaya, Tathagata, Tathagata-garbha,
Paramartha, Buddha, Bodhicitta, or Bhutatathata,— all
these terms signify merely so many different aspects
of one and the same reality ; and Bodhicitta is the
name given to a form of the Dharmakaya or Bhutatathata
as it manifests itself in the human heart, and its
perfection, or negatively its liberation from all egoistic
impurities, constitutes the state of Nirvana."
Being a reflex of the Dharmakaya, the Bodhicitta
is practically the same as the original in all its char
acteristics; so continues Sthiramati: "It is free from
compulsive activities; it has no beginning, it has no
end ; it cannot be defiled by impurities, it cannot be
obscured by egoistic individualistic prejudices; it is
incorporeal, it is the spiritual essence of Buddhas,
realisation of Buddhahood. In many cases, thus, it is extremely
difficult to render upaya by any of its English equivalents
and yet to retain its original technical sense unsuffered. This
is also the case with many other Buddhist terms, among which
we may mention Bodhi, Dharmakaya, Prajna, Citta, Parivarta,
etc. The Chinese translators have fang p'ien for upaya which
means "means-accommodation."
1 Its full title is A Discourse on the Non-duality of the Ma-
hdydna-Dharmadhdtu. It consists of less than a dozen pages
in ordinary Chinese large print. It was translated by Deva-
prajnai and others in the year 691 A. D.

3O0 CHAPTER XI.
it is the source of all virtues earthly as well as transcen
dental; it is constantly becoming, yet its original
purity is never lost.
"It may be likened unto the ever-shining sunlight
which may temporarily be hidden behind the clouds.
All the modes of passion and sin arising from egoism
may sometimes darken the light of the Bodhicitta,
but the Citta itself forever remains free from these
external impurities. It may again be likened unto all-
comprehending space which remains eternally identical,
whatever happenings and changes may occur in things
enveloped therein. When the Bodhicitta manifests
itself in a relative world, it looks as if being subject
to constant becoming, but in reality it transcends all
determinations, it is above the reach of birth and
death (samsara).
"So long as it remains buried under innumerable
sins arising from ignorance and egoism, it is pro
ductive of no earthly or heavenly benefit. Like the
lotus-flower whose petals are yet unfolded, like the
gold that is deeply entombed under the debris of
dung and dirt, or like the light of the full moon
eclipsed by Agura; the Bodhicitta, when blindfolded
by the clouds of passion, avarice, ignorance, and folly,
does not reveal its intrinsic spiritual worth.
"Destroy at once with your might and main all
those entanglements ; then like the full-bloomed lotus-
flower, like genuine gold purified from dirt and dust,
like the moon in a cloudless sky, like the sun in its
full glory, like mother earth producing all kinds of

CHAPTER XI. 301
cereals, like the ocean containing innumerable treasures,
the eternal bliss of the Bodhicitta will be upon all
sentient beings. All sentient beings are then emanci
pated from the misery of ignorance and folly, their
hearts are filled with love and sympathy and free
from the clinging to things worthless.
"However defiled and obscured the Bodhicitta may
find itself in profane hearts, it is essentially the same
as that in all Buddhas. Therefore, says the Muni of
Cakya: 'O Qariputra, the world of sentient beings is
not different from the Dharmakaya; the Dharmakaya
is not different from the world of sentient beings.
What constitutes the Dharmakaya is the world of
sentient beings ; and what constitutes the world of
sentient beings is the Dharmakaya.'
"As far as the Dharmakaya or the Bodhicitta is
concerned, there is no radical distinction to be made
between profane hearts and the Buddha's heart; yet
when observed from the human standpoint [that is,
from the phenomenal side of existence] the following
general classification can be made:
"(1) The heart hopelessly distorted by numberless
egoistic sins and condemned to an eternal transmi
gration of birth and death which began in the timeless
past, is said to be in the state of profanity.
"(2) The heart that, loathing the misery of wandering
in birth and death and taking leave of all sinful
and depraved conditions, seeks the Bodhi in the ten
virtues of perfection (pdramitd) and 84.000 Buddha-
dharmas and disciplines itself in all meritorious deeds,

302 CHAPTER XI.
is said to be the [spiritual] state of a Bodhisattva.
"(3) The state in which the heart is emancipated
from the obscuration of all passions, has distanced
all sufferings, has eternally effaced the stain of all
sins and corruptions, is pure, purer, and purest,
abides in the essence of Dharma, has reached the
height from which the states of all sentient beings are
surveyed, has attained the consummation of all
knowledges, has realised the highest type of manhood,
has gained the power of spiritual spontaneity which
frees one from attachment and hesitation, — this
spiritual state is that of the fully, perfectly, enlight
ened Tathagata". The Awakening of the Bodhicitta.
The Bodhicitta is present in the hearts of all
sentient beings. Only in Buddhas it is fully awakened
and active with its immaculate virility, while in
ordinary mortals it is dormant and miserably crippled
by its unenlightened intercourse with the world of
sensuality. One of the most favorite parables told by
the Mahayanists to illustrate this point is to compare
the Bodhicitta to the moonlight in the heavens. When
the moon shines with her silvery light in the clear,
cloudless skies, she is reflected in every drop and
in every mass of water on the earth. The crystal
dews on the quivering leaves reflect her like so many
pearls hung on the branches. Every little water-pool,
probably formed temporarily by heavy showers in
the daytime, reflects her like so many stars descended

CHAPTER XI. 303
on earth. Perhaps some of the pools are muddy and
others even filthy, but the moonlight does not refuse
to reflect her immaculate image in them. The image
is just as perfect there as in a" clear, undisturbed,
transparent lake, where cows quench their thirst and
swans bathe their taintless feathers. Wherever there
is the least trace of water, there is seen a heavenly
image of the goddess of night. Even so with the
Bodhicitta: where there exists a little warmth of the
heart, there it unfailingly glorifies itself in its best
as circumstances permit.
Now, the question is : How should this dormant
Bodhicitta in our hearts be awakened to its full
sense? This is answered more or less definitely in
almost all the Mahayana writings, and we may here
recite the words of Vasubandhu from his Discourse
on the Awakening of the Bodhicitta, l for they give
us a somewhat systematic statement of those con
ditions which tend to awaken the Bodhicitta from its
lethargic inactivity. (Chap. II.)
The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart is awakened in
us (1) by thinking of the Buddhas, (2) by reflecting
on the faults of material existence, (3) by observing
the deplorable state in which sentient beings are living,
and finally (4) by aspiring after those virtues which
are acquired by a Tathagata in the highest enlight
enment. 1 This work was translated by Kumarajiva into Chinese at
the beginning of the fifth century A. D. It is divided into two
fascicles, each consisting of about one score of Chinese pages.

304 CHAPTER XI,
To describe these conditions more definitely :
(1) By thinking of the Buddhas. "All Buddhas in
the ten quarters, of the past, of the future, and of
the present, when first started on their way to enlight
enment, were not quite free from passions and sins
(klega) any more than we are at present ; but they
finally succeeded in attaining the highest enlightenment
and became the noblest beings.
"All the Buddhas, by strength of their inflexible
spiritual energy, were capable of attaining perfect
enlightenment If enlightenment is attainable at all,
why should we not attain it?
"All the Buddhas, erecting high the torch of wis
dom through the darkness of ignorance and keeping
awake an excellent heart, submitted themselves to
penance and mortification, and finally emancipated
themselves from the bondage of the triple world. Fol
lowing their steps, we, too, could emancipate ourselves.
"All the Buddhas, the noblest type of mankind,
successfully crossed the great ocean of birth and death
and of passions and sins ; why, then, we, being crea
tures of intelligence, could also cross the sea of trans
migration. "All the Buddhas manifesting great spiritual power
sacrificed the possessions, body, and life, for the attain
ment of omniscience (sarvajnd); and we, too, could
follow their noble examples."
(2) The faults of the material existence. "This our
bodily existence consisting of the five skandhas and
the four mahats (elements) is a perpetuator of fhnu-

CHAPTER XI. 305
merable evil deeds ; and therefore it should be cast
aside. This our bodily existence constantly secretes
from its nine orifices filths and impurities which are
truly loathsome ; and therefore it should be cast aside.
This our bodily existence, harboring within itself anger,
avarice, and infatuation, and other innumerable evil
passions, consumes a good heart ; and therefore it
should be destroyed. This our bodily existence is like
a bubble, like a spatter, and is decaying every minute.
It is an undesirable possession and should be aban
doned. This our bodily existence engulfed in ignorance
is creating evil karma all the time, which throws us
into the whirlpool of transmigration through the six
gatis." (3) The miserable conditions of sentient beings which
arouse the sympathy of the Bodhisattvas. "All sentient
beings are under the bondage of ignorance. Spell-bound
by folly and infatuation, they are suffering the severest
pain Not believing in the law of karma, they are
accumulating evils; going astray from the path of
righteousness, they are following false doctrines ; sink
ing deeper in the whirlpool of passions, they are
being drowned in the four waters of sin.
"They are being tortured with all sorts of pain.
They are needlessly haunted by the fear of birth and
death and old age, and do not seek the path of
emancipation. Mortified with grief, anxiety, tribulation,
they do not refrain from committing further foul deeds.
Clinging to their beloved ones and being always
afraid of separation, they do not understand that there

306 CHAPTER XI.
is no individual reality, that individual existences are
not worth clinging to. Trying to shun enmity, hatred,
pain, they cherish more hatred." 
(4) The virtues of the Tathagata. "All the Tatha
gatas, by virtue of their discipline, have acquired a
noble, dignified mien which aspires every beholder
with the thought that dispels pain and woe. The Dhar
makaya of all the Tathagatas is immortal and pure
and free from evil attachments. All the Tathagatas
are possessed of moral discipline, tranquillity, intelli
gence, and emancipation. They are not hampered by
intellectual prejudices and have become the sanctuary
of immaculate virtues. They have the ten baias (powers),
four abhayas (fearlessness), great compassion, and the
three smrtyupasthanas (contemplations). They are om
niscient, and their love for suffering beings knows no
bounds and brings all creatures back to the path of
righteousness, who have gone astray on account of
ignorance." * *
*
In short, the Intelligence-heart or Bodhicitta is awa
kened in us either when love for suffering creatures
(which is innate in us) is called forth, or when our
intellect aspires after the highest enlightenment, or
when these two psychical activities are set astir under
some favorable circumstances. As the Bodhicitta is a
manifestation of the Dharmakaya in our limited con
scious mind, it constantly longs for a unification with

CHAPTER XI. 307
its archetype, in spite of the curse of ignorance heav
ily weighing upon it. When this unification is not ef
fected for any reason, the heart (citta) shows its dis
satisfaction in some way or other. The dissatisfaction
may take sometimes a morbid course, and may result
in pessimism, or misanthropy, or suicide, or asceticism,
or some other kindred eccentric practices. But if pro
perly guided and naturally developed, the more intense
the dissatisfaction, the more energetic will be the
spiritual activity of a Bodhisattva.
The Bodhisattva' s Pranidhdna.
Having awakened his Bodhicitta from its unconsci
ous slumber, a Bodhisattva will now proceed to make
his vows.
Let me remark here, however, that "vow" is not
a very appropriate term to express the meaning of
the Sanskrit pranidhdna. Pranidhana is a strong wish,
aspiration, prayer, or an inflexible determination to
carry out one's will even through an infinite series
of rebirths. Buddhists have such a supreme belief in
the power of will or spirit that, whatever material
limitations, the will is sure to triumph over them and
gain its final aim. So, every Bodhisattva is considered
to have his own particular pranidhanas in order to
perform his share in the work of universal salvation.
His corporeal shadow may vanish as its karma is ex
hausted, but his pranidhana survives and takes on a
new garment, which procedure being necessary to

308 CHAPTER XI.
keep it ever effective. All that is needed for a Bo
dhisattva to do this is to make himself a perfect in
carnation of his own aspirations, putting everything
external and foreign under their controlling spiritual
power. Buddhists are so thoroughly idealistic and their
faith in ideas and ideals is so unshakable that they
firmly believe that whatever they aspire to will come
out finally as real fact; and, therefore, the more in
tense and permanent and born of the inmost needs
of humanity, the more certain are our yearnings to
be satisfied. (This belief, by the way, will help to ex
plain the popular belief among the Buddhists that
any strong passion possessed by a man will survive
him and take a form, animate or inanimate, which
will best achieve its end.)
According to Vasubandhu whom we have quoted
several times, the Bodhisattvas generally are supposed
to make the following ten pranidhanas, which natu
rally spring from a great loving heart now awakened
in them: i
(i) "Would that all the merits I have accumulated
in the past as well as in the present be distributed
among all sentient beings and make them all aspire
after supreme knowledge, and also that this my pra
nidhana be constantly growing in strength and sustain
me throughout my rebirths.
(2) "Would that, through the merits of my work,

1 The above is a liberal rendering of the first part of the
Chapter III, in Vasubandhu's Bodhicitta.

CHAPTER XI. 309
I may, wherever I am born, come in the presence of
all Buddhas and pay them homage.
(3) "Would that I be allowed all the time to be
near Buddhas like shadow following object, and never
to be away from them.
(4) "Would that all Buddhas instruct me in religious
truths as best suited to my intelligence and let me
finally attain the five spiritual powers of the Bodhi
sattva. (5) "Would that I be thoroughly conversant with
scientific knowledge as well as the first principle of
religion and gain an insight into the truth of the Good
Law. (6) "Would that I be able to preach untiringly the
truth to all beings, and gladden them, and benefit them,
and make them intelligent.
(7) "Would that, through the divine power of the
Buddha, I be allowed to travel all over the ten quar
ters of the world, pay respect to all the Buddhas,
listen to their instructions in the Doctrine, and univer
sally benefit all sentient beings.
(8) "Would that, by causing the wheel of immacu
late Dharma to revolve, all sentient beings in the ten
quarters of the universe who may listen to my teach
ings or hear my name, be freed from all passions and
awakea. in them the Bodhicitta.
(9) "Would that I all the time accompany and pro
tect all sentient beings and remove for them things
which are not beneficial to them and give them innu
merable blessings, and also that through the sacrifice

3IO CHAPTER XI.
of my body, life, and possessions I embrace all crea
tures and thereby practise the Right Doctrine.
(10) "Would that, though practising the Doctrine
in person, my heart be free from the consciousness
of compulsion and unnaturalness, as all the Bodhisat
tvas practise the Doctrine in such a way as not prac
tising it yet leaving nothing unpractised ; for they have
made their pranidhanas for the sake of all sentient
beings."

3"

CHAPTER XII.
TEN STAGES OF BODHISATTVAHOOD
Gradation in our Spiritual Life.
H^HEORETICALLY speaking, as we have seen
above, the Bodhi or Bodhicitta is in every sentient
being, and in this sense he is a Bodhisattva. In profane
hearts it may be found enveloped in ignorance and
egoism, but it can never be altogether annulled. For the
Bodhi, when viewed from its absolute aspect, transcends
the realm of birth and death (samsara), is beyond
the world of toil and trouble and is not subject to
any form of defilement. But when it assumes a relative
existence and is only partially manifested under the
cover of ignorance, there appear various stages of
actualisation or of perfection. In some beings it may
attain a more meaningful expression than in others,
while there may be even those who apparently fail on
account of their accursed karma to show the evidence
of its presence. This latter class is usually called "Icchan-
tika," that is, people who are completely overwhelmed
by the passions. They are morally and religiously a
mere corpse which even a great spiritual physician finds
it almost impossible to resuscitate. But, philosophically
considered, the glory of the Bodhi must be admitted

312 CHAPTER XII.
to be shining even in these dark, ignorant souls. Such
souls, perhaps, will have to go round many a cycle
of transmigration, before their karma loses its poign
ancy and becomes susceptible to a moral influence
with which they may come in contact.
This accursed force of karma is not the same in
all beings, it admits of all possible degrees of strength,
and causes some to suffer more intensely than others.
But there is no human heart or soul that is absolutely
free from the shackle of karma and ignorance, because
this very existence of a phenomenal world is a product
of ignorance, though this fact does not prove that
this life is evil. The only heart that transcends the
influence of karma and ignorance and is all-purity,
all-love, and all-intelligence, is the Dharmakaya or the
absolute Bodhi itself. The life of a Bodhisattva and
indeed the end of our religious aspiration is to unfold,
realise, and identify ourselves with the love and intel
ligence of that ideal and yet real Dharmakaya.
The awakening of the Bodhicitta (or intelligence-
heart) marks the first step towards the highest good
of human life. This awakening must pass through sev
eral stages of religious discipline before it attains
perfection. These stages are generally estimated by the
Mahayanists at ten. They appear, however, to our
modern sceptical minds to be of no significant con
sequence, nor can we detect any very practical and
well-defined distinction between successive stages. We
fail to understand what religious necessity impelled
the Hindu Buddhists to establish such apparently un-

CHAPTER XII. 313
important stages one after another in our religious
life. We can see, however, that the first awakening
of the Bodhicitta does not transform us all at once
to Buddhahood ; we have yet to overcome with stren
uous efforts the baneful influence of karma and ig
norance which asserts itself too readily in our prac
tical life. But the marking of stages as in the grada
tion of the Dacabhumi in our spiritual progress seems
to be altogether too artificial. Nevertheless I here take
pains as an historical survey to enumerate the ten
stages and to give some features supposed to be most
characteristic of each Bhumi (stage) as expounded in
the Avatamsaka Sutra. Probably they will help
us to understand what moral conceptions and what
religious aspirations were working in the establishment
of the doctrine of Dacabhumi, for it elaborately de
scribes what was considered by the Mahayanists to be
the essential constituents of Bodhisattvahood, and also
shows what spiritual routine a Buddhist was expected
to pursue.
The ten stages are: (1) Pramudita, (2) Vimaia, (3)
Prabhakari, (4) Arcismati, (5) Sudurjaya, (6) Abhimukhi,
(7) Durangama, (8) Acaia, (9) Sadhumati, (10) Dhar-
mamegha. (1) The Pramudita.
Pramudita means "delight" or "joy" and marks the
first stage of Bodhisattvahood, at which the Buddhists
emerge from a cold, self-sufficing, and almost nihilistic
contemplation of Nirvana as fostered by the Cravakas

314 CHAPTER XII.
and Pratyekabuddhas. This spiritual emergence and
emancipation is psychologically accompanied by an
intense feeling of joy, as that which is experienced
by a person when he unexpectedly recognises the
most familiar face in a faraway land of strangers. For
this reason the first stage is called "joy."
Even in the midst of perfect tranquillity of Nirvana
in which all passions are alleged to have died away
as declared by ascetics or solitary philosophers, the
inmost voice in the heart of the Bodhisattva moans
in a sort of dissatisfaction or uneasiness, which, though
undefined and seemingly of no significance, yet refuses
to be eternally buried in the silent grave of annihilation.
He vainly gropes in the darkness ; he vainly seeks
consolation in the samadhi of non-resistance or non-
activity ; he vainly finds eternal peace in the gospel
of self-negation ; his soul is still troubled, not exactly
knowing the reason why. But as soon as the Bodhicitta
(intelligence-heart) is awakened from its somnolence,
as soon as the warmth of love (mahdkarund) pene
trates into the coldest cell of asceticism, as soon as
the light of supreme enlightenment (mahdprajnd) dawns
upon the darkest recesses of ignorance, the Bodhisattva
sees at once that the world is not made for self-
seclusion nor for self-negation, that the Dharmakaya
is the source of "universal effulgence," that Nirvana
if relatively viewed in contrast to birth-and-death is
nothing but sham and just as unreal as any worldly
existence; and these insights finally lead him to feel
that he cannot rest quiet until all sentient beings are

CHAPTER XII. 315
emancipated from the snarl of ignorance and elevated
to the same position as now occupied by himself.
(2) The Vimald.
Vimaia means "freedom from defilement," or, affir
matively, "purity." When the Bodhisattva attains,
through the spiritual insight gained at the first stage,
to rectitude and purity of heart, he reaches the
second stage. His heart is now thoroughly spotless,
it is filled with tenderness, he fosters no anger, no
malice. He is free from all the thoughts of killing
any animate beings. Being contented with what belongs
to himself, he casts no covetous eyes on things not
his own. Faithful to his own betrothed, he does not
harbor any evil thoughts on others. His words are
always true, faithful, kind, and considerate. He likes
truth, honesty, and never flatters.
(3) The Prabhdkari.
Prabhakari means "brightness," that is, of the intel
lect. This predominantly characterises the spiritual
condition of the Bodhisattva at this stage. Here he
gains the most penetrating insight into the nature of
things. He recognises that all things that are created
are not permanent, are conducive to misery, have no
abiding selfhood (atman), are destitute of purity, and
subject to final decay. He recognises also that the
real nature of things, however, is neither created nor
subject to destruction, it is eternally abiding in the
selfsame essence, and transcends the limits of time

3l6 CHAPTER XII.
and space. Ignorant beings not seeing this truth are
always worrying over things transient and worthless,
and constantly consuming their spiritual energy with
the fire of avarice, anger, and infatuation, which in
turn accumulates for their future existences the ashes
of misery and suffering. This wretched condition of
sentient beings further stimulates the loving heart of
the Bodhisattva to seek the highest intelligence of
Buddha, which, giving him great spiritual energy, ena
bles him to prosecute the gigantic task of universal
emancipation. His desire for the Buddha-intelligence
and his faith in it are of such immense strength that
he would not falter even for a moment, if he is only
assured of the attainment of the priceless treasure,
to plunge himself into the smeltering fire of a volcano.
(4) The Arcismati.
Arcismati, meaning "inflammation," is the name
given to the fourth stage, at which the Bodhisattva
consumes all the sediments of ignorance and evil
passions in the fiery crucible of the purifying Bodhi.
He practises here most strenuously the thirty-seven
virtues called Bodhipaksikas which are conducive to
the perfection of the Bodhi. These virtues consist of
seven categories :
(I) Four Contemplations (smrtyusthdna) : 1 . On the
impurity of the body; 2. On the evils of sensuality;
3. On the evanescence of the wordly interests ; 4. On
the non-existence of atman in things composite.
(II) Four Righteous Efforts (samyakprahdna) : 1 . To

CHAPTER XII. 317
prevent evils from arising; 2. To suppress evils already
existing; 3. To produce good not yet in existence;
4. To preserve good already in existence.
(Ill) Four Forces of the Will (rddhipdda): 1. The
determination to accomplish what is willed; 2. The
energy to concentrate the mind on the object in view ;
3. The power of retaining the object in memory; 4.
The intelligence that perceives the way to Nirvana.
(IV) Five Powers (indrya), from which all moral good
is produced: 1. Faith; 2. Energy ; 3. Circumspection;
4. Equillibrium, or tranquillity of mind ; 5 Intelligence.
(V) Five Functions (bala) : Same as the above. 1
(VI) Seven Constituents of the Bodhi (bodhyanga) :
1. The retentive power; 2. Discrimination; 3. Energy;
4. Contentment; 5. Modesty; 6. The balanced mind;
7. Large-heartedness.
(VII) The Eightfold Noble Path (dryamdrga) : 1.
Right view; 2. Right resolve; 3. Right speech; 4.
Right conduct; 5. Right livelihood; 6. Right recollec
tion ; 8 Right tranquilisation, or contemplation.

1 The distinction between the five indriyas and the five
balas seems to be rather redundant. But the Hindu philosophers
usually distinguish actor from action, agent from function or
operation. Thus the sense-organs are distinguished from sensa-
¦ tions or sense-consciousnesses, and the manovijnana (mind)
from its functions such as thinking, attention, memory, etc.
The atman has thus come to be considered the central agent
that controls all the sensuous and intellectual activities. Though
the Buddhists do not recognise this differentiation of actor
and action in reality, they sometimes loosely follow the
popular usage.

3l8 CHAPTER XII.
(5) The Sudurjayd.
Sudurjaya means "very difficult to conquer." The
Bodhisattva reaches this stage when he, completely
armed with the thirty-seven Bodhipaksikas and guided
by the beacon-light of Bodhi, undauntedly breaks
through the column of evil passions. Provided with the
two spiritual provisions, love and wisdom, and being
benefitted by the spirits of all the Buddhas of the past,
present, and future, the Bodhisattva has developed an
intellectual power to penetrate deep into the system of
existence. He perceives the Fourfold Noble Truth in
its true light; he perceives the highest reality in the
Tathagata ; he also perceives that the highest reality,
though absolutely one in its essence, manifests itself
in a world of particulars, that relative knowledge
(samvrtti) and absolute knowledge (paramartha) are
two aspects of one and the same truth, that when
subjectivity is disturbed there appears particularity,
and that when it is not disturbed there shines only
the eternal light of Tathagatajfia (Tathagata-knowledge).
(6) The Abhimukhi.
Abhimukhi means "showing one's face," that is,
the presentation of intelligence (prajna) before the
Bodhisattva at this stage.
The Bodhisattva enters upon this stage by reflecting
on the essence of all dharmas which are throughout of
one nature. When he perceives the truth, his heart
is filled with great love, he serenely contemplates on

CHAPTER XII. 319
the life of ignorant beings who are constantly going
astray yielding themselves to evil temptations, clinging
to the false conception of egoism, and thus making
themselves the prey of eternal damnation. He then
proceeds to contemplate the development of evils
generally. There is ignorance, there is karma ; and in
this fertile soil of blind activity the seeds of conscious
ness are sown ; the moisture of desire thoroughly soaks
them, to which the water of egoism or individuation
is poured on. The bed for all forms of particularity
is well prepared, and the buds of namarupas (name-
and-form) most vigorously thrive here. From these we
have the flowers of sense-organs, and which come in
contact with other existences and produce impressions,
feel agreeable sensations, and tenaciously cling to them.
From this clinging or the will to live as the principle
of individuation or as the principle of bhava as is
called in the Twelve Nidanas, another body consisting
of the five skandhas comes into existence, and, passing
through all the phases of transformation, dissolves and
disappears. All sentient beings are thus kept in a per
petual oscillation of combination and separation, of
pleasure and pain, birth and death. But the insight
of the Bodhisattva has gone deeply into the inmost
essence of things, which forever remains the same and
in which there is no production and dissolution.
(7) The Durangamd.
Durangama means "going far away." The Bodhisat
tva enters upon this stage by attaining the so-called

320 CHAPTER XII.
Upayajna, i e. the knowledge that enables him to
produce any means or expediency suitable for his
work of salvation. He himself abides in the principles
of gunyata (transcendentality), animitta (non-individu
ality), and apranihita (desirelessness), but his loving
kindness keeps him busily engaged among sentient
beings. He knows that Buddhas are not creatures
radically and essentially different from himself, but he
does not stop tendering them due homage. He is al
ways contemplating on the nature of the Absolute,
but he does not abandon the practice of accumulating
merits. He is no more encumbered with worldly thoughts,
yet he does not disdain managing secular affairs. He
keeps himself perfectly aloof from the consuming fire
of passsion, but he plans all possible means for the
sake of sentient beings to quench the enraging flames
of avarice (lobha), anger (dvesa), and infatuation (moha).
He knows that all individual existences are like dream,
mirage, or the reflection of the moon in the water,
but he works and toils in the world of particulars
and submits himself to the domination of karma. He
is well aware of the transcendental nature of Pure
Land (sukhavati), but he describes it with material
colors for the sake of unenlightened masses. He knows
that the Dharmakaya of all the Buddhas is not a
material existence, but he does not refuse to dignify
himself with the thirty-two major and eighty minor
excellent features of a great man or god (mahdpurusa).
He knows that the language of all the Buddhas does
not fall within the ken of human comprehension, but

CHAPTER XII. 321
he endeavors with all contrivances (updya) to make
it intelligible enough to the understanding of people.
He knows that all the Buddhas perceive the past, pre
sent, and future in the twinkling of an eye, but he
adapts himself to divers conditions of the material
world and endeavors to help sentient beings to under
stand the significance of the Bodhi according to their
destinies and dispositions. In short, the Bodhisattva
himself lives on a higher plane of spirituality far remov
ed from the defilements of worldliness ; but he does
not withdraw himself to this serene, unmolested sub
jectivity; he boldly sets out in the world of particu
lars and senses; and, placing himself on the level of
ignorant beings, he works like them, he toils like
them, and suffers like them ; and he never fails all
these times to practise the gospel of lovingkindness
and to turn over (parivarta) all his merits towards
the emancipation and spiritual edification of the mas
ses, that is, he never gets tired of practising the ten
virtues of perfection (pdramitd).
That is to say, (1) the Bodhisattva practises the
virtue of charity (ddna) by freely giving away to all
sentient creatures all the merits that he has acquired
by following the path of Buddhas. (2) He practises
the virtue of good conduct (gila) by destroying all
the evil passions that disturb serenity of mind. (3)
He practises the virtue of patience (ksdnti), for he
never gets irritated or excited over what is done to
him by ignorant beings. (4) He practises the virtue
of strenuousuess (vriya), for he never gets tired of

322 CHAPTER XII.
accumulating merits and of promoting good-will among
his fellow-creatures. (5) He practises the virtue of
calmness (dhyana), for his mind is never distracted
in steadily pursuing his way to supreme knowledge.
(6) He practises the virtue of intelligence (prajna),
for he always restrains his thoughts from wandering
away from the path of absolute truth. (7) He practises
the virtue of tactfulness (updya), for he has an inex
haustible mine of expediencies ready at his command
for the work of universal salvation. (8) He practises
the virtue of will-to-do (pranidhdna) by determinedly
following the dictates of the highest intelligence. (9)
He practises the virtue of strength (bald), for no evil
influences, no heretical thoughts can ever frustrate
or slacken his efforts for the general welfare of peo
ple. (10) Finally, he practises the virtue of knowledge,
(jndnd), by truthfully comprehending and expounding
the ultimate nature of beings.
(8) The Acald.
Acaia, "immovable," is the name for the eighth
stage of Bodhisattvahood. When a Bodhisattva, tran
scending all forms of discursive or deliberate knowledge,
acquires the highest, perfect knowledge called anut-
pattikadharmaksdnti, he is said to have gone beyond the
seventh stage. Anutpattikadharmaksanti literally means
"not-created-being-forbearance" ; and the Buddhists
use the term in the sense of keeping one's thoughts in
conformity to the views that nothing in this world

CHAPTER XII. 323
has ever been created, that things are such as they
are, i e. they are Suchness itself. This knowledge is
also called non-conscious or non-deliberate knowledge
in contradistinction to relative knowledge that consti
tutes all our logical and demonstrative knowledge.
Strictly speaking, this so-called knowledge is not
knowledge in its ordinary signification, it is a sort of
unconscious or subconscious intelligence, or immediate
knowledge as some call it, in which not only willing
and acting, but also knowing and willing are one
single, undivided exhibition of activity, all logical
or natural transition from one to the other being
altogether absent. Here indeed knowledge is will
and will is action; "Let there be light," and there
is light, and the light is good ; it is the state of a
divine mind.
At this stage of perfection, the Bodhisattva's spiri
tual condition is compared to that of a person who,
attempting when in a dreamy state to cross deep waters,
musters all his energy, plans all schemes, and, while
at last at the point of starting on the journey, sudden
ly wakes up and finds all his elaborate preparations
to no purpose. The Bodhisattva hitherto showed untir
ing spiritual efforts to attain the highest knowledge,
steadily practised all virtues tending to the acquirement
of Nirvana, and heroically endeavored to exterminate
all evil passions, and at the culmination of all these
exercises, he enters all of a sudden upon the stage
of Acaia and finds the previous elaboration myste
riously vanished from his conscious mind. He cherishes

324 CHAPTER XII.
now no desire for Buddhahood, Nirvana, or Bodhicitta,
much less after worldliness, egoism, or the satisfaction
of evil passions. The conscious striving that distin
guished all his former course has now given way to a
state of spontaneous activity, of saintly innocence,
and of divine playfulness. He wills and it is done.
He aspires and it is actualised. He is nature herself,
for there is no trace in his activity that betrays any
artificial lucubration, any voluntary or compulsory res
traint. This state of perfect ideal freedom may be
called esthetical, which characterises the work of a
genius. There is here no trace of consciously follow
ing some prescribed laws, no pains of elaborately
conforming to the formula. To put this poetically, the
inner life of the Bodhisattva at this stage is like the
lilies of the field whose glory is greater than that of
Solomon in all his human magnificence.
Kant's remarks on this point are very suggestive,
and I will quote the following from his Kritik der
Urteilskraft (Reclam edition, p. 173):
"Also muss die Zweckmassigkeit im Produkte der
schonen Kunst, ob sie zwar absichtlich ist, doch nicht
absichtlich scheinen : d. i., schone Kunst muss als Natur
anzusehen sein , ob man sich ihrer zwar als Kunst
bewusst ist. Als Natur aber erscheint ein Produkt
der Kunst dadurch, dass zwar afte~Piinktlichkeit in
der Uebereinkunst mit Regeln, nach denen allein das
Produkt das werden kann, was es soil sein, angetroffen
wird, aber ohne Peinlichkeit, d. i., ohne eine Spur
zu zeigen, dass die Regel dem Kiinstler vor Augen

CHAPTER XII. 325
geschwebt und seinen Gemiithskraften Fesseln ange-
legt haben." » (9) The Sddhumati.
Sadhumati, meaning "good intelligence," is the name
given to the ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood. All the
Bodhisattvas are said to have reached here, when
sentient beings are benefitted by the Bodhisattva's
attainment of the highest perfect knowledge, which
is unfathomable by the ordinary human intelligence.
The knowledge leads them to the Dharma of the
deepest mystery, to the Samadhi of perfect spirituality,
to the Dharani of divine spontaneity, to Love of
absolute purity, to the Will of utmost freedom.
The Bodhisattva will acquire at this stage the four
Pratisamvids (comprehensive knowledge), which are
(1) Dharmapratisamvid, (2) Arthapratisamvid, (3) Nir-
uktipratisamvid, (4) Pratibhanapratisamvid. By the
Dharmapratisamvid, the Bodhisattvas understand the
1 In this connection it is very interesting also to note that
Carlyle expresses the same sentiment about the greatness of
Shakespeare in his Hero Worship, "If I say that Shakspeare
is the greatest of Intellects, I have said all concerning him.
But there is more in Shakspeare's intellect than we have yet
seen It is what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more
virtue in it that he himself is aware of. Novalis beautifully
remarks of him, that those dramas of his are Products oi
Nature too, as deep as Nature herself. I find a great truth in
this saying, Shakspeare's Art is not Artifice ; the noblest worth
of it is not there by plan or precontrivance. It grows from
the deeps of Nature, through this noble sincere soul, who is a
voice of Nature."

326 CHAPTER XII.
self-essence (svabhava) of all beings ; by the Artha-
pratisamvid, their individual attributes ; by the Nirukti-
pratisamvid, their indestructibility ; by the Pratibhana-
pratisamvid, their eternal order. Again, by the first
intelligence they understand that all individual dharmas
have no absolute reality ; by the second, that they
are all subject to the law of constant becoming ; by
the third, that they are no more than mere names;
by the fourth, that even mere names as such are of
some value. Again, by the first intelligence, they com
prehend that all dharmas are of one reality which is
indestructible ; by the second, that this one reality
differentiating itself becomes subject to the law of
causation; by the third, that by virtue of a superior
understanding all Buddhas become the object of ad
miration and the haven of all sentient beings ; by the
fourth, that in the one body of truth all Buddhas
preach infinite lights of the Dharma
(io) The Dharmameghd.
Dharmamegha, "clouds of dharma," is the name of
the tenth and final stage of Bodhisattvahood. The
Bodhisattvas have now practised all virtues of purity,
accumulated all the constituents of Bodhi, are fortified
with great power and intelligence, universally practise
the principle of great love and sympathy, have deeply
penetrated into the mystery of individual existences,
fathomed the inmost depths of sentiency, followed
step by step the walk of all the Tathagatas. Every
thought cherished by the Bodhisattva now dwells in

CHAPTER XII. 327
all the Tathagatas' abode of eternal tranquillity, and
every deed practised by him is directed towards the
ten balas (power), ' four vaicaradyas (conviction), 2
and eighteen avenikas (unique characteristics), 3 of the
Buddha. By these virtues the Bodhisattva has now
acquired the knowledge of all things (sarvajna), is
dwelling in the sanctum sanctorum of all dharanis
and samadhis, have arrived at the summit of all
activities. 'The ten powers of the Buddha are: (1) The mental power
which discriminates between right and wrong, (2) The know
ledge of the retribution of karma, (3) The knowledge of all
the different stages of creation, (4) The knowledge of all the
different forms of deliverance, (5) The knowledge of all the
different dispositions of sentient beings, (6) The knowledge
of the final destination of all deeds, (7) The knowledge
of all the different practices of meditation, deliverance, and
tranquilisation, (8) The knowledge of former existences, (9)
The unlimited power of divination, (10) The knowledge of the
complete subjection of evil desires (agrava)
2 The four convictions (vai(dradyas) of the Buddha are: (1)
That he has attained the highest enlightenment, (2) That he
has destroyed all evil desires, (3) That he has rightly described
the obstacles that lie in the way to a life of righteousness,
(4) That he has truthfully taught the way of salvation.
3 The eighteen unique characteristics which distinguish the
Buddha from the rest of mankind are: (1) He commits no
errors. Since time out of mind, he has disciplined himself in
morality, meditation, intelligence, and lovingkindness, and as
the result his present life is without faults and free from all
evil thoughts. (2) He is faultless in his speeches. Whatever he
speaks comes from his transcendental eloquence and leads
the audience to a higher conception of life. (3) His mind is
faultless. As he has trained himself in samadhi, he is always
calm, serene, and contented. (4) He retains his sameness of
heart (samdhitacitta), that is, his love for sentient beings is

328 CHAPTER XII.
The Bodhisattva at this stage is a personification
of love and sympathy, which freely issue from the
fount of his inner will. He gathers the clouds of
virtue and wisdom, in which he manifests himself
in manifold figures ; he produces the lightnings of
Buddhi, Vidyas, and Vaicaradyas ; and shaking the
whole world with the thunder of Dharma he crushes
all the evil ones ; and pouring forth the showers of
Good Law he quenches the burning flames of ignorance
universal and not discriminative. (5) His mind is free from
thoughts of particularity (ndndtvasamjna), that is, it is abiding
in truth transcendental, his thoughts are not distracted by
objects of the senses. (6) Resignation (upeksd). The Buddha
knows everything, yet he is calmly resigned. (7) His aspiration
is unfathomable, that is, his desire to save all beings from the
sufferings of ignorance knows no bounds. (8) His energy is
inexhaustible, which he applies with utmost vigor to the sal
vation of benighted souls. (9) His mentation (smrti) is inex
haustible, that is, he is ever conscious of all the good doc
trines taught by all the Buddhas of the past, present, and
future. (10) His intelligence (prajnd) is inexhaustible, that is,
being in possession of all-intelligence which knows no limits,
he preaches for the benefits of all beings. (11) His deliverance
(vimukti) is permanent, that is, he has eternally distanced all
evil passions and sinful attachments. (12) His knowledge of
deliverance (vimuktijndna) is perfect, that is, his intellectual
insight into all states of deliverance is without a flaw. (13)
He possesses a wisdom which directs all his bodily movements
towards the benefit and enlightenment of sentient beings. (14)
He possesses a wisdom which directs all his speeches toward
the edification and conversion of his fellow-creatures. (15) He
possesses a wisdom which reflects in his clear mind all the
turbulent states of ignorant souls, from which he removes the
dark veil of nescience and folly. (16) He knows all the past.
(17) He knows all the future. (18) He knows all the present.

CHAPTER XII. 329
and passion in which all sentient creatures are being
consumed. * *
*
The above presentation of the Dacabhumi 1 of
Bodhisattvahood allows us to see what ideal life is
held out by the Mahayanists before their own eyes
and in what respect it differs from that of the
Cravakas and Pratyekabuddhas as well as from that
of other religious followers. Mahayanism is not con
tented to make us mere transmitters or "hearers"
of the teachings of the Buddha, it wants to inspire
with all the religious and ethical motives that stirred
the noblest heart of fjakyamuni to its inmost depths.
It fully recognises the intrinsic worth of the human
soul; and, holding up its high ideals and noble
aspirations, it endeavors to develop all the possibili
ties of our soul-life, which by our strenuous efforts
and all-defying courage will one day be realised even
on this earth of impermanence. We as individual
existences are nothing but shadows which will vanish
as soon as the conditions disappear that make them
possible; we as mortal beings are no more than the
1 For an elaborate exposition of the Dacabhumi, see the
Avatamsaka (sixty volume edition, fas. 24-27), the Curangama,
Vasubandhu's Commentary on Asanga's Comprehensive Treat
ise on Mahayanism (fas. 10 — 11), the Vijndnamdtra Castra
(fas. 9^, etc., and for a special treatment of the subject
consult the sutra bearing the name, which by the way exists
in a Sanskrit version and whose brief sketch is given by
Rajendra Mitra in his Nepalese Buddhist Literature, p. 81 et seq.

330 CHAPTER XII.
thousands of dusty particles that are haphazardly and
powerlessly scattered about before the cyclone of
karma; but when we are united in the love and
intelligence of the Dharmakaya in which we have our
being, we are Bodhisattvas, and we can immovably
stand against the tempest of birth and death, against
the overwhelming blast of ignorance. Then even an
apparently insignificant act of lovingkindness will lead
finally to the eternal abode of bliss, not the actor
alone, but the whole community to which he belongs.
Because a stream of love spontaneously flows from
the lake of Intelligence-heart (Bodhicitta) which is fed
by the inexhaustible spring of the Dharmakaya, while
ignorance leads only to egoism, hatred, avarice,
disturbance, and universal misery.

CHAPTER XIII.
NIRVANA..
TVHRVANA, according to Mahayana Buddhism, is
not understood in its nihilistic sense. Even with
the Cr&vakas or Hinayanists, Nirvana in this sense is not
so much the object of their religious life as the recog
nition of the Fourfold Noble Truth, or the practise
of the Eightfold Path, or emancipation from the yoke
of egoism. It is mostly due, as far as 1 can see, to
non-Buddhist critics that the conception of Nirvana
has been selected among others as one of the most
fundamental teachings of Buddha, declaring it at
the same time to consist in the annihilation of all
human passions and aspirations, noble as well as
worthless. In fact, Nirvana literally means "extinction" or
"dissolution" of the five skandhas, and therefore it
may be said that the entering into Nirvana is tanta
mount to the annihilation of the material existence
and of all the passions. Catholic Buddhists, however,
do not understand Nirvana in the sense of emptiness,
for they say that Buddhism is not a religion of death
nor for the dead, but that it teaches how to attain
eternal life, how to gain an insight into the real
nature of things, and how to regulate our conduct

332 CHAPTER XIII.
in accordance with the highest truth. Therefore,
Buddhism, when rightly understood in the spirit of
its founder, is something quite different from what
it is commonly supposed to be by the general public.
I will endeavor in the following pages to point out
that Nirvana in the sense of a total annihilation of
human activities, is by no means the primary and sole
object of Buddhists, and then proceed to elucidate in
what signification it is understood in the Mahayana Bud
dhism and see what relative position Nirvana in its
Mahayanistic sense occupies in the body of Buddhism.
Nihilistic Nirvana not the First Object.
In order to see the true signification of Nirvana,
it is necessary first to observe in what direction
Buddha himself ploughed the waves in his religious
cruise and upon what shore he finally debarked. This
will show us whether or not Nirvana as nihilistic
nothingness is the primary and sole object of Bud
dhism, to which every spiritual effort of its devo
tees is directed.
If the attainment of negativistic Nirvana were the
sole aim of Buddhism, we should naturally expect
Buddha's farewell address to be chiefly dealing with
that subject. In his last sermon, however, Buddha
did not teach his disciples to concentrate all their
moral efforts on the attainment of Nirvanic quietude
disregarding all the forms of activity that exhibit them
selves in life. Far from it. He told them, according
to the Mahdnibbdna sutta (the Book of the Great

CHAPTER XIII 333
decease, 5. B. E. Vol. XI. p. 1 14) that "Decay is
inherent in all component things ! Work out your sal
vation with diligence ! " This exhortation of the strenuous
life is quite in harmony with the last words of Buddha
as recorded in Acvaghosa's Buddkacarita (Chinese
translation, Chap. xxvi). They were :
"Even if I lived a kalpa longer,
Separation would be an inevitable end.
A body composed of various aggregates,
Its nature is not to abide forever.
"Having finished benefiting oneself and others,
Why live I longer to no purpose ?
Of gods and men that should be saved,
Each and all had been delivered.
"O ye, my disciples !
Without interruption transmit the Good Dharma!
Know ye that things are destined to decay I
Never again abandon yourselves to grief!
"But pursue the Way with diligence,
And arrive at the Home of No-separation!
I have lit the Lamp of Intelligence,
That shining dispels the darkness of the world.
"Know ye that the world endureth not!
As ye should feel happy [when ye see]
The parents suffering a mortal disease
Are released by a treatment from pain;
"So with me, I now give up the vessel of misery,
Transcend ' the current of birth and death,
1 Literally, "to advance against."

334 CHAPTER XIII.
And am eternally released from all pain and suffe ring.
This too must be deemed blest.
'•Ye should well guard yourselves!
Never give yourselves up to indulgence !
All that exists finally comes to an end!
I now enter into Nirvana." '
In this we find Buddha's characteristic admonition
to his disciples not to waste time but to work out
their salvation with diligence and rigor, but we fail
to find the gospel of annihilation, the supposedly fun
damental teaching of Buddhism.
Did then Buddha start in his religious discipline to
attain the absolute annihilation of all human aspirations
and after a long meditation reach the conclusion that
contradicted his premises ? Far from it. His first and
last ambition was nothing else than the emancipation
of all beings from ignorance, misery, and suffering
through enlightenment, knowledge, and truth. When
Mara the evil one was exhausting all his evil powers
upon the destruction of the Buddha in the beginning
of his career, the good gods in the heavens exclaimed
to the evil one : 2
"Take not on thyself, O Mara, this vain fatigue, —
throw aside thy malevolence and retire to thy home.
This sage cannot be shaken by thee any more than
the mighty mountain Meru by the wind.
1 Cf. Beal 's translation in the S. B. E. Vol XK. pp.
306-307, vs 2095— 2101. Beal utterly misunderstands the
Chinese original.
2 The Buddhacarita, Cowell's translation in the .S1. B. E. Vol.
ILK. p. 145.

CHAPTER XIII. 335
"Even fire might lose its hot nature, water its fluid
ity, earth its steadiness, but never will he abandon
his resolution, who has acquired his merit by a long
course of actions through unnumbered eons.
"Such is the purpose of his, that heroic effort, that
glorious strength, that compassion for all beings, — un
til he attains the highest wisdom [or suchness, tattva],
he will never rise from his seat, just as the sun does
not rise without dispelling the darkness.
"Pitying the world lying distressed amidst diseases
and passions, he, the great physician, ought not to be
hindered, who undergoes all his labors for the sake of
the remedy-knowledge.
"He, who, when he beholds the world drowned in
the great flood of existence and unable to reach the
further shore, strives to bring them safely across, —
would any right-minded soul offer him wrong?
"The tree of knowledge, whose roots go deep in
firmness, and whose fibres are patience, — whose flowers
are moral actions and whose branches are memory
and thought, — and which gives out the Dharma as its
fruit, — surely when it is growing it should not be cut
down." These words of the good gods in the heavens truth
fully echo the motive that stirred Qakyamuni to take
up his gigantic task of universal salvation, and we are
unable here as before to perceive a particle of the
nihilistic speculation which is supposed to characterise
Nirvana. The Buddha from the very first of his reli
gious course searched after the light that will illumi-

336 CHAPTER XIII.
nate the whole universe and dispel the darkness of
nescience. What enlightenment, then, did the Buddha, pursuing
his first object, finally gain ? What truth was it that
he is said to have discovered under the Bodhi tree
after six years' penance and deep meditation? As is
universally recognised, it was no more than the Four
fold Noble Truth and the Twelve Chains of Depen
dence, which are acknowledged by the Mahayanists as
well as by the Hinayinists as the essentially original
teachings of the Buddha. What then was his subjec
tive state when he discovered these truths ? How did he
feel in his inmost being after this intellectual triumph
over egoistic thoughts and passions ? According to the
Southern tradition, the famous Hymn of Victory is
said to be his utterance on this occasion. It reads
(The Dharmapada, 153):
"Many a life to transmigrate,
Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,
Tent-designer inquisitive for;
Painful birth from state to state.
"Tent-designer, I know thee now;
Never again to build art thou;
Quite out are all thy joyful fires,
Rafter broken and roof-tree gone;
Into the vast my heart goes on,
Gains Eternity — dead desires." '
In this Hymn of Victory, the "tent-designer" means
1 From A. J. Edmunds's translation of Dhammapada.

CHAPTER XIII. 337
I
the ego that is supposed to be a subtle existence be
hind our mental experiences. As was pointed out else
where the negative phase of Buddhism consists in
the eradication of this ego-substratum or the "designer"
of eternal transmigration. The Buddha now finds out
that this ego- soul is a fantasmagoria and has no final
existence ; and with this insight his ego-centric desires
that troubled him so long are eternally dead ; he feels
the breaking up of their limitations ; he is absorbed
in the Eternal Vast, in which we all live and move
and have our being. No shadow is perceptible here
that suggests anything of an absolute nothingness
supposed to be the attribute of Nirvana.
Before proceeding further, let us see what the
Mahayana tradition says concerning this point. The
tradition varies in this case as in many others.
According to Beal's Romantic History of Buddha,
which is a translation of a Chinese version of the
Buddhacarita (Fo pen king ching), ' Buddha is reported
to have exclaimed this :
"Through ages past have I acquired continual merit,
That which my heart desired have I now attained,
How quickly have 1 arrived at the ever-constant condition,
And landed on the very shore of Nirvana.
The sorrows and opposition of the world,
The Lord of the Kamalokas, Mara Pisuna,
These are unable now to affect, they are wholly destroyed;
By the power of religious merit and of wisdom are they cast away.
1 P. 225. Beal's translation is not always reliable, and I
would have my own if the Chinese original were at all accessible. 22

338 CHAPTER XIII.
Let a man but persevere with unflinching resolution,
And seek Supreme Wisdom, it will not be hard to acquire it;
When once obtained, then farewell to all sorrows,
All sin and guilt are forever done away." '
Viewing the significance of Buddhism in this light,
it is evident that Buddha did not emphasise so much
the doctrine of Nirvana in the sense of a total abnegation
of human aspirations as the abandonment of egoism
and the practical regulation of our daily life in accord
ance with this view. Nirvana in which all the passions
noble and base are supposed to have been "blown
out like a lamp" was not the most coveted object of
Buddhist life. On the contrary, Buddhism advises all
its followers to exercise most strenuously all their
spiritual energy to attain perfect freedom from the
bondage of ignorance and egoism ; because that is the
only way in which we can conquer the vanity of
worldliness and enjoy the bliss of eternal life. The
following verse from the Visuddhi Magga (XXI) prac-
1 The gathas supposed to be the first utterance of the
Buddha after his enlightenment, according to Rockhill's Life
of the Buddha (p. 33) compiled from Tibetan sources, give
an inkling of nihilism, though I am inclined to think that the
original Tibetan will allow a different interpretation when
examined by some one who is better acquainted with the
spirit of Buddhism than Rockhill. Rockhill betrays in not a
few cases his insufficient knowledge of the subject he treats.
His translation of the gathas is as follows:
"All the pleasures of the worldly joys,
All which are known among the gods,
Compared with the joy of ending existence,
Are not as its sixteenth part.

CHAPTER XIII. 339
tically sums up the teaching of Buddhism as far as
its negative and individual phase is concerned :
"Behold how empty is the world,
Mogharaja! In thoughtfulness
Let one remove belief in self,
And pass beyond the realm of death.
The king of death will never find
The man who thus the world beholds." 2
Nirvana is Positive.
It is not my intention here to investigate the historical
side of this question ; we are not concerned with the
problem of how the followers of Buddha gradually
developed the positive aspect of Nirvana in connection
with the practical application of his moral and religious
"Sorry is he whose burden is heavy,
And happy he who has cast it down ;
When once he has cast off his burden,
He will seek to be burthened no more.
"When all existences are put away,
When all notions are at an end,
When all things are perfectly known,
Then no more will craving come back."
In the Uddna, II., 2, we have a stanza corresponding to the
first gatha here cited, but the Uddna does not say "the joy
of ending existence," but "the destruction of desire."
According to the Lalita Vistara, the Buddha's utterance of
victory is (Rajendra Mitra's Edition p. 448):
"Cinna vartmopacanta rajah cuska acrava na punah cra-
vanti. Chinne vartmani varttate duhkhasyaisonta ucyate."
2 Warren's Buddhism in Translations, p. 376.

340 CHAPTER XIII.
teachings ; nor are we engaged in tracing the process
of evolution through which Buddha's noble resolution
to save all sentient beings from ignorance and misery
was brought out most conspicuously by his later
devotees. What I wish to state here about the positive
conception of Nirvana and its development is this :
The Mahayana Buddhism was the first religious teach
ing in India that contradicted the doctrine of Nirvana
as conceived by other Hindu thinkers who saw in it
a complete annihilation of being, for they thought
that existence is evil, and evil is misery, and the only
way to escape misery is to destroy the root of existence,
which is nothing less than the total cessation of human
desires and activities in Nirvanic unconsciousness. The
Yoga taught self-forgetfulness in deep meditation ; the
Samkhya, the absolute separation of Purusa from
Praktti, which means undisturfied self-contemplation ;
the Vedanta, absorption in the Brahma, which is the
total suppression of all particulars ; and thus all of
them considered emancipation from human desires
and aspirations a heavenly bliss, that is, Nirvana.
Metaphysically speaking, they might have been correct
each in its own way, but, ethically considered, their
views had little significance in our practical life and
showed a sad deficiency in dealing with problems of
morality. The Buddha was keenly aware of this flaw in
their doctrines. He taught, therefore, that Nirvana
does not consist in the complete stoppage of existence,
but in the practise of the Eightfold Path. This moral

CHAPTER XIII. 341
practise leads to the unalloyed joy of Nirvana, not
as the tranquillisation of human aspirations, but as
the fulfilment or unfolding of human life. The word
Nirvana in the sense of annihilation was in existence
prior to Buddha, but it was he who gave a new
significance to it and made it worthy of attainment
by men of moral character. All the doctrinal aspects
of Nirvana are later additions or rather development
made by Buddhist scholars, according to whom their
arguments are solidly based on some canonical passages.
Whatever the case may be, my conviction is that
those who developed the positive significance of
Nirvana are more consistent with the spirit of the
founder than those who emphasised another aspect of
it. In the Uddna we read (IV, 9):
"He whom life torments not,
Who sorrows not at the approach of death,
If such a one is resolute and has seen Nirvana,
In the midst of grief, he is griefless.
The tranquil-minded Bhikkhu, who has uprooted the
thirst for existence,
By him the succession of births is ended,
He is born no more." '
According to the Mahayanistic conception Nirvana
is not the annihilation of the world and the putting
an end to life ; but it is to live in the whirlpool of
birth and death and yet to be above it. It is affir
mation and fulfilment, and this is done not blindly
and - egoistically, for Nirvana is enlightenment. Let
us see how this is.
1 General D. M. Strong 's translation, p. 64-

342 CHAPTER XIII.
The Mahayanistic Conception of Nirvana.
While the conception of Nirvana seems to have
remained indefinite and confused as far as Hinayanism
goes, the Mahayana Buddhists have attached several
definite shades of meaning to Nirvana and tried to
give each of them some special, distinctive character.
When it is used in its most comprehensive metaphy
sical sense, it becomes synonymous with Suchness
(tattva) or with the Dharmakaya. When we speak
of Buddha 's entrance into Nirvana, it means the end
of material existence, i. e., death. When it is used
in contrast to birth and death (samsara) or to passion
and sin (klega), it signifies in the former case an
eternal life or a state of immortality, and in the latter
case a state of consciousness that follows from the
recognition of the presence of the Dharmakaya in
individual existences. Nirvana has thus become a very
comprehensive term, and this fact adds much to the
confusion and misunderstanding with which it has
been treated ever since Buddhism became known to
the Occident. The so-called "primitive Buddhism"
is not altogether unfamiliar with all these meanings
given to Nirvana, though in some cases they might
have been but faintly foreshadowed. Most of European
missionaries and scholars have ignored this fact and
wanted to see in Nirvana but one definite, stereotyped
sense which will loosen or untie all the difficult knots
connected with its use One scholar would select a
certain passage in a certain sutra, where the meaning

CHAPTER XIII. 343
is tolerably distinct, and taking this as the key
endeavor to solve all the rest ; while another scholar
would do the same thing with another passage from
the scriptures and refute other fellow-workers. The
majority of them, however, have found for missionary
purposes to be advantageous to hold one meaning
prominently above all the others that may be considered
possibly the meaning of Nirvana This one meaning
that has been made specially conspicuous is its negati-
vistic interpretation.
According to the Vijnanamdtra gdstra (Chinese
version Vol. X.), the Mahayana Buddhists distinguish
four forms of Nirvana. They are:
(i) Absolute Nirvana, as a synonym of the Dhar
makaya. It is eternally immaculate in its essence and
constitutes the truth and reality of all existences.
Though it manifests itself in the world of defilement
and relativity, its essence forever remains undefiled.
While it embraces in itself innumerable incomprehen
sible spiritual virtues, it is absolutely simple and
immortal ; its perfect tranquillity may be likened unto
space in which every conceivable motion is possible,
but which remains in itself the same. It is universally
present in all beings whether animate or inanimate 1
and makes their existence real. In one respect it can
be identified with them, that is, it can be pantheisti-
cally viewed ; but in the other respect it is transcen-
' The text does not expressly say "animate or inanimate",
but this is the author's own interpretation according to the
general spirit of Mahayanism.

344 CHAPTER XIII.
dental, for every being as it is is not Nirvana. This
spiritual significance is, however, beyond the ken of
ordinary human understanding and can be grasped
only by the highest intelligence of Buddha.
(2) Upadhigesa Nirvana, or Nirvana that has some
residue. This is a state of enlightenment which can
be attained by Buddhists in their lifetime. The Dhar
makaya which was dormant in them is now awakened
and freed from the "affective obstacles," i but they
are yet under the bondage of birth and death; and
thus they are not yet absolutely free from the misery
of life : something still remains in them that makes
them suffer pain.
(3) Anupadhigesa Nirvana, or Nirvana that has no
residue. This is attained when the Tathagata-essence
(the Dharmakaya) is released from the pain of birth
and death as well as from the curse of passion and
sin. This form of Nirvana seems to be what is gene
rally understood by Occidental missionary-scholars as
the Nirvana of Buddhists. While in lifetime, they have
been emancipated from the egoistic conception of the
soul, they have practised the Eightfold Path, and they
1 There are two obstacles to final emancipation: (1) affec
tive, and (2) intellectual. The former is our unenlightened af
fective or emotional or subjective life and the latter our intel
lectual prejudice. Buddhists should not only be pure in heart
but be perfect in intelligence. Pious men are of course saved
from transmigration, but to attain perfect Buddhahood they
must have a clear, penetrating intellectual insight into the
significance of life and existence and the destiny of the uni
verse. This emphasising of the rational element in religion is
one of the most characteristic points of Buddhism.

CHAPTER XIII. 345
have destroyed all the roots of karma that makes
possible their metempsychosis in the world of birth
and death (samsara), though as the inevitable sequence
of their previous karma they have yet to suffer all
the evils inherent in the material existence. But at
last they have had even this mortal coil dissolved away,
and have returned to the original Absolute from which
by virtue of ignorance they had come out and gone
through a cycle of births and deaths. This state of
supramundane bliss in the realm of the Absolute is
Anupadicesa Nirvana, that is, Nirvana that has no
residue. (4) The Nirvana that has no abode. In this, the
Buddha-essence has not only been freed from the curse
of passion and sin (klega), but from the intellectual
prejudice, which most tenaciously clings to the mind.
The Buddha-essence or the Dharmakaya is revealed
here in its perfect purity. All-embracing love and all-
knowing intelligence illuminate the path. He who has
attained to this state of subjective enlightenment is
said to have no abode, no dwelling place, that is to
say, he is no more subject to the transmigration of
birth and death (samsara), nor does he cling to Nir
vana as the abode of complete rest ; in short, he is
above Samsara and Nirvana. His sole object in life is
to benefit all sentient beings to the end of time ; but
this he proposes to do not by his human conscious
elaboration and striving. Simply actuated by his all-
embracing love which is of the Dharmakaya, he wishes
to deliver all his fellow-creatures from misery, he does

346 CHAPTER XIII.
not seek his own emancipation from the turmoil of
life. He is fuliy aware of the transitoriness of worldly
interests, but on this account he desires not to shun
them. With his all-knowing intelligence he gains a
spiritual insight into the ultimate nature of things and
the final course of existence. He is one of those reli
gious men "that weep, as though they wept not ; that
rejoice as though they rejoiced not ; that buy, as though
they possessed not ; that use this world, as not abusing
it; for the fashion of this world passes away." Nay,
he is in one sense more than this ; his life is full of
positive activity, because his heart and soul are devo
ted to the leading of all beings to final emancipation
and supreme bliss. When a man attains to this stage
of spiritual life, he is said to be in the Nirvana that
has no abode.
A commentator on the Vijndnamdtra Cdstra adds
that of these four forms of Nirvana the first is pos
sessed by every sentient being, whether it is actual-
ised in its human perfection or lying dormant in posse
and miserably obscured by ignorance ; that the second
and third are attained by all the Cravakas and Pra
tyekabuddhas, while it is a Buddha alone that is in
possession of all the four forms of Nirvana.
Nirvana as the Dharmakaya
It is manifest from the above statement that in
Mahayanism Nirvana has acquired several shades of
meaning psychological and ontological. This apparent
confusion, however, is due to the purely idealistic

CHAPTER XIII. 347
tendency of Mahayanism, which ignores the distinc
tion usually made between being and thought, object
and subject, the perceived and the perceiving. Nirvana
is not only a subjective state of enlightenment but
an objective power through whose operation this
beatific state becomes attainable. It does not simply
mean a total absorption in the Absolute or of emanci
pation from earthly desires in lifetime as exemplified
in the life of the Arhat. Mahayanists perceive in
Nirvana not only this, but also its identity with the
Dharmakaya, or Suchness, and recognise its universal
spiritual presence in all sentient beings.
When Nagarjuna says in his Madhyamika Cdstra *
that : "That is called Nirvana which is not wanting,
is not acquired, is not intermittent, is not non-inter
mittent, is not subject to destruction, and is not
created ;" he evidently speaks of Nirvana as a synonym
of Dharmakaya, that is, in its first sense as above
described. Chandra Kirti, therefore, rightly comments
that Nirvana is sarva-kalpand-ksaya-rilpam, 2i. e., that
which transcends all the forms of determination
1 This is one of the most important philosophical texts of
Mahayanism. Its original Sanskrit with the commentary of
Chandra Kirti has been edited by Satis Chandra Acharya
and published by the Buddhist Text Society of India. The
original lines run as follows (p. 193) :
"Aprahinam, asampraptam, anucchinnam, acacvatam,
Aniruddham, anutpannam, evam nirvanam ucyate."
2 Literally, that which is characterised by the absence of all
characterisation.

348 CHAPTER XIII.
Nirvana is an absolute, it is above the relativity of
existence (bhdva) and non-existence (abhdvd). l
Nirvana is sometimes spoken of as possessing four
attributes ; (i) eternal (nitya), (2) blissful (sukha),
(3) self-acting (atman), and (4) pure (gugi). Judging
from these qualities thus ascribed to Nirvana as its
essential features, Nirvana is here again identified with
the highest reality of Buddhism, that is, with the
Dharmakaya. It is eternal because it is immaterial ; it
is blissful because it is above all sufferings ; it is
self-acting because it knows no compulsion; it is
pure because it is not defiled by passion and error. 2
1 Cf. the following from the Madhyamika:
"Bhaved abbavo bhavac ca nirvanam ubhayam katham:
Asamskrtam ca nirvanam bhavabhavai ca samskrtam.''
Or, "Tasmanna bhavo nabhavo nirvanamiti yujyate."
2 In the Visuddhi-Magga XXI. (Warren's translation, p.
376 et seq.), we read that there are three starting points of
deliverance arising from the consideration of the three predom
inant qualities of the constituents of being: 1. The conside
ration of their beginnings and ends leads the thoughts to the
unconditioned ; 2. The insight into their miserableness agitates
the mind and leads the thoughts to the desireless ; 3. The
consideration of the constituents of being as not having an
ego leads the thoughts to the empty. And these three, we
are told, constitute the three aspects of Nirvana as uncondi
tioned, desireless, and empty. Here we have an instance in
the so-called Southern "primitive" Buddhism of viewing
Nirvana in the Mahayanistic light which I have here explained
at length'.
En passant, let us remark that as Buddha did not leave
any document himself embodying his whole system, there
sprang up soon after his departure several schools explaining

CHAPTER XIII. 349
Nirvana in its Fourth Sense.
No further elucidation is needed for the first signifi
cation of Nirvana, for we have treated it already
when explaining the nature of the Dharmakaya. Nor
is it necessary for us to dwell upon the second and
the third phases of it. The Occidental missionary-
scholars and Orientalists, however one-sided and often
biased, have almost exhaustively investigated these
points from the Pali sources. What remains for us
now is to analyse the Mahayanistic conception of
Nirvana which was stated above as its fourth signifi
cation. Nirvana, briefly speaking, is a realisation in this life
of the all-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence
of Dharmakaya. It is the unfolding of the reason of
existence, which in the ordinary human life remains
more or less eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance and
egoism. It does not consist in the mere observance
of the moral precepts laid down by Buddha, nor in
the blind following of the Eightfold Path, nor in
retirement from the world and absorption in abstract
meditation.. The Mahayanistic Nirvana is full of energy
and activity which issues from the all-embracing love
of the Dharmakaya. There is no passivity in it, nor
a keeping aloof from the hurly-burly of worldliness.
the Master's view in divers ways, each claiming the legitimate
interpretation; that in view of this fact it is illogical to
conclude that Southern Buddhism is the authoritative represen
tation par excellence of original Buddhism, while the Eastern
or the Northern is a mere degeneration.

350 CHAPTER XIII.
He who is in this Nirvana does not seek a rest in
the annihilation of human aspirations, does not flinch
in the face of endless transmigration. On the contrary,
he plunges himself into the ever-rushing current of
Samsara and sacrifices himself to save his fellow-crea
tures from being eternally drowned in it.
Though thus the Mahayana Nirvana is realised only
in the mire of passions and errors, it is never con
taminated by the filth of ignorance. Therefore, he
that is abiding in Nirvana, even in the whirlpool of
egoism and in the darkness of sin, does not lose his
all-seeing insight that penetrates deep into the ultimate
nature of being. He is aware of the transitoriness of
things. He knows that this life is a mere passing
moment in the eternal manifestation of the Dharmakaya,
whose work can be realised only in boundless space
and endless time. As he is fully awake to this knowledge,
he never gets engrossed in the world of sin'. He lives
in the world like unto the lotus-flower, the emblem
of immaculacy, which grows out of the mire and
yet shares not its defilement. He is also like unto a
bird flying in the air that does not leave any trace
behind it. He may again be likened unto the clouds
that spontaneously gather around the mountain peak,
and, soaring high as the wind blows, vanish away
to the region where nobody knows. In short, he is
living in, and yet beyond, the realm of Samsara and
Nirvana. We read in the Vimalakirti Sutra (chap. VIII.) :
"Vimalakirti asks Manjucri : 'How is it that you

CHAPTER XIII. 351
declare all [human] passions and errors are the seeds
of Buddhahood?'
"Manjucri replies : 'O son of good family ! Those
who cling to the view of non-activity [asamskrita]
and dwell in a state of eternal annihilation do not
awaken in them supremely perfect knowledge [anuttara-
samyak-sambodhi]. Only the Bodhisattvas, who dwell
in the midst of passions and errors, and who, passing
through the [ten] stages, rightly contemplate the ulti
mate nature of things, are able to awaken and attain
intelligence [prajna] .
" 'Just as the lotus-flowers do not grow in the dry
land, but in the dark-colored, waterly mire, O son
of good family, it is even so [with intelligence (prajna
or bodhi)] In non-activity and eternal annihilation which
are cherished by the Cravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas,
there is no opportunity for the seeds and sprouts of
Buddhahood to grow. Intelligence can grow only in
the mire and dirt of passion and sin. It is by virtue of
passion and sin that the seeds and sprouts of Buddha
hood are able to grow.
" 'O son of good family ! Just as no seeds can grow
in the air, but in the filthy, muddy soil, —and
there even luxuriously, — O son of good family, it is
even so [with the Bodhi]. It does not grow out of
non-activity and eternal annihilation. It is only out
of the mountainous masses of egoistic, selfish
thoughts that Intelligence is awakened and grows to
the incomprehensible wisdom of Buddha-seeds.
I " 'O son of good family! Just as we cannot ob-

352 CHAPTER XIII.
tain priceless pearls unless we dive into the depths
of the four great oceans, O son of good family, it is
even so [with Intelligence]. If we do not dive deep
into the mighty ocean of passion and sin, how could
we get hold of the precious gem of Buddha- essence ?
Let it therefore be understood that the primordial
seeds of Intelligence draw their vitality from the midst
of passion and sin/jjj In a Pauline epistle we read,
"From the foulness of the soil, the beauty of new
life grows." And Emerson sings :
"Let me go where'er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still.
'Tis not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things.
There always, always, something sings"
Do we not see here a most explicit statement of
the Mahayanistic sentiment?
Nirvana and Samsara are One.
The most remarkable feature in the Mahayanistic
conception of Nirvana is expressed in this formula :
"Yas klecas so bodhi, yas samsaras tat nirvanam."
What is sin or passion, that is Intelligence, what is
birth and death (or transmigration), that is Nirvana.
This is a rather bold and revolutionising proposition
in the dogmatic history of Buddhism. But it is no
more than the natural development of the spirit that
was breathed by its founder.

CHAPTER XIII. 353
In the Vigesacinta-brahma-pariprccha Sutra,"1 it is
said that (chap. II):
"Samsara is Nirvana, because there is, when viewed
from the ultimate nature of the Dharmakaya, nothing
going out of, nor coming into, existence, [samsara
being only apparent] : Nirvana is samsara, when it is
coveted and adhered to."
In another place (op. cit) the idea is expressed in
much plainer terms : "The essence of all things is
in truth free from attachment, attributes, and desires ;
therefore, they are pure, and, as they are pure, we
know that what is the essence of birth and death
that is the essence of Nirvana, and that what is the
essence of Nirvana that is the essence of birth and
death (samsara). In other words, Nirvana is not to
be sought outside of this world, which, though tran
sient, is in reality no more than Nirvana itself.
Because it is contrary to our reason to imagine that
there is Nirvana and there is birth and death (samsara)
and that the one lies outside the pale of the other,
and, therefore, that we can attain Nirvana only after
we have annihilated or escaped the world of birth
and death. If we are not hampered by our confused
subjectivity, this our worldly life is an activity of
Nirvana itself."
Nagarjuna repeats the same sentiment in his Madhy
amika Cdstra, when he says:
1 There are three Chinese translations of this Mahayana
text, by Dharmaraksa, Kumarajiva, and Bodhiruci, between
265 and 517 A. D. 23

354 CHAPTER XIII.
"Samsara is in no way to be distinguished from Nirvana:
Nirvana is in no way to be distinguished from Samsara."1
Or, "The sphere of Nirvana is the sphere of Samsara:
Not the slightest distinction exists between them." 2
Asanga goes a step further and boldly declares
that all the Buddha-dharmas, of which Nirvana or
Dharmakaya forms the foundation, are characterised
with the passions, errors, and sins of vulgar minds.
He says in Mahdydna-Sangraha Cdstra (the Chinese
Tripitaka, Japanese edition of 1881, wang VIII., p. 84) :
"(1) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with
eternality, for the Dharmakaya is eternal.
"(2) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with
an extinguishing power, for they extinguish all the
obstacles for final emancipation.
"(3) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with
regeneration, for the Nirmanakaya [Body of Transfor
mation] constantly regenerates.
"(4) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the
power of attainment, for by the attainment [of truth]
they subjugate innumerable evil passions as cherished
by ignorant beings.
"(5) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the
desire to gain, ill humor, folly, and all the other
1 Samsarasya ca nirvanat kincid asti vicesanam :
Na nirvanasya samsarat kincid asti vicesanam.
2 Nirvanasya ca ya kotih kotih samsarasya ca,
Vidyadanantaram kincit susuksnam vidyate.

CHAPTER XIII. 355
passions of vulgar minds, for it is through the Buddha's
love that those depraved souls are saved.
"(6) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with non-
attachment and non-defilement, for Suchness which
is made perfect by these virtues cannot be defiled
by any evil powers.
"(7) All Buddha-dharmas are above attachment and
defilement, for though all Buddhas reveal themselves
in the world, worldliness cannot defile them." 1
Buddha-dharma means any thing, or any virtue, or
any faculty, that belongs to Buddhahood. Non-attach
ment is a Buddha-dharma, love is a Buddha-dharma,
wisdom is a Buddha dharma. and in fact anything
is a Buddha-dharma which is an attribute of the
Perfect One, not to mention the Dharmakaya or
Nirvana which constitutes the very essence of Buddha
hood. Therefore, the conclusion which is to be drawn
from those seven propositions of Asanga as above
quoted is this : Not only is this world of constant
transformation as a whole Nirvana, but its apparent
errors and sins and evils are also the various phases
of the manifestation of Nirvana.
The above being the Mahayanistic view of Nirvana,
it is evident that Nirvana is not something transcen
dental or that which stands above this world of birth
1 Concerning the similarity in meaning of this statement to
the one just preceding, a commentator says that the sixth
is the statical view of Suchness (or Dharmakaya) and the
seventh its dynamical view. One explains what the highest
reality of Buddhism is and the other what it does or works.

356 CHAPTER XIII.
and death, joy and sorrow, love and hate, peace and
struggle. Nirvana is not to be sought in the heavens
nor after a departure from this earthly life nor in
the annihilation of human passions and aspirations.
On the contrary, it must be sought in the midst of
worldliness, as life with all its thrills of pain and
pleasure is no more than Nirvana itself. Extinguish
your life and seek Nirvana in anchoretism, and your
Nirvana is forever lost. Consign your aspirations,
hopes, pleasures, and woes, and everything that makes
up a life to the eternal silence of the grave, and you
bury Nirvana never to be recovered. In asceticism,
or in meditation, or in ritualism, or even in meta
physics, the more impetuously you pursue Nirvana, the
further away it flies from you. It was the most
serious mistake ever committed by any religious
thinkers to imagine that Nirvana which is the complete
satisfaction of our religious feeling could be gained
by laying aside all human desires, ambitions, hopes,
pains, and pleasures. Have your own Bodhi (intelli
gence) thoroughly enlightened through love and knowl
edge, and everything that was thought sinful and
filthy turns out to be of divine purity. It is the same
human heart, formerly the fount of ignorance and
egoism, now the abode of eternal beatitude — Nirvana
shining in its intrinsic magnificence.
Suppose a torch light is taken into a dark cell,
which people had hitherto imagined to be the abode of
hideous, uncanny goblins, and which on that account
they wanted to have completely destroyed to the

CHAPTER XIII. 357
ground. The bright light now ushered in at once
disperses the darkness, and every nook and corner
therein is perfectly illumined. Everything in it now as
sumes its proper aspect. And to their surprise people
find that those figures which they formerly considered
to be uncanny and horrible are nothing but huge
precious stones, and they further learn that every
one of those stones can be used in some way for
the great benefit of their fellow-creatures. The dark
cell is the human heart before the enlightenment of
Nirvana, the torch light is love and intelligence. When
love warms and intelligence brightens, the heart finds
every passion and sinful desire that was the cause of
unbearable anguish now turned into a divine aspiration.
The heart itself, however, remains the same just as
much as the cell, whose identity was never affected
either by darkness or by brightness. This parable
nicely illustrates the Mahayanistic doctrine of the
identity of Nirvana and Samsara, and of the Bodhi
and Kleca, that is, of intelligence and passion.
Therefore, it is said:
"All sins transformed into the constituents of enlightenment!
The vicissitudes of Samsara transformed into the beatitude
of Nirvana!
All these come from the exercise of the great religious
discipline (updya);
Beyond our understanding, indeed, is the mystery of all
Buddhas." '
1 The Discourse on Buddha-essence by Vasubandhu. The
Japanese Tripitaka edition of 1881, fas. II., p. 84, where the
stanza is quoted from the Sutra on the Incomprehensible.

358 CHAPTER X1H.
The Middle Course.
In one sense the Buddha always showed an eclectic,
conciliatory, synthetic spirit in his teachings. He refused
to listen to any extreme doctrine which elevates one
end too high at the expense of the other and culmi
nates in the collapse of the whole edifice. When the
Buddha left his seat of enlightenment under the Bo
dhi tree, he made it his mission to avoid both ex
tremes, asceticism and hedonism. He proved through
out his life to be a calm, dignified, thoughtful, well-
disciplined person, and at no time irritable in char
acter, — in this latter respect being so different from
the sage of Nazareth, who in anger cast out all the
tradesmen in the temple and overthrew the tables of
the money-changers, and who cursed the fig tree on
which he could not find any fruit but leaves unfit to
appease his hunger. The doctrine of the Middle Path
(Mddhyamdrga), whatever it may mean morally and
intellectually, always characterised the life and doctrine
of Buddha as well as the later development of his
teachings. His followers, however different in their
individual views, professed as a rule to pursue stead
ily the Middle Path as paved by the Master. Even
when Nagarjuna proclaimed his celebrated doctrine
of Eight No's which seems to superficial critics nothing
but an absolute nihilism, he said that the Middle
Path could be found only in those eight no's. i
1 This is expressed in the first verse of the Mddhyamika
Cdstra, which runs as follows :

CHAPTER XIII. 359
Mahayanism has certainly applied this synthetic
method of Buddha to its theory of Nirvana and
ennobled it by fully developing its immanent signifi
cation. In the Discourse on Buddha-essence, Vasu
bandhu quotes the following passage from the Crimala
Siitra, which plainly shows the path along which the
Mahayanists traveled before they reached their final
conclusion : "Those who see only the transitoriness
of existence are called nihilists, and those who see
only the eternality of Nirvana are called eternalists.
Both views are incorrect." Vasubandhu then proceeds
to say : "Therefore, the Dharmakaya of the Tathagata
is free from both extremes, and on that account it
is called the Great Eternal Perfection. When viewed
from this absolute standpoint of Suchness, the logical
distinction between Nirvana and Samsara cannot in
reality be maintained, and hereby we enter upon the
realm of non-duality." And this realm of non-duality
is the Middle Path of Nirvana, not in its nihilistic,
but in its Mahayanistic, significance.
How to Realise Nirvana.
How can we attain the Middle Path of Nirvana?
How can we realise a life that is neither pessimistic
asceticism nor materialistic hedonism ? How can we
steer through the whirlpools of Samsara without being
"Anirodham anutpadam anucchedam acacvatam
Anekirtham ananartham anagamam anirgamam."
Literally translated these lines read :
"No annihilation, no production, no destruction, no persistence,
No unity, no plurality, no coming in, no going out."

36O CHAPTER XIII.
swallowed up and yet braving their turbulent gyra
tion ? The answer to this can readily be given, when
we understand, as repeatedly stated above, that this
life is the manifestation of the Dharmakaya, and that
the ideal of human existence is to realise within the
possibilities of his mind and body all that he can
conceive of the Dharmakaya. And this we have found
to be all-embracing love and all-seeing intelligence.
Destroy then your ignorance at one blow and be
done with your egoism, and there springs forth an
eternal stream of love and wisdom.
Says Vasubandhu : "By virtue of Prajna [intelligence
or wisdom], our egoistic thoughts are destroyed : by
virtue of Karuna [love], altruistic thoughts are cherish
ed. By virtue of Prajna, the [affective] attachment
inherent in vulgar minds is abolished; by virtue of
Karuna, the [intellectual] attachment as possessed
by the Cravakas and Pratyekabuddhas is abolished.
By virtue of Prajna, Nirvana [in its transcendental
sense] is not rejected; by virtue of Karuna, Samsara
[with its changes and transmigrations] is not rejected.
By virtue of Prajna the truth of Buddhism is attained ;
by virtue of Karuna, all sentient beings are matured
[for salvation]."
The practical life of a Buddhist runs in two opposite,
though not antagonistic, directions, one upward and
the other downward, and the two are synthesised in
the Middle Path of Nirvana. The upward direction
points to the intellectual comprehension of the truth,
while the downward one to a realisation of all-embra-

CHAPTER XIII. 36I
cing love among his fellow-creatures. One is comple
mented by the other. When the intellectual side is too
much emphasised at the expense of the emotional,
we have a Pratyekabuddha, a solitary thinker, whose
fountain of tears is dry and does not flow over the
sufferings of his fellow-beings. When the emotional
side alone is asserted to the extreme, love acquires
the egoistic tint that colors everything coming in
contact with it. Because it does not discriminate and
takes sensuality for spirituality. If it does not turn
out sentimentalism, it will assume a hedonistic form.
How many superstitious, or foul, or even atrocious
deeds in the history of religion have been committed
under the beautiful name of religion, or love of God
and mankind ! It makes the blood run cold when we
think how religious fanatics burned alive their rivals
or opponents at the stake, cruelly butchered thousands
of human lives within a day, brought desolation and
ruin throughout the land of their enemies, — and all
these works of the Devil executed for sheer love of
God ! Therefore, says Devala, the author of the
Discourse on the Mahapurusa (Great Man) : "The wise
do not approve lovingkindness without intelligence,
nor do they approve intelligence without loving
kindness ; because one without the other prevents us
from reaching the highest path." Knowledge is the eye,
love is the limb. Directed by the eye, the limb knows
how to move; furnished with the limb, the eye can
attain what it perceives. Love alone is blind, knowl
edge alone is lame. It is only when one is supplement-

362 CHAPTER XIII.
ed by the other that we have a perfect, complete man.
In Buddha as the ideal human being we recognise
the perfection of love and intelligence; for it was in
him that the Dharmakaya found its perfect realisation
in the flesh. But as far as the Bodhisattvas are con
cerned, their natural endowments are so diversified
and their temperament is so uneven that in some the
intellectual elements are more predominant while in
others the emotional side is more pronounced, that
while some are more prone to practicality others
preferably look toward intellectualism. Thus, as a
matter of course, some Bodhisattvas will be more of
philosophers than of religious seers. They may tend
in some cases to emphasise the intellectual side of
religion more than its emotional side and uphold the
importance of prajna (intelligence) above that of
karuna (love). But the Middle Path of Nirvana lies in
the true harmonisation of prajna and karuna, of bodhi
and upaya, of knowledge and love, of intellect and
feeling. Love Awakens Intelligence
But if we have to choose between the two, let us
first have all-embracing love, the Buddhists would say ;
for it is love that awakens in us an intense desire
to find the way of emancipating the masses from
perpetual sufferings and eternal transmigration. The
intellect will now endeavor to realise its highest
possibilities ; the Bodhi will exhibit its fullest strength.
When it is found out that this life is an expression
of the Dharmakaya which is one and eternal, that

CHAPTER XIII. 363
individual existences have no selfhood (atman or
svabhava) as far as they are due to the particular -
isation of subjective ignorance, and, therefore, that
we are true and real only when we are conceived
as one in the absolute Dharmakaya, the Bodhisattva's
love which caused him to search after the highest
truth will now unfold its fullest significance.
This love, or faith in the Mahayana, as it is some
times called, is felt rather vaguely at the first awake
ning of the religious consciousness, and agitates the
mind of the aspirant, whose life has hitherto been
engrossed in every form of egocentric thought and
desire. He no more finds an unalloyed satisfaction,
as the Cravakas or the Pratyekabuddhas do, in his
individual emancipation from the curse of Samsara.
However sweet the taste of release from the bond
of ignoranee, it is lacking something that makes the
freedom perfectly agreeable to the Bodhisattva who
thinks more of others than of himself; to be sweet
as well as acceptable, it must be highly savored with
lovingkindness which embraces all his fellow-beings
as his own children. The emancipation of the Cravaka
or of the Prayekabuddha is like a delicious food
which is wanting in saline taste, for it is no more
than a dry, formal philosophical emancipation. Love
is that which stimulates a man to go beyond his own
interests. It is the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhi
sattvas. The sacred motive that induces them to
renounce a life of Nirvanic self-complacency, is noth
ing but their boundless love for all beings. They do

364 CHAPTER XIII.
not wish to rest in their individual emancipation, they
want to have all sentient creatures without a single
exception emancipated and blest in paradisiacal hap
piness. Love, therefore, bestows on us two spiritual
benefits: (1) It saves all beings from misery and (2)
awakens in us the Buddha-intelligence
The following passages quoted at random from
Devala's Mahdpurusa will help our readers to under
stand the true signification of Nirvana and the value
of love (karuna) as estimated by the Mahayanists.
"Those who are afraid of transmigration and seek
their own benefits and happiness in final emancipation,
are not at all comparable to those Bodhisattvas, who
rejoice when they come to assume a material existence
once again, for it affords them another opportunity to
benefit others. Those who are only capable of feeling
their own selfish sufferings may enter into Nirvana [and
not trouble themselves with the sufferings of other
creatures like themselves] ; but the Bodhisattva who
feels in himself all the sufferings of his fellow-beings
as his own, how can he bear the thought of leaving
others behind while he is on his way to final emanci
pation, and when he himself is resting in Nirvanic
quietude?  Nirvana in truth consists in rejoicing
at other's being made happy, and Samsara in not so
feeling. He who feels a universal love for his fellow-
creatures will rejoice in distributing blessings among
them and find his Nirvana in so doing. *
1 Compare this Buddhist sentiment of universal love with
that of the Christian religion and we shall see the truth that

CHAPTER XIH. 365
"Suffering really consists in pursuing one's egotistic
happiness, while Nirvana is found in sacrificing one's
welfare for the sake of others. People generally think
that it is an emancipation when they are released
from their own pain, but a man with loving heart
finds it in rescuing others from misery.
"With people who are not kindhearted, there is
no sin that will not be committed by them. They
are called the most wicked whose hearts are not
softened at the sight of others, misfortune and
suffering. "When all beings are tortured by avarice, passion,
ill humor, infatuation, and folly, and are constantly
threatened by the misery of birth and death, disease
and decay  how can the Bodhisattva live among
them and not feel pity for them?
"Of all good virtues, lovingkindness stands fore
most. ... It is the source of all merit. ... It is the

all religions are one at the bottom. We read in Thomas a
Kempis's Imitation of Christ (ch. XIII): "My son, I descended
from heaven for thy salvation ; I took upon me thy sorrows,
not necessity but love drawing me thereto; that thou thyself
mightest learn patience and bear temporal sufferings without
repining For from the hour of my birth, even until my
death on the cross, I was not without suffering of grief."
This is exactly the sentiment that stimulates the Bodhisattvas
to their gigantic task of universal salvation. Those who are
free from sectarian biases will admit without hesitation that
there is but one true religion which may assume various
forms according to circumstances. "Many are the roads to
the summit, but when reached there we have but one universal
moonlight."

366 CHAPTER XIII.
mother of all Buddhas. ... It induces others to take
refuge in the incomparable Bodhi.
"The loving heart of a Bodhisattva is annoyed by
one thing, that all beings are constantly tortured and
threatened by all sorts of pain."
Let us quote another interesting passage from a
Mahayana sutra.
When Vimalakirti was asked why he did not feel
well, he made the following reply, which is full of
religious significance : "From ignorance there arises
desire and that is the cause of my illness. As all
sentient beings are ill, so am I ill. When all sentient
beings are healed of their illness, I shall be healed
of my illness, too. Why? The Bodhisattva suffers
birth and death because of sentient beings. As there
is birth and death, so there is illness. When sentient
beings are delivered from illness, the Bodhisattvas
will suffer no more illness. When an only son in
a good family is sick, the parents feel sick too:
when he is recovered they are well again. So it
is with the Bodhisattva. He loves all sentient
beings as his own children. When they are sick, he
is sick too. When they are recovered, he is well
again. Do you wish to know whence this [sympathetic]
illness is ? The illness of the Bodhisattva comes from
his all-embracing love (mahdkarund").
This gospel of universal love is the consummation
of all religious emotions whatever their origin. Without
this, there is no religion — that is, no religion that
is animated with life and spirit. For it is in the fact

CHAPTER XIII. 367
and nature of things that we are not moved by
mere contemplation or mere philosophising. Every
religion may have its own way of intellectually in
terpreting this fact, but the practical result remains
the same everywhere, viz. that it cannot survive with
out the animating energy of love. Whatever sound
and fine reasoning there may be in the doctrine of
the Cravaka and the Pratyekabuddha, the force that
is destined to conquer the world and to deliver us
from misery is not intellection, but the will, i. e. the
purvapranidhana of the Dharmakaya.
Conclusion.
We now conclude. What is most evident from what
we have seen above is that the Mahayana Nirvana is
not the annihilation of life but its enlightenment, that
it is not the nullification of human passions and
aspirations but their purification and ennoblement.
This world of eternal transmigration is not a place
which should be shunned as the playground of evils,
but should be regarded as the place of ever-present
opportunities given to us for the purpose of unfold
ing all our spiritual possibilities and powers for the
sake of the universal welfare. There is no need for us
to shrink, like the snail into his cozy shelter, before
the duties and burdens of life. The Bodhisattva, on
the contrary, finds Nirvana in a concatenation of
births and deaths and boldly faces the problem
of evil and solves it by purifying the Bodhi from
subjective ignorance.

368 CHAPTER XIII.
His rule of conduct is :
"Sabba papassa akaranam,
Kusalassa upasampada,
Sacitta pariyodapanain ;
Etam buddhanu sasanam." '
His aspirations are solemnly expressed in this,
which we hear daily recited in the Mahayana Buddhist
temples and monasteries and seminaries :
"Sentient beings, however innumerable, I take vow to save;
Evil passions, however inextinguishable, I take vow to destroy;
The avenues of truth, however numberless, I take vow to study ;
The way of the Enlightened, however unsurpassable, I take
vow to attain."
And an indefatigable pursuit of these noble aims
will finally lead to the heaven of the Buddhists, Nirvana,
which is not a state of eternal quietude, but the
source of energy and intelligence.
By way of summary, and to avoid all misconcep
tions, let me repeat once more that Nirvana is thus
no negation of life, nor is it an idle contemplation
on the misery of existence. The life of a Buddhist
consists by no means in the monotonous repetition
of reciting the sutras and going his rounds for meals.
Far from that. He enters into all the forms of life-
activity, for he does not believe that universal emanci-
1 The Dharmapada, XIV. 5. Mr. A. J. Edmunds's translation is,
"Ceasing to do all wrong,
Initiation into goodness,
Cleansing the heart:
This the religion of the Buddhas."

CHAPTER XIII. 369
ipation is achieved by imprisoning himself in the
cloister. Theoretically speaking, Nirvana is the dispersion of
the clouds of ignorance hovering around the light of
Bodhi. Morally, it is the suppression of egoism and
the awakening of love (karund). Religiously, it is the
absolute surrender of the self to the will of the
Dharmakaya. When the clouds of ignorance are dis
persing, our intellectual horizon gets clearer and
wider ; we perceive that our individual existences are
like bubbles and lightnings, but that thay obtain
reality in their oneness with the Body of Dharma.
This conviction compels us to eternally abandon our
old egoistic conception of life. The ego finds its
significance only when it is conceived in relation to
the not-ego, that is, to the alter ; in other words, self-
love has no meaning whatever unless it is purified
by love for others. But this love for others must not
remain blind and unenlightened, it must be in harmony
with the will of the Dharmakaya which is the norm
of existence and the reason of being. The mission of
love is ennobled and fulfilled in its true sense when
we come to the faith that says "thy will be done."
Love without this resignation to the divine ordinance
is merely another form of egoism : the root is already
rotten, how can its trunk, stems, leaves, and flowers
make a veritable growth?
Let us then conclude with the following reflections
of the Bodhisattva, in which we read the whole
signification of Buddhism. 24

370 CHAPTER XIII.
"Having practised all the six virtues of perfection
(pdramitd) and innumerable other meritorious deeds,
the Bodhisattva reflects in this wise:
" 'All the good deeds practised by me are for the
benefit of all sentient beings, for their ultimate puri
fication [from sin]. By the merit of these good deeds
I pray that all sentient beings be released from the
innumerable sufferings suffered by them in their
various abodes of existence. By the turning over
(parivarta) of these deeds I would be a haven for
all beings and deliver them from their miserable
existences ; I would be a great beacon-light to all
beings and dispel the darkness of ignorance and make
the light of intelligence shine.'
"He reflects again in this wise :
" 'All sentient beings are creating evil karma in
innumerable ways, and by reason of this karma they
suffer innumerable sufferings. They do not recognise
the Tathagata, do not listen to the Good Law, do
not pay homage to the congregration of holy men
All these beings carry an innumerable amount of
great evil karma and are destined to suffer in innu
merable ways. For their sake I will in the midst of
the three evil creations suffer all their sufferings and
deliver every one of them. Painful as these sufferings
are, I will not retreat, I will not be frightened. I will
not be negligent, I will not forsake my fellow-beings.
Why? Because it is the will [of the Dharmakaya]
that all sentient beings should be universally eman
cipated.'

CHAPTER XIII. 371
"He reflects again in this wise :
" 'My conduct will be like the sun-god who with
his universal illumination seeks not any reward, who
ceases not on account of one unrighteous person to
make a great display of his magnificent glory, who
on account of one unrighteous person abandons not
the salvation of all beings. Through the dedication
(parivarta) of all my merits I would make every one
of my fellow-creatures happy and joyous.' " (The
Avatamsaka Sutra, fas XIV).

APPENDIX

HYMNS OF MAHAYANA FAITH.

DHARMAKAYA (TATHAGATA). *
In all beings there abideth the Dharmakaya;
With all virtues dissolved in it, it liveth in eternal
calmness.
It knoweth nor birth nor death, coming nor going;
Not one, not two ; not being, not becoming ;
Yet present everywhere in worlds of beings :
This is what is perceived by all Tathagatas.
All virtues, material and immaterial,
Dependent on the Dharmakaya, are eternally pure in it.
Like unto the sky is the ultimate nature of the Dhar
makaya ;
Far away from the six dusts, it is defilement-free.
Of no form and devoid of all attributes is the Dhar
makaya,
In which are void both actor and action :
The Dharmakaya of all Buddhas, thus beyond com
prehension,
Quells all the struggles of sophistry and dialectics,
Distances all the efforts of intellection,
Thoughts all are dead in it, and suchness alone abideth.

376 APPENDIX.

THE DHARMAKAYA OF TATHAGATA. 2
In all the worlds over the ten quarters,
O ye, sentient creatures living there,
Behold the most venerable of men and gods,
Whose spiritual Dharma-body is immaculate and pure.
As through the power of one mind,
A host of thoughts is evolved :
So from one Dharma-body of Tathagata,
Are produced all the Buddha-bodies.
In Bodhi nothing dual there existeth,
Nor is any thought of self present:
The Dharma-body, undefiled and non-dual,
In its full splendor manifesteth itself everywhere.
Its ultimate reality is like unto the vastness of space;
Its manifested forms are like unto magic shows;
Its virtues excellent are inexhaustible,
This, indeed, the spiritual state of Buddhas only.
All the Buddhas of the present, past, and future,
Each one of them is an issue of the Dharma-body
immaculate and pure ;
Responding to the needs of sentient creatures,
They manifest themselves everywhere, assuming cor
poreality which is beautiful.
They never made the premeditation
That they would manifest in such and such forms.
Separated are they from all desire and anxiety,
And free and self-acting are their responses.

APPENDIX. 377
They do not negate the phenomenality of dharmas,
Nor do they affirm the world of individuals :
But manifesting themselves in all forms,
They teach and convert all sentient creatures.
The Dharma-body is not changeable,
Neither is it unchangeable;
All dharmas [in essence] are without change,
But manifestations are changeable,
The Sambodhi knoweth no bounds,
Extending as far as the limits of the Dharmaloka itself;
Its depths are bottomless, and its extent limitless ;
Words and speeches are powerless to describe it.
Of all the ways that lead to Enlightenment
The Tathagata knoweth the true significance;
Wandering freely all over the worlds,
Obstacles he encountereth nowhere.

THE TATHAGATA. (i)3
The Tathagata appeared not on earth,
Nor did he enter into Nirvana;
By the supreme power of his inmost will,
He reveals himself freely as he wills. *
This fact is beyond comprehension,
Belongs not to the sphere of a limited consciousness,
Only an intelligence perfect and gone beyond
Is able to have an insight into the realm of Buddhas.

378 APPENDIX.
The material body is not the Tathagata,
Nor is the voice, nor the sound :
Yet he is not beyond the visible and the audible:
The Buddha has indeed a power miraculous.
People of little faith are unable to know
The inmost adytum of Buddhahood.
It is by the perfecting of primordial karma-intelligence
That the realm of all Buddhas is revealed.
All Buddhas come from nowhere,
And depart for nowhere :
The Body of Dharma that is pure, immaculate, and
incomprehensible,
Is invested with a power miraculously free.
In infinity of worlds,
Revealing itself in the body of Tathagata,
It universally preaches the Law supremely excellent,
And in its heart no attachment lingers.
An intellect that knows no limits or bounds
Perceives no obstacles in all dharmas,
And penetrates into the depths of the Dharmaloka,
Revealing itself with a power miraculously divine.
All sentient beings and all creatures,
It understandeth thoroughly without difficulty:
Its Bodies of Transformation are innumerable,
And universally revealed in all the worlds.
Those who seek after All-knowledge
May in course of time attain perfect enlightenment;
Let them above all purify the heart
And complete their discipline in Bodhisattvahood.

APPENDIX. 379

And then they will see the Tathagata's
Immeasurable power that comes from his free will;
Devoid of all doubts they are, and accompanied
With sages whose virtue is unsurpassable.

THE TATHAGATA (2). 5
The Tathagata, in pure golden color,
And in person resplendent and majestic,
In innumerable ages past,
All merits hath accumulated.
With bliss and wisdom all in perfection,
And the highest enlightenment attaining.
And with great loving heart animated,
He now appeareth in this world of endurance.
Men and devas and the eight hosts of demons,
All pay him homage most reverent,
Who, from his inmost self-being,
Preacheth the deepest spiritual Dharma.
Which is so unfathomably deep,
That Buddha alone can understand it:
Multitudes of beings, ignorant and blind,
Listening to it, are unable to comprehend.
The Tathagata is the great leader of beings ;
With skill that is excellent and marvellous,
Guiding all those ignorant souls,
By degrees bringeth them to Enlightenment.

38O APPENDIX.
The heart of all beings is miraculously bright,
And eternally calm in its being.
Pure and immaculate and defilement-free,
It is replenished with all merits.
Its essence is like unto the sky:
Devoid of all liminations,
Knoweth neither birth nor death,
And there is neither coming nor departing.
Eternally abiding in the Dharma-essence,
It is immovable as the Mount Sumeru;
The oneness in it of all beings
Is indeed beyond finite knowledge.
Vulgar minds from time immemorial,
Blindly clinging to all passions,
Are thrown deep into the ocean of pain,
And know not how to escape.
The most profound doctrine of Tathagata,
Full of meaning, spiritual and transcendental,
With recipient intellects in all degrees,
In harmony unfoldeth he the Law.
A shower of one taste from above
Covering all the ten quarters,
Grasses and trees, woods and forests,
Roots and trunks, large and small,
Of all growing on this vast earth,
Nothing is there that thereby itself benefiteth not.
The Law delivered by the Tathagata
May even be likened unto it.

APPENDIX. 38I
With one voice which is wondrous,
He giveth utterance to thoughts innumerable,
That are received by audience of all sort,
Each understanding them in his own way.
In this wise among the assemblage,
None is there but that enters upon Buddha-knowledge
Such is Buddha's miraculous power,
Truly called "Incomprehensible."

REPENTANCE. 6
Those who repent as prescribed by the Dharma,
Altogether their earthly sins uproot;
As fire on doomsday the world will consume,
With its mountain peaks and infinite seas.
Repentance burns up of earthly desires the fuel;
Repentance to heaven the sinners is leading ;
Repentance the bliss of the four Dhyanas imparteth ;
Repentance brings showers of jewels and gems;
Repentance a holy life renders firm as a diamond;
Repentance transports to the palace of bliss everlasting ;
Repentance from the triple world's prison releases;
Repentance makes blossom the bloom of the Bodhi.

382 APPENDIX.

ALL BEINGS ARE MOTHERS AND FATHERS.
All senient beings in transmigration travel through the six gatis,
Like unto a wheel revolving without beginning and end,
Becoming in turn fathers and mothers, men and women :
Generations and generations, each owes something to others.
Ye should then regard all beings as fathers and mothers;
Though this truth is too hidden to be recognised without
the aid of Holy Knowledge,
All men are your fathers,
All women are your mothers.
While not yet requiting their love received in your prior lives,
Why should ye, thinking otherwise, harbor enmity?
Ever thinking of love, endeavor ye to benefit one another;
And provoke ye not hostility, quarreling and insulting.

THE TEN PARAMITAS.
O ye, sons of Buddha, in the Holy Way trained,
With the Heart of Highest Intelligence awakened,
And living in seclusion at the Aranyaka,
Should practice the ten paramitas.
At daily meal think ye first of almsgiving,
And also distribute among beings the Treasure of Law;
When the three rings 7 are pure, it is called true charity ;
» Through this practice perfected are the merits of discipline.

APPENDIX. 383
Would ye understand the merits of almsgiving?
Know ye that it comes from the heart pure, and not from
the wealth given;
A precious treasure with a heart unclean,
Is surpassed by a mite with a heart clean.
Wealth giving is a dana-paramita,
And there are other dana-paramitas :
To give away one's life, wife, or children,
This is called blood-giving.
Should a man of good family come and ask for the Law
Let him have all the Mahayana sutras explained,
And awaken in him the Heart of Highest Intelligence;
This is called a true paramita.
With sympathy and pure faith and conscience,
Embrace ye all beings and befree them from greed,
That they might attain to the highest intelligence of the
Tathagata :
The giving of wealth and of the Law is the first paramita.
Firmly observing the three sets of the Bodhisattva-cilas, 8
O ye, evolve the Bodhi, distance birth-and-death,
Guard the Law of Buddha and make it long live in the world,
Repent the violation of the cfias, and be always mindful
of the true ones.
Subdue ye anger and hate and cultivate in your heart love
and sympathy;
Mindful of the karma past, harbor ye not evil thoughts
against offenders ;
Be not reluctant for the sake of all beings to sacrifice life :
This is called the paramita of meekness.
In practicing what is hard to practice, hesitate ye not awhile ;
With ever-increasing energy through three asankheya kalpas,
Defile not yourselves, but always discipline the heart;
And for the sake of all creatures seek ye salvation.

384 APPENDIX.
Entering into and rising from the Samadhi, spiritual freedom
is obtained :
Transforming yourselves and travelling in all the ten quarters,
Have for all beings the cause of evil desire removed,
And let them seek deliverance in the doctrine of Samadhi.
Would ye desire to attain to True Intelligence?
Friendly approach Bodhisattvas and Tathagatas;
Gladly listening to the doctrine transcendental and sublime,
Attain ye the three disciplines 8 and remove the two obstacles "\
Recognising difference in the disposition of beings,
Apply the medicine proper for each disease :
Love and sympathy, skill and expediency, each fitting the case,
Try the proper means for the benefit of the multitudes.
Would ye know the true meaning of existence ?
The middle path lies in non-attachment, neither "yea"
nor "nay" ;
Intelligence pure is unfathomable and unites in Suchness ;
Identify mine with thine, embracing the whole.
By the force of intellect, grasping the nature of beings,
Teach the masses each in accord with his capacity ;
The force of intellect penetrating through the heart of all
beings,
Destroys the root of transmigration in birth and death.
Intelligently judging between black and white.
Conscientiously take hold of one and put the other aside,
and let each rest in its place ;
Samsara and Nirvana are but one in their essence ;
Fulfilling the meaning of existence, cherish ye not self-conceit.
These ten deeds of excellence
Comprise all eighty-four thousand virtues ;
Each in its class excels all the others,
And is called the Paramita of Bodhisattva.

APPENDIX. 385
Eighty-four thousand samadhis
Becalm the disturbant mind of all beings ;
Eighty-four thousand dharanis
Keep away all the prejudices and evil influences.
The Great Sage, King of Dharma, with marvellous skill,
Teacheth the Law in three ways and converteth all beings ;
Casting the net of the Doctrine in the ocean of birth and death,
He draweth out men and gods to the abode of bliss.

THE BODHI. 11
All things are of the Bodhi,
The Bodhi is in all things ;
The Bodhi and all things are one :
Who knoweth this is called the World-honored.

NIRVANA AND THE THREE EVILS.
Greed is Nirvana;
So is hate, and folly;
In these three passions
There dwells a Buddha-dharma inexpressible.
Who severalises, thinking,
There's greed, and hate, and folly,
He is as far from Buddha,
As heaven from earth.
The Bodhi and greed,
They're one, not two :
Out of one Dharma-gate cometh all ;
Here's sameness, no diversity. 25

386 APPENDIX.
This hearing, the vulgar stand aghast;
Far from the Buddha-path are they.
The heart, when innocent of greed, ia
Is never troubled.
In whose mind self is lurking still,
And who imagines that something he has,
Greedy is this man called,
And he is bound for hell.
What is the true nature of greed,
That is the nature of Buddha-dharma;
What is the nature of Buddha-dharma,
That is the nature of greed. ,3
These two are of one nature ;
That is, of no-nature ;
Who' knoweth this truth,
Would be the world-leader.

NON-ATMAN AND PREJUDICE. "
There once was an ignorant man ;
So afraid of the sky was he
That piteously crying he wandered away.
Of its sudden collapse he was fearful.
But the sky has no boundary,
And to nobody 't will be harmful.
It was due to his ignorance
That he trembled so fitfully.
With the Bhikshus and Brahmans
It is even so, who are prejudiced.
Learning that empty is the world,
Alarmed are they at heart;
And wrongly imagine that if empty were the nature of Atman
Nothingness would be the end of all work.

APPENDIX. 387

NON-ACTION.

As the vacuity of sky,
Being so clear and free of cloud and fog,
Lpon the earth below,
Betrays no signs a shower to give:
So the enlightened
Betray no learning, no intelligence :
And we, sentient beings,
Can trace no efforts in their deliverance of the Law.

SELF-DELUSION.
There lived once a painter,
Who such a monstrous Yaksha painted
That he himself was terrified
And losing all his senses on the ground he fell :
'Tis even so with vulgar minds;
Infatuated, self-deluded by the senses,
Of their own error they are unaware,
And go from birth to birth without an end.

ALL IN ONE.
As all the waters in the valley
Are emptied in the ocean
Which is of one and the same taste :
So the enlightened,
Whatever is
Good and beneficial,
Turn over to the Bodhi
And to that Reality
In which all things become of one and the same taste.

388 APPENDIX.

NIHILISM.
The vast vacuity of space,
How limitless and measureless!
But in the midst of the void
How could a farmer sow his seeds?
'Tis even so with Nihilism:
The past is gone forever,
The future's not here yet,
And in the present no Buddha-seeds have they.

THE NIHILIST.
A man who suffers from a disease incurable,
However excellent his treatment be,
Impossible he will find his health to gain,
For his defies all means of remedy.
'Tis even so with them who walk in the way of emptiness ;
No matter whereso'er they be,
How blindly they are clinging unto it!
Such I declare to be incurable.

THE BUDDHA'S DHARMA (i)
As in its oneness the element earth
Embraces diversities of objects,
And discriminates not this or that;
Even so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.
As in its oneness the element fire
Burns everything on earth,
And discriminates not in its nature ;
Even so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.

APPENDIX. 389
As waters in the vast ocean,
Absorbing hundreds of streams,
Are of the same taste forever ;
Even so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.
As the dragon-god with thunder and lightning
Brings showers on the earth all over,
And the rain-drops discriminate not;
Even so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.

THE BUDDHA'S DHARMA. (2)
As in her oneness mother earth
Creates diversities of seeds
And in her inmost no discrimination knows ;
E'en so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.
As in the cloudless sky the sun
O'er the ten quarters all illuminates,
And in its brightness shows no difference ;
E'en so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.
As high up in the heavens is the moon
Beheld by all beings on earth,
And there's nowhere her glory reaches not;
E'en so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.
The Brahma-raja great
In thousands of worlds himself all manifests
And knows in his being no diversities;
E'en so is it with all the Buddha's Dharma.

390 APPENDIX.
THE PASSIONS AND WISDOM.
Only in the filthiness of soil,
Could the seed be sown and grow;
Even so in the mire of passion
Cherished by all sentient beings
All over the world,
If by the sons of Buddha well attended to,
There will grow the seed of Buddha-dharma.
Just as in filth and mud
The lotus grows and blooms,
Even so in a heart defiled with evil karma
The seeds of Buddha-dharma are growing.

IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT, (i)
A mansion there was once which was a hundred thousand
years of age ;
No occupant was there, nor doors nor windows;
Devas and men, all of a sudden,
There came and burned a lamp ;
And the darkness that dwelt so long
Departed instantly without a word.
The inky darkness that the mansion filled
Resisted not, "I've lived here for ages,
And I'll never be removed from here."
Even with karma-consciousness and the horde of passions
in the heart,
The analogy holds true.
Though there abiding many hundred thousand kalpas,
Their ultimate nature is not true nor real.
When a traveler, day or night,
Enters upon the truthful path,
The lamp of wisdom burns in its full splendor;
And the horde of evil passions
Cannot tarry there, even for a moment.

APPENDIX. 391
IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (2)
Bright shines the lamp,
And the inky night is gone.
But with the darkness
The quarters vanish not;
Yet this illuminating lamp,
If not in the dark, nowhere doth shine:
For light and dark depend upon each other;
No selfhood having, 16 they're empty.
'Tis even so with enlightenment.
In comes enlightenment,
And out goes ignorance of its own accord.
But both are like unto the flowers in the air,
For neither by itself exists ;
Impossible is one alone, either to keep or to forego.

THE BODHISATTVA AND ALL BEINGS «
Great Mother Earth
All creatures
Provides and nourishes,
But from none of them
She seeks a favor special, nor is she to any partial:
So is the Bodhisattva.
Since his awakening of the Heart,
Until he gains the depths of the Law
And realises the highest knowledge,
He toils to save all creatures,
Himself no favor seeking, nor to others granting any ;
Regardless of friend and enemy,
Embracing all with single heart,
He fashions one and all for Bodhi.
* *
«

392 APPENDIX
The element Water
All permeating
Makes herbs and trees
In luxury grow,
Yet any favor special it nor shows nor seeks;
So is the Bodhisattva;
With a pure heart of love
All sentient beings equally embraces he ;
All permeating gradually, universally,
The seeds immaculate he nourishes,
Which, breaking down all evils powerful,
Obtain the fruit of Buddha-knowledge. * *
*
The element Fire
Matures and ripens all
The tender shoots of the cereals;
Yet the element fire
From those young plants
No favor seeks, nor any shows to them;
So is the Bodhisattva :
With knowledge-fire
Matures he all
The tender shoots of creatures ;
Yet he from them
No favor special seeks, nor shows he any.
* *
*
The element Air,
By reason of its virtue,
Pervades all over Buddha-lands;
With the Bodhisattva
'Tis even so,
Who with consummate skill
To Buddha's children
Preaches the Doctrine Holy.

APPENDIX. 393
THE BODHISATTVA.
His Firmness.
As Mara, the evil one,
Commanding his four armies,
Even by the devas in the Kamaloka,
Cannot be overwhelmed;
So is the Bodhisattva,
Whose heart, pure and clean,
By all the hosts of Evil,
Cannot be tempted, nor confused.
His Progress.
As the new moon,
In size increasing gradually,
Becomes perfect and full in the end ;
Even so the Bodhisattva,
With a heart defilement-free,
All the good dharmas seeking and performing,
In virtue gradually progresses,
And finally obtains the Law of Purity, perfect and full.
His Enlightenment.
The rising sun,
All illumining,
All forms and images in the world
In glory are revealed;
So is the Bodhisattva:
The light of knowledge emitting,
And sentient beings illumining,
Bringeth he all to wisdom.

394 appendix.
His Fearlessness.
Lion, the king of beasts,
Majestic, overpowering,
And in the forest wandering,
Knows he no fear, no terror ;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Calmly abiding in Learning,
Intelligence, and Morality,
Throughout the universe,
Wherever he wanders about,
Knows he no fear, no doubt.
His Energy.
The giant elephant,
With energy wondrous,
A burden heavy carrying,
Shows not the least fatigue;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Bearing, for the sake of the masses,
The misery of the flesh,
He shows not the least apathy.
His Purity.
The lotus-flower,
Though growing in the marshy land,
By dirt, or mire, or filth
Is not defiled;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Though living in this world,
No form of passion
Ever touches him.

APPENDIX. 395
His Self-sacrifice.
There lived once a man
Who craftily and skillfully
Felled the trunks of trees,
But left the roots untouched,
That after due time
They might once more be growing;
'Tis even so with the Bodhisattva:
With the upaya that is excellent,
Desires and passions down he fells,
But leaves their seed unscathed
By reason of his all-embracing love,
And thereby ever and anon comes he on earth. '

THE BODHISATTVA'S HOMELESS LIFE. 19
The homeless Bodhisat regards the home life [or the world
at large]
As a hurricane that abates not awhile,
Or as the moon's illusive image in water cast,
Which the imagination takes deliberately for the real.
The water in itself contains no lunar image [real] ;
The real moon, dependent on water clear, a shadow casts ;
So are all beings unreal ; only conditionally they exist ;
Yet 'tis imagined by the vulgar that an Atman they have.
The Atman is the product of conditions, and real it is not ;
But for a reality the imagination it takes.
Have the two prejudices ao removed,
And we perceive Intelligence most high and peerless.

396 APPENDIX.
Our confused imagination is like unto a black storm,
Blowing over the woods of birth and death, stirs up the
leaves of consciousness :
By the four winds of fallacy 'tis haunted all the time,
And five damnation-causes it produces,
Entwining are indeed the roots of evil, which are three,
Through birth and death doth transmigration ever
onward move.
Who to the Sutras listen and in them devoutly believe,
The right view they acquire, removing all the thoughts
which are fallacious,
And every instant growing are Seeds of Intelligence.
And the Samadhi of knowledge great and of spirituality
is awakened.
When well disciplined in speculation deep and subtle,
In the dark no more we grope, nor do we reap the crop
of pain ;
Perceiving Suchness in the ultimate nature of things,
Subject and object both gone, and vanished are all sins.
Female and male, they're attributes, and they are void
essentially :
The ignorant imagine and create the two which only
relatively exist,
The Buddha has destroyed permanently the cause of
ignorance,
And in the ultimate reality nothing particular sees he,
male or female.
The excellent fruit of wisdom, if ever attained, remains
the same for aye ;
The vulgar nathless imagine wrongly and see therein a
thing concrete ahd definite.
The Buddha's features thirty-two are after all no-features ;
Who sees no-features in the features, the feature true he
understands.

APPENDIX. 397
To wander homeless, and immaculate deeds to practise,
Over the heart to watch, in solitude quietly to sit:
This is the rightful way the Bodhisattva cleanses his heart ;
Erelong will he attain the fruit of enlightenment.

THE BUDDHIST. 2i
Encourage not, for your self-interests,
Heterodoxy and false doctrines ;
A merciful heart for all have ye ;
Remove stupidity and untruth from your minds ;
Be ye Tathagata' s most faithful servants;
And teach the masses who are ignorant,
To them the Bodhi impart, on yourselves it practising;
And thereby make the Buddha's name resound on earth ;
Deliver the multitudes from sin and initiate them
To the perfect enlightenment of the Buddha:
Ye by these virtues firmly stand,
And your Intelligence-heart doth never fail.

HYMN TO THE BODHISATTVA.22
With lovingkindness, a Great Being who saves and protects,
Regards all beings impartially as his only child;
Energetically, cheerfully, and without stint,
His life he sacrifices, uprooting pain, and bringing bliss
unspeakable.
Surely he will attain the height of truth and beauty,
Forever be freed from the entanglement of birth and death.
And erelong will he the fruit of enlightenment obtain,
Eternally peaceful, and in the Uncreate joy finding.

398 APPENDIX.
A VOW OF THE BODHISATTVA. 23
For the sake of all sentient beings on, earth,
I aspire for the abode of enlightenment which is most high ;
In all-embracing love awakened, and with a heart steadily
firm,
Even my life I will sacrifice, dear as it is.
In enlightenment no sorrows are found, no burning desires ;
'Tis enjoyed by all men who are wise.
All sentient creatures from the turbulent waters of the
triple world,
I'll release, and to eternal pease them I'll lead.

THE TRUE HOMELESS ONE. 24
Though not wearing the yellow robe,
Whose heart is free from defilement,
In the doctrine of Buddhas,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not devoid of showy ornaments,
Who has cut off all entanglements,
And in whose heart exists neither knottiness nor looseness,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not initiated by the Rules,
Whose heart is clean of all evil thoughts,
And open only to tranquillity, intelligence, and virtuous
deeds,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not instructed in the Law,
Whose insight goes deep into the ultimate,
And is no more deluded by sham appearances,
He is the true homeless one.

APPENDIX. 399

The mind that takes no thought of the ego,
That goes beyond the illusory phenomena,
Yet sinks not into stupidity
Truly awakened to Intelligence it is.
Whose mind, awakened to Intelligence,
Sees no substantiality in the ego,
And, not seeing, yet remains firm,
This man cannot be injured.

THE BODHISATTVA'S SPIRITUAL LIFE.
Like unto the vast ocean that receives
All the waters, and yet overflows not ;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who knoweth no fatigue in seeking the merits of the
Dharma.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that absorbs
All the streams, and yet shows no increase;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, receiving the deepest Dharma, nothing gaineth. '
Again, like unto the vast ocean that refuses to take filth,
And wherein when absorbed doth foulness change to purity;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whom all the filth of passion cannot tarnish.
Again, like unto the vast ocean whose bottom is unfath
omable ;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whose virtues and wisdom are so immeasurable
That none ever knows their limits.

400 APPENDIX
Again, like unto the vast ocean in which there's no diversity,
All the waters and streams pouring thereinto become of
one taste alone;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who listeneth to one note of Dharma.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that existeth not
For the interests of one individual ;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whose aspirations are for the benefit of all.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that embosoms the jewel
called "all-jewel."
Of which all jewels are produced;
Even so is the jewel-treasure of the Bodhisattva,
For it is through this that all the other jewels shine.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that produces the three
kinds of jewel,
And yet discriminates not between them ;
Even so is the teaching of the Bodhisattva,
Who, equally delivering the three yanas, maketh not any
distinction.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that by degrees becomes
deeper;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, practising virtues for the sake of all,
Forever aspireth after the deepest omniscience.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that harbors not a corpse ;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, with the heart of purity and the vow of Bodhi,
Harboreth not a passion, nor the thought of the Cravaka.

APPENDIX. 401
THE BODHISATTVA'S FAITH. (1) 27
Perceiving all in one,
And one in all,
The Bodhisattva diligent in his work
Is never given up to indolence.
Pain he shunneth not, to pleasure he clingeth not,
As he is ever bent on the deliverance of all beings;
To him all Buddhas will themselves reveal,
And of their presence he is never weary.
He is in the deepest depths 0f the Dharma,
Where is found the inexhaustible ocean of merit.
All sentient beings in the fivefold path of existence,
He loveth as his own child;
Removing things unclean and filthy,
Supplying them with dharmas pure and immaculate.

THE BODHISATTVA'S FAITH. (2) 28
While to the doctrine most high listening,
The Light of Pure Intelligence within me glows,
That shining over all the universe
All the enlightened ones to me reveals.
Who think there are individuals
They put themselves in the position most difficult;
Dharmas have no ego-master which is real,
For they are merely names and expressions.
The vulgar and ignorant know not
That within themselves they have a reality true and real,
That the Tathagata is not of any particular form;
Therefore the Tathagata they see not. 26

402 APPENDIX.
Dirt and dust obscuring their intelligence-eye,
Enlightenment perfect and true they see not;
And throughout kalpas immeasurable and innumerable,
In the stream of birth and death they go arolling.
Wandering and rolling is Samsara,
No-more-arolling is Nirvana;
Yet Samsara and Nirvana,
Absolutely, exists neither of them.
To believer in falsehood and sophistry,
Samsara is here and Nirvana there ;
Clearly they grasp not the Dharma of ancient sages,
Nor understand the Path Incomparable.
Those who thus cling to forms individual,
Of Buddha's universal enlightenment, though they hear,
Themselves negate, and away they wander from the
right course of thought;
Therefore, they cannot see the Buddha.
Who the Dharma of Truth perceive,
Serene they are for aye, and abide in Suchness ;
Enlightenment most truthful they understand,
Transcending words and all the modes of speech.
Illusory are all forms individual ;
No such thing as dharma here exists:
No enlightened ones
Seek Truth in things particular.
Whose insight to the past extends,
To the future and over the present,
And who fore'er abides in serenity of Suchness,
He's said to be a Tathagata.

APPENDIX. 403
THE BODHISATTVA'S FAITH. (3) 29
I would rather suffer sufferings innumerable
That I might listen to the voices of Buddhas,
Than enjoy all sorts of pleasure
And not hear Buddhas' names.
The reason why since ages out of mind
We suffer sufferings countless
And transmigrate through birth and death,
Is that we have not heard Buddhas' names
A reality that exists in things unreal,
A perfect Intellect synthetising truth and falsehood,
And that which transcends all the modes of relativity,
This is called the Bodhi.
Buddhas of the present are not products of composite
conditions,
Nor are those of the past, nor those of the future.
What is formless in all forms,
That is the true essence of Buddhas.
Who thus perceives
The deepest significance of all existences,
In innumerable Buddhas, he will see
The truth and reality of the Dharma-body.
The Dharma-body knows truth as true,
And falsehood as false,
And well understands the realm of reality;
Therefore, it is called perfect intellect.
The enlightened has nothing enlightened,
Which is the true spirituality of all Buddhas:
And in this wise they behave,
Neither to be one nor to be two.

4O4 APPENDIX.
They see the one in the many,
They see the many in the one
The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;
How could it be a product of combination?
The actor and the action,
Neither really subsists :
Who can understand this,
Seeks not reality in either of them.
And here where reality is unseekable,
Buddhas find there the resting abode
The Dharma has nothing to depend upon ;
And the enlightened have nothing to cling to.

NOTES
TO THE APPENDIX

1 This and the following are translations from some Maha
yana texts in the Buddhist Tripitaka, which were rendered
into the Chinese language at various times from Sanskrit
mostly through the co-operation of the Hindu missionaries
and Chinese scholars. A detailed analysis of these texts is
most urgently needed, as they contain many informations of
great importance not only concerning the history of Buddhism
in India but also concerning early Hindu culture generally.
A rather incomplete idea as to their contents and material and
general character will be attained by the perusal of Rev.
Nanjo's Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, Oxford, 1883.
Mahdyana-mulajdta-hrdayabhumi-dhydna Siitra, (Nanjo, no.
955.) fas- i»-
2 The Avatamsaka, fas. xiv., p. 73.
* The Avatamsaka, (Buddhabhadra's translation), fas. xiv, p. 72.
4 To conceive the Tathagata as a personal being who appear
ed on earth for a certain limited time and then eternally dis
appeared is not Mahayanistic. He reveals himself constantly
and of his own will in this world of particulars.
5 Sarvadharma-pravrtti-nirdefa Sutra (Nanjo, no. 1012)
6 Mahdydna-mulajata-hrdavabhumi-dhyana Sutra (Nanjo 955),
fas. iii, p. 75.
1 The three rings are: 1. the giver, 2. the receiver, and 3.
the thing given, material or immaterial.
8 Precepts. The three sets are: 1. one relating to good behavior,
2. to the accumulation of merit, and 3. to lovingkindness toward
all beings.

406 NOTES.
9 The mental (subjective), physical (objective), and oral.
10 The intellectual and the affective.
11 Sarvadharma-pravrtti-nirdefa Sutra.
12 Literally, "when greed is neither born nor dead." This
means, to live in the world as not living in it. This subjective
divine innocence is thought by Buddhists the essence of
the religious life. The consciousness of one's worth, or self-
conceit, is a great obstacle in the path of perfect virtue.
As in the case of mechanical work or physical exercise, we
attain perfect skillfulness only when the work is involuntarily
done, i.e., without any conscious effort on the part of the
performer; so in our moral and spiritual life we attain the
height of virtuousness or saintliness when we identify our
selves with the reason of our being. This is Laotze's doctrine
of non-action or non-resistance, and also the teaching of
the Bhagavadgita. As remarked elsewhere, when a man
reaches this stage of religious life, he ceases to be human,
but divine, in the sense that he transcends the world of good
and evil and eternally abides in the realm of the beautiful.
"This is a very radical statement and is enough to frighten'
timid moralists and "God-fearing" pietists. Therefore, it is
said that "Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither
cast ye your pearls before swine." But think not that this
is expounding antinomianism.
14 This and all the following are taken from the Kdsyapa-
Parivarta (Nonjo, 805).
16 This gatha may not be very intelligible to our readers.
The sense is : Whatever is done by a Buddha or Bodhisattva
does not come from logical calculation or deliberate premedi
tation, but immediately from his inmost heart, which, in
most natural and freest manner, responds to the needs of
the suffering. This response is altogether free from all human
elaboration, for the Buddha shows no painful and struggling
efforts in so doing. Everything he does is like the work of
nature herself. His life is above the narrow sphere of human
morality which is marked with a desperate struggle between
good and evil. His is in the realm of the divinely beautiful.

NOTES . 407
10 "Having no selfhood" (svabhava), means that things have
no independent existence, no self-nature which will eternally
preserve their thingish identity. This theory has been ex
plained in the chapter dealing with the doctrine of non-atman.
To state summarily, darkness and light are conditioned by
each other; apart from darkness there is no light, and con
versely, without light darkness has no meaning. Even so with
enlightenment and ignorance: one independent of the other,
they have no existence, they cannot be conceived. They are
like imaginary flowers in the air projected there by a confused
subjectivity. They are nothing but our ideal fabrication. To
cling to God only, forgetting that we are living in the world
below, in the world of relativity, is just as much one-sided
as to lose ourselves in the whirlpool of earthly pleasures
without the thought of God. Life, however, is not antithetic,
but synthetic. Truth is never one-sided, it is always in the
middle. Therefore, seek enlightenment in ignorance and truth
in error. A dualistic interpretation of the world and life is
not approved by Buddhists. Compare the sentiment expressed
herein with Emerson's poem as elsewhere quoted, in which
these lines occur:
"But in the mud and scum of things,
There always, always, something sings."
17 The Kdsyapaharivarta Sutra (Nonjo, 805.)
18 The sense is: The Bodhisattva never desires a complete
absorption in the Absolute, in which no individual existences
are distinguishable. He always leaves the "Will to live"
unhurt, as it were, so that he could come in this world of
particulars ever and anon. What he has destroyed is the
egoistic assertion of the Will, for the aim of Buddhism is
not to remove the eternal principle of life, but to manifest
it in its true significance. The wishes of the Bodhisattva,
therefore, are never egocentric ; he knows that transmigration
and rebirth are painful, but as it is by rebirth alone that he
could mingle himself in the world of sin and save the suffering
creatures therein, he never shuns the misery of life. His
work of revelation is constant and eternal.
19 The Mahdy&na-mulajdti-hrdayabhumi-dhydna Sutra, fas. IV-

408 NOTES
20 The two prejudices or obstacles that lie in our way to
enlightenment are: i that which arises from intellectual
shortsightedness; 2. that which arises from impurity of heart.
a' Sutra on Mahdkdsyapa's Question Concerning the Absolute.
22 Suvarna- Prabhd SUtra.
23 Suvarna- Prabhd Sutra, Chap. 26
24 Padmapani Sutra, Fas. 8.
25 The Avatamsaka Sutru.
28 This means that the heart of the Bodhisattva which is
pure and eternal in its essential nature has nothing added
externally to it by studying the Dharma; for the Dharma is
nothing else than the expression of his own heart.
27 The Avatamsaka, fas. IX, p. 48. This pantheistic thought
of the One-All is generally considered to be Buddhistic; but
the truth is that every genuine religious sentiment inevitably
leads us to this final conviction. Even in the so-called trans
cendental monotheistic Christianity, we find the pantheistic
thought boldly proclaimed and put in contrast to the idea
of "our Father which art in Heaven." For instance, read the
following passage from Thomas a Kempis: "He to whom all
things are one, he who reduceth all things to one, and seeth
all things in one, may enjoy a quiet mind, and remain at
peace in God." (Chap. III.) The passage in the Gospel of
John declaring that "the Father is in me and I in him," when
logically carried out, comes to echo the same sentiment
entertained by Buddhists, who recognise a manifestation of
the Dharmakaya in all beings, animate as well as inanimate.
The Christianity of to-day is that of Paul as expounded in
his letters, but the future one will advance a few steps more
and will be that of John.
28 From the Avatamsaka Sutra.
29 From the Avatamsaka Sutra.

INDEX.

Abhimuki (sixth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 318.
Acaia (eighth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 322.
Acoka, King, 49.
Acrava (evil), explained, 249 ft.
Acfinya, 22, 95.
Acvaghosha, 4, 8, 61 ft., 65 ft., in, 115; on Alaya, 66 ft.
129, 139 ft. ; Awakening of Faith, 7 ; on Suchness, 99;
on Ignorance, 118; and Dionysius, 102ft.; Buddhacarita,
quoted, 147; on Mahayanism, 246; on the Sambhogakaya,
258, 333- •
Agnosticism, 25.
Alaya (or Alaya-vijfiana), All-conserving Soul, 66 ; as depos
itory of "germs", 66 ; creator of the universe, 68 ; and
the Garbha, 125 et seq. ; its evolution, 128 ; and the
soul, 165 ; and the twelve nidanas, 183.
Amitabha, 207, 219, 269
Ananartha (non-particularisation), 72.
Ananda attempts to locate the soul, 157.
Anapanam, exercise in breathing, 53 ft.
Arada, 146.
Arcismati (fourth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 316.
Arhatship and Mahayanism, 288.
Aryadeva, 3 ft., 8, 60.
Asanga (and Vasubandhu), 4, 62, 65, 69, 87, 88, 153, 231,
234, 263, 354-

410 INDEX.
Asceticism repudiated, 52, 53.
Atman, and Samkhyan Lingham, 38 ; and the Vedantic carira,
38 ; and Vijnana, 39 ; and unity of consciousness,
40 ; and karma, 41 ; and impermanency, 43 ; and egoism,
44; and the "old man", 165. (See also "ego" and "soul".)
Atonement, vicarious, 291 ft.
Avatamsaka Sutra, The, on Bodhisattva's reflections, 369
et seq.
Avenikas (unique features), 327 ft.
Avidya (ignorance), 35 et seq., 115.
Balas, the ten, of the Buddha, 327.
Beal, Samuel, refuted, 20 et seq. Catena of Buddhist
Scriptures, quoted, 157 ft; Romantic History of Buddha,
quoted, on Buddha's enlightenment, 337.
Bhagavadgita, quoted, 126 ft.
Bhutatathata (Suchness), 99 et seq ; and Mahayana, 7 ; and
perfect knowledge, 92.
Bodhi (wisdom), 46 ; and Prajna etc., defined, 82 ft. ; as
perfect knowledge, 92 ; its meaning explained, 204 ; by
Nagarjuna, 297 ; as a reflex of Dharmakaya, 299 ; how
awakened in human heart, 302.
Bodhicitta (Intelligence-heart), 52. (See also "Bodhi.'')
Bodhi-Dharma, of Dhyana sect, 103, 149, 155.
Bodhipakshikas, the seven, 316 et seq.
Bodhisattva, above samsara and nirvana, 72 ; in the three
yanas, 277 ; the conception of, in primitive Buddhism,
286 ; we are, 290 ; and love, 292 ; his ten pranidhanas,
308 ; his reflections, 369.
Bodhisattvahood, ten stages of, 70, 311 et seq.
Bodhisattva-yana, 9.
Brahdaranyaka Upanishad, quoted, 102 ft.

INDEX. 411
Buddha, and his self-relying spirit, 57; culmination of good
karma, 215; in the Mahayana texts, 243; the idealisation
of, historically treated, 249 et seq.; in the Trikaya, 252;
the human, and the spiritual Dharmakaya, 255 ; his 32
major and 80 minor marks of greatness, 271 ; in the
process of idealisation, 289 ; in the Mahayanism, 291 ;
and Mara, 334; on the ego-soul in the beginning of his
religious career, 337.
Buddhacarita, quoted, 57.
Buddhadharma, 355.
Buddha- Essence, Discourse on, 357 ft.
Buddha-intelligence, 364.
Buddhism(s), geographically divided, 3, 4 ; two, 4 et seq. ;
and atheism, 3 1 ; and the soul problem, 3 1 et seq. ; and
agnosticism, 35 ; and modern psychology, 40; intellectual,
56 et seq. ; liberal, 56 et seq. ; and speculation, 81 et
seq. ; and science, 97.
Buddhist(s) classified, 8 et seq. ; life and love, 52 ; ideal,
53 ; aspiration, 368 ; rule of conduct, 368.
Cakyamuni contrasted to Devadatta, 200.
Carlyle's Hero-Worship, quoted, 325 ft.
Causation, universal, and emptiness, 176.
Christ and Buddha, compared, 57, 58
Christian conception of the ego-soul, 166.
Christianity, the growth of, compared with Mahayanism,
12 et seq. ; and its founder, 13 ; not intellectual, 79.
Cikshas (moral rules), ten, 70 ft.
Confucius, 63 ft.
Consciousness, subliminal, 201.
Conservation of energy, and karma, 34.
Convictions, the four, of the Buddha, 327.

412 INDEX.
Cravaka, 277.
Cravaka-yana, 9.
Crimdla SUtra, quoted, 127.
Cunyata, (or cunya), 22, 95 ; and Christian critics, 105 ;
explained, 173; and universal causation, 176.
Dagabhumi, (see "ten stages of Bodhisattvahood"), 311,329.
Deussen, P., quoted, 107.
Devala, 361, 364.
Dharma, its meaning, 21, 221.
Dharmadhatu, 115 ft, 193.
Dharmakaya, Mahayana, 7 ; briefly explained, 20, 45 et
seq. ; the highest principle, 35 ; and Brahman, 46 ; and
Paramatman, 46 ; and God of Christians, 46 ; as love
and wisdom, 46, 54, 55 \ and non-ego, 47 ; and the Gol
den Rule, 48 ; and Bodhisattvas, 61 ; its universal incar
nation, 63 ft. ; in the Trikaya, 73, 257; as perfect know
ledge, 92; and prajna, 94; as a cosmic mind, 123 ; a
unity, 193; and Suchness, 217; as God, 219; as religious
object, 222 ; in the Avatamsaka Sutra, 223 ; its detailed
characterisation, 224; in the phenomenal world, 231 ; as
love, 232 ; as a loving heart in the Avatamsaka, 233 ;
its seven characteristics, 234 ; by Asanga and Vasubandhu,
234; its five modes of operation, 235; its freedom, 236;
its purvanidhanabala, 237 ; as rational will, 238 ; as father,
239; and its perpetual revelation, 259; the evolution of
its conception, 272 ; all beings are one in, 290 ; and the
Bodhi, 295.
Dharmapada, The, quoted, 34, 145, 336, 368.
Dharmamegha (tenth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 326.
Dharmapala, the Anagarika, 3 ft.
Discourse on Buddha-Essence, The, by Vasubandhu, 357.
Durangama (seventh stage of Bodhisattvahood), 319.

INDEX. 413
Ego, not the source of energy, 55 ; noumenal, 145, 163 ;
phenomenal, 145 ; empirical, 163.
Egoism and the evolution of Manas, 134.
Ego-soul, and its attributes, 147 ; and the five skandhas,
149; located by Ananda, 157; and the Christian flesh,
166 ; and the Vedantic conception, 167 et seq. ; and
Nagarjuna, 168; and svabhava, 171 ; and Christians, 212;
as conceived by Buddha when he started on his religious
career, 337. (See also "Ego", "atman" and "soul").
Ekacitta, (one mind or thought), 70 ft.
Elders, the School of, 248 et seq.
Elephant and the blind, 100.
Emerson, quoted, 29.
Enlightenment, 55, 119; and manas, 134; two obstacles to,
344 ft-
Faith, its contents vary, 27 et seq.
Fatalism, 196.
Gautama and Christ, 29. (See also "Buddha").
God, the Buddhist, 219. (See also "Dharmakaya").
Goethe's Faust, quoted, 181.
Golden Rule, the, universal, 54.
Great Council School, the, 248 et seq.
Guyau, French sociologist, 50 ft., 84.
Hartmann's Unbewusste, 137.
Hetus and Pratyayas, 33, 41, 142, 148.
Hinayanism, 1, 60, 63, 280.
Hugo, Victor, quoted, 58.
Hui-K'e, second patriarch of Zen sect, 148,

414 INDEX.
Iccantika (incapable of salvation), 311.
Ignorance, 35 et seq.; and evolution, 115; and conscious
ness, 120; no evil, 122; when evil ? 124; and Tathagata-
Garbha, 126; and Manas, 133; and Prakrit, 138 ft.
Imitation of Christ, 365 fn.
Immortality, 38 ; and Dharmakaya, 54 ; karmaic and not
individual, 214.
Injustice, social, and karma, 186
Intelligence, awakened by love, 362.
jfdtaka Tales, the, quoted, 156.
Jesus, 6.
Jivatman, 145,
Kant, 6 ; Critique of Pure Reason., quoted, 324.
Karma, and the law of causation, 33 ; briefly explained,
33 et seq. ; and non-atman, 42 ; and suchness, 181 ; de
fined, 181 ; the working of, 183; irrefragable, 184; and
injustice, 186; and the moral laws, 189; an individualistic
view, 192 ; and the desire to communicate, 195 ; and
determinism, 196 ; not like a machine, 198 ; and immor
tality, 203 ; and Walt Whitman (quoted), 203 ; how trans
mitted, 205 ; and Dharmakaya, 207 ; and productions of
art, 208 ; and invention, 210 ; and "seeds of activity,"
212.
Karma-seeds, 134.
Karuna (love), 46, 82, 238, 296; and Prajfia, 360.
Kathopanishad, quoted, 47.
Knowledge (sambodhi), 3 ft. ; three kinds of, 67, 87.
Kugalamula, 199.
Lalita Vistara, quoted, on Nirvana, 339 fn.

INDEX. 4l5
Lankavatara Sutra, quoted, 41, 130.
Laotze, 63 ft.
Laotzean Wu wei, 285.
Love, and ego, 55 ; and Nirvana, 362.
Madhyamika, The, on Nirvana, 347.
Madhyamika school, 21, 62, 66 ; and the Yogacarya, on
truth, 95.
Makdpurusa, Discourse on the, 361.
Mahasangika, 1 ft.
Mahayana, 1 et seq ; its original meaning, 7 ; and Bodhisat
tvas, 61 ; and Hinayana, 70 ; and spiritual life, 71 ; and
Samkhya, 136.
Mahayana- Abhisamay a Sutra, quoted, 45.
Mahdydna-Sangraha Cdstra, 354.
Mahayanism, (Mahayana Buddhism), defined, 10 et seq. ; is
it genuine? n et seq.; as a living faith, 14 et seq.;
and its Christian critics, 1 5 ; misunderstood, 16 et seq. ;
historically treated, 60 et seq. ; and Sthiramati, 61 et seq. ;
its seven features, 62 et seq. ; and metempsychosis, 64 i
ten essential features, 65 et seq.; in its two phases, 76
et seq.; no nihilism, 135 ft.; the development of, 247;
and individualism, 282.
Maitreya, 272.
Manas (self-consciousness). 132.
Manjucri, 106.
Manovijfiana (ego-consciousness), 67, 69,
Masashige, Kusunoki, 213,
Maudsley, H., quoted, 80.
Max Mueller, quoted, 108 ft, in ft,, 221.
Maya, subjective ignorance, 47.
Merits, the accumulation of, 199.

4l6 INDEX.
Middle path, Doctrine of the, 59, 358; of Eight No's, 103.
Milinda-Panha, quoted, 203.
Mitra, Rajendra, referred to, 329 ft.
Monier Monier-Williams, refuted, 18 et seq.
Nagarjuna, 3 ft, 4, 8, 21, 60, 66, 95, 96, ioo, 103, 168,
171, 173, 292, 297, 353.
Nagasena and King Milinda, 153.
''Na iti," 102.
Nanatva, (difference), 72 ft.
Nidanas, the twelve, 36 et seq., 179, 182.
Nirmanakaya, (Body of Transformation), 73, 257, 268.
Nirvana, 19 ; and its non-Buddhist critics, 49 ; briefly ex
plained, 4g et seq. ; and the surrender of ego, 5° ! and
Dharmakaya, 51; and love, 51, 58; and pessimism, 52;
and ethics, 53; and Parinishpanna (knowledge), 94; what
is, 331 et seq.; not nihilistic, 332; Mahayanistic, 341;
and Dharmakaya, 342 ; the Mahayanistic conception of,
342 et seq. ; absolute, 343 ; four forms of, 343 ; upadhigesa,
344 ; Anupadhigesa, 344 , that has no abode, 345 ; and
1 Cor. 7, 30 — 31, 346; as synonym of Dharmakaya, 346
by Chandra Kirti, 347 ; its four attributes, 348 ; its religi
ous phase, 349 ; and Emerson, 352 ; and samsara are
one, 352 ; and St. Paul, 352 ; and the Eight No's of
Nagarjuna, 358 ; the realisation of, 360 ; as the Middle
Path, 362 ; comprehensively treated, 367 et seq.
Non-atman, 37 et seq.; in things, 41 et seq, 170; and
impermanence of things, 141, (see also "non-ego", "self,
"soul", "ego").
Non-duality, the Dharma of, 106.
Non-ego and Dharmakaya, 47 ; and the Ganges water,
156.

INDEX.. 417

No's, The Eight, of Nagarjuna, 358.
"Old man" and Atman, 165.

Paramartha-satya (absolute truth), 91 et seq.
Paramatman, 145.
Paramita, 3 ft. ; six, 68 ; ten, 321.
Paratantra (relative knowledge), 67 ; explained, 89,
Parikalpita (illusion), 67 ; explained, 88.
Parinishpanna (perfect knowledge), 67 ; explained, 91.
Parivarta, (turning over), 19, ig4; doctrine of, 283.
Paul, Apostle, quoted, 48, 166, 260, 262.
Pingalaka, Nagarjuna's commentator, quoted, 172.
Prabhakari (third stage of Bodhisattvahood), 315.
Prajna (and Bodhi), defined, 62 ft.; 82, g7, ng, 238, 360.
Prakrti (Samkyan primordial matter), 67 ft.
Pramudita (first stage of Bodhisattvahood), 313.
Pranidhana, a Bodhisattva's, 307.
Pratisamvids, the four, 325.
Pratyayasamutpada, (Nidanas), 36 et seq.
Pratyekabuddha, 278.
Pratyekabuddha-yana, 9.
Precepts, the ten moral, 70 ft.
Pudgala (ego), 42, 143 ft.
Punyaskandha, 199.
Pure Lands, 269.
Purusha (Samkyan soul), 67 ft.
Purvanidhanabala, 237.
Religion, its significance, 22 et seq.; not revealed, 23 ; and
mystery, 24 ; its intellectual and emotional sides, 25 et
seq. ; and science, 26 ; intellect and feeling in, 77 ; and

41 8 INDEX.
philosophy, 78 ; subjective, 81 et seq. ; not a philoso
phical system, 85.
Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, quoted, on Nirvana, 338 fn.
Saddharma Pundarika, quoted, 260 ft, 274, 277.
Sadhumati, (ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 325.
Samata (sameness), 72 ft.
Sambodhi, (see "Bodhi'').
Sambhogakaya (Body of Bliss), 65 ft., 73, 257 ; in Agva-
ghosha, 258; its six features, 264; a mere subjective
existence, 266.
Samkhya philosophy, and Yogacarya school, 67 ft ; referred
to, 146 ft. ; on Nirvana, 340.
Samvrtti-satya (conditional truth), 95 et seq.
Samyukta Nikaya, quoted, 156, 185.
Sanskaras, enumerated, 151 et seq.
Schopenhauer, 181.
Skandhas, the five, 32 ft., 149.
Soul-substance, denied, 164.
Sthavira, 1 ft.
Sthiramati, on Mahayanism, 61 et seq. ; on Bodhicitta, 299.
Suchness, (see also Bhutatathata), 3 ; the first principle of
Buddhism, gg et seq. ; indefinable, 101 ; conditioned,
109; in history, no; in the world, 113 ; and the Bodhi,
114; and ignorance, 117; in its various modes, 125; and
Dharmakaya, 127; and karma, 181.
Sudurjaya, (fifth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 318.
Sukhavati sect, the, 4, 240.
Sumedha, the story of, 280.
Surangama Sutra, quoted, 157.
Suvarna Prabha Sutra, 253 ft.
Svabhava, and non-ego, 170 et seq.; and emptiness, 175.

INDEX. 419
"Tat tvam asi," 47, 136 ft.
Tathagata-Garbha, 125, 145.
Teleology, 86.
Tennyson, quoted, 82.
Tirthakas, 8.
Tolstoi, quoted, in connection with karma, 207 ft.
Trikaya, (trinity), 73, 242, 256, 275.
Truth (satya), conditional and transcendental, 95.
Uddna, quoted, 52, 339 ft., 341.
Universe, a mind, 122.
Upaya (expediency), 64, 261 ft. ; its meaning explained,
298 ft
Upayajna, 320.
Vaigaradyas (convictions), the four, 327 ft.
VairoCana, 219.
Vasubandhu, 87, 153; his Abhidharmakoga , referred to,
37 ; on Mahayana, 66 ; On the Completion of Karma,
quoted, 194 ; The Distinguishing of the Mean, quoted,
195 ; on ISodhicitta, 303 ; on Nirvana, 357, 359, 360,
Vasumitra, on Various Schools of Buddhism, I ft.
Vedanta philosophy, and the Mahayanism, 108 ft.; on Nir
vana, 340 ; on Atman, 144.
Vicesacinta-brahma-Pariprccha Sutra, 353.
Victory, the hymn of, 336.
Vijnana, and atman, 39.
Vijnanamatra, (nothing but ideas), 70.
Vijndnamdtra fdstra, 265 ft., 343.
Vimala (second stage of Bodhisattvahood), 315.
Vimalakirti, 106, 350, 366.
Visuddhi Magga, quoted, 339, 34^ ft

420 INDEX.
Waddell, refuted, 21 et seq.
Whitman, Walt, quoted, 155 ft, 197.
Wilson, Dr. G. R., quoted, 201.
Yoga philosophy, The, on Nirvana, 340.
Yogacarya school, 62, 65, 87, 92, 95.
Yogavasistha, a vedantic book, quoted, 167.

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