BUDDHISM. 



necessitate being born again. Thus austerities were 

 prescribed to subdue the passions and affections, 

 and lessen the attachment to existence. Why such 

 social virtues as benevolence, meekness, truthful- 

 ness, respect to parents, should have been enjoined, 

 is not so apparent ; but probably they were con- 

 sidered as checks upon and counteractives to the 

 indulgence of selfish regards. The Buddha con- 

 sidered mankind as divided into two classes 

 those who have embraced the religious life, who 

 alone can hope to attain to Nirvana; and those 

 who continue in the world, and are too attached 

 to it to have any present prospect of emancipa- 

 tion from life. Certain of his precepts are in- 

 tended for both classes ; for the laity, as they may 

 be called, have at least to take care that their 

 next state shall be better, and not worse, than 

 their present Of the ten moral precepts, or 

 * precepts of aversion,' five are for both classes, 

 and are precepts the transgression of which tends 

 to misery in the next existence. These are not 

 to kill ; not to steal ; not to commit adultery ; not 

 to lie ; not to be drunken. The other five, intended 

 for the religious, or those who have entered upon 

 the pursuit of Nirvana, are to abstain from food 

 out of season that is, after mid-day ; to abstain 

 from dances, theatrical representations, songs, and 

 music ; to abstain from personal ornaments or 

 perfumes ; to abstain from a lofty and luxurious 

 couch ; to abstain from taking gold and silver. 

 For the regular ascetics or monks, Gautama insti- 

 tuted a number of special observances of a very 

 severe kind: They were to dress in rags sewn 

 together with their own hands, with a yellow 

 cloak thrown over them. They were to eat only 

 the simplest food, and to possess nothing except 

 what they got by collecting alms from door to 

 door in a wooden bowL They were allowed only 

 one meal, and that had to be eaten before mid-day. 

 For a part of the year they were to live in forests, 

 with no shelter except the shadow of a tree, and 

 there they were enjoined not to lie down even 

 during sleep. They were allowed to enter the 

 nearest village or town to beg food, but were to 

 return to the forest before night. Some of these 

 observances are complied with only in a formal or 

 symbolical way, which involves no unpleasantness, 

 in the Buddhist monasteries of the present time. 

 In the lifetime of Gautama, monasteries seem to 

 have been unknown. An investigation of the 

 early history of Buddhism appears to some to lead 

 to the conclusion that these austere practices 

 were the very nucleus of Buddhism ; that Sakya- 

 muni merely founded a brotherhood of extreme 

 asceticism ; and that the development which fitted 

 it to be the religion of a whole community, and 

 provided it with a body of doctrine, took place 

 .gradually, after the introduction of monasteries, 

 by the inevitable conflict of thought among the 

 inmates with one another, and with the religious 

 and philosophic systems around them. 



Certain virtues or perfections of a supereroga- 

 tory kind there are, which, according to the 

 Buddha's teaching, tend directly to 'conduct to 

 the other shore' (Nirvana). Such are alms-giving 

 or charity, purity, patience, courage, contempla- 

 tion, and knowledge. Charity, in the widest sense 

 of the word, may be said to be the characteristic 

 virtue of Buddhism, charity such as might spring 

 out of the history attributed to its founder, who, 

 -according to the belief of his followers, had before 



his enlightenment passed through every possible 

 state of life, from the lowest to the highest a 

 charity boundless in its self-abnegation, and ex- 

 tending to every sentient being. Among virtues 

 to which a secondary place is assigned, are the 

 | avoidance of all offensive and gross language, 

 ; and language tending to stir up strife between 

 I others ; patience under injury; resignation in mis- 

 fortune ; and humility. Humility holds as prom- 

 j inent a place among the Buddhist graces as it 

 ! does among the Christian. To enforce it, and no 

 doubt also, as a check upon future backsliding, 

 Sakya-muni instituted the practice of confession. 

 j Twice a month, at the new and at the full moon, 

 the monks confessed their faults aloud before the 

 assembly. Confession was exacted of all believers, 

 only not as frequently as of the monks. The edicts 

 i of Piyadesi recommended a general and public 

 1 confession at least once in five years. The prac- 

 tice of public confession would seem to have died 

 out in India by the 7th century, when Hiouen- 

 Thsang visited that country. 



As might be expected of a system which, with a 

 theory like that of Buddhism, makes the religious 

 life a profession, casuistry has been busy among 

 the Buddhists. The original morality of Buddhism 

 has, in the course of time, been disfigured by many 

 subtilties, puerilities, and extravagances ; just as 

 many of the precepts of Christianity were per- 

 verted by the casuistry of the Jesuits. But even 

 as thus degraded, the Buddhist moral teaching 

 is of a very high kind, superior to that of any 

 religion the world has seen, Christianity alone 

 excepted. 



We have seen that it is through an act of the 

 mind that the final stage towards Nirvana is 

 taken, that act consisting in the attainment of a 

 conviction of the illusory nature of all things. 

 As might be expected, therefore, contemplation 

 has a high rank among the Buddhist virtues, and 

 a prominent place among the means of attaining 

 to Nirvana. The process of meditation, and the 

 several stages through which it conducts the soul 

 to deliverance, have been laid down with great 

 minuteness. Though, of course, complete Nir- 

 vana, or extinction, cannot take place till death, 

 the state of preparation for it, called simple Nir- 

 vana, is attainable during life, and was, in fact, 

 attained by Gautama himself. The process by 

 which the state is attained is called Dhyana, and 

 is neither more nor less than ecstasy or trance, 

 which plays so prominent a part among mystics 

 of all religions. The individual is described as 

 losing one feeling after another, until perfect 

 apathy is attained, and he reaches a region ' where 

 there are neither ideas nor the idea of the absence 

 of ideas.' It is sitting cross-legged in the attitude 

 of contemplation, as he was when the secret of 

 Nirvana flashed upon his mind, that the Buddha 

 is almost always represented. 



The ritual or worship of Buddhism if worship 

 it can be called, is very simple in its character. 

 There are no priests, or clergy, properly so called. 

 The Srarnanas or Liikshus (mendicants) are simply 

 a religious order, a kind of monks, who, in order 

 to the more speedy arrival at Nirvana, have 

 entered on a course of greater sanctity and aus- 

 terity than ordinary men. They have no sacra- 

 ments to administer or rites to perform for the 

 people. Their only clerical function is to read 

 the scriptures or discourses of the Buddha ia 



