BUDDHA. BUDDHISM. 



. BU>I>IIISM. 



u.-... all iU consequences vanish with it, along with all mundane 

 things Mid eritUnoo which are only derived from thenoe. This 

 ieho.il likewise inculcates the doctrine which ii very current in India, 

 that the action* of a man during former existences determine hi* 

 destiny in the prevent life : " Although I had acquired a perfect hod;, 

 til! in thia body eren defect again appeared, because I had (till to 

 expiate a email portion of the auu of former birthi : to said Sakya 

 Sinha.* (Hodgson, L c. p. S04.) 



4. The Yatnika aebool hai directed iU attention to the name 

 problem a* the preceding, and propoee* to solve it in a similar manner. 

 The eauae of the creation of the world, ay ita fullowera, is Yatna, 

 that is, aa effort or a determined will on the part of the Creator. In 

 the same manner in the afiairs of thin world all difficulties are over- 

 come by Yatna; and aotbe attainment of that wisdom which procure* 

 the liberation of the amil from matter depend* on (Yatna) a conscious 

 intellectual effort. (Hodgson, L c. p. SOS.) 



Varioui ternu are in use to denote the state of final liberation of the 

 oiil, which ia by all these aecta proposed as the object to which man 

 should aspire ; but the expression, which Buddhas seem to be particularly 

 fond of employing, U Nirvana. Thin word is properly a passive par- 

 ticiple of the Sanskrit root rd, " to blow " (as the wind), with the pre- 

 position Hi'r, "out, away from," prefixed to it; and its primary 

 meaning U " blown out, extinct," as a caudle which is gone out, and 

 hence " departed, defunct ; " but the word is likewise used with the 

 preposition nir taken in a negative sense, and it then signifies " calm, 

 unruffled," or, employed as a substantive, " calmness, tranquillity ; " 

 whence is derived its use as a description of the happy state of imper- 

 turbable serenity and apathy at which the soul arrives on ita re-union 

 with the Divine Essence. 



The popular belief in Nepal attributes the superintendence of the 

 work of creation especially to Padmapftni, one of the five divine Bod- 

 hisattwas above alluded to. He is represented as having produced the 

 three Hindu deities Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and as having assigned 

 to them respectively the task of creation, preservation, and destruction. 

 It is Brahma therefore who, according to this account, created the 

 world. Another account conceives Manjusri to have been the appointed 

 architect of the world, while Padmapftni, by Adi-Buddha's special com- 

 mand, created all animate things. 



The cosmography of the Buddhists divides the entire universe into 

 four principal divisions. The first consists of thirteen Rodhisattwa- 

 bhuvanas, or mansions, created by Adi-Buddha, and including the 

 Agnishfha-bhuvana, his own eternal abode : devout followers of 

 Buddha will proceed to one of these mansions after death. Below 

 them is the second division, which consists of eighteen mansions, 

 called Hupyavachoro-bhuvanas, and created by Brahma ; farther down 

 u the third division, comprising the six KAmavachara-bhuvanas, 

 which are subject to Vishnu ; and below them are the three Bhuvanas 

 called Arnpyovnchara, superintended by Siva, and forming the fourth 

 division. Pious worshippers of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva will, after 

 death, proceed to these divisions respectively. (Hodgson, ' Transact. 

 Roy. Asiat Soc.' vol. ii. pp. 233, 234.) Below these Bhuvanas another 

 series of mansions begins, which belong to Indra, Surga (the sun), 

 Chandra (the moon), Agni. Vayu, Ac. Then follows the earth, with 

 its seven dwlpas or continents, separated by seven seas. Below the 

 earth is the " world of waters," on which the earth floats as a boat ; 

 and below the "world of waters" are the seven Patalas or infernal 

 regions, six of which are the abode of the Daityas or malignant spirits, 

 and the seventh, which is divided into eight compartments, is the hell 

 of sinners. 



Mr. I. J. Schmidt has translated an extract from a Mongol w..rk. 

 giving an account of the creation (' Seanang Ssetsen/ p. 302), according 

 to which, nonentity or empty space is the original state of everything 

 that exists. The creation of the world is in this account represented 

 aa proceeding from the " region of the second Dhyana " (or the self- 

 contemplation of the Deity), and as affected by the " region of th-- first 

 Dhyana " (or the divine will and agency ?), which comprises the abodes 

 of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. A wind arises in this region, which, by 

 blowing downwards, produces the abode of the superior order of xpiri- 

 tual beings ; and in the same manner a succession of abodes of spirits 

 gradually inferior is formed, till the winds reach the lowermost limbus 

 of empty space, and there produce a condensation of air which ' 

 the germ of the material world. All these regions or abodes, with tin 

 exception only of the " region of the second Dhyana," are subject 

 alternate production and dissolution. 



Along with many other mythological conceptions, the Bnddhas 

 I to have borrowed from the BrahmanH their doctrine of the four 

 I or periods of time into which a kalpa, or the duration of on. 

 mce of the world, is divided. These yugas they distinguish by 

 the gradual decreasing length of men's lives in them. In the first yuga 

 of the present kalpa, men lived 80,000 years ; in the second, 10,000 ; in 

 the third, 1000; and in the present fourth yuga, which is again ,-nl. 

 divided into four periods, the duration of men s lives will be succes- 

 sively diminUhed from 100 to seven years, and towards its tern: 

 the suture of men will only be the height of a thumb. (Hodgson, 

 Transact. Roy. As. Soc.' vol. ii. p. 288.) 



One of the essential diffenoe* of the Buddhists from the Broh- 

 nmioal Hindu, is the character which they attribute to their j.n ,| ,li. t- 

 or saints, and especially to the founder of their sect. Sakyasinlia, 



according to the uniform belief of all his followers, was not, like 

 Uma or Krishna, an avatara, or incarnation of the Deity, but a m. n .1 

 man, who by his sanctity and devotion attained the highest emit 

 and after his death proceeded at once to the final re-union with 

 Adi-Buddha. He had been preceded by six persona similar to him in 

 loUneas, whoae names were Vlpasya, Sikhi, Viswabhu, Kukuchhanda, 

 Kanchana (or Kanaka Muni), and Kasyapa : but nothing is told 

 Jie deeds of these mythological beings, and they are even enumerated 

 variously, the first three being sometimes omitted. Another saint of 

 Lhis description is expected to appear on earth when 6000 years shall 

 iave elapsed after the death of Sakyasinha. The appearance of the 

 latter was followed by a succession of Bodhisattwos, that is, mortals 

 born perfectly virtuous, whose souls are no longer subject to the neces- 

 sity of terrestrial existence, but who voluntarily descend to the earth in 

 order to promote the welfare of mankind. These Bodhisattwas have 

 gradually assumed the character of reappearances of Sakyasinha him- 

 wlf, in which capacity the line is continued till the present day in the 

 several Lamas of Tibet; for it is admitted that t! 

 the sage in more that one individual simultaneously involves no con- 

 tradiction. 



This dogma of a continued identity of person in the successive Lamas U 

 strikingly illustrated by a passage in a letter addressed in 1 774 by the 

 Lama of Teshoo Loomboo to the Governor-general in India, in which hr 

 applied for the grant of a small piece of ground near Calcutta, stating 

 as a motive for his request, " that although in the different periods of 

 bis reviviscence he had chosen many regions for the places of his birth, 

 yet Bengal was the only country in which he hod been born tw i 

 which reason he had a predilection for it beyond any other." (Turner's 

 ' Embassy to Tibet,' pref. p. xv.) 



The Buddhists reject entirely the authority of the Vedaa, and the 

 religious observances, sacrifices, and ceremonies which ore prescribed hi 

 them and kept by the Hindus. They have no distinction of here- 

 ditary castes. Their priests are chosen from all classes of men : they 

 are obliged to live in celibacy, but may resign their sacerdotal character, 

 if they desire it, and are then permitted to marry. In Ceylon three qrdera 

 of priests are distinguished : those of the highest order (who seem to be 

 the only true Buddha priests in the island) are usually men of high 

 birth and learning, and are supported at the principal temples called 

 viharos, most of which have been richly endowed with forms, &c. for 

 their maintenance by the former monorchs of the country. A trans- 

 lation of some highly interesting inscriptions in which grants of this 

 kind, and the conditions attached to them, are recorded, has been 

 given by Mr. O. Tumour hi the Ceylonese Almanac for 1884, p. 178, 

 Ac. All Buddha priests go bare-headed, and with their heads shaved ; 

 but to defend themselves from the sun they carry an umbrella made of 

 the leaf of the palmyra-tree, and Knox mentions that they are per- 

 mitted in Ceylon to wear this screen " with the brood end over their 

 heads foremost, which none but the king docs." In Ceylon they wear 

 a yellow Coat, gathered together about the waist and coming over 

 the shoulder, and girt about with a belt of fine packthread. In the 

 appendix to Syuies's Embassy to Ava there is an account of the cere- 

 monies used in the Binnan empire at the consecration of a Buddhist 

 priest. The candidate is reminded of four principal commandment*, 

 which require him to observe strict chastity, not to commit murder, 

 not to steal, and not to practise sorcery, or to disgrace the priestly 

 character by covetousness ; and he must promise that he will procure 

 his maintenance by perambulation and begging ; that he will wear a 

 particular kind of dress ; that he will dwell in houses of a certain 

 lion, and that he will endeavour to turn to some use things 

 thrown aside as useless by others, or to discover the medicinal powers 

 of 1'lanU not previously employed. Buddhist priests are not forbid. leu 

 the use of animal food, but they must not slaughter animals them- 

 selves. Convents for priests, as well as nunneries, exist in all coun- 

 tries where Buddhism has been introduced. Their processions and 

 their forms of religious worship .-ire described as being attended with 

 much pomp and splendour, and well calculated to impose upon the 

 multitude. The first Christian missionaries that proceeded to Tibet 

 were surprised to find there, in the heart of Asia, monasteries, pro- 

 cessions, festivals, a pontifical court, and several other ecclesiastical 

 institutions resembling those of the Roman Catholic church ; and 

 many were induced by these similarities to consider Lamaism as a sort 

 of degenerated Christianity. It should, however, bo remembered that 

 at the time when HuiMlii-m was introduced into Til>et, somewhere 

 about the middle of the 1 8th century, Nestorian Christians hod ecclesi- 

 astical settlements ill Tartary ; that Italian and French messengers 

 who visited the court of the Khans carried church ornaments and 

 altars with them, and celebrated their worship in the presence of the 

 Tartar princes; and that an Italian archbishop sent by Clement V. 

 established his nee at Karakorum, and erected a church in which divine 

 service was performed with all the ceremonies usual in Europe. It is 

 by no moans improbable that the llamas, whose court then began to 

 assume a splendid exterior, should have adopted some of the forms of 

 the Cath.'li.' service as they saw it celebrated by these foreigners, and 

 that imitation should thus have co-operated in producing a similar 

 mode in conducting the divine worship in two religions essentially 

 foreign to each other, and this belief is accepted by M. Hue in his 

 nirs d'uu Voyage dons la Tartarie, lo Thibet, et la Chine pendant 

 les annces 1844, 1846, et 1846,' Paris, 1860. 



