Commandments 57 



to Brahmanism that Christianity did to Judaism. It 

 was in fact a reaction against the exclusiveness and 

 formalism of Brahmanism — an attempt to render it 

 more catholic, and to throw off its intolerable burden 

 of ceremonies. Buddhism did not expressly abolish 

 caste, but only declared that all followers of the Buddha 

 who embraced the religious life were thereby released 

 from its restrictions ; in the bosom of a community who 

 had all equally renounced the world, high and low, the 

 twice-born Brahman and the outcast w T ere brethren. 

 This was the very way Christianity dealt with the 

 slavery of the ancient world. The opening of its ranks 

 to all classes and to both sexes — for women were 

 admitted to equal hopes and privileges with men, and 

 one of Gautama's early female disciples is to be the 

 supreme Buddha of a future cycle — no doubt gave 

 Buddhism one great advantage over Brahmanism." 1 



Commandments 



The commandments which Buddha laid down for 

 all men in order that they might not suffer greater 

 misery in subsequent reincarnations, were five. 



1. Do not kill. 



2. Do not steal. 



3. Do not commit adultery. 



4. Do not lie. 



5. Do not be drunken. 



On those entering the religious life in the pursuit of 

 Nirvana, he enjoined five more. 



1 Int. Cyc. vol. III. p. 157. 



