424 Buddhism and its Legends. 



of disproving the most preposterous assertions, and when the 

 world was prepared to accept teachers more from the vigour 

 of their egotistical assertions, than from the evidence they 

 might adduce. "We may suppose Sakya-Muni to have come 

 as a religious reformer, opposing certain growing and mis- 

 chievous errors of Brahminism, and their hateful doctrines of 

 caste; supplying a void in the popular faith, manifesting his 

 integrity by his self-denial, and propounding a philosophy 

 plausible enough for the vulgar, and subtle enough to exercise 

 the deepest minds. Miracles were, of course, not wanting, 

 in the belief of his disciples, to the attestation of his powers ; 

 but after several wonderful and supernatural escapes from 

 danger, he finished his career, at the age of eighty, by a most 

 unromantic attack of diarrhoea, brought on by eating pork. 



To despise forms, to avoid evil, to think kindly of enemies 

 by dwelling on their good qualities, and to put aside revenge 

 by reflecting that its object is only a lot of bones, a skin 

 covered with hair, and a mass of blood-vessels, and to meditate 

 on the perfection attainable by subduing desires, seem to have 

 been the chief teachings of Buddhism, as apprehended by the 

 mass of its early followers ; but for the more speculative due 

 provision was made. Gotama Buddha affirmed that a 

 sentient being depended upon, or was composed of, five 

 essentials, called Khandas : "1. Rupa, the organized body; 

 2. Wedana, sensation; 3. Sannya, perception ; 4. Sankhara, 

 discrimination; 5. Winyana, consciousness." Mr. Spence Hardy 

 remarks, ' c This system tells man that he is a heap, a collection, 

 an accumulation, an aggregation, a congeries, an increment, 

 and nothing more. To dev elope light, there is the lamp, the 

 wick, the oil, and the flame ; and to develope the man, there 

 must be an organized body, and the five Khandas. When the 

 flame is extinguished, the light ceases to be ; when the 

 Khandas are broken up, the man ceases to be ;" but this nega- 

 tive result is not accepted by all the followers of Sakya-Muni, 

 and is repudiated by the Llamas in Thibet. 



Through the operation of Upadana, or cleaving to existence, 

 a new being is produced at the dissolution of the old one, and 

 to this, the Karmma, or aggregate of all the actions and 

 responsibilities of the original being, is transferred. Mr. 

 Hardy gives the following very curious passage on the Buddhist 

 doctrine of continued existence : " On account of awijja, igno- 

 rance, sankharo, merit and demerit, are accumulated ; on 

 account of these accumulations, winyyanan, the conscious 

 faculty is produced ; in consequence of the faculty of conscious- 

 ness, namariipa, the sensitive powers, the perceptive powers, 

 the reasoning powers, and the body, are produced ; on account 

 of the namariipa, the body and sensitive faculties, the sadaya- 



