112 



BUDIIISM. 



ceed to examine the more prominent parts of its metaphy- 

 sics. The existence of a Creator of all things, and the dis- 

 penser to man of joy or sorrow, Budha expressly denies ; 

 affirming that the pains or pleasures experienced by intel- 

 ligent beings are not in any way the result of the power of 

 a Creator. He himself claims to be the supreme: he said 

 to Upako, an ascetic, who enquired who was his teacher 

 and whose doctrine he embraced, "I have no teacher : there 

 is no one who resembles me, In the worlds of the Grods I 

 have no equal. (30) I am the most noble in the world, being 

 the irrefutable teacher, the sole, all perfect Budha. " In the 

 Parajika section of the Winiya Pitaka, Brahmin Weranjo, 

 who accused him of not honoring aged Brahmins, of not 

 rising in their presence, and of not inviting them to be 

 seated, he replied, " Brahmin, I do not see any one in the 

 heavenly worlds nor in that of Maraya, nor among the in- 

 habitants of the Brahma worlds, nor among Grods or men, 

 whom it would be proper for me to honor, or in whose pre- 

 sence I ought to rise up, or whom I ought to request to be 

 seated. Should the Tatagato (i. e. Budha) thus act to- 

 wards any one, that person's head would fall off." And in 

 the Jataka Atuwawa it is stated, that from the lowest hell 

 to the highest Brahma world there is no equal nor superior 

 to Budha in wisdom, virtue, and knowledge. These as- 

 sumptions are altogether irreconcileable with the doctrine 

 of a universal Creator, who must necessarily be superior to 

 all the beings formed and supported by him. Budha was 



i)o2ftO>3(^©o8gcQ<K><^(33 ne me achariyo atthi sadiso me newijjati 

 sadewakasmin lokasmin natthi me patipuggalo — " I have no teacher, 

 there is no, one who resembles me; in the worlds of Gods and so 

 on I have no equal. " 



