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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Buddhist Catechism, by Henry S. Olcott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Buddhist Catechism
+
+Author: Henry S. Olcott
+
+Release Date: October 30, 2009 [EBook #30216]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by U Hla Maung.  HTML and Unicode versions by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_Namō Tassā Bhagavatō Arahatō Sammā Sambuddhassa_
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+BUDDHIST CATECHISM
+
+
+BY
+
+HENRY S. OLCOTT
+
+
+PRESIDENT-FOUNDER OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
+
+
+
+_Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist schools by H. Sumangala,
+Pradhana Nayaka Sthavira, High Priest of Sripada and the Western
+Province and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena_
+
+
+
+FORTY-FOURTH EDITION. (Corrected)
+
+
+
+Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras
+
+
+LONDON AND BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
+
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+In token of respect and affection I dedicate to my counsellor and
+friend of many years, Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Pradhāna Nāyaka
+Sthavīra and High Priest of Adam's Peak (Sripada) and the Western
+Province, THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM, in its revised form.
+
+H. S. OLCOTT
+
+_Adyar_, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
+
+THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE
+
+THE SANGHA
+
+THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
+
+BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE
+
+APPENDIX--The Fourteen Propositions accepted by
+  the Northern and Southern Buddhists as a
+  Platform of Unity
+
+
+
+
+CERTIFICATE TO THE FIRST EDITION
+
+VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,
+
+_Colombo_, 7_th July_, 1881.
+
+I hereby certify that I have carefully examined the Sinhalese version
+of the Catechism prepared by Colonel H. S. Olcott, and that the same is
+in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church.  I
+recommend the work to teachers in Buddhist schools, mid to all others
+who may wish to impart information to beginners about the essential
+features of our religion.
+
+H. SUMANGALA,
+
+_High Priest of Sripada and Galle, and Principal of the Vidyodaya
+Parivena._
+
+
+
+
+VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,
+
+_April_ 7, 1897.
+
+I have gone over the thirty-third (English) edition of the Catechism,
+with the help of interpreters, and confirm my recommendation for its
+use in Buddhist schools.
+
+H. SUMANGALA.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE THIRTY-THIRD EDITION
+
+In the working out of my original plan, I have added more questions and
+answers in the text of each new English edition of the Catechism,
+leaving it to its translators to render them into whichever of the
+other vernaculars they may be working in.  The unpretending aim in view
+is to give so succinct and yet comprehensive a digest of Buddhistic
+history, ethics and philosophy as to enable beginners to understand and
+appreciate the noble ideal taught by the Buddha, and thus make it
+easier for them to follow out the Dharma in its details.  In the
+present edition a great many new questions and answers have been
+introduced, while the matter has been grouped within five categories,
+_viz._: (1) The Life of the Buddha; (2) the Doctrine; (3) the Sangha,
+or monastic order; (4) a brief history of Buddhism, its Councils and
+propaganda; (5) some reconciliation of Buddhism with science.  This, it
+is believed, will largely increase the value of the little book, and
+make it even more suitable for use in Buddhist schools, of which, in
+Ceylon, over one hundred have already been opened by the Sinhalese
+people under the general supervision of the Theosophical Society.  In
+preparing this edition I have received valuable help from some of my
+oldest and best qualified Sinhalese colleagues.  The original edition
+was gone over with me word by word, by that eminent scholar and
+bhikkhu, H. Sumangala, Pradhāna Nāyaka, and the Assistant
+Principal of his Pālī College at Colombo, Hyeyantuduve Anunayaka
+Terunnanse; and the High Priest has also kindly scrutinised the present
+revision and given me invaluable points to embody.  It has the merit,
+therefore, of being a fair presentation of the Buddhism of the
+"Southern Church," chiefly derived from first-hand sources.  The
+Catechism has been published in twenty languages, mainly by Buddhists,
+for Buddhists.
+
+H. S. O.
+
+ADYAR, 17_th May_, 1897.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE THIRTY-SIXTH EDITION
+
+The popularity of this little work seems undiminished, edition after
+edition being called for.  While the present one was in the press a
+second German edition, re-translated by the learned Dr. Erich Bischoff,
+was published at Leipzig, by the Griebens Co., and a third translation
+into French, by my old friend and colleague, Commandant D. A. Courmes,
+was being got ready at Paris.  A fresh version in Sinhalese is also
+preparing at Colombo.  It is very gratifying to a declared Buddhist
+like myself to read what so ripe a scholar as Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author
+of _Fragments of of a Faith Forgotten_, _Pistis Sophia_, and many other
+works on Christian origins, thinks of the value of the compilation.  He
+writes in the _Theosophical Review_: "It has been translated into no
+less than twenty different languages, and may be said without the
+faintest risk of contradiction, to have been the busiest instrument of
+Buddhist propaganda for many a day in the annals of that long somnolent
+dharma.  The least that learned Buddhists of Ceylon can do to repay the
+debt of gratitude they owe to Colonel Olcott and other members of the
+Theosophical Society who have worked for them, is to bestir themselves
+to throw some light on their own origins and doctrines."
+
+I am afraid we shall have to wait long for this help to come from the
+Buddhist bhikkhus, almost the only learned men of Ceylon; at least I
+have not been able during an intimate intercourse of twenty-two years,
+to arouse their zeal.  It has always seemed to me incongruous that an
+American, making no claims at all to scholarship, should be looked to
+by the Sinhalese to help them teach the dharma to their children; and
+as I believe I have said in an earlier edition, I only consented to
+write THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM after I had found that no bhikkhu would
+undertake it.  Whatever its demerits, I can at least say that the work
+contains the essence of some 15,000 pages of Buddhist teaching that I
+have read in connexion with my work.
+
+H. S. O.
+
+ADYAR, 7_th February_, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE FORTIETH EDITION
+
+The popularity of this little work is proved by the constant demand for
+new editions, in English and other languages.  In looking over the
+matter for the present edition, I have found very little to change or
+to add, for the work seems to present a very fair idea of the contents
+of Southern Buddhism; and, as my object is never to write an extended
+essay on the subject, I resist the temptation to wander off into
+amplifications of details which, however interesting to the student of
+comparative religion, are useless in a rational scheme of elementary
+instruction.
+
+The new Sinhalese version (38th edition) which is being prepared by my
+respected friend, D. B. Jayatilaka, Principal of Ānanda (Buddhist)
+College, Colombo, is partly printed, but cannot be completed until he
+is relieved of some of the pressure upon his time.  The Tamil version
+(41st edition) has been undertaken by the leaders of the Pañchama
+community of Madras, and will shortly issue from the press.  The
+Spanish version (39th edition) is in the hands of my friend, Señor
+Xifré, and the French one (37th edition) in those of Commandant Courmes.
+
+So the work goes on, and by this unpretending agency the teachings of
+the Buddha Dharma are being carried throughout the world.
+
+H. S. O.
+
+ADYAR, 7_th January_, 1905.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE FORTY-SECOND EDITION
+
+The writer of this Catechism has passed away from earth, but, before he
+left the body, he had arranged with the High Priest Sumangala to make
+some small corrections in the text.  These are incorporated in the
+present edition by the High Priest's wish, expressed to me in Colombo,
+in November 1907.
+
+I have not altered the numbering of the questions, as it might cause
+confusion in a class to change the numbers, if some pupils had the
+older editions and some the new.
+
+  ADYAR,                  )
+  17_th February_, 1908.  )             ANNIE BESANT
+
+
+
+
+THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM
+
+
+PART I
+
+THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
+
+1. Question.  _Of what religion[1] are you?_
+
+Answer.  The Buddhist.
+
+
+
+
+[1] The word "religion" is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism
+which is not a religion, but a moral philosophy, as I have shown later
+on.  But, by common usage the word has been applied to all groups of
+people who profess a special moral doctrine, and is so employed by
+statisticians.  The Sinhalese Buddhists have never yet had any
+conception of what Europeans imply in the etymological construction of
+the Latin root of this term.  In their creed there is no such thing as
+a "binding" in the Christian sense--a submission to or merging of self
+in a Divine Being.  _Āgama_ is their vernacular word to express
+their relation to Buddhism and the BUDDHA.  It is pure Samskrt, and
+means "approach, or coming"; and as "_Buddha_" is enlightenment, the
+compound word by which they indicate Buddhism--_Buddhāgama_--would
+be properly rendered as "an approach or coming to enlightenment," or
+possibly as a following of the Doctrine of SĀKYAMUNI.  The
+missionaries, finding _Āgama_ ready to their hand, adopted it as the
+equivalent for "religion"; and Christianity is written by them
+_Christianāgama_, whereas it should be _Christianibandhana_, for
+_bandhana_ is the etymological equivalent for "religion".  The name
+_Vibhajja vāda_--one who analyses--is another name given to a
+Buddhist, and Advayavādī is a third.  With this explanation, I
+continue to employ under protest the familiar word when speaking of
+Buddhistic philosophy, for the convenience of the ordinary reader.
+
+
+
+2.  Q.  _What is Buddhism?_
+
+A.  It is a body of teachings given out by the great personage known as
+the Buddha.
+
+3.  Q.  _Is "Buddhism" the best name for this teaching?_
+
+A.  No; that is only a western term: the best name for it is Bauddha
+Dharma.
+
+4.  Q.  _Would you call a person a Buddhist who had merely been born of
+Buddha parents?_
+
+A.  Certainly not.  A Buddhist is one who not only professes belief in
+the Buddha as the noblest of Teachers, in the Doctrine preached by Him,
+and in the Brotherhood of Arhats, but practises His precepts in daily
+life.
+
+5.  Q.  _What is a male lay Buddhist called?_
+
+A.  An Upāsaka.
+
+6.  Q.  _What a female?_
+
+A.  An Upāsika.
+
+7.  Q.  _When was this doctrine first preached?_
+
+A.  There is some disagreement as to the actual date, but according to
+the Sinhalese Scriptures it was in the year 2513 of the (present)
+Kali-Yuga.
+
+8.  Q.  _Give the important dates in the last birth of the Founder?_
+
+A.  He was born under the constellation Visā on a Tuesday in May, in
+the year 2478 (K.Y.); he retired to the jungle in the year 2506; became
+Buddha in 2513; and, passing out of the round of rebirths, entered
+Paranirvāna in the year 2558, aged eighty years.  Each of these
+events happened on a day of full moon, so all are conjointly celebrated
+in the great festival of the full-moon of the month Wesak
+(_Vaisākha_), corresponding to the month of May.
+
+9.  Q.  _Was the Buddha God?_
+
+A.  No.  Buddha Dharma teaches no "divine" incarnation.
+
+10.  Q.  _Was he a man?_
+
+A.  Yes; but the wisest, noblest and most holy being, who had developed
+himself in the course of countless births far beyond all other beings,
+the previous BUDDHAS alone excepted.
+
+11.  Q.  _Were there other Buddhas before him?_
+
+A.  Yes; as will be explained later on.
+
+12.  Q.  _Was Buddha his name?_
+
+A.  No.  It is the name of a condition or state of mind, of the mind
+after it has reached the culmination of development.
+
+13.  Q.  _What is its meaning?_
+
+A.  Enlightened; or, he who has the all-perfect wisdom.  The Pālī
+phrase is _Sabbannu_, the One of Boundless Knowledge.  In Samskrt it is
+_Sarvajña_.
+
+14.  Q.  _What was the Buddha's real name then?_
+
+A.  SIDDHĀRTHA was his royal name, and GAUTAMA, or GOTAMA, his
+family name.  He was Prince of Kapilavāstu and belonged to the
+illustrious family of the Okkāka, of the Solar race.
+
+15.  Q.  _Who were his father and mother?_
+
+A.  King Suddhodana and Queen Māyā, called Mahā Māyā.
+
+16.  Q.  _What people did this King reign over?_
+
+A.  The Sākyas; an Aryan tribe of Kshattriyas.
+
+17.  Q.  _Where was Kapilavāstu?_
+
+A.  In India, one hundred miles north-east of the City of Benares, and
+about forty miles from the Himalaya mountains.  It is situated in the
+Nepāl Terai.  The city is now in ruins.
+
+18.  Q.  _On what river?_
+
+A.  The Rohīnī, now called the Kohana.
+
+19.  Q.  _Tell me again when Prince Siddhārtha was born?_
+
+A.  Six hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era.
+
+20.  Q.  _Is the exact spot known?_
+
+A.  It is now identified beyond question.  An archaeologist in the
+service of the Government of India has discovered in the jungle of the
+Nepāl Terai a stone pillar erected by the mighty Buddhist sovereign,
+Asoka, to mark the very spot.  The place was known in those times as
+the Lumbinī Garden.
+
+21.  Q.  _Had the Prince luxuries and splendours like other Princes?_
+
+A.  He had; his father, the King, built him three magnificent
+palaces--for the three Indian seasons--the cold, the hot, and the
+rainy--of nine, five, and three stories respectively, and handsomely
+decorated.
+
+22.  Q.  _How were they situated?_
+
+A.  Around each palace were gardens of the most beautiful and fragrant
+flowers, with fountains of spouting water, the trees full of singing
+birds, and peacocks strutting over the ground.
+
+23.  Q.  _Was he living alone?_
+
+A.  No; in his sixteenth year he was married to the Princess
+Yasodharā, daughter of the King Suprabuddha.  Many beautiful
+maidens, skilled in dancing and music, were also in continual
+attendance to amuse him.
+
+24.  Q.  _How did he get his wife?_
+
+A.  In the ancient Kshattriya or warrior fashion, by overcoming all
+competitors in games and exercises of skill and prowess, and then
+selecting Yasodharā out of all the young princesses, whose fathers
+had brought them to the tournament or _mela_.
+
+25.  Q.  _How, amid all this luxury, could a Prince become all-wise?_
+
+A.  He had such natural wisdom that when but a child he seemed to
+understand all arts and sciences almost without study.  He had the best
+teachers, but they could teach him nothing that he did not seem to
+comprehend immediately.
+
+26.  Q.  _Did he become Buddha in his splendid palaces?_
+
+A.  No.  He left all and went alone into the jungle.
+
+27.  Q.  _Why did he do this?_
+
+A.  To discover the cause of our sufferings and the way to escape from
+them.
+
+28.  Q.  _Was it not selfishness that made him do this?_
+
+A.  No; it was boundless love for all beings that made him devote
+himself to their good.
+
+29.  Q.  _But how did he acquire this boundless love?_
+
+A.  Throughout numberless births and aeons of years he had been
+cultivating this love, with the unfaltering determination to become a
+Buddha.
+
+30.  Q.  _What did he this time relinquish?_
+
+A.  His beautiful palaces, his riches, luxuries and pleasures, his soft
+beds, fine dresses, rich food, and his kingdom; he even left his
+beloved wife and only son, Rāhula.
+
+31.  Q.  _Did any other man ever sacrifice so much for our sake?_
+
+A.  Not one in this present world-period: this is why Buddhists so love
+him, and why good Buddhists try to be like him.
+
+32.  Q.  _But have not many men given up all earthly blessings, and
+even life itself, for the sake of their fellow-men?_
+
+A.  Certainly.  But we believe that this surpassing unselfishness and
+love for humanity showed themselves in his renouncing the bliss of
+Nirvāna countless ages ago, when he was born as the Brāhmana
+Sumedha, in the time of Dīpānkara Buddha: he had then reached the
+stage where he might have entered Nirvāna, had he not loved mankind
+more than himself.  This renunciation implied his voluntarily enduring
+the miseries of earthly lives until he became Buddha, for the sake of
+teaching all beings the way to emancipation and to give rest to the
+world.
+
+33.  Q.  _How old was he when he went to the jungle?_
+
+A.  He was in his twenty-ninth year.
+
+34.  Q.  _What finally determined him to leave all that men usually
+love so much and go to the jungle?_
+
+A.  A _Deva_[1] appeared to him when driving out in his chariot, under
+four impressive forms, on four different occasions.
+
+35.  Q.  _What were these different forms?_
+
+A.  Those of a very old man broken down by age, of a sick man, of a
+decaying corpse, and of a dignified hermit.
+
+36.  Q.  _Did he alone see these?_
+
+A.  No, his attendant, Channa, also saw them.
+
+37.  Q.  _Why should these sights, so familiar to everybody, have
+caused him to go to the jungle?_
+
+A.  We often see such sights: he had not seen them, so they made a deep
+impression on his mind.
+
+38.  Q.  _Why had he not also seen them?_
+
+A.  The Brāhmana astrologers had foretold at his birth that he would
+one day resign his kingdom and, become a BUDDHA.  The King, his father,
+not wishing to lose an heir to his kingdom, had carefully prevented his
+seeing any sights that might suggest to him human misery and death.  No
+one was allowed even to speak of such things to the Prince.  He was
+almost like a prisoner in his lovely palaces and flower gardens.  They
+were surrounded by high walls, and inside everything was made as
+beautiful as possible, so that he might not wish to go and see the
+sorrow and distress that are in the world.
+
+39.  Q.  _Was he so kind-hearted that the King feared he might really
+wish to leave everything for the world's sake?_
+
+A.  Yes; he seems to have felt for all beings so strong a pity and love
+as that.
+
+40.  Q.  _And how did he expect to learn the cause of sorrow in the
+jungle?_
+
+A.  By removing far away from all that could prevent his thinking
+deeply of the causes of sorrow and the nature of man.
+
+41.  Q.  _How did he escape from the palace?_
+
+A.  One night, when all were asleep, he arose, took a last look at his
+sleeping wife and infant son; called Channa, mounted his favourite
+white horse Kanthaka, and rode to the palace gate.  The _Devas_ had
+thrown a deep sleep upon the King's guard who watched the gate, so that
+they could not hear the noise of the horse's hoofs.
+
+42.  Q.  _But the gate was locked, was it not?_
+
+A.  Yes; but the _Devas_ caused it to open without the slightest noise,
+and he rode away into the darkness.
+
+43.  Q.  _Whither did he go?_
+
+A.  To the river Anomā, a long way from Kapilavāstu.
+
+44.  Q.  _What did he then do?_
+
+A.  He sprang from his horse, cut off his beautiful hair with his
+sword, put on the yellow dress of an ascetic, and giving his ornaments
+and horse to Channa, ordered him to take them back to his father, the
+King.
+
+45.  Q.  _What then?_
+
+A.  He went afoot towards Rājagrha, the capital city of King
+Bimbisāra, of Magadha.
+
+46.  Q.  _Who visited him there?_
+
+A.  The King with his whole Court.[2]
+
+46a.  Q.  _Thence whither did he go?_
+
+A.  To Uruvela, near the present Mahābōdhi Temple at Buddha
+Gayā.
+
+47.  Q.  _Why did he go there?_
+
+A.  In the forests were hermits--very wise men, whose pupil he
+afterwards became, in the hope of finding the knowledge of which he was
+in search.
+
+48.  Q.  _Of what religion were they?_
+
+A.  The Hindu religion: they were Brāhmanas.[3]
+
+49.  Q.  _What did they teach?_
+
+A.  That by severe penances and torture of the body a man may acquire
+perfect wisdom.
+
+50.  Q.  _Did the Prince find this to be so?_
+
+A.  No; he learned their systems and practised all their penances, but
+he could not thus discover the cause of human sorrow and the way to
+absolute emancipation.
+
+51.  Q.  _What did he then do?_
+
+A.  He went away into the forest near Uruvela, and spent six years in
+deep meditation, undergoing the severest discipline in mortifying his
+body.
+
+52.  Q.  _Was he alone?_
+
+A.  No; five Brāhman companions attended him.
+
+53.  Q.  _What were their names?_
+
+A.  Kondañña, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahānāma, and Assaji.
+
+54.  Q.  _What plan of discipline did he adopt to open his mind to know
+the whole truth?_
+
+A.  He sat and meditated, concentrating his mind upon the higher
+problems of life, and shutting out from his sight and hearing all that
+was likely to interrupt his inward reflections.
+
+55.  Q.  _Did he fast?_
+
+A.  Yes, through the whole period.  He took less and less food and
+water until, it is said, he ate scarcely more than one grain of rice or
+of sesamum seed each day.
+
+56.  Q.  _Did this give him the wisdom he longed for?_
+
+A.  No.  He grew thinner and thinner in body and fainter in strength
+until, one day, as he was slowly walking about and meditating, his
+vital force suddenly left him and he fell to the ground unconscious.
+
+57.  Q.  _What did his companions think of that?_
+
+A.  They fancied he was dead; but after a time he revived.
+
+58.  Q.  _What then?_
+
+A.  The thought came to him that knowledge could never be reached by
+mere fasting or bodily suffering, but must be gained by the opening of
+the mind.  He had just barely escaped death from self-starvation, yet
+had not obtained the Perfect Wisdom.  So he decided to eat, that he
+might live at least long enough to become wise.
+
+59.  Q.  _Who gave him food?_
+
+A.  He received food from Sujatā, a nobleman's daughter, who saw him
+sitting at the foot of a nyagrodha (banyan) tree.  He arose, took his
+alms-bowl, bathed in the river Nerañjāra, ate the food, and went
+into the jungle.
+
+60.  Q.  _What did he do there?_
+
+A.  Having formed his determination after these reflections, he went at
+evening to the Bōdhi, or Asvattha tree, where the present
+Mahābōdhi Temple stands.
+
+61.  Q.  _What did he do there?_
+
+A.  He determined not to leave the spot until he attained perfect
+wisdom.
+
+62.  Q.  _At which side of the tree did he seat himself?_
+
+A.  The side facing the east.[4]
+
+63.  Q.  _What did he obtain that night?_
+
+A.  The knowledge of his previous births, of the causes of rebirths,
+and of the way to extinguish desires.  Just before the break of the
+next day his mind was entirely opened, like the full-blown lotus
+flower; the light of supreme knowledge, or the Four Truths, poured in
+upon him.  He had become BUDDHA--the Enlightened, the all-knowing--the
+Sarvajña.
+
+64.  Q.  _Had he at last discovered the cause of human misery?_
+
+A.  At last he had.  As the light of the morning sun chases away the
+darkness of night, and reveals to sight the trees, fields, rocks, seas,
+rivers, animals, men and all things, so the full light of knowledge
+rose in his mind, and he saw at one glance the causes of human
+suffering and the way to escape from them.
+
+65.  Q.  _Had he great struggles before gaining this perfect wisdom?_
+
+A.  Yes, mighty and terrible struggles.  He had to conquer in his body
+all those natural defects and human appetites and desires that prevent
+our seeing the truth.  He had to overcome all the bad influences of the
+sinful world around him.  Like a soldier fighting desperately in battle
+against many enemies, he struggled: like a hero who conquers, he gained
+his object, and the secret of human misery was discovered.
+
+66.  Q.  _What use did he make of the knowledge thus gained?_
+
+A.  At first he was reluctant to teach it to the people at large.
+
+67.  Q.  _Why?_
+
+A.  Because of its profound importance and sublimity.  He feared that
+but few people would understand it.
+
+68.  Q.  _What made him alter this view?_[5]
+
+A.  He saw that it was his duty to teach what he had learnt as clearly
+and simply as possible, and trust to the truth impressing itself upon
+the popular mind in proportion to each one's individual Karma.  It was
+the only way of salvation, and every being had an equal right to have
+it pointed out to him.  So he determined to begin with his five late
+companions, who had abandoned him when he broke his fast.
+
+69.  Q.  _Where did he find them?_
+
+A.  In the deer-park at Isipatana, near Benares.
+
+70.  Q.  _Can the spot be now identified?_
+
+A.  Yes, a partly ruined stūpa, or dagoba, is still standing on that
+very spot.
+
+71.  Q.  _Did those five companions readily listen to him?_
+
+A.  At first, no; but so great was the spiritual beauty of his
+appearance, so sweet and convincing his teaching, that they soon turned
+and gave him the closest attention.
+
+72.  Q.  _What effect did this discourse have upon them?_
+
+A.  The aged Kondañña, one who "understood" (_Anna_), was the first to
+lose his prejudices, accept the Buddha's teaching, become his disciple,
+and enter the Path leading to Arhatship.  The other four soon followed
+his example.
+
+73.  Q.  _Who were his next converts?_
+
+A.  A rich young layman, named Yasa, and his father, a wealthy
+merchant.  By the end of three months the disciples numbered sixty
+persons.
+
+74.  Q.  _Who were the first women lay disciples?_
+
+A.  The mother and wife of Yasa.
+
+75.  Q.  _What did the Buddha do at that time?_[6]
+
+A.  He called the disciples together, gave them full instructions, and
+sent them out in all directions to preach his doctrine.
+
+76.  Q.  _What was the essence of it?_
+
+A.  That the way of emancipation lies in leading the holy life and
+following the rules laid down, which will be explained later on.
+
+77.  Q.  _Tell me what name he gave to this course of life?_
+
+A.  The Noble Eightfold Path.
+
+78.  Q.  _How is it called in the Pālī language?_
+
+A.  _Ariyo atthangiko maggo_.
+
+79..  Q.  _Whither did the Buddha then go?_
+
+A.  To Uruvela.
+
+80.  Q.  _What happened there?_
+
+A.  He converted a man named Kāshyapa, renowned for his learning and
+teacher of the Jatilas, a great sect of fire-worshippers, all of whom
+became also his followers.
+
+81.  Q.  _Who was his next great convert?_
+
+A.  King Bimbisāra, of Magadha.
+
+82.  Q.  _Which two of the Buddha's most learned and beloved disciples
+were converted at about this time?_
+
+A.  Sāriputra and Moggallāna, formerly chief disciples of
+Sañjaya, the ascetic.
+
+83.  Q.  _For what did they become renowned?_
+
+A.  Sāriputra for his profound learning (_Prajña_), Moggallāna
+for his exceptional spiritual powers (_Iddhi_).
+
+84.  Q.  _Are these wonder-working powers miraculous?_
+
+A.  No, but natural to all men and capable of being developed by a
+certain course of training.
+
+85.  Q.  _Did the Buddha hear again from his family after leaving them?_
+
+A.  Oh yes, seven years later, while he was living at Rājagrha, his
+father.  King Suddhodana, sent a message to request him to come and let
+him see him again before he died.
+
+86.  Q.  _Did he go?_
+
+A.  Yes.  His father went with all his relatives and ministers to meet
+him and received him with great joy.
+
+87.  Q.  _Did he consent to resume his old rank?_
+
+A.  No.  In all sweetness he explained to his father that the Prince
+Siddhārtha had passed out of existence, as such, and was now changed
+into the condition of a Buddha, to whom all beings were equally akin
+and equally dear.  Instead of ruling over one tribe or nation, like an
+earthly king, he, through his Dharma, would win the hearts of all men
+to be his followers.
+
+88.  Q.  _Did he see Yasodharā and his son Rāhula?_
+
+A.  Yes.  His wife, who had mourned for him with deepest love, wept
+bitterly.  She also sent Rāhula to ask him to give him his
+inheritance, as the son of a prince.
+
+89.  Q.  _What happened?_
+
+A.  To one and all he preached the Dharma as the cure for all sorrows.
+His father, son, wife, Ānanda (his half-brother), Devadatta (his
+cousin and brother-in-law), were all converted and became his
+disciples.  Two other famous ones were Anuruddha, afterwards a great
+metaphysician, and Upāli, a barber, afterwards the greatest
+authority on Vinaya.  Both of these gained great renown.
+
+90.  Q.  _Who was the first Bhikkuni?_
+
+A.  Prajāpatī, the aunt and foster-mother of Prince
+Siddhārtha.  With her, Yasodharā and many other ladies were
+admitted into the Order as _Bhikkhunis_ or female devotees.
+
+91.  Q.  _What effect did the taking up of the religious life by his
+sons, Siddhārtha and Ānanda, his nephew, Devadatta, his son's
+wife, Yasudharā, and his grandson, Rāhula, have upon the old King
+Suddhodana?_
+
+A.  It grieved him much and he complained to the Buddha, who then made
+it a rule of the Order that no person should thenceforth be ordained
+without the consent of his parents if alive.
+
+92.  Q.  _Tell me about the fate of Devadatta?_
+
+A.  He was a man of great intelligence and rapidly advanced in the
+knowledge of the Dharma, but being also extremely ambitious, he came to
+envy and hate the Buddha, and at last plotted to kill him.  He also
+influenced Ajātashatru, son of King Bimbisāra, to murder his
+noble father, and to become his--Devadatta's--disciple.
+
+93.  Q.  _Did he do any injury to the Buddha?_
+
+A.  Not the least, but the evil he plotted against him recoiled upon
+himself, and he met with an awful death.
+
+94.  Q.  _For how many years was the Buddha engaged in teaching?_
+
+A.  Forty-five years, during which time he preached a great many
+discourses.  His custom and that of his disciples was to travel and
+preach during the eight dry months, but during the season of Way--the
+rains--he and they would stop in the pānsulas and vihāras which
+had been built for them by various kings and other wealthy converts.
+
+95.  Q.  _Which were the most famous of these buildings?_
+
+A.  Jetāvanārāma; Veluvanārāma; Pubbārāma;
+Nigrodhārāma and Isipatanārāma.
+
+96.  Q.  _What kind of people were converted by him and his disciples?_
+
+A.  People of all ranks, nations and castes; rājas and coolies, rich
+and poor, mighty and humble, the illiterate and the most learned.  His
+doctrine was suited to all.
+
+97.  Q.  _Give some account of the decease of the Buddha?_
+
+A.  In the forty-fifth season after his attaining Buddhahood, on the
+full-moon day of May, knowing that his end was near, he came at evening
+to Kusināgāra, a place about one hundred and twenty miles from
+Benares.  In the sāla grove of the Mallas, the Uparvartana of
+Kusināgāra, between two sāla trees, he had his bedding spread
+with the head towards the north according to the ancient custom.  He
+lay upon it, and with his mind perfectly clear, gave his final
+instructions to his disciples and bade them farewell.
+
+98.  Q.  _Did he also make new converts in those last tours?_
+
+A.  Yes, a very important one, a great Brāhmana pandit named
+Subhadra.  He had also preached to the Mallya princes and their
+followers.
+
+99.  Q.  _At day-break what happened?_
+
+A.  He passed into the interior condition of _Samādhi_ and thence
+into Nirvāna.
+
+100.  Q.  _What were his last words to his disciples?_
+
+A.  "Bhikkhus," he said, "I now impress it upon you, the parts and
+powers of man must be dissolved.  Work out your salvation with
+diligence."
+
+101.  Q.  _What convincing proof have we that the Buddha, formerly
+Prince Siddhārtha, was a historical personage?_
+
+A.  His existence is apparently as clearly proved as that of any other
+character of ancient history.
+
+102.  Q.  _Name some of the proofs?_
+
+A.  (1) The testimony of those who personally knew him.
+
+(2) The discovery of places and the remains of buildings mentioned in
+the narrative of his time.
+
+(3) The rock-inscriptions, pillars and dagobas made in memory of him by
+sovereigns who were near enough to his time to be able to verify the
+story of his life.
+
+(4) The unbroken existence of the Sangha which he founded, and their
+possession of the facts of his life transmitted from generation to
+generation from the beginning.
+
+(5) The fact that in the very year of his death and at various times
+subsequently, conventions and councils of the Sangha were held, for the
+verification of the actual teachings of the Founder, and the handing
+down of those verified teachings from teacher to pupil, to the present
+day.
+
+(6) After his cremation his relics were divided among eight kings and a
+stūpa was erected over each portion.  The portion given to King
+Ajātashatru, and by him covered with a stūpa at Rājagrha, was
+taken, less than two centuries later, by the Emperor Asoka and
+distributed throughout his Empire.  He, of course, had ample means of
+knowing whether the relics were those of the Buddha or not, since they
+had been in charge of the royal house of Patna from the beginning.
+
+(7) Many of the Buddha's disciples, being Arhats and thus having
+control over their vital powers, must have lived to great ages, and
+there was nothing to have prevented two or three of them, in succession
+to each other, to have covered the whole period between the death of
+the Buddha and the reign of Asoka, and thus to have enabled the latter
+to get from his contemporary every desired attestation of the fact of
+the Buddha's life.[8]
+
+(8) The "Mahāvansa," the best authenticated ancient history known to
+us, records the events of Sinhalese history to the reign of King
+Vijaya, 543 B.C.--almost the time of the Buddha--and gives most
+particulars of his life, as well as those of the Emperor Asoka and all
+other sovereigns related to Buddhistic history.
+
+103.  Q.  _By what names of respect is the Buddha called?_
+
+A.  Sākyamuni (the Sākya Sage); Sākya-Simha (the Sākyan
+Lion); Sugata (the Happy One); Satthta (the Teacher); Jina (the
+Conqueror), Bhagavat (the Blessed One); Lokanātha (the Lord of the
+World); Sarvajña (the Omniscient One); Dharmarāja (the King of
+Truth); Tathāgata (the Great Being), etc.
+
+
+
+[1] See the definition of _deva_ given later.
+
+[2] For an admirable account of this interview consult Dr. Paul Carus'
+_Gospel of Buddha_, page 20, _et seq._
+
+[3] The term Hindū, once a contemptuous term, used by the
+Musalmāns to designate the people of Sindh, whom they conquered, is
+now used in an ecclesiastical sense.
+
+[4] No reason is given in the canonical books for the choice of this
+side of the tree, though an explanation is to be found in the popular
+legends upon which the books of Bishop Bigandet and other European
+commentators are based.  There are always certain influences coming
+upon us from the different quarters of the sky.  Sometimes the
+influence from one quarter will be best, sometimes that from another
+quarter.  But the Buddha thought that the perfected man is superior to
+all extraneous influences.
+
+[5] The ancient story is that the God Brahmā himself implored him
+not to withhold the glorious truth.
+
+[6] Brāhmanism not being offered to non-Hindūs, Buddhism is
+consequently, the oldest missionary religion in the world.  The early
+missionaries endured every hardship, cruelty, and persecution, with
+unfaltering courage.
+
+[7] At the Second Council there were two pupils of Ānanda,
+consequently centenarians, while in Asoka's Council there were pupils
+of those pupils.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE
+
+106.  Q.  _What is the meaning of the word Buddha?_
+
+A.  The enlightened, or he who has the perfect wisdom.
+
+107.  Q.  _You have said that there were other Buddhas before this one?_
+
+A.  Yes; our belief is that, under the operation of eternal causation,
+a Buddha takes birth at intervals, when mankind have become plunged
+into misery through ignorance, and need the wisdom which it is the
+function of a Buddha to teach.  (See also Q. 11.)
+
+108.  Q.  _How is a Buddha developed?_
+
+A.  A person, hearing and seeing one of the Buddhas on earth, becomes
+seized with the determination so to live that at some future time, when
+he shall become fitted for it, he also will be a Buddha for the guiding
+of mankind out of the cycle of rebirth.
+
+109.  Q.  _How does he proceed?_
+
+A.  Throughout that birth and every succeeding one, he strives to
+subdue his passions, to gain wisdom by experience, and to develop his
+higher faculties.  He thus grows by degrees wiser, nobler in character,
+and stronger in virtue, until, finally, after numberless re-births he
+reaches the state when he can become Perfected, Enlightened, All-wise,
+the ideal Teacher of the human race.
+
+110.  Q.  _While this gradual development is going on throughout all
+these births, by what name do we call him?_
+
+A.  Bōdhisat, or Bōdhisattva.  Thus the Prince Siddhartha Gautama
+was a Bōdhisattva up to the moment when, under the blessed Bōdhi
+tree at Gayā, he became Buddha.
+
+111.  Q.  _Have we any account of his various rebirths as a
+Bodhisattva?_
+
+A.  In the Jātakatthakathā, a book containing stories of the
+Bōdhisattva's reincarnations, there are several hundred tales of
+that kind.
+
+112.  Q.  _What lesson do these stories teach?_
+
+A.  That a man can carry, throughout a long series of reincarnations,
+one great, good purpose which enables him to conquer bad tendencies and
+develop virtuous ones.
+
+113.  Q.  _Can we fix the number of reincarnations through which a
+Bōdhisattva must pass before he can become a Buddha?_
+
+A.  Of course not: that depends upon his natural character, the state
+of development to which he has arrived when he forms the resolution to
+become a Buddha, and other things.
+
+114.  Q.  _Have we a way of classifying Bōdhisattvas?  If so,
+explain it._
+
+A.  Bōdhisattvas--the future Buddhas--are divided into three classes.
+
+115.  Q.  _Proceed.  How are these three kinds of Bōdhisats named?_
+
+A.  Pannādhika, or Udghatitajña--"he who attains least quickly";
+Saddhādhika, or Vipachitajña--"he who attains less quickly"; and
+Viryādhika, or Gneyya--"he who attains quickly".  The Pannādhika
+Bōdhisats take the course of Intelligence; the Saddhādhika take
+the course of Faith; the Viryaāhika take the course of energetic
+Action.  The first is guided by Intelligence and does not hasten; the
+second is full of Faith, and does not care to take the guidance of
+Wisdom; and the third never delays to do what is good.  Regardless of
+the consequences to himself, he does it when he sees that it is best
+that it should be done.
+
+116.  Q.  _When our Bōdhisattva became Buddha, what did he see was
+the cause of human misery?  Tell me in one word._
+
+A.  Ignorance (Avidyā).
+
+117.  Q.  _Can you tell me the remedy?_
+
+A.  To dispel Ignorance and become wise (Prājña).
+
+118.  Q.  _Why does ignorance cause suffering?_
+
+A.  Because it makes us prize what is not worth prizing, grieve when we
+should not grieve, consider real what is not real but only illusionary,
+and pass our lives in the pursuit of worthless objects, neglecting what
+is in reality most valuable.
+
+119.  Q.  _And what is that which is most valuable?_
+
+A.  To know the whole secret of man's existence and destiny, so that we
+may estimate at no more than their actual value this life and its
+relations; and so that we may live in a way to ensure the greatest
+happiness and the least suffering for our fellow-men and ourselves.
+
+120.  Q.  _What is the light that can dispel this ignorance of ours and
+remove all sorrows?_
+
+A.  The knowledge of the "Four Noble Truths," as the Buddha called them.
+
+121.  Q.  _Name these Four Noble Truths?_
+
+A.  1.  The miseries of evolutionary existence resulting in births and
+deaths, life after life.
+
+2.  The cause productive of misery, which is the selfish desire, ever
+renewed, of satisfying one's self, without being able ever to secure
+that end.
+
+3.  The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of one's self
+from it.
+
+4.  The means of obtaining this destruction of desire.
+
+122.  Q.  _Tell me some things that cause sorrow?_
+
+A.  Birth, decay, illness, death, separation from objects we love,
+association with those who are repugnant, craving for what cannot be
+obtained.
+
+123.  Q.  _Do these differ with each individual?_
+
+A.  Yes: but all men suffer from them in degree.
+
+124.  Q.  _How can we escape the sufferings which result from
+unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings?_
+
+A.  By complete conquest over, and destruction of, this eager thirst
+for life and its pleasures, which causes sorrow.
+
+125.  Q.  _How may we gain such a conquest?_
+
+A.  By following the Noble Eight-fold Path which the Buddha discovered
+and pointed out.
+
+126.  Q.  _What do you mean by that word: what is this Noble Eight-fold
+Path?_  (For the Pālī name see Q. 79.)
+
+A.  The eight parts of this path are called _angas_.  They are: 1.
+Right Belief (as to the law of Causation, or Karma); 2. Right Thought;
+3. Right Speech; 4. Right Action; 5. Right Means of Livelihood; 6.
+Right Exertion; 7. Right Remembrance and Self-discipline; 8. Right
+Concentration of Thought.  The man who keeps these _angas_ in mind and
+follows them will be free from sorrow and ultimately reach salvation.
+
+127.  Q.  _Can you give a better word for salvation?_
+
+A.  Yes, emancipation.
+
+128.  Q.  _Emancipation, then, from what?_
+
+A.  Emancipation from the miseries of earthly existence and of
+rebirths, all of which are due to ignorance and impure lusts and
+cravings.
+
+129.  Q.  _And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do
+we reach?_
+
+A.  NIRVĀNA.
+
+130.  Q.  _What is Nirvāna?_
+
+A.  A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest, of the
+absence of desire and illusion and sorrow, of the total obliteration of
+everything that goes to make up the physical man.  Before reaching
+Nirvāna man is constantly being reborn; when he reaches Nirvāna
+he is born no more.
+
+131.  Q.  _Where can be found a learned discussion of the word
+Nirvāna and a list of the other names by which the old Pālī
+writers attempt to define it?_
+
+A.  In the famous Dictionary of the Pālī Language, by the late
+Mr. B. O. Childers, is a complete list.[1]
+
+132.  Q.  _But some people imagine that Nirvāna is some sort of
+heavenly place, a Paradise.  Does Buddhism teach that?_
+
+A.  No.  When Kūtadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvāna," he
+replied that it was "wherever the precepts are obeyed".
+
+133.  Q.  _What causes us to be reborn?_
+
+A.  The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., _trshnā_; Pālī,
+tanhā) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in
+the material world.  This unquenched thirst for physical existence
+(_bhāva_) is a force, and has a creative power in itself so strong
+that it draws the being back into mundane life.
+
+134.  Q.  _Are our rebirths in any way affected by the nature of our
+unsatisfied desires?_
+
+A.  Yes, and by our individual merits or demerits.
+
+135.  Q.  _Does our merit or demerit control the state, condition or
+form in which we shall be re-born?_
+
+A.  It does.  The broad rule is that if we have an excess of merit we
+shall be well and happily born the next time; if an excess of demerit,
+our next birth will be wretched and full of suffering.
+
+136.  Q.  _One chief pillar of Buddhistic doctrine is, then, the idea
+that every effect is the result of an actual cause, is it not?_
+
+ A.  It is; of a cause either immediate or remote.
+
+137.  Q.  _What do we call this causation?_
+
+A.  Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that is, action.  It means
+that our own actions or deeds bring upon us whatever of joy or misery
+we experience.
+
+138.  Q.  _Can a bad man escape from the outworkings of his Karma?_
+
+A.  The _Dhammapada_ says: "There exists no spot on the earth, or in
+the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts,
+where an (evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."
+
+139.  Q.  _Can a good man escape?_
+
+A.  As the result of deeds of peculiar merit, a man may attain certain
+advantages of place, body, environment and teaching in his next stage
+of progress, which ward off the effects of bad Karma and help his
+higher evolution.
+
+140.  _What are they called?_
+
+A.  _Gati Sampatti_, _Upādhi Sampatti_, _Kāla Sampatti_ and
+_Payoga Sampatti_.
+
+141.  Q.  _Is that consistent or inconsistent with common sense and the
+teachings of modern science?_
+
+A.  Perfectly consistent: there can be no doubt of it.
+
+142.  Q.  _May all men become Buddhas?_
+
+A.  It is not in the nature of every man to become a Buddha; for a
+Buddha is developed only at long intervals of time, and seemingly, when
+the state of humanity absolutely requires such a teacher to show it the
+forgotten Path to Nirvāna.  But every being may equally reach
+Nirvāna, by conquering Ignorance and gaining Wisdom.
+
+143.  Q.  _Does Buddhism teach that man is reborn only upon our earth?_
+
+A.  As a general rule that would be the case, until he had evolved
+beyond its level; but the inhabited worlds are numberless.  The world
+upon which a person is to have his next birth, as well as the nature of
+the rebirth itself, is decided by the preponderance of the individual's
+merit or demerit.  In other words, it will be controlled by his
+attractions, as science would describe it; or by his Karma, as we,
+Buddhists, would say.
+
+144.  Q.  _Are there worlds more perfectly developed, and others less
+so than our Earth?_
+
+A.  Buddhism teaches that there are whole _Sakwalas_, or systems of
+worlds, of various kinds, higher and lower, and also that the
+inhabitants of each world correspond in development with itself.
+
+145.  Q.  _Has not the Buddha summed up his whole doctrine in one
+gāthā, or verse?_
+
+A.  Yes.
+
+146.  Q.  _Repeat it?_
+
+A.  _Sabba pāpassa akaranm,
+    Kusalassa upasampadā
+    Sachitta pariyo dapanam--
+    Etam Buddhānusāsanam._
+
+    "To cease from all evil actions,
+    To generate all that is good,
+    To cleanse one's mind:
+    This is the constant advice of the Buddhas."
+
+147.  Q.  _Have the first three of these lines any very striking
+characteristics?_
+
+A.  Yes: the first line embodies the whole spirit of the _Vinaya
+Pitaka_, the second that of the _Sutta_, the third that of the
+_Abhidhamma_.  They comprise only eight Pālī words, yet, as the
+dew-drop reflects the stars, they sparkle with the spirit of all the
+Buddha Dharma.
+
+148.  Q.  _Do these precepts show that Buddhism is an active or a
+passive religion?_
+
+A.  To "cease from sin" may be called passive, but to "get virtue" and
+"to cleanse one's own heart," or mind, are altogether _active_
+qualities.  Buddha taught that we should not merely not be evil, but
+that we should be _positively_ good.
+
+149.  Q.  _Who or what are the "Three Guides"[2] that a Buddhist Is
+supposed to follow?_
+
+A.  They are disclosed in the formula called the Tisarana: "I follow
+Buddha as my Guide: I follow the Law as my Guide: I follow the Order as
+my Guide."  These three _are_, in fact, the Buddha Dharma.
+
+150.  Q.  _What does he mean when repeating this formula?_
+
+A.  He means that he regards the Buddha as his all-wise Teacher, Friend
+and Exemplar; the Law, or Doctrine, as containing the essential and
+immutable principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads to
+the realisation of perfect peace of mind on earth; and the Order as the
+teachers and exemplars of that excellent Law taught by Buddha.
+
+151.  Q.  _But are not some of the members of this "Order" men
+intellectually and morally inferior?_
+
+A.  Yes; but we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently
+attend to the Precepts, discipline their minds, and strive to attain or
+have attained one of the eight stages of holiness and perfection,
+constitute his "Order".  It is expressly stated that the Order referred
+to in the "Tisarana" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala"--the Noble
+Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of perfection.  The mere
+wearing of yellow robes, or even ordination, does not of itself make a
+man pure or wise or entitle him to reverence.
+
+152.  Q.  _Then it is not such unworthy bhikkhus as they, whom the true
+Buddhist would lake as his guides?_
+
+A.  Certainly not.
+
+153.  Q.  _What are the five observances, or universal precepts, called
+the Pañcha Sīla, which are imposed on the laity in general?_
+
+A.  They are included in the following formula,, which Buddhists repeat
+publicly at the vihāras (temples):
+
+I observe the precept to refrain from destroying the life of beings.
+
+I observe the precept to refrain from stealing.
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from unlawful sexual intercourse.[3]
+
+I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood.
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicants.
+
+154.  Q.  What strikes the intelligent person on reading these Sīlas?
+
+A.  That one who observes them strictly must escape from every cause
+productive of human misery.  If we study history we shall find that it
+has all sprung from one or another of these causes.
+
+155.  Q.  In which Sīlas is the far-seeing wisdom of the Buddha most
+plainly shown?
+
+A.  In the first, third and fifth; for the taking of life, sensuality,
+and the use of intoxicants, cause at least ninety-five per cent of the
+sufferings among men.
+
+156.  Q.  _What benefits does a man derive from the observance of these
+Precepts?_
+
+A.  He is said to acquire more or less merit according to the manner
+and time of observing the precepts, and the number observed; that is,
+if he observes only one precept, violating the other four, he acquires
+the merit of the observance of that precept only; and the longer he
+keeps that precept the greater will be the merit.  He who keeps all the
+precepts inviolate will cause himself to have a higher and happier
+existence hereafter.
+
+157.  Q.  _What are the other observances which it is considered
+meritorious for the laity as such to undertake voluntarily to keep?_
+
+A.  The _Atthanga Sīla_, or the Eightfold Precept, which embraces
+the five above enumerated (omitting the word "unlawful" in the third),
+with three additional; _viz._:
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from eating at an unseasonable time.
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from dancing, singing, music and
+unbecoming shows, and from the use of garlands, scents, perfumes,
+cosmetics, ointments, and ornaments.
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from using high and broad beds.
+
+The seats and couches here referred to are those used by the
+worldly-minded for the sake of pleasure and sensual enjoyment.  The
+celibate should avoid these.
+
+158.  Q.  _How would a Buddhist describe true merit?_
+
+A.  There is no great merit in any merely outward act; all depends upon
+the inward motive that provokes the deed.
+
+159.  Q.  _Give an example?_
+
+A.  A rich man may expend lakhs of rupees in building dāgobas or
+vihāras, in erecting statues of Buddha, in festivals and
+processions, in feeding priests, in giving alms to the poor, or in
+planting trees, digging tanks, or constructing rest-houses by the
+roadside for travellers, and yet have comparatively little merit if it
+be done for display, or to hear himself praised by men, or for any
+other selfish motives.  But he who does the least of these things with
+a kind motive, such as love for his fellow-men, gains great merit.  A
+good deed done with a bad motive benefits others, but not the doer.
+One who approves of a good deed when done by another shares in the
+merit, _if his sympathy is real, not pretended_.  The same rule applies
+to evil deeds.
+
+160.  Q.  _But which is said to be the greatest of all meritorious
+actions?_
+
+A.  The _Dhammapada_ declares that the merit of disseminating the
+Dharma, the Law of Righteousness, is greater than that of any other
+good work.
+
+161.  Q.  _What books contain all the most excellent wisdom of the
+Buddha's teachings?_
+
+A.  The three collections of books called _Tripitakas_ or "_Three
+Baskets_".
+
+162.  Q.  _What are the names of the three Pitakas, or groups of books?_
+
+A.  The _Vinaya Pitaka_, the _Sutta Pitaka_ and the _Abhidhamma Pitaka_.
+
+163.  Q.  _What do they respectively contain?_
+
+A.  The first contains all that pertains to morality and the rules of
+discipline for the government of the Sangha, or Order; the second
+contains instructive discourses on ethics applicable to all; the third
+explains the psychological teachings of the Buddha, including the
+twenty-four transcendental laws explanatory of the workings of Nature.
+
+164.  Q.  _Do Buddhists relieve these books to be inspired, or
+revealed, by a Divine Being?_
+
+A.  No; but they revere them as containing all the parts of that most
+Excellent Law, by the knowing of which man may break through the
+trammels of _Samsāra_.
+
+165.  Q.  _In the whole text of the three Pitakas how many words are
+there?_
+
+A.  Dr. Rhys-Davids estimates them at 1,752,800.
+
+166.  Q.  _When were the Pitakas first reduced to writing?_
+
+A.  In 88-76 B.C., under the Sinhalese King, Wattagamini, or three
+hundred and thirty years after the Paranirvāna of the Buddha.
+
+167.  Q.  _Have we reason to believe that all the discourses of the
+Buddha are known to us?_
+
+A.  Probably not, and it would be strange if they were.  Within the
+forty-five years of his public life he must have preached many hundreds
+of discourses.  Of these, in times of war and persecution, many must
+have been lost, many scattered to distant countries, and many
+mutilated.  History says that enemies of the Buddha Dharma burnt piles
+of our books as high as a coco-nut tree.
+
+168.  Q.  _Do Buddhists consider the Buddha as one who by his own
+virtue can save us from the consequence of our individual sins?_
+
+A.  Not at all.  Man must emancipate himself.  Until he does that he
+will continue being born over and over and over again--the victim of
+ignorance, the slave of unquenched passions.
+
+169.  Q.  _What, then, was the Buddha to us, and all other beings?_
+
+A.  An all-seeing, all-wise Counsellor; one who discovered the safe
+path and pointed it out; one who showed the cause of, and the only cure
+for, human suffering.  In pointing to the road, in showing us how to
+escape dangers, he became our Guide.  He is to us like one leading a
+blind man across a narrow bridge over a swift and deep stream and so
+saving his life.
+
+170.  Q.  _If we were to try to represent the whole spirit of the
+Buddha's doctrine by one word, which word should we choose?_
+
+A.  Justice.
+
+171.  Q.  _Why?_
+
+A.  Because it teaches that every man gets, under the operations of
+unerring KARMA, exactly that reward or punishment which he has
+deserved, no more and no less.  No good deed or bad deed, however
+trifling, and however secretly committed, escapes the evenly-balanced
+scales of Karma.
+
+172.  Q.  _What is Karma?_[4]
+
+A.  A causation operating on the moral, as well as on the physical and
+other planes.  Buddhists say there is no miracle in human affairs: what
+a man sows that he must and will reap.
+
+173.  Q.  _What other good words have been used to express the essence
+of Buddhism?_
+
+A.  Self-culture and universal love.
+
+174.  Q.  _What doctrine ennobles Buddhism, and gives it its exalted
+place among the world's religions?_
+
+A.  That of _Mitta_ or _Maitreya_--compassionate kindness.  The
+importance of this doctrine is moreover emphasised in the giving of the
+name "Maitri" (the Compassionate One), to the coming Buddha.
+
+175.  Q.  _Were all these points of Doctrine that you have explained
+meditated upon by the Buddha near the Bo-tree?_
+
+A.  Yes, these and many more that may be read in the Buddhist
+Scriptures.  The entire system of Buddhism came to his mind during the
+Great Enlightenment.
+
+176.  Q.  _How long did the Buddha remain near the Bo-tree?_
+
+A.  Forty-nine days.
+
+177.  Q.  _What do we call the first discourse preached by the
+Buddha--that which he addressed to his five former companions?_
+
+A.  The _Dhammacakka-ppavattana sutta_--the Sūtra of the Definition
+of the Rule of Doctrine.[5]
+
+178.  Q.  _What subjects were treated by him in this discourse?_
+
+A.  The "Four Noble Truths," and the "Noble Eightfold Path".  He
+condemned the extreme physical mortification of the ascetics, on the
+one hand, and the enjoyment of sensual pleasures on the other; pointing
+out and recommending the Noble Eightfold Path as the Middle Path.
+
+179.  Q.  _Did the Buddha hold with idol-worship?_
+
+A.  He did not; he opposed it.  The worship of gods, demons, trees,
+etc., was condemned by the Buddha.  External worship is a fetter that
+one has to break if he is to advance higher.
+
+180.  Q.  _But, do not Buddhists make reverence before the statue of
+the Buddha, his relics, and the monuments enshrining them?_
+
+A.  Yes, but not with the sentiment of the idolater.
+
+181.  Q.  _What is the difference?_
+
+A.  Our Pagan brother not only takes his images as visible
+representations of his unseen God or gods, but the refined idolater, in
+worshipping, considers that the idol contains in its substance a
+portion of the all-pervading divinity.
+
+182.  Q.  _What does the Buddhist think?_
+
+A.  The Buddhist reverences the Buddha's statue and the other things
+you have mentioned, only as mementoes of the greatest, wisest, most
+benevolent and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa).  All
+races and people preserve, treasure up, and value the relics and
+mementoes of men and women who have been considered in any way great.
+The Buddha, to us, seems more to be revered and beloved than any one
+else, by every human being who knows sorrow.
+
+183.  Q.  _Has the Buddha himself given us something definite upon this
+subject?_
+
+A.  Certainly.  In the _Mahā Pari-Nirvāna Sutta_ he says that
+emancipation is attainable only by leading the Holy life, according to
+the Noble Eight-fold Path, not by eternal worship (_āmisa
+pūjā_), nor by adoration of himself, or of another, or of any
+image.
+
+184.  Q.  _What was the Buddha's estimate of ceremonialism?_
+
+A.  From the beginning, he condemned the observance of ceremonies and
+other external practices, which only tend to increase our spiritual
+blindness and our clinging to mere lifeless forms.
+
+185.  Q.  _What as to controversies?_
+
+A.  In numerous discourses he denounced this habit as most pernicious.
+He prescribed penances for Bhikkhus who waste time and weaken their
+higher intuitions in wrangling over theories and metaphysical
+subtleties.
+
+186.  Q.  _Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours and
+devil-dancing a part of Buddhism?_
+
+A.  They are positively repugnant to its fundamental principles.  They
+are the surviving relics of fetishism and pantheistic and other foreign
+religions.  In the _Brāhmajāta Sutta_ the Buddha has
+categorically described these and other superstitions as Pagan, mean
+and spurious.[6]
+
+187.  Q.  _What striking contrasts are there between Buddhism and what
+may be properly called "religions"?_
+
+A.  Among others, these: It teaches the highest goodness without a
+creating God; a continuity of life without adhering to the
+superstitious and selfish doctrine of an eternal, metaphysical
+soul-substance that goes out of the body; a happiness without an
+objective heaven; a method of salvation without a vicarious Saviour;
+redemption by oneself as the Redeemer, and without rites, prayers,
+penances, priests or intercessory saints; and a _summum bonum_, _i.e._,
+Nirvāna, attainable in this life and in this world by leading a
+pure, unselfish life of wisdom and of compassion to all beings.
+
+188.  Q.  _Specify the two main divisions of "meditation," i.e., of the
+process by which one extinguishes passion and attains knowledge?_
+
+A.  _Samatha_ and _Vidarsama_: (1) the attenuation of passion by
+leading the holy life and by continued effort to subdue the senses; (2)
+the attainment of supernormal wisdom by reflection: each of which
+embraces twenty aspects, but I need not here specify them.
+
+189.  Q.  _What are the four paths or stages of advancement that one
+may attain to?_
+
+A.  (1) Sottāpatti--the beginning or entering into which follows
+after one's clear perception of the "Four Noble Truths"; (2)
+Sakardāgāmi--the path of one who has so subjugated lust, hatred
+and delusion that he need only return once to this world; (3)
+_Anāgami_--the path of those who have so far conquered self that
+they need not return to this world; (4) _Arhat_--the path of the holy
+and worthy Arhat, who is not only free from the necessity of
+reincarnation, but has capacitated himself to enjoy perfect wisdom,
+boundless pity for the ignorant and suffering, and measureless love for
+all beings.
+
+190.  Q.  _Does popular Buddhism contain nothing but what is true, and
+in accord with science?_
+
+A.  Like every other religion that has existed many centuries, it
+certainly now contains untruth mingled with truth; ever gold is found
+mixed with dross.  The poetical imagination, the zeal, or the lingering
+superstition of Buddhist devotees have, in various ages, and in various
+lands, caused the noble principles of the Buddha's moral doctrines to
+be coupled more or less with what might be removed to advantage.
+
+191.  Q.  _When such perversions are discovered, what should be the
+true Buddhist's earnest desire?_
+
+A.  The true Buddhist should be ever ready and anxious to see the false
+purged away from the true, and to assist, if he can.  Three great
+Councils of the Sangha were held for the express purpose of purging the
+body of Teachings from all corrupt interpolations.
+
+192.  Q.  _When?_
+
+A.  The first, at Sattapanni cave, just after the death of the Buddha;
+the second at Valukarama, in Vaisali; the third at Asokarama Vihāra,
+at Pātaliputra, 235 years after Buddha's decease.
+
+193.  Q.  _In what discourse does the Buddha himself warn us to expect
+this perversion of the true Doctrine?_
+
+A.  In the _Sanyutta Nikāya_.
+
+194.  Q.  _Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which we are required to
+accept on faith?_
+
+A.  No: we are earnestly enjoined to accept nothing whatever on faith;
+whether it be written in books, handed down from our ancestors, or
+taught by the sages.
+
+195.  Q.  _Did he himself really teach that noble rule?_
+
+A.  Yes.  The Buddha has said that we must not believe in a thing said
+merely because it is said; nor in traditions because they have been
+handed down from antiquity; nor rumours, as such; nor writings by
+sages, merely because sages wrote them; nor fancies that we may suspect
+to have been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual
+inspiration); nor from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption
+we may have made; nor because of what seems an analogical necessity;
+nor on the mere authority of our own teachers or masters.
+
+196.  Q.  _When, then, must we believe?_
+
+A.  We are to believe when the writing doctrine or saying is
+corroborated by our own reason and consciousness.  "For this," says he
+in concluding, "I taught you not to believe merely because you have
+heard, but when you believed of your own consciousness, then to act
+accordingly and abundantly."  (See the _Kālāma Sutta_ of the
+_Anguttara Nikāya_, and the _Mahā Pari Nirvāna Sutta_.)
+
+197.  Q.  _What does the Buddha call himself?_
+
+A.  He says that he and the other Buddhas are only "preachers" of truth
+who point out the way: we ourselves must make the effort.
+
+198.  Q.  _Where is this said?_
+
+A.  In the _Dhammapada_, Chapter xx.
+
+199.  Q.  _Does Buddhism countenance hypocrisy?_
+
+A.  The Dhammapada says: "Like a beautiful flower full of colour
+without scent the fine words of him who does not act accordingly are
+fruitless."
+
+200.  Q.  _Does Buddhism teach us to return evil for evil?_
+
+A.  In the _Dhammapada_ the Buddha said: "If a man foolishly does me
+wrong, I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the
+more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me."  This is the
+path followed by the Arhat.[7]  To return evil for evil is positively
+forbidden in Buddhism.
+
+201.  Q.  _Does it encourage cruelty?_
+
+A.  No, indeed.  In the Five Precepts and in many of his discourses,
+the Buddha teaches us to be merciful to all beings, to try and make
+them happy, to love them all, to abstain from taking life, or
+consenting to it, or encouraging its being done.
+
+202.  Q.  _In which discourse is this stated?_
+
+A.  The _Dhammika Sutta_ says: "Let him (the householder) not destroy,
+or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, or _sanction the act of
+those who do so_.  Let him refrain from even hurting any creature."[8]
+
+203.  Q.  _Does it approve of drunkenness?_
+
+A.  In his _Dhammika Sutta_ we are warned against drinking liquors,
+causing others to drink, or sanctioning the acts of those who drink.[9]
+
+204.  Q.  _To what are we told that drunkenness leads?_
+
+A.  To demerit, crime, insanity, and ignorance--which is the chief
+cause of rebirth.
+
+205.  Q.  _What does Buddhism teach about marriage?_
+
+A.  Absolute chastity being a condition of full spiritual development,
+is most highly commended; but a marriage to one wife and fidelity to
+her is recognised as a kind of chastity.  Polygamy was censured by the
+Buddha as involving ignorance and promoting lust.
+
+206.  Q.  _In what discourse?_
+
+A.  The _Anguttara Nikāya_, Chapter iv, 55.
+
+207.  Q.  _What does it teach as to the duty of parents to children?_
+
+A.  They should restrain them from vice, train them in virtue; have
+them taught arts and sciences; provide them with suitable wives and
+husbands, and give them their inheritance.
+
+208.  Q.  What is the duty of children?
+
+A.  To support their parents when old or needy; perform family duties
+incumbent on them; guard their property; make themselves worthy to be
+their heirs, and when they are gone, honour their memory.
+
+209.  Q.  _What of pupils to the teacher?_
+
+A.  To show him respect; minister to him; obey him; supply his wants;
+attend to his instruction.
+
+210.  Q.  _What of husband to wife?_
+
+A.  To cherish her; treat her with respect and kindness; be faithful to
+her; cause her to be honoured by others; provide her with suitable
+ornaments and clothes.
+
+211.  Q.  _What of the wife to her husband?_
+
+A.  To show affection to him; order her household aright; be hospitable
+to guests; be chaste; be thrifty; show skill and diligence in all
+things.
+
+212.  Q.  Where are these precepts taught?
+
+A.  In the Sigālovāda Sutta.
+
+213.  Q.  Do riches help a man to future happiness?
+
+A.  The Dhammapada says: "One is the road that leads to wealth, another
+the road that leads to Nirvāna."
+
+214.  Q.  Does that mean that no rich man can attain Nirvāna?
+
+A.  That depends on which he loves most.  If he uses his wealth for the
+benefit of mankind--for the suffering, the oppressed, the
+ignorant--then his wealth aids him to acquire merit.
+
+215.  Q.  But if the contrary?
+
+A.  But if he loves and greedily hoards money for the sake of its
+possession, then it weakens his moral sense, prompts him to crime,
+brings curses upon him in this life, and their effects are felt in the
+next birth.
+
+216.  Q.  _What says the "Dhammapada" about ignorance?_
+
+A.  That it is a taint worse than all taints that a man can put upon
+himself.
+
+217.  Q.  _What does it say about uncharitableness towards others?_
+
+A.  That the fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself
+difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff,
+but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the
+gambler.
+
+218.  Q.  _What advice does the Buddha give us as to man's duty to the
+poor?_
+
+A.  He says that a man's net income should be divided into four parts,
+of which one should be devoted to philanthropic objects.
+
+219.  Q.  _What five occupations are said to be low and base?_
+
+A.  Selling liquor, selling animals for slaughter, selling poison,
+selling murderous weapons, and dealing in slaves.
+
+220.  Q.  _Who are said to be incapable of progress in spirituality?_
+
+A.  The killers of father, mother, and holy Arhats; Bhikkhus who sow
+discord in the Sangha; those who attempt to injure the person of a
+Buddha; those who hold extremely nihilistic views as to the future
+existence; and those who are extremely sensual.
+
+121.  Q.  _Does Buddhism specify places or conditions of torment into
+which a bad man's Karma draws him on leaving this life?_
+
+A.  Yes.  They are: Sanjīva; Kālasūtra; Sanghāta; Raurava;
+Mahā-Raurava Tāpa; Pratāpa; Avīchi.
+
+222.  Q.  _Is the torment eternal?_
+
+A.  Certainly not.  Its duration depends on a man's Karma.
+
+223.  Q.  _Does Buddhism declare that non-believers in Buddha will of
+necessity be damned for their unbelief?_
+
+A.  No; by good deeds they may enjoy a limited term of happiness before
+being drawn into rebirth by their unexhausted _tanhā_.  To escape
+rebirth, one must tread the Noble Eight-fold Path.
+
+224.  Q.  _What is the spiritual status of woman among Buddhists?_
+
+A.  According to our religion they are on a footing of perfect equality
+with men.  "Woman," says the Buddha, in the _Chullavedalla Sutta_, "may
+attain the highest path of holiness that is open to man--Arhatship."
+
+225.  Q.  _What does a modern critic say about the effect of Buddhism
+on woman?_
+
+A.  That "it has done more for the happiness and enfranchisement of
+woman than any other creed" (Sir Lepel Griffin).
+
+226.  Q.  _What did the Buddha teach about caste?_
+
+A.  That one does not become of any caste, whether Pariah, the lowest,
+or Brāhmana the highest, by birth, but by deeds.  "By deeds," said
+He, "one becomes an outcast, by deeds one becomes a Brāhmana" (See
+_Vassala Sutta_).
+
+227.  Q.  _Tell me a story to illustrate this?_
+
+A.  Ananda, passing by a well, was thirsty and asked Prakrti, a girl of
+the Mātanga, or Pariah, caste, to give him water.  She said she was
+of such low caste that he would become contaminated by taking water
+from her hand.  But Ananda replied: "I ask not for caste but for
+water"; and the Mātanga girl's heart was glad and she gave him to
+drink.  The Buddha blessed her for it.
+
+228.  Q.  _What did the Buddha say in "Vasala Sutta" about a man of the
+Pariah Sopāka caste?_
+
+A.  That by his merits he reached the highest fame; that many Khattiyas
+(Kshattriyas) and Brāhmanas went to serve him; and that after death
+he was born in the Brāhma-world: while there are many Brāhmanas
+who for their evil deeds are born in hell.
+
+229.  Q.  Does Buddhism teach the immortality of the soul?
+
+A.  It considers "soul" to be a word used by the ignorant to express a
+false idea.  If everything is subject to change, then man is included,
+and every material part of him must change.  That which is subject to
+change is not permanent: so there can be no immortal survival of a
+changeful thing.[10]
+
+230.  Q.  _What is so objectionable in this word "soul"?_
+
+A.  The idea associated with it that man can be an entity separated
+from all other entities, and from the existence of the whole of the
+Universe.  This idea of separateness is unreasonable, not provable by
+logic, nor supported by science.
+
+231.  Q.  _Then there is no separate "I," nor can we say "my" this or
+that?_
+
+A.  Exactly so.
+
+232.  Q.  _If the idea of a separate human "soul" is to be rejected,
+what is it in man which gives him the impression of having a permanent
+personality?_
+
+A.  _Tanhā_, or the unsatisfied desire for existence.  The being
+having done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future,
+and having _Tanhā_, will have a rebirth through the influence of
+Karma.
+
+233.  Q.  _What is it that is born?_
+
+A.  A new aggregation of Skandhas, or personality[11] caused by the last
+generative thought of the dying person.
+
+234.  Q.  _How many Skandhas are there?_
+
+A.  Five.
+
+235.  Q.  _Name the five Skandhas?_
+
+A.  Rūpa, Vedanā, Saññā, Samkhārā,_ and _Viññāna_.
+
+236.  Q.  _Briefly explain what they are?_
+
+A.  __Rūpa_, material qualities; _Vedanā_, sensation; _Saññā_,
+abstract ideas; _Samkhārā_, tendencies of mind; _Viññāna_,
+mental powers, or consciousness.  Of these we are formed; by them we
+are conscious of existence; and through them communicate with the world
+about us.
+
+237.  Q.  _To what cause must we attribute the differences in the
+combination of the five Skandhas which make every individual differ
+from every other individual?_
+
+A.  To the ripened Karma of the individual in his preceding births.
+
+238.  Q.  _What is the force of energy that is at work, under the
+guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?_
+
+A.  Tanhā--the will to _live_.[12]
+
+239.  Q.  _Upon what is the doctrine of rebirths founded?_
+
+A.  Upon the perception that perfect justice, equilibrium and
+adjustment are inherent in the universal system of Nature.  Buddhists
+do not believe that one life--even though it were extended to one
+hundred or five hundred years--is long enough for the reward or
+punishment of a man's deeds.  The great circle of rebirths will be more
+or less quickly run through according to the preponderating purity or
+impurity of the several lives of the individual.
+
+240.  Q.  _Is this new aggregation of Skandhas--this new
+personality--the same being as that in the previous birth, whose
+Tanhā has brought it into existence?_
+
+A.  In one sense it is a new being; in another it is not.  In
+Pālī it is--"_nacha so nacha añño_" which means not the same nor
+yet another.  During this life the _Skandhas_ are constantly
+changing;[13] and while the man A. B., of forty, is identical, as
+regards personality, with the youth A. B., of eighteen, yet, by the
+continual waste and reparation of his body, and change of mind and
+character, he is a different being.  Nevertheless, the man in his old
+age justly reaps the reward of suffering consequent upon his thoughts
+and actions at every previous stage of his life.  So the new being of a
+rebirth, being the same individuality as before, but with a changed
+form, or new aggregation of _Skandhas_, justly reaps the consequences
+of his actions and thoughts in the previous existence.
+
+241.  Q.  _But the aged man remembers the incidents of his youth,
+despite his being physically and mentally changed.  Why, then, is not
+the recollection of past lives brought over by us from our last birth,
+into the present birth?_
+
+A.  Because memory is included within the _Skandhas_; and the
+_Skandhas_ having changed with the new reincarnation, a new memory, the
+record of of that particular existence, develops.  Yet the record or
+reflection of all the past earth-lives must survive; for, when Prince
+Siddhārtha became Buddha, the full sequence of his previous births
+was seen by him.  If their several incidents had left no trace behind,
+this could not have been so, as there would have been nothing for him
+to see.  And any one who attains to the fourth state of _Dhyāna_
+(psychical insight) can thus retrospectively trace the line of his
+lives.
+
+242.  Q.  _What is the ultimate point towards which tend all these
+series of changes in form?_
+
+A.  Nirvāna.
+
+243.  Q.  _Does Buddhism teach that we should do good with the view of
+reaching Nirvāna?_
+
+A.  No; that would be as absolute selfishness as though the reward
+hoped for had been money, a throne, or any other sensual enjoyment.
+Nirvāna cannot be so reached, and the unwise speculator is
+foredoomed to disappointment.
+
+244.  Q.  _Please make it a little clearer?_
+
+A.  Nirvāna is the synonym of unselfishness, the entire surrender of
+selfhood to truth.  The ignorant man aspires to nirvānic happiness
+without the least idea of its nature.  Absence of selfishness is
+Nirvāna.  Doing good with the view to getting results, or leading
+the holy life with the object of gaining heavenly happiness, is not the
+Noble Life that the Buddha enjoined.  Without hope of reward the Noble
+Life should be lived, and that is the highest life.  The nirvānic
+state can be attained while one is living on this earth.
+
+245.  Q.  _Name the ten great obstacles to advancement, called
+Sanyojanas, the Fetters?_
+
+A.  Delusion of self (_Sakkāya-ditthi_); Doubt (_Vicikicchā_);
+Dependence on superstitious rites (_Sīlabbata-parāmāsa_);
+Sensuality, bodily passions (_Kāma_); Hatred, ill-feeling
+(_Patigha_); Love of life on earth (_Rūparāga_); Desire for life
+in a heaven (_Arūparāga_); Pride (_Māna_); Self-righteousness
+(Uddhacca); Ignorance (_Avijjā_).
+
+246.  Q.  _To become an Arhat, how many of these fetters must be
+broken?_
+
+A.  All.
+
+247.  Q.  _What are the five Nirwāranas or Hindrances?_
+
+A.  Greed, Malice, Sloth, Pride, and Doubt.
+
+248.  Q.  _Why do we see this minute division of feelings, impulses,
+workings of the mind, obstacles and aids to advancement so much used in
+the Buddha's teachings?  It is very confusing to a beginner._
+
+A.  It is to help us to obtain knowledge of ourselves, by training our
+minds to think out every subject in detail.  By following out this
+system of self-examination, we come finally to acquire knowledge and
+see truth as it is.  This is the course taken by every wise teacher to
+help his pupil's mind to develop.
+
+249.  Q.  _How many of the Buddha's disciples were specially renowned
+for their superior qualities?_
+
+A.  There are eighty so distinguished.  They are called the Asīti
+Mahā Sāvakas.
+
+250.  Q.  _What did the Buddha's wisdom embrace?_
+
+A.  He knew the nature of the Knowable and the Unknowable, the Possible
+and the Impossible, the cause of Merit and Demerit; he could read the
+thoughts of all beings; he knew the laws of Nature, the illusions of
+the senses and the means to suppress desires; he could distinguish the
+birth and rebirth of individuals, and other things.
+
+251.  Q.  _What do we call the basic principle on which the whole of
+the Buddha's teaching is constructed?_
+
+A.  It is called Paticca Samuppāda.[14]
+
+252.  Q.  _Is it easily grasped?_
+
+A.  It is most difficult; in fact, the full meaning and extent of it is
+beyond the capacity of such as are not perfectly developed.
+
+253.  Q.  _What said the great commentator Buddha Ghosha about it?_
+
+A.  That even he was as helpless in this vast ocean of thought as one
+who is drifting on the ocean of waters.
+
+254.  Q.  _Then why should the Buddha say, in the Parinibbāna Sutta,
+that he "has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher, who keeps
+something back"?  If his whole teaching was open to every one's
+comprehension why should so great and learned a man as Buddha Ghosha
+declare it so hard to understand?_
+
+A.  The Buddha evidently meant that he taught everything freely; but
+equally certain is it that the real basis of the Dharma can only be
+understood by him who has perfected his powers of comprehension.  It
+is, therefore, incomprehensible to common, unenlightened persons.
+
+255.  Q.  _How does the teaching of the Buddha support this view?_
+
+A.  The Buddha looked into the heart of each person, and preached to
+suit the individual temperament and spiritual development of the hearer.
+
+
+
+[1] Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic view of the Nirvānic
+state, regarding it as annihilation.  Later students disagree with him.
+
+[2] _Saranam_.  Wijesinha Mudaliar writes me: "This word has been
+hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered _Refuge_, by
+European Pālī scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native
+Pālī scholars.  Neither Pālī etymology nor Buddhistic
+philosophy justifies the translation.  _Refuge_, in the sense of a
+_fleeing back or a place of shelter_, is quite foreign to true
+Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation.
+The root _Sr_ in Samskrt (_sara_ in Pālī) means to move, to go;
+so that _Suranim_ would denote a moving, or he or that which goes
+before or with another--a Guide or Helper.  I construe the passage
+thus: _Gachchāmi_, I go, _Buddham_, to Buddha _Saranam_, as my
+Guide.  The translation of the _Tisarana_ as the "Three Refuges," has
+given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists
+a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking
+refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities.  The term refuge
+is more applicable to Nirvāna, of which _Saranam_ is a synonym.  The
+High Priest Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the
+Pālī root _Sara_ has the secondary meaning of killing, or that
+which destroys.  _Buddham saranam gachchhāmi_ might thus be rendered
+"I go to Buddha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my
+fears--the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth,
+the third by their various examples and precepts."
+
+[3] This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only profess
+to keep five precepts; a Bhikkhu must observe strict celibacy.  So,
+also, must the laic who binds himself to observe eight of the whole ten
+Precepts for specified periods; during these periods he must be
+celibate.  The five Precepts were laid down by Buddha for all people.
+Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and eight Precepts may
+profitably bo observed by all.  It is the taking of the "Three Refuges"
+that constitutes one a Buddhist.
+
+[4] Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions.  The law of
+Cause and Effect is called the _Patice a Samuppada Dhamma_.  In the
+_Anguttara Nikaya_ the Buddha teaches that my action is my possession,
+my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb which bears me, my
+action is my relative, my action is my refuge.
+
+[5] After the appearance of the first edition, I received from one of
+the ablest Pālī scholars of Ceylon, the late L. Corneille
+Wijesinha, Esq., Mudaliar of Matale, what seems a better rendering of
+_Dhammacakka-ppavattana_ than the one previously given; he makes it
+"The Establishment of the Reign of Law".  Professor Rhys-Davids
+prefers, "The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness".  Mr.
+Wijesinha writes me: "You may use 'Kingdom of Righteousness,' too, but
+it savours more of dogmatic theology than of philosophic ethics.
+_Dhammacakkappavattana suttum_ is the discourse entitled 'The
+Establishment of the Reign of Law'."  Having shown this to the High
+Priest, I am happy to be able to say that he assents to Mr. Wijesinha's
+rendering.
+
+[6] The mixing of these arts and practices with Buddhism is a sign of
+deterioration.  Their facts and phenomena are real and capable of
+scientific explanation.  They are embraced in the term "magic," but
+when resorted to, for selfish purposes, attract bad influences about
+one, and impede spiritual advancement.  When employed for harmless and
+beneficent purposes, such as healing the sick, saving life, etc., the
+Buddha permitted their use.
+
+[7] A Buddhist ascetic who, by a prescribed course of practice, has
+attained to a superior state of spiritual and intellectual development.
+Arhats may be divided into the two general groups of the
+_Samathayanika_ and _Sukkha Vipassaka_.  The former have destroyed
+their passions, and fully developed their intellectual capacity or
+mystical insight; the latter have equally conquered passion, but not
+acquired the superior mental powers.  The former can work phenomena,
+the latter cannot.  The Arhat of the former class, when fully
+developed, is no longer a prey to the delusions of the senses, nor the
+slave of passion or mortal frailty.  _He penetrates to the root of
+whatsoever subject his mind is applied to_ without following the slow
+processes of reasoning.  His self-conquest is complete; and in place of
+the emotion and desire which vex and enthral the ordinary man, he is
+lifted up into a condition which is best expressed in the term
+"Nirvānic".  There is in Ceylon a popular misconception that the
+attainment of Arhatship is now impossible; that the Buddha had himself
+prophesied that the power would die out in one millennium after his
+death.  This rumour--and the similar one that is everywhere heard in
+India, _viz._, that this being the dark cycle of the _Kali Yuga_, the
+practice of Yoga Vidyā, or sublime spiritual science, is
+impossible--I ascribe to the ingenuity of those who should be as pure
+and (to use a non-Buddhistic but very convenient term) psychically wise
+as were their predecessors, but are not, and who therefore seek an
+excuse!  The Buddha taught quite the contrary idea.  In the _Nīga
+Nikāya_ he said: "Hear, Subbhadra!  The world will never be without
+Arhats if the ascetics (Bhikkhus) in my congregations _well and truly
+keep my precepts_."  (_Imeccha Subhaddabhikkhu samma vihareiyum asunno
+loko Arahantehiassa._)
+
+[8] Kolb, in his _History of Culture_, says: "It is Buddhism we have to
+thank for the sparing of prisoners of war, who heretofore had been
+slain; also for the discontinuance of the carrying away into captivity
+of the inhabitants of conquered lands."
+
+[9] The fifth Sīla has reference to the mere taking of intoxicants
+and stupefying drugs, which leads ultimately to drunkenness.
+
+[10] The "soul" here criticised is the equivalent of the Greek
+_psuche_.  The word "material" covers other states of matter than that
+of the physical body.
+
+[11] Upon reflection, I have substituted "personality" for
+"individuality" as written in the first edition.  The successive
+appearances upon one or many earths, or "descents into generation," of
+the _tanhaically_-coherent parts (_Skandhas_) of a certain being are a
+succession of personalities.  In each birth the _personality_ differs
+from that of the previous, or next succeeding birth.  Karma the _deus
+ex machina_, masks (or shall we say reflects?) itself, now in the
+personality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on throughout the
+string of births.  But though personalities ever shift, the one line of
+life along which they are strung like beads, runs unbroken, it is ever
+_that particular line_, never any other.  It is therefore
+individual--an individual vital undulation--which is careering through
+the objective side of Nature, under the impulse of Karma and the
+creative direction of Tanhā and persists through many cyclic
+changes.  Professor Rhys-Davids calls that which passes from
+personality to personality along the individual chain, "character" or
+"doing".  Since "character" is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, but
+the sum of one's mental qualities and moral propensities, would it not
+help to dispel what Professor Rhys-Davids calls "the desperate
+expedient of a mystery" (_Buddhism_, p. 101), if we regarded the
+life-undulation as individuality and each of its series of natal
+manifestations as a separate personality?  We _must_ have two words to
+distinguish between the concepts, and I find none so clear and
+expressive as the two I have chosen.  The perfected individual,
+Buddhistically speaking, is a Buddha, I should say; for a Buddha is but
+the rare flower of humanity, without the least supernatural admixture.
+And, as countless generations--"four_ asankhyyas_ and a hundred
+thousand cycles" (Fausboll and Rhys-David's _Buddhist Birth Stories_,
+No. 13)--are required to develop a man into a Buddha, and _the iron
+will to become one runs throughout all the successive births_, what
+shall we call that which thus wills and perseveres?  Character, or
+individuality?  An individuality, but partly manifested in any one
+birth, built up of fragments from all the births.
+
+The denial of "Soul" by Buddha (see _Sanyutta Nikāya_, the _Sutta
+Pitaka_) points to the prevalent delusive belief in an independent
+personality; an entity, which after one birth would go to a fixed place
+or state where, as a perfect entity, it could eternally enjoy or
+suffer.  And what he shows is that the "I am I" consciousness is, as
+regards permanency, logically impossible, since its elementary
+constituents constantly change and the "I" of one birth differs from
+the "I" of every other birth.  But everything that I have found in
+Buddhism accords with the theory of a gradual evolution of the
+perfected man--_viz._, a Buddha--through numberless natal experiences.
+And in the consciousness of that individual who, at the end of a given
+chain of births, attains Buddhahood, or who succeeds in attaining the
+fourth stage of Dhyāna, or mystic self-development, in any of his
+births anterior to the final one, the scenes of all these serial births
+are perceptible.  In the _Jātakat-thavannana_--so well translated by
+Professor Rhys-Davids--an expression continually recurs which, I think,
+rather supports such an idea, _viz._: "Then the Blessed One _made
+manifest an occurrence hidden by change of birth_," or "that which had
+been hidden by," etc.  Early Buddhism then clearly held to a permanency
+of records in the Ākāsha, and the potential capacity of man to
+read the same when he has evolved to the stage of true individual
+enlightenment.  At death, and in convulsions and trance, the _javana
+chittā_ is transferred to the object last created by the desires.
+The will to live brings all thoughts into objectivity.
+
+[12] The student may profitably consult Schopenhauer in this
+connection.  Arthur Schopenhauer, a modern German philosopher of the
+most eminent ability, taught that "the Principle or Radical, of Nature,
+and of all her objects, the human body included, is, intrinsically what
+we ourselves are the most conscious of in our own body, _viz._, Will.
+Intellect is a secondary capacity of the primary will, a function of
+the brain in which this will reflects itself as Nature and object and
+body, as in a mirror...  Intellect is secondary, but may lead, in
+saints, to a complete renunciation of will, as far as it urges "life"
+and is then extinguished in Nirvāna (L. A. Sanders in _The
+Theosophist_ for May 1882, p. 213).
+
+[13] Physiologically speaking, man's body is completely changed every
+seven years.
+
+[14] This fundamental or basic principle may be designated in
+Pālī, _Nidāna_--chain of causation or, literally, "Origination
+of dependence".  Twelve _Nidānas_ are specified, _viz._:
+_Avijjā_--ignorance of the truth of natural religion;
+_Samkhāra_--causal action, karma; _Viññana_--consciousness of
+personality, the "I am I"; _Nāma rūpa_--name and form;
+_Salayatana_--six senses; _Phassa_--contact, _Vedanā_--feeling,
+_Tanhā_--desire for enjoyment; _Upādāna_--clinging,
+_Bhava_--individualising existence; _Jāti---birth, caste; _Jarā,
+narana, sokaparidesa, dukkha, domanassa, upāyāsa_--decay, death,
+grief, lamentation, despair.
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+THE SANGHA
+
+
+256.  Q.  _How do Buddhist Bhikkhus differ from the priests of other
+religions?_
+
+A.  In other religions the priests claim to be intercessors between men
+and God, to help to obtain pardon of sins; the Buddhist Bhikkhus do not
+acknowledge or expect anything from a divine power.
+
+257.  Q.  _But why then was it worth while to create this Order, or
+Brotherhood, or Society, apart from the whole body of the people, if
+they were not to do what other religious orders do?_
+
+A.  The object in view was to cause the most virtuous, intelligent,
+unselfish and spiritually-minded persons to withdraw from the social
+surroundings where their sensual and other selfish desires were
+naturally strengthened, devote their lives to the acquisition of the
+highest wisdom, and fit themselves to teach and guide others out of the
+pleasant path leading towards misery, into the harder path that leads
+to true happiness and final liberation.
+
+258.  Q.  _Besides the Eight, what two additional observances are
+obligatory upon the Bhikkhus?_
+
+A.  I observe the precept to abstain from dancing, singing and
+unbecoming shows.
+
+I observe the precept to abstain from receiving gold or silver.
+
+The whole _Dasa_, or _Bhikkhu Sīla_ or Ten Precepts, are binding on
+_all_ Bhikkhus and _Samaneras_, or novices, but optional with lay
+devotees.
+
+The _Atthanga Sīla_ are for those who aspire to higher stages beyond
+the heavenly regions,[1] aspirants after Nirvāna.
+
+259.  Q.  _Are there separate Rules and Precepts for the guidance and
+discipline of the Order?_
+
+A.  Yes: there are 250, but all come under the following four heads:
+
+Principal Disciplinary Rules {_Pātimokkha Samvara Sīla_).
+
+Observances for the repression of the senses (_Indriya Samvara
+Sīla_).
+
+Regulations for justly procuring and using food, diet, robes, etc.,
+(_Paccaya Sannissita Sīla_).
+
+Directions for leading an unblemished life (_Ajivapari Suddha Sīla_).
+
+260.  Q.  _Enumerate some crimes and offences that Bhikkhus are
+particularly prohibited from committing?_
+
+A.  Real Bhikkhus abstain from:
+
+Destroying the life of beings;
+
+Stealing;
+
+False exhibition of "occult" powers to deceive anybody;
+
+Sexual intercourse;
+
+Falsehood;
+
+The use of intoxicating liquors, and eating at unseasonable times;
+
+Dancing, singing, and unbecoming shows;
+
+Using garlands, scents, perfumes, etc.;
+
+Using high and broad beds, couches, or seats; receiving presents of
+gold, silver, raw grain and meat, women, and maidens, slaves, cattle,
+elephants, etc.;
+
+Defaming;
+
+Using harsh and reproachful language;
+
+Idle talk;
+
+Reading and hearing fabulous stories and tales;
+
+Carrying messages to and from laymen;
+
+Buying and selling;
+
+Cheating, bribing, deception, and fraud;
+
+Imprisoning, plundering, and threatening others;
+
+The practice of certain specified magical arts and sciences, such as
+fortune-telling, astrological predictions, palmistry, and other
+sciences, that go under the name of magic.  Any of these would retard
+the progress of one who aimed at the attainment of Nirvāna.
+
+261.  Q.  _What are the duties of Bhikkhus to the laity?_
+
+A.  Generally, to set them an example of the highest morality; to teach
+and instruct them; to preach and expound the Law; to recite the
+_Paritta_ (comforting texts) to the sick, and publicly in times of
+public calamity, when requested to do so; and unceasingly to exhort the
+people to virtuous actions.  They should dissuade them from vice; be
+compassionate and tender-hearted, and seek to promote the welfare of
+all beings.
+
+262.  Q.  _What are the rules for admission into the Order?_
+
+A.  The candidate is not often taken before his tenth year; he must
+have the consent of his parents; be free from leprosy, boils,
+consumption and fits; be a free man; have no debts; and must not be a
+criminal or deformed or in the royal service.
+
+263.  Q.  _As a novice what is he called?_
+
+A.  _Samanera_, a pupil.[2]
+
+264.  Q.  _At what age can a Samanera be ordained as _Sramana_--monk?_
+
+A.  Not before his twentieth year.
+
+265.  Q.  When ready for ordination what happens?
+
+A.  At a meeting of Bhikkhus he is presented by a Bhikkhu as his
+proposer, who reports that he is qualified, and the candidate says: "I
+ask the Sangha, Reverend Sirs, for the _Upasampada_ (ordination)
+ceremony, etc."
+
+His introducer then recommends that he be admitted.  He is then
+accepted.
+
+266.  Q.  _What then?_
+
+A.  He puts on the robes and repeats the Three Refuges {_Tisarana_) and
+Ten Precepts (_Dasa Sīla_.)
+
+267.  Q.  _What are the two essentials to be observed?_
+
+A.  Poverty and Chastity.  A Bhikkhu before ordination must possess
+eight things, _viz._, his robes, a girdle for his loins, a
+begging-bowl, water-strainer, razor, needle, fan, sandals.  Within
+limitations strictly specified in the Vināya, he may hold certain
+other properties.
+
+268.  Q.  _What about the public confession of faults?_
+
+A.  Once every fortnight, a _Patimokka_ (Disburdenment) ceremony is
+performed, when every Bhikkhu confesses to the assembly such faults as
+he has committed and takes such penances as may be prescribed.
+
+269.  Q.  _What daily routine must he follow?_
+
+A.  He rises before daylight, washes, sweeps the vihāra, sweeps
+around the Bo-tree that grows near every vihāra, brings the
+drinking-water for the day and filters it; retires for meditation,
+offers flowers before the dāgoba, or relic-mound, or before the
+Bo-tree; then takes his begging-bowl and goes from house to house
+collecting food--which he must not ask for, but receive in his bowl as
+given voluntarily by the householders.  He returns, bathes his feet and
+eats, after which he resumes meditation.
+
+270.  Q.  _Must we believe that there is no merit in the offering of
+flowers (mala pūjā) as an act of worship?_
+
+A.  That act itself is without merit as a mere formality; but if one
+offers a flower as the sweetest, purest expression of heartfelt
+reverence for a holy being, then, indeed, is the offering an act of
+ennobling worship.
+
+271.  Q.  _What next does the Bhikkhu do?_
+
+A.  He pursues his studies.  At sunset he again sweeps the sacred
+places, lights a lamp, listens to the instructions of his superior, and
+confesses to him any fault he may have committed.
+
+272.  Q.  _Upon what are his four earnest meditations
+(Sati-patthāna) made?_
+
+A.  1.  On the body, Kayānapassānā.
+    2.  On the feeling, Vedanānupassānā.
+    3.  On the mind, Chittānnpassānā.
+    4.  On the doctrine, Dhammānupassānā.
+
+273.  Q.  _What is the aim of the four Great Efforts
+(Sammappadhānā)?_
+
+A.  To suppress one's animal desires and grow in goodness.
+
+274.  Q.  _For the perception by the Bhikkhu of the highest truth, is
+reason said to be the best, or intuition?_
+
+A.  Intuition--a mental state in which any desired truth is
+instantaneously grasped.
+
+275.  Q.  _And when can that development be reached?_
+
+A.  When one, by the practice of Jñāna, comes to its fourth stage of
+unfolding.
+
+276.  Q.  _Are we to believe that in the final stage of Jñāna, and
+in the condition called Samādhi, the mind is a blank and thought is
+arrested?_
+
+A.  Quite the contrary.  It is then that one's consciousness is most
+intensely active, and one's power to gain knowledge correspondingly
+vast.
+
+277.  Q.  _Try to give me a simile?_
+
+A.  In the ordinary waking state one's view of knowledge is as limited
+as the sight of a man who walks on a road between high hills; in the
+higher consciousness of Jñāna and _Samādhi_ it is like the sight
+of the eagle poised in the upper sky and overlooking a whole country.
+
+278.  Q.  _What do our books say about the Buddha's use of this
+faculty?_
+
+A.  They tell us that it was his custom, every morning, to glance over
+the world and, by his divine (clairvoyant) sight, see where there were
+persons ready to receive the truth.  He would then contrive, if
+possible, that it should reach them.  When persons visited him he would
+look into their minds, read their secret motives, and then preach to
+them according to their needs.
+
+
+
+[1] The Upāsaka and Upāsika observe these on the Buddhist
+_Uposatha_ (Sabbath) days (in Skr. _Upavasata_).  They are the 8th,
+14th and 15th days of each half lunar month.
+
+[2] The relationship to his Guru, or teacher, is almost like that of
+godson to godfather among Christians, only more real, for the teacher
+becomes father, mother, family and all to him.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV
+
+THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
+
+
+279.  Q.  _As regards the number its followers, how does Buddhism at
+this date compare with the other chief religions?_
+
+A.  The followers of the Buddha Dharma outnumber those of every other
+religion.
+
+280.  Q.  _What is the estimated number?_
+
+A.  About five hundred millions (5,000 lakhs or 500 crores): this is
+five-thirteenths, or not quite half, of the estimated population of the
+globe.
+
+281.  Q.  _Have many great battles been fought and many countries
+conquered; has much human blood been spilt to spread the Buddha Dharma?_
+
+A.  History does not record one of those cruelties and crimes as having
+been committed to propagate our religion.  So far as we know, it has
+not caused the spilling of a drop of blood.  (See footnote
+_ante_--Professor Kolb's testimony.)
+
+282.  Q.  _What, then, is the secret of its wonderful spread?_
+
+
+A.  It can be nothing else than its intrinsic excellence: its
+self-evident basis of truth, its sublime moral teaching, and its
+sufficiency for all human needs.
+
+283.  Q.  _How has it been propagated?_
+
+A.  The Buddha, during the forty-five years of his life as a Teacher,
+travelled widely in India and preached the Dharma.  He sent his wisest
+and best disciples to do the same throughout India.
+
+284.  Q.  _When did He send for his pioneer missionaries?_
+
+A.  On the full-moon day of the month _Wap_ (October).
+
+285.  Q.  _What did he tell them?_
+
+A.  He called them together and said: "Go forth, Bhikkhus, go and
+preach the law to the world.  Work for the good of others as well as
+for your own....  Bear ye the glad tidings to every man.  Let no two of
+you take the same way."
+
+286.  Q.  _How long before the Christian era did this happen?_
+
+A.  About six centuries.
+
+287.  Q.  _What help did Kings give?_
+
+A.  Besides the lower classes, great Kings, Rājās and
+Mahārājās were converted and gave their influence to spread
+the religion.
+
+288.  Q.  _What about pilgrims?_
+
+A.  Learned pilgrims came in different centuries to India and carried
+back with them books and teachings to their native lands.  So,
+gradually, whole nations forsook their own faiths and became Buddhists.
+
+289.  Q.  _To whom, more than to any other person, is the world
+indebted for the permanent establishment of Buddha's religion?_
+
+A.  To the Emperor Ashoka, surnamed the Great, sometimes Piyadāsi,
+sometimes Dharmāshoka.  He was the son of Bindusāra, King of
+Magadha, arid grandson of Chandragupta, who drove the Greeks out of
+India.
+
+290.  Q.  _When did he reign?_
+
+A.  In the third century B.C., about two centuries after the Buddha's
+time.  Historians disagree as to his exact date, but not very greatly.
+
+291.  Q.  _What made him great?_
+
+A.  He was the most powerful monarch in Indian history, as warrior and
+as statesman; but his noblest characteristics were his love of truth
+and justice, tolerance of religious differences, equity of government,
+kindness to the sick, to the poor, and to animals.  His name is revered
+from Siberia to Ceylon.
+
+292.  Q.  _Was he born a Buddhist?_
+
+A.  No, he was converted in the tenth year after his anointment as
+King, by Nigrodha Samanera, an Arhat.
+
+293.  Q.  _What did he do for Buddhism?_
+
+A.  He drove out bad Bhikkhus, encouraged good ones, built monasteries
+and dāgobas everywhere, established gardens, opened hospitals for
+men and animals, convened a council at Patna to revise and re-establish
+the Dharma, promoted female religious education, and sent embassies to
+five Greek kings, his allies, and to all the sovereigns of India, to
+preach the doctrines of the Buddha.  It was he who built the monuments
+at Kapilavastu, Buddha Gāya, Isipatana and Kusinārā, our four
+chief places of pilgrimage, besides thousands more.
+
+294.  Q.  _What absolute proofs exist as to his noble character?_
+
+A.  Within recent years there have been discovered, in all parts of
+India, fourteen Edicts of his, inscribed on living rocks, and eight on
+pillars erected by his orders.  They fully prove him to have been one
+of the wisest and most high-minded sovereigns who ever lived.
+
+29.5.  Q.  _What character do these inscriptions give to Buddhism?_
+
+A.  They show it to be a religion of noble tolerance, of universal
+brotherhood, of righteousness and justice.  It has no taint of
+selfishness, sectarianism or intolerance.  They have done more than
+anything else to win for it the respect in which it is now held by the
+great pandits of western countries.
+
+296.  Q.  _What most precious gift did Dharmāshoka make to Buddhism?_
+
+A.  He gave his beloved son, Mahinda, and daughter, Sanghamitta, to the
+Order, and sent them to Ceylon to introduce the religion.
+
+297.  Q.  _Is this fact recorded in the history of Ceylon?_
+
+A.  Yes, it is all recorded in the Mahāvansa, by the keepers of the
+royal records, who were then living and saw the missionaries.
+
+298.  Q.  _Is there some proof of Sanghamitta's mission still visible?_
+
+A.  Yes; she brought with her to Ceylon a branch of the very Bodhi tree
+under which the Buddha sat when he became Enlightened, and it is still
+growing.
+
+299.  Q.  _Where?_
+
+A.  At Annrādhapura.  The history of it has been officially
+preserved to the present time.  Planted in 306 B.C., it is the oldest
+historical tree in the world.
+
+300.  Q.  _Who was the reigning sovereign at that time?_
+
+A.  Dēvanampiyatissa.  His consort, Queen Anula, had invited
+Sanghamitta to come and establish the Bhikkhuni branch of the Order.
+
+301.  Q.  _Who came with Sanghamitta?_
+
+A.  Many other Bhikkhunis.  She, in due time, admitted the Queen and
+many of her ladies, together with five hundred virgins, into the Order.
+
+302.  Q.  _Can we trace the effects of the foreign work of the Emperor
+Ashoka's missionaries?_
+
+A.  His son and daughter introduced Buddhism into Ceylon: his monks
+gave it to the whole of Northern India, to fourteen Indian nations
+outside its boundaries, and to five Greek kings, his allies, with whom
+he made treaties to admit his religious preachers.
+
+303.  Q.  _Can you name them?_
+
+A.  ANTIOCHUS of Syria, PTOLEMY of Egypt, ANTIGONUS of Macedon, MARGAS
+of Cyrene, and ALEXANDER of Epiros.
+
+ 304.  Q.  _Where do we learn this?_
+
+A.  From the Edicts themselves of Ashoka the Great, inscribed by him on
+rocks and stone pillars, which are still standing and can be seen by
+everybody who chooses to visit the places.
+
+305.  Q.  _Through what western religious brotherhoods did the Buddha
+Dharma mingle itself with western thought?_
+
+A.  Through the sects of the Therapeuts of Egypt and the Essenes of
+Palestine.
+
+306.  Q.  _When were Buddhist books first introduced into China?_
+
+A.  As early as the second or third century B.C.  Five of
+Dharmāshoka's monks are said--in the Samanta Pasādika and the
+Sārattha Dīpanī--two Pālī books--to have been sent to
+the five divisions of China.
+
+307.  Q.  _Whence and when did it reach Korea?_
+
+A.  From China, in the year A. D. 372.
+
+308.  Q.  _Whence and when did it reach Japan?_
+
+A.  From Korea, in A. D. 552.
+
+309.  Q.  _Whence and when did it reach Cochin China, Formosa, Java,
+Mongolia, Yorkand, Balk, Bokhara, Afghanistan and other Central Asian
+countries?_
+
+A.  Apparently in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.
+
+310.  Q.  _From Ceylon, whither and when did it spread?_
+
+A.  To Burma, in A.D. 450, and thence gradually into Arakan, Kamboya
+and Pegu.  In the seventh century (A.D. 638) it spread to Siam, where
+it is now, as it has been always since then, the State religion.
+
+311.  Q.  _From Kashmir, where else did it spread besides to China?_
+
+A.  To Nepāl and Tibet.
+
+312.  Q.  Why is it that Buddhism, which was once the prevailing
+religion throughout India, is now almost extinct there?
+
+A.  Buddhism was at first pure and noble, the very teaching of the
+Tathagata; its Sangha were virtuous and observed the Precepts; it won
+all hearts and spread joy through many nations, as the morning light
+sends life through the flowers.  But after some centuries, bad Bhikkhus
+got ordination (_Upasampada_) the Sangha became rich, lazy, and
+sensual, the Dharma was corrupted, and the Indian nation abandoned it.
+
+313.  Q.  _Did anything happen about the ninth or tenth century A.D. to
+hasten its downfall?_
+
+A.  Yes.
+
+314.  Q.  _Anything besides the decay of spirituality, the corruption
+of the Sangha, and the reaction of the populace from a higher ideal of
+man to unintelligent idolatry?_
+
+A.  Yes.  It is said that the Mussalmāns invaded, overran and
+conquered large areas of India; everywhere doing their utmost to stamp
+out our religion.
+
+315.  Q.  _What cruel acts are they charged with doing?_
+
+A.  They burnt, pulled down or otherwise destroyed our vihāras,
+slaughtered our Bhikkhus, and consumed with fire our religious books.
+
+316.  Q.  _Was our literature completely destroyed in India?_
+
+A.  No.  Many Bhikkhus fled across the borders into Tibet and other
+safe places of refuge, carrying their books with them.
+
+317.  Q.  _Have any traces of these books been recently discovered?_
+
+A.  Yes.  Rai Bhādur Sarat Chandra Dās, C.I.E., a noted Bengali
+pandit, saw hundreds of them in the vihāra libraries of Tibet,
+brought copies of some of the most important back with him, and is now
+employed by the Government of India in editing and publishing them.
+
+318.  Q.  _In which country have we reason to believe the sacred books
+of primitive Buddhism have been best preserved and least corrupted?_
+
+A.  Ceylon.  The _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ says that in this island
+Buddhism has, for specified reasons, "retained almost its pristine
+purity to modern times".
+
+319.  Q.  _Has any revision of the text of the Pitakas been made in
+modern times?_
+
+A.  Yes.  A careful revision of the Vināya Pitaka was made in Ceylon
+in the year A.D. 1875, by a convention of the most learned Bhikkhus,
+under the presidency of H. Sumangala, Pradhāna Sthavīra.
+
+320.  Q.  _Has there been any friendly intercourse in the interest of
+Buddhism between the peoples of the Southern and those of the Northern
+Buddhist countries?_
+
+A.  In the year A.D. 1891, a successful attempt was made to get the
+Pradhāna Nayakas of the two great divisions to agree to accept
+fourteen propositions as embodying fundamental Buddhistic beliefs
+recognised and taught by both divisions.  These propositions, drafted
+by Colonel Olcott, were carefully translated into Burmese, Sinhalese
+and Japanese, discussed one by one, unanimously adopted and signed by
+the chief monks, and published in January 1892.
+
+321.  Q.  _With what good result?_
+
+A.  As the result of the good understanding now existing, a number of
+Japanese bhikkhus and samaneras have been sent to Ceylon and India to
+study Pālī and Samskrt.
+
+322.  Q.  _Are there signs that the Buddha Dharma is growing in favour
+in non-Buddhistic countries?_[1]
+
+A.  There are.  Translations of our more valuable books are appearing,
+many articles in reviews, magazines and newspapers are being published,
+and excellent original treatises by distinguished writers are coming
+from the press.  Moreover, Buddhist and non-Buddhist lecturers are
+publicly discoursing on Buddhism to large audiences in western
+countries.  The Shin Shu sect of Japanese Buddhists have actually
+opened missions at Honolulu, San Francisco, Sacramento and other
+American places.
+
+323.  Q.  _What two leading ideas of ours are chiefly taking hold upon
+the western mind?_
+
+A.  Those of Karma and Reincarnation.  The rapidity of their acceptance
+is very surprising.
+
+324.  Q.  _What is believed to be the explanation of this?_
+
+A.  Their appeals to the natural instinct of justice, and their evident
+reasonableness.
+
+
+
+
+[1] See Appendix.
+
+
+
+
+PART V
+
+BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE
+
+325.  Q.  _Has Buddhism any right to be considered a scientific
+religion, or may it be classified as a "revealed" one?_
+
+A.  Most emphatically it is not a revealed religion.  The Buddha did
+not so preach, nor is it so understood.  On the contrary, he gave it
+out as the statement of eternal truths, which his predecessors had
+taught like himself.
+
+326.  Q.  _Repeat again the name of the Sutta, in which the Buddha
+tells us not to believe in an alleged revelation without testing it by
+one's reason and experience?_
+
+A.  The Kālāma Sutta, of the Anguthara Nikāya.
+
+327.  Q.  _Do Buddhists accept the theory that everything has been
+formed out of nothing by a Creator?_
+
+A.  The Buddha taught that two things are causeless, _viz._,
+Ākāsha, and Nirvāna.  Everything has come ont of Ākāsha,
+in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, after a certain
+existence, passes away.  Nothing ever came out of nothing.  We do not
+believe in miracles; hence we deny creation, and cannot conceive of a
+creation of something out of nothing.  Nothing organic is eternal.
+Everything is in a state of constant flux, and undergoing change and
+reformation, keeping up the continuity according to the law of
+evolution.
+
+328.  Q.  _Is Buddhism opposed to education, and to the study of
+science?_
+
+A.  Quite the contrary: in the _Sigālowāda Sutta_ in a discourse
+preached by the Buddha, He specified as one of the duties of a teacher
+that he should give his pupils "instruction in science and lore".  The
+Buddha's higher teachings are for the enlightened, the wise, and the
+thoughtful.
+
+329.  Q.  _Can you show any further endorsement of Buddhism by science?_
+
+A.  The Buddha's doctrine teaches that there were many progenitors of
+the human race; also that there is a principle of differentiation among
+men; certain individuals have a greater capacity for the rapid
+attainment of Wisdom and arrival at Nirvāna than others.
+
+330.  Q.  _Any other?_
+
+A.  Buddhism supports the teaching of the indestructibility of force.
+
+331.  Q.  _Should Buddhism be called a chart of science or a code of
+morals?_
+
+A.  Properly speaking, a pure moral philosophy, a system of ethics and
+transcendental metaphysics.  It is so eminently practical that the
+Buddha kept silent when Malunka asked about the origin of things.
+
+332.  Q.  _Why did he do that?_
+
+A.  Because he thought that our chief aim should be to see things as
+they exist around us and try to make them better, not to waste time in
+intellectual speculations.
+
+333.  Q.  _What do Buddhists say is the reason for the occasional birth
+of very good and wise children of bad parents, and that of very bad
+ones of good parents?_
+
+A.  It is because of the respective Karmas of children and parents;
+each may have deserved that such unusual relationships should be formed
+in the present birth.
+
+334.  Q.  _Is anything said about the body of the Buddha giving out a
+bright light?_
+
+A.  Yes, there was a divine radiance sent forth from within by the
+power of his holiness.
+
+335.  Q.  _What is it called in Pālī?_
+
+A.  Buddharansi, the Buddha rays.
+
+336.  Q.  _How many colours could be seen in it?_
+
+A.  Six, linked in pairs.
+
+337.  Q.  _Their names?_
+
+A.  Nīla, Pita, Lohita, Avadata, Mangastā, Prabhasvra.
+
+338.  Q.  _Did other persons emit such shining light?_
+
+A.  Yes, all Arhats did and, in fact, the light shines stronger and
+brighter in proportion to the spiritual development of the person.
+
+339.  Q.  _Where do we see these colours represented?_
+
+A.  In all vihāras where there are painted images of the Buddha.
+They are also seen in the stripes of the Buddhist Flag, first made in
+Ceylon but now widely adopted throughout Buddhist countries.
+
+340.  Q.  _In which discourse does the Buddha himself speak of this
+shining about him?_
+
+A.  In the _Mahā-Parinibbana Suttā_, Ānanda his favourite
+disciple, noticing the great splendour which  came  from  his  Master's
+body, the Buddha said that on two occasions this extraordinary shining
+occurs, (_a_) just after a Tathāgatā gains the supreme insight,
+and (_b_) on the night when he passes finally away.
+
+341.  Q.  _Where do we read of this great brightness being emitted from
+the body of another Buddha?_
+
+A.  In the story of Sumedha and Dipānkāra Buddha, found in the
+_Nidānakathā_ of the _Jātaka_ book, or story of the
+reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Siddhārtha Gautama.
+
+342.  Q.  _How is it described?_
+
+A.  As a halo of a fathom's depth.
+
+343.  Q.  _What do the Hindus call it?_
+
+A.  _Tejas_; its extended radiance they call Prākāsha.
+
+344.  Q.  _What do Europeans call it now?_
+
+A.  The human aura.
+
+345.  Q.  _What great scientist has proved the existence of this aura
+by carefully conducted experiments?_
+
+A.  The Baron Von Reichenbach.  His experiments are fully described in
+his _Researches_, published in 1844-5.  Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, has,
+quite recently, photographed this light.
+
+346.  Q.  _Is this bright aura a miracle or a natural phenomenon?_
+
+A.  Natural.  It has been proved that not only all human beings but
+animals, trees, plants and even stones have it.
+
+347.  Q.  _What peculiarity has it in the case of a Buddha or an Arhat?_
+
+A.  It is immensely brighter and more extended than in cases of other
+beings and objects.  It is the evidence of their superior development
+in the power of _Iddhī_.  The light has been seen coming from
+dāgobas in Ceylon where relics of the Buddha are said to be
+enshrined.
+
+348.  Q.  _Do people of other religions besides Buddhism and
+Hindūism also believe in this light?_
+
+A.  Yes, in all pictures of Christian artists this light is represented
+as shining about the bodies of their holy personages.  The same belief
+is found to have existed in other religions.
+
+349.  Q.  _What historical incident supports the modern theory of
+hypnotic suggestion?_
+
+A.  That of Chullapanthaka, as told in the Pālī Commentary on the
+_Dhammapada_, etc.
+
+350.  Q.  _Give me the facts._
+
+A.  He was a bhikkhu who became an Arhat.  On that very day the Buddha
+sent a messenger to call him.  When the man reached the Vihāra, he
+saw three hundred bhikkhus in one group, each exactly like the others
+in every respect.  On his asking which was Chullapanthaka, every one of
+the three hundred figures replied: "I am Chullapanthaka."
+
+351.  Q.  _What did the messenger do?_
+
+A.  In his confusion he returned and reported to the Buddha.
+
+352.  Q.  _What did the Buddha then tell him?_
+
+A.  To return to the vihāra and, if the same thing happened, to
+catch by the arm the _first_ figure who said he was Chullapanthaka and
+lead him to him.  The Buddha knew that the new Arhat would make this
+display of his acquired power to impress illusionary pictures of
+himself upon the messenger.
+
+353.  Q.  _What is this power of illusion called in Pālī?_
+
+A.  _Manomaya Iddhī_.
+
+354.  Q.  _Were the illusionary copies of the Arhat's person material?
+Were they composed of substance and could they have been felt and
+handled by the messenger?_
+
+A.  No; they were pictures impressed by his thought and trained
+will-power upon the messenger's mind.
+
+355.  Q.  _To what would you compare them?_
+
+A.  To a man's reflection in a mirror, being exactly like him yet
+without solidity.
+
+356.  Q.  _To make such an illusion on the messenger's mind, what was
+necessary?_
+
+A.  That Chullapanthaka should clearly conceive in his own mind his
+exact appearance, and then impress that, with as many duplicates or
+repetitions as he chose, upon the sensitive brain of the messenger.
+
+357.  Q.  _What is this process now called?_
+
+A.  Hypnotic suggestion.
+
+358.  Q.  _Could any third party have also seen these illusionary
+figures?_
+
+A.  That would depend on the will of the Arhat or hypnotiser.
+
+359.  Q.  _What do you mean?_
+
+A.  Supposing that fifty or five hundred persons were there, instead of
+one, the Arhat could will that the illusion should be seen by all
+alike; or, if he chose, he could will that the messenger should be the
+only one to see them.
+
+360.  Q.  _Is this branch of science well known in our day?_
+
+A.  Very well known; it is familiar to all students of mesmerism and
+hypnotism.
+
+361.  Q.  _In what does our modern scientific belief support the theory
+of Karma, as taught in Buddhism?_
+
+A.  Modern scientists teach that every generation of men is heir to the
+consequences of the virtues and the vices of the preceding generation,
+not in the mass, as such, but in every individual case.  Every one of
+us, according to Buddhism, gets a birth which represents the causes
+generated by him in an antecedent birth.  This is the idea of Karma.
+
+362.  Q.  _What say the Vāsettha Sutta about the causation in
+Nature?_
+
+A.  It says: "The world exists by cause; all things exist by cause, all
+beings are bound by cause."
+
+363.  Q.  _Does Buddhism teach the unchangeableness of the visible
+universe; our earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mineral,
+vegetable, animal and human kingdoms?_
+
+A.  No.  It teaches that all are constantly changing, and all must
+disappear in course of time.
+
+364.  Q.  _Never to reappear?_
+
+A.  Not so: the principle of evolution, guided by Karma, individual and
+collective, will evolve another universe with its contents, as our
+universe was evolved out of the Ākāsha.
+
+365.  Q.  _Does Buddhism admit that man has in his nature any latent
+powers for the production of phenomena commonly called "miracles"?_
+
+A.  Yes; but they are natural, not supernatural.  They may be developed
+by a certain system which is laid down in our sacred books, the
+Visuddhi Mārga for instance.
+
+366.  Q.  _What is this branch of science called?_
+
+A.  The Pālī name is Iddhi-vidhanānā.
+
+367.  Q.  _How many kinds are there?_
+
+A.  Two:  _Bāhira_, _i.e._, one in which the phenomena-working power
+may be temporarily obtained by ascetic practices and also by resort to
+drugs, the recitation of _mantras_ (charms), or other extraneous aids;
+and _Sasaniks_, that in which the power in question is acquired by
+interior self-development, and covers all and more than the phenomena
+of _Laukika Iddhī_.
+
+368.  Q.  _What class of men enjoy these powers?_
+
+A.  They gradually develop in one which pursues a certain course of
+ascetic practice called _Dhyāna_.
+
+369.  Q.  Can this Iddhi power be lost?[1]
+
+A.  The _Bāhira_ can be lost, but the _Sasanika_ never, when once
+acquired.  _Lokottara_ knowledge once obtained is never lost, and it is
+by this knowledge _only_ that the absolute condition of Nirvāna is
+known by the Arhat.  And this knowledge can be got by following the
+noble life of the Eightfold Path.
+
+370.  Q.  _Had Buddha the Lokottara Iddhī?_
+
+A.  Yes, in perfection.
+
+371.  Q.  _And his disciples also had it?_
+
+A.  Yes, some but not all equally; the capacity for acquiring these
+occult powers varies with the individual.
+
+372.  Q.  _Give examples?_
+
+A.  Of all the disciples of the Buddha, Mogallāna was possessed of
+the most extraordinary powers for making phenomena, while Ānanda
+could develop none during the twenty-five years in which he was the
+personal and intimate disciple of the Buddha himself.  Later he did, as
+the Buddha had foretold he would.
+
+373.  Q.  _Does a man acquire these powers suddenly or gradually?_
+
+A.  Normally, they gradually develop themselves as the disciple
+progressively gains control over his lower nature in a series of
+births.[2]
+
+374.  Q.  _Does Buddhism pretend that the miracle of raising those who
+are dead is possible?_
+
+A.  No.  The Buddha teaches the contrary, in that beautiful story of
+Kisā Gotami and the mustard-seed.  But when a person only seems to
+be dead but is not actually so, resuscitation is possible.
+
+375.  Q.  _Give me an idea of these successive stages of the Lokottara
+development in Iddhī?_
+
+A.  There are six degrees attainable by Arhats; what is higher than
+them is to be reached only by a Buddha.
+
+376.  Q.  _Describe the six stages or degrees?_
+
+A.  We may divide them into two groups, of three each.  The first to
+include (1) Progressive retrospection, _viz._, a gradually acquired
+power to look backward in time towards the origin of things; (2)
+Progressive foresight, or power of prophecy; (3) Gradual extinction of
+desires and attachments to material things.
+
+377.  Q.  _What would the second group include?_
+
+A.  The same faculties, but inimitably developed.  Thus, the full Arhat
+possesses perfect retrospection, perfect foresight, and has absolutely
+extinguished the last trace of desire and selfish attractions.
+
+378.  Q.  _What are the four means for obtaining Iddhī?_
+
+A.  The will, its exertion, mental development, and discrimination
+between right and wrong.
+
+379.  Q.  _Our Scriptures relate hundreds of instances of phenomena
+produced by Arhats: what did you say was the name of this faculty or
+power?_
+
+A.  _Iddhī vidha_.  One possessing this can, by manipulating the
+forces of Nature, produce any wonderful phenomenon, _i.e._, make any
+scientific experiment he chooses.
+
+380.  Q.  _Did the Buddha encourage displays of phenomena?_
+
+A.  No; he expressly discouraged them as tending to create confusion in
+the minds of those who were not acquainted with the principles
+involved.  They also tempt their possessors to show them merely to
+gratify idle curiosity and their own vanity.  Moreover, similar
+phenomena can be shown by magicians and sorcerers learned in the
+_Laukika_, or the baser form of _Iddhī_ science.  All false
+pretensions to supernatural attainment by monks are among the
+unpardonable sins (_Tevijja Sutta_).
+
+381.  Q.  _You spoke of a "deva" having appeared to the Prince
+Siddhārtha under a variety of forms; what do Buddhists believe
+respecting races of elemental invisible beings having relations with
+mankind?_
+
+A.  They believe that there are such beings who inhabit worlds or
+spheres of their own.  The Buddhist doctrine is that, by interior
+self-development and conquest over his baser nature, the Arhat becomes
+superior to even the most formidable of the devas, and may subject and
+control the lower orders.
+
+382.  Q.  _How many kinds of devas are there?_
+
+A.  Three: _Kāmāvācharā_ (those who are still under the
+domination of the passions); _Rūpāvācharā_ (a higher class,
+which still retain an individual form): _Arāpāvācharā_ (the
+highest in degree of purification, who are devoid of material forms).
+
+383.  Q.  _Should we fear any of them?_
+
+A.  He who is pure and compassionate in heart and of a courageous mind
+need fear nothing: no man, god, _brahmarakkhas_, demon or deva, can
+injure him, but some have power to torment the impure, as well as those
+who invite their approach.
+
+
+
+[1] Sumangala Sthavīra explains to me that those transcendent powers
+are permanently possessed only by one who has subdued all the passions
+(_Klesa_), in other words, an Arhat.  The powers may be developed by a
+bad man and used for doing evil things, but their activity is but
+brief, the rebellious passions again dominate the sorcerer, and he
+becomes at last their victim.
+
+[2] When the powers suddenly show themselves, the inference is that the
+individual had developed himself in the next anterior birth.  We do not
+believe in eccentric breaks in natural law.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+The following text of the fourteen items of belief which have been
+accepted as fundamental principles in both the Southern and Northern
+sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were
+submitted by me personally, have so much historical importance that
+they are added to the present edition of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an
+Appendix.  It has very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince
+Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that having had the
+document translated to them, the Chief Lamas of the great Mongolian
+Buddhist monasteries declared to him that they accept every one of the
+propositions as drafted, with the one exception that the date of the
+Buddha is by them believed to have been some thousands of years earlier
+than the one given by me.  This surprising fact had not hitherto come
+to my knowledge.  Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse the real
+epoch of Sākya Muni with that of his alleged next predecessor?  Be
+this as it may, it is a most encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic
+world may now be said to have united to the extent at least of these
+Fourteen Propositions.
+
+H. S. O.
+
+
+
+FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS
+
+I  Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and
+brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving
+kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.
+
+II  The universe was evolved, not created; and its functions according
+to law, not according to the caprice of any God.
+
+III  The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural.  They have,
+we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by
+certain illuminated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA meaning
+"Enlightened".
+
+IV  The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sākya Muni, or
+Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500
+years ago.  He is an historical personage and his name was
+Siddhārtha Gautama.
+
+V  Sākya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied
+desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow.  To
+get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to
+escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish
+desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.
+
+VI  Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing.
+When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth,
+considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount
+need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such
+repeated rebirths can be abolished.  Ignorance also begets the illusive
+and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the
+other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable
+pleasure or torment.
+
+VII  The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the
+persevering practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct,
+development of intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction of
+desire for the lower personal pleasures.
+
+VIII  The desire to live being the cause of rebirth, when that is
+extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected individual attains by
+meditation that highest state of peace called _Nirvāna_.
+
+IX  Sākya Muni taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow
+removed by the knowledge of the four Noble Truths, _viz._:
+
+1. The miseries of existence;
+
+2. The cause productive of misery, which is the desire ever renewed of
+satisfying oneself without being able ever to secure that end;
+
+3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of oneself from it;
+
+4. The means of obtaining this destruction of desire.  The means which
+he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path, _viz._: Right
+Belief; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Means of
+Livelihood; Right Exertion; Right Remembrance; Right Meditation.
+
+X  Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment, or the
+development of that Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.
+
+XI  The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Tathāgathā
+(Buddha) himself, as:
+
+  To cease from all sin,
+  To get virtue,
+  To purify the heart.
+
+XII  The universe is subject to a natural causation known as "Karma".
+The merits and demerits of a being in past existences determine his
+condition in the present one.  Each man, therefore, has prepared the
+causes of the effects which he now experiences.
+
+XIII  The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed by
+the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the
+moral code of Buddhism, _viz._: (1) Kill not; (2) Steal not; (3)
+Indulge in no forbidden sexual pleasure; (4) Lie not; (5) Take no
+intoxication or stupefying drug or liquor.  Five other precepts which
+need not be here enumerated should be observed by those who would
+attain, more quickly than the average layman, the release from misery
+and rebirth.
+
+XIV  Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity.  Gautama Buddha
+taught it to be the duty of a parent to have his child educated in
+science and literature.  He also taught that no one should believe what
+is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition,
+unless it accord with reason.
+
+Drafted as a common platform upon which all Buddhists can agree.
+
+H. S. OLCOTT, P.T.S.
+
+
+
+Respectfully submitted for the approval of the High Priests of the
+nations which we severally represent, in the Buddhist Conference held
+at Adyar, Madras, on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th of January,
+1891 (A.B. 2434).
+
+  Japan  . . . . . ( Kozen Gunaratana
+                   ( Chiezo Tokuzawa
+  Burmah . . . . .   U. Hmoay Tha Aung
+  Ceylon . . . . .   Dhammapala Hevavitarana.
+  The Maghs of
+  Chittagong . . .   Krshna Chandra Chowdry, by
+                     his appointed Proxy, Maung
+                     Tha Dwe.
+
+BURMAH
+
+Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Burmah, this 3rd day of
+February, 1891 (A. B. 2434):
+
+Tha-tha-na-baing Saydawgyi; Aung Myi Shwebōn Sayadaw; Me-ga-waddy
+Sayadaw; Hmat-Khaya Sayadaw; Hti-lin Sayadaw; Myadaung Sayadaw;
+Hla-Htwe Sayadaw; and sixteen others.
+
+CEYLON
+
+Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Ceylon this 25th day of
+February, 1891 (A.B. 2434); Mahannwara upawsatha puspārāma
+vihārādhipati Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sobhitābhidhāna
+Mahā Nāyaka Sthavirayan wahanse wamha.
+
+(Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sabhitābhidhana, High Priest of the
+Malwatta Vihare at Kandy).
+
+                                          (Sd.) HIPPOLA.
+
+
+Mahanuwara Asgiri vihārādhipati Yatawattē
+Chandajottyābhidhana Mahā Nāyaka Sthavirayan wahanse
+wamha--(Yatawattē Chandajottyābhidhana, High Priest of Asgiri
+Tihare at Kandy).
+
+                                          (Sd.) YATAWATTE
+
+
+Hikkaduwe Srī Sumangala Sripādasthāne saha Kolamba palate
+pradhāna Nāyaka Sthavirayo (Hikkaduwe Srī Sumangala, High
+Priest of Adam's Peak and the District of Colombo).
+
+                                          (Sd.) H. SUMANGALA
+
+
+Maligawe Prāchina Pustakālāyadhyakshaka Surīyagoda
+Sonuttara Sthavirayo (Suriyagoda Sonuttara, Librarian of the Oriental
+Library at the Temple of the Tooth Relic at Kandy).
+
+                                          (Sd.) S. SONUTTARA
+
+
+Sugata Sāsanadhaja Vinayā chāriya
+Dhammalankārābhidhāna Nāyaka Sthavira.
+
+                                          (Sd.) W. DHAMMALANKARA
+
+
+Pawara neruttika chariya Mahā Vibhavi Subhuti of Waskaduwa.
+
+                                          (Sd.) W. SUBHUTI
+
+JAPAN
+
+Accepted as included within the body of Northern Buddhism.
+
+  Shaku Genyu        (Shingon    Shu)
+  Fukuda Nichiyo     (Nichiren    " )
+  Sanada Seyko       (Zen         " )
+  Ito Quan Shyu      ( "          " )
+  Takehana Hakuyo    (Jodo        " )
+  Kono Rioshin       (Ji-Shu      " )
+  Kiro Ki-ko         (Jodo Seizan " )
+  Harutani Shinsho   (Tendai      " )
+  Manabe Shun-myo    (Shingon     " )
+
+
+CHITTAGONG
+
+Accepted for the Buddhists of Chittagong.
+
+  Nagawa Parvata Vihāarādhipati
+  Guna Megu Wini-Lankara,
+  Harbing, Chittagong, Bengal.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+The Buddhist Catechism has been compiled from personal studies in
+Ceylon, and in part from the following works:
+
+
+  _Vinaya Texts_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Davids and Oldenberg.
+  _Buddhist Literature in China_ . . . . . . Beal.
+  _Catena of Buddhist Scriptures_  . . . . . Do.
+  _Buddhaghosa's Parables_ . . . . . . . . . Rogers.
+  _Buddhist Birth Stories_ . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Davids.
+  _Legend of Gautama_  . . . . . . . . . . . Bigandet.
+  _Chinese Buddhism_ . . . . . . . . . . . . Edkins.
+  _Kalpa Sutra and Nava Patva_ . . . . . . . Stevenson.
+  _Buddha and Early Buddhism_  . . . . . . . Lillie.
+  _Sutta Nipāta_  . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Coomara Swami.
+  _Nāgananda_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broyd.
+  _Kusa Jataka_  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steele.
+  _Buddhism_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhys-Davids.
+  _Dhammapada_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Max Müller.
+
+  _Romantic History of Buddha_ . . . . . . . Beal.
+  _Udānavarga_  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rockhill.
+  _Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects_ . . . . . B. Nanjio.
+  _The Gospel of Buddha_ . . . . . . . . . . Paul Carus.
+  _The Dharma_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do.
+  _Ancient India_  . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. C. Dutt.
+  _The "Sacred Books of the East" Series_  . Max Müller's Edition.
+  _Encyclopædia Britannica_
+
+
+
+
+
+    Printed by
+   Annie Besant
+  Vasanta Press
+  Adyar Madras
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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