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BUDDHISM

Buddhism, that once popular philosophy of India, has now forsaken the land of its birth, and is almost unknown to the India of to-day, being represented by only a few northern tribes. In Burmah, Ceylon, Napal, Thibet, China, Japan, and other countries, however, the Buddhists hold their own and their followers are estimated at some 300,000,000 souls.

It is very difficult to explain the fundamental principles of Buddhism to the Western student, for his mind is not accustomed to considering a Law without a Law-maker , which idea underlies the Buddhistic thought. Buddhism has been called atheistic, by many Western writers, and atheistic it may be, for it certainly does not hold to the idea of a “God” in the Western understanding of that term. It holds rather to the idea of a Principle of Law which manifests in the countless and ever-changing shapes and forms and forces of the universe. At the last, however, Buddhism may be seen to hold to the existence of a Something, infinite, eternal, changeless, and indivisible, under, in, behind, and holding together the World of Change. This Something may be thought of either as Abstract Law, or else as Universal Will. But this Will is to be thought of merely as an abstract thing rather than as a thing of properties, qualities and attributes— but possessing infinite possibilities of manifestation . So, at the last, the Buddhist forms a conception of an Ultimate Reality which instead of being an Absolute Something is rather the Infinite Possibility of Everything. Rather a difficult conception for the average Western mind, but perfectly clear to the Oriental metaphysician! The Buddhist is accused of denying the existence of the soul—and so he does, in a way. He denies the existence of the individual soul as an independent and separate entity, but holds that it exists as a temporary centre of consciousness in the All. To the Buddhist all pain arises from this illusion of separation and separateness , and his aim is to overcome the illusion and to escape reincarnation, and once more to be absorbed into the One-All, “as the dew-drop slips into the shining sea.” This Para-Nirvana—the Liberation, the Attainment!

The Buddhist does not indulge in much speculation regarding the nature of the Ultimate Reality—he regards it as unknowable, and thinks that all speculation regarding it is futile and a waste of time. Rather, he concerns himself with the Path of Attainment and Liberation—the escape from separateness and illusion. His spirit is well expressed by Edwin Arnold, in his “Light of Asia,” as follows:

“Om, Amitaya! measure not with words

Th’ Immeasurable; nor sink the string of thought

Into the Fathomless. Who asks doth err,

Who answers, errs. Say naught!

Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes,

Or any searcher know by mortal mind;

Veil after veil will lift—but there must be

Veil upon veil behind.

The dew is on the Lotus!—Rise, Great Sun!

And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.

Om mani padme hum , the Sunrise comes! The Dewdrop slips into the shining sea!” Nirvana, the aim of every Buddhist in his earth-life, has been described by a Buddhistic writer as follows: “Nirvana is a condition of heart and mind in which every earthly craving is extinct; it is the cessation of every passion and desire, of every feeling of ill-will, fear and sorrow. It is a mental state of perfect rest and peace and joy, in the steadfast assurance of deliverance attained, from all the imperfections of finite being. It is a condition impossible to be defined in words, or to be conceived by anyone still attached to the things of the world. Only he knows what Nirvana is who has realized it in his own heart. It is deliverance, and is attainable in this life.” What many Western writers describe as Nirvana is really the final stage called by the Buddhist! “Para-Nirvana” in which the individual soul blends into the One Reality—when “the dew drop slips into the shining sea,” and becomes one with the Infinite.

While the philosophy of Buddhism may be considered a negative one—the aim being a retreat rather than advance, or apparently so—still it has a high moral value, and advances moral ideals of the very highest. As Max Muller has said:

“The Buddha addressed himself to all castes and outcasts. He promised salvation to all, and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrines in all places and to all men. A sense of duty, extending from the narrow limits of the house, the village, and the country, to the ardent circle of mankind; a feeling of sympathy and brotherhood to all men, the idea in fact of Humanity, were first pronounced by Buddha .”

But, although it has changed its dwelling place, Buddhism has left its influence upon Hindu thought, and its power is now manifesting itself in influencing the modern thought of the Western world. This has come about from various causes, chief among which is probably the influence of and general interest in modern Theosophy, the school established by Madame Blavatsky. To this influence must be added the popularity of the semi-Buddhistic conceptions of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, in their idea of the World-Will, and the general leaning toward some of the original Buddhistic philosophical teachings on the part of certain modern scientists. Buddha’s teaching that the Ultimate Reality is to be found only in a conception of a Universal Law, rather than in a Being, hears a striking analogy to the ideas of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and to the fundamental ideas of our modern philosopher, Herbert Spencer. Buddha’s idea of the “Creative Will” which is ever striving to manifest itself in ever-changing phenomenal shape, form and variety, finds many modern followers in the philosophical school of “Voluntarism,” the fundamental tenet of which is that “the ultimate nature of reality is to be conceived as some form of Will,” a view specially favored by Schopenhauer and his followers.

The influence of Buddhism on modern Western thought is exerted through two channels, apparently unconnected, but still originally emerging from the same common source. Along one of these channels flows the stream of the Buddhistic doctrine of reincarnation (rebirth) and Karma (cause and effect operating in rebirth on the new life); along the other flows the stream of the doctrine of the power of Thought and Will. The first channel and its stream reaches the Western world through the fields claimed by Theosophy; the second wends its way through the somewhat diversified fields of the “New Thought” movement.

While the doctrine of reincarnation and Karma is firmly held by the orthodox Hindu schools of thought, it is nevertheless true that it finds its greatest growth and richest flowering in the Buddhistic garden. The Buddhists have reduced the doctrine of reincarnation and Karma to a science, and the ordinary Hindu presentation seems tame and subdued by comparison. The conceptions entertained by Theosophy, so far as this particular doctrine is concerned, were obtained directly from Buddhist sources. Madame Blavatsky’s writings on reincarnation and Karma bear the impress of Buddhism, and still more plainly does the mark show on Mr. Sinnett’s statement of the doctrine in his “Esoteric Buddhism;” while Col. Olcott, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, lived and died an ardent Buddhist. Theosophy itself, while it has outgrown some of the limitations of Buddhism and has moved into the general field of Hindu and ancient Greek thought, must acknowledge its indebtedness to Buddhism for its (Theosophy’s) cardinal doctrines of reincarnation and Karma. And the general interest in these subjects manifested of late years in Western thought may be readily traced to the school of Gautama, the Buddha.