Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) by Charles Eliot

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In Gotama's youth Bihar was full of wandering philosophers who appear to
have been atheistic and disposed to uphold the boldest paradoxes,
intellectual and moral. There must however have been constructive
elements in their doctrine, for they believed in reincarnation and the
periodic appearance of superhuman teachers and in the advantage of
following an ascetic discipline. They probably belonged chiefly to the
warrior caste as did Gotama, the Buddha known to history. The Pitakas
represent him as differing in details from contemporary teachers but as
rediscovering the truth taught by his predecessors. They imply that the
world is so constituted that there is only one way to emancipation and
that from time to time superior minds see this and announce it to
others. Still Buddhism does not in practice use such formulae as living
in harmony with the laws of nature.

Indian literature is notoriously concerned with ideas rather than facts
but the vigorous personality of the Buddha has impressed on it a
portrait more distinct than that left by any other teacher or king. His
work had a double effect. Firstly it influenced all departments of Hindu
religion and thought, even those nominally opposed to it. Secondly it
spread not only Buddhism in the strict sense but Indian art and
literature beyond the confines of India. The expansion of Hindu culture
owes much to the doctrine that the Good Law should be preached to all
nations.

The teaching of Gotama was essentially practical. This statement may
seem paradoxical to the reader who has some acquaintance with the
Buddhist scriptures and he will exclaim that of all religious books they
are the least practical and least popular: they set up an anti-social
ideal and are mainly occupied with psychological theories. But the
Buddha addressed a public such as we now find it hard even to imagine.
In those days the intellectual classes of India felt the ordinary
activities of life to be unsatisfying: they thought it natural to
renounce the world and mortify the flesh: divergent systems of ritual,
theology and self-denial promised happiness but all agreed in thinking
it normal as well as laudable that a man should devote his life to
meditation and study. Compared with this frame of mind the teaching of
the Buddha is not unsocial, unpractical and mysterious but human,
business-like and clear. We are inclined to see in the monastic life
which he recommended little but a useless sacrifice but it is evident
that in the opinion of his contemporaries his disciples had an easy
time, and that he had no intention of prescribing any cramped or
unnatural existence. He accepted the current conviction that those who
devote themselves to the things of the mind and spirit should be
released from worldly ties and abstain from luxury but he meant his
monks to live a life of sustained intellectual activity for themselves
and of benevolence for others. His teaching is formulated in severe and
technical phraseology, yet the substance of it is so simple that many
have criticized it as too obvious and jejune to be the basis of a
religion. But when he first enunciated his theses some two thousand five
hundred years ago, they were not obvious but revolutionary and little
less than paradoxical.

The principal of these propositions are as follows. The existence of
everything depends on a cause: hence if the cause of evil or suffering
can be detected and removed, evil itself will be removed. That cause is
lust and craving for pleasure[9]. Hence all sacrificial and sacramental
religions are irrelevant, for the cure which they propose has nothing to
do with the disease. The cause of evil or suffering is removed by
purifying the heart and by following the moral law which sets high value
on sympathy and social duties, but an equally high value on the
cultivation of individual character. But training and cultivation imply
the possibility of change. Hence it is a fatal mistake in the religious
life to hold a view common in India which regards the essence of man as
something unchangeable and happy in itself, if it can only be isolated
from physical trammels. On the contrary the happy mind is something to
be built up by good thoughts, good words and good deeds. In its origin
the Buddha's celebrated doctrine that there is no permanent self in
persons or things is not a speculative proposition, nor a sentimental
lament over the transitoriness of the world, but a basis for religion
and morals. You will never be happy unless you realize that you can make
and remake your own soul.

These simple principles and the absence of all dogmas as to God or
Brahman distinguish the teaching of Gotama from most Indian systems, but
he accepted the usual Indian beliefs about Karma and rebirth and with
them the usual conclusion that release from the series of rebirths is
the _summum bonum_. This deliverance he called saintship (_arahattam_)
or nirvana of which I shall say something below. In early Buddhism it is
primarily a state of happiness to be attained in this life and the
Buddha persistently refused to explain what is the nature of a saint
after death. The question is unprofitable and perhaps he would have
said, had he spoken our language, unmeaning. Later generations did not
hesitate to discuss the problem but the Buddha's own teaching is simply
that a man can attain before death to a blessed state in which he has
nothing to fear from either death or rebirth.

The Buddha attacked both the ritual and the philosophy of the Brahmans.
After his time the sacrificial system, though it did not die, never
regained its old prestige and he profoundly affected the history of
Indian metaphysics. It may be justly said that most of his philosophic
as distinguished from his practical teaching was common property before
his time, but he transmuted common ideas and gave them a currency and
significance which they did not possess before. But he was less
destructive as a religious and social reformer than many have supposed.
He did not deny the existence nor forbid the worship of the popular
gods, but such worship is not Buddhism and the gods are merely angels
who may be willing to help good Buddhists but are in no wise guides to
religion, since they need instruction themselves. And though he denied
that the Brahmans were superior by birth to others, he did not preach
against caste, partly because it then existed only in a rudimentary
form. But he taught that the road to salvation was one and open to all
who were able to walk in it[10], whether Hindus or foreigners. All may
not have the necessary qualifications of intellect and character to
become monks but all can be good laymen, for whom the religious life
means the observance of morality combined with such simple exercises as
reading the scriptures. It is clear that this lay Buddhism had much to
do with the spread of the faith. The elemental simplicity of its
principles--namely that religion is open to all and identical with
morality--made a clean sweep of Brahmanic theology and sacrifices and put
in its place something like Confucianism. But the innate Indian love for
philosophizing and ritual caused generation after generation to add more
and more supplements to the Master's teaching and it is only outside
India that it has been preserved in any purity.

4. _Asoka_

Gotama spent his life in preaching and by his personal exertions spread
his doctrines over Bihar and Oudh but for two centuries after his death
we know little of the history of Buddhism. In the reign of Asoka
(273-232 B.C.) its fortunes suddenly changed, for this great Emperor
whose dominions comprised nearly all India made it the state religion
and also engraved on rocks and pillars a long series of edicts recording
his opinions and aspirations. Buddhism is often criticized as a gloomy
and unpractical creed, suited at best to stoical and scholarly recluses.
But these are certainly not its characteristics when it first appears in
political history, just as they are not its characteristics in Burma or
Japan to-day. Both by precept and example Asoka was an ardent exponent
of the strenuous life. In his first edict he lays down the principle
"Let small and great exert themselves" and in subsequent inscriptions he
continually harps upon the necessity of energy and exertion. The Law or
Religion (Dhamma) which his edicts enjoin is merely human and civic
virtue, except that it makes respect for animal life an integral part of
morality. In one passage he summarizes it as "Little impiety, many good
deeds, compassion, liberality, truthfulness and purity." He makes no
reference to a supreme deity, but insists on the reality and importance
of the future life. Though he does not use the word _Karma_ this is
clearly the conception which dominates his philosophy: those who do good
are happy in this world and the next but those who fail in their duty
win neither heaven nor the royal favour. The king's creed is remarkable
in India for its great simplicity. He deprecates superstitious
ceremonies and says nothing of Nirvana but dwells on morality as
necessary to happiness in this life and others. This is not the whole of
Gotama's teaching but two centuries after his death a powerful and
enlightened Buddhist gives it as the gist of Buddhism for laymen.

Asoka wished to make Buddhism the creed not only of India but of the
world as known to him and he boasts that he extended his "conquests of
religion" to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the west. If the missions which
he despatched thither reached their destination, there is little
evidence that they bore any fruit, but the conversion of Ceylon and some
districts in the Himalayas seems directly due to his initiative.

5. _Extension of Buddhism and Hinduism beyond India_

This is perhaps a convenient place to review the extension of Buddhism
and Hinduism outside India. To do so at this point implies of course an
anticipation of chronology, but to delay the survey might blind the
reader to the fact that from the time of Asoka onward India was engaged
not only in creating but also in exporting new varieties of religious
thought.

The countries which have received Indian culture fall into two classes:
first those to which it came as a result of religious missions or of
peaceful international intercourse, and second those where it was
established after conquest or at least colonization. In the first class
the religion introduced was Buddhism. If, as in Tibet, it seems to us
mixed with Hinduism, yet it was a mixture which at the date of its
introduction passed in India for Buddhism. But in the second and smaller
class including Java, Camboja and Champa the immigrants brought with
them both Hinduism and Buddhism. The two systems were often declared to
be the same but the result was Hinduism mixed with some Buddhism, not
_vice versa_.

The countries of the first class comprise Ceylon, Burma and Siam,
Central Asia, Nepal, China with Annam, Korea and Japan, Tibet with
Mongolia. The Buddhism of the first three countries[11] is a real unity
or in European language a church, for though they have no common
hierarchy they use the same sacred language, Pali, and have the same
canon. Burma and Siam have repeatedly recognized Ceylon as a sort of
metropolitan see and on the other hand when religion in Ceylon fell on
evil days the clergy were recruited from Burma and Siam. In the other
countries Buddhism presents greater differences and divisions. It had no
one sacred language and in different regions used either Sanskrit texts
or translations into Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and the languages of
Central Asia.

1. Ceylon. There is no reason to doubt that Buddhism was introduced
under the auspices of Asoka. Though the invasions and settlements of
Tamils have brought Hinduism into Ceylon, yet none of the later and
mixed forms of Buddhism, in spite of some attempts to gain a footing,
ever flourished there on a large scale. Sinhalese Buddhism had probably
a closer connection with southern India than the legend suggests and
Conjevaram was long a Buddhist centre which kept up intercourse with
both Ceylon and Burma.

2. Burma. The early history of Burmese Buddhism is obscure and its
origin probably complex, since at many different periods it may have
received teachers from both India and China. The present dominant type
(identical with the Buddhism of Ceylon) existed before the sixth
century[12] and tradition ascribes its introduction both to the labours
of Buddhaghosa and to the missionaries of Asoka. There was probably a
connection between Pegu and Conjevaram. In the eleventh century Burmese
Buddhism had become extremely corrupt except in Pegu but King Anawrata
conquered Pegu and spread a purer form throughout his dominions.

3. Siam. The Thai race, who starting from somewhere in the Chinese
province of Yuennan began to settle in what is now called Siam about the
beginning of the twelfth century, probably brought with them some form
of Buddhism. About 1300 the possessions of Rama Komheng, King of Siam,
included Pegu and Pali Buddhism prevailed among his subjects. Somewhat
later, in 1361, a high ecclesiastic was summoned from Ceylon to arrange
the affairs of the church but not, it would seem, to introduce any new
doctrine. Pegu was the centre from which Pali Buddhism spread to upper
Burma in the eleventh century and it probably performed the same service
for Siam later. The modern Buddhism of Camboja is simply Siamese
Buddhism which filtered into the country from about 1250 onwards. The
older Buddhism of Camboja, for which see below, was quite different.

At the courts of Siam and Camboja, as formerly in Burma, there are
Brahmans who perform state ceremonies and act as astrologers. Though
they have little to do with the religion of the people, their presence
explains the predominance of Indian rather than Chinese influence in
these countries.

4. Tradition says that Indian colonists settled in Khotan during the
reign of Asoka, but no precise date can at present be fixed for the
introduction of Buddhism into the Tarim basin and other regions commonly
called Central Asia. But it must have been flourishing there about the
time of the Christian era, since it spread thence to China not later
than the middle of the first century. There were two schools
representing two distinct currents from India. First the Sarvastivadin
school, prevalent in Badakshan, Kashgar and Kucha, secondly the Mahayana
in Khotan and Yarkand. The spread of the former was no doubt connected
with the growth of the Kushan Empire but may be anterior to the
conversion of Kanishka, for though he gave a great impetus to the
propagation of the faith, it is probable that, like most royal converts,
he favoured an already popular religion. The Mahayana subsequently won
much territory from the other school.

5. As in other countries, so in China Buddhism entered by more than one
road. It came first by land from Central Asia. The official date for its
introduction by this route is 62 A.D. but it was probably known within
the Chinese frontier before that time, though not recognized by the
state. Secondly when Buddhism was established, there arose a desire for
accurate knowledge of the true Indian doctrine. Chinese pilgrims went to
India and Indian teachers came to China. After the fourth century many
of these religious journeys were made by sea and it was thus that
Bodhidharma landed at Canton in 520[13]. A third stream of Buddhism,
namely Lamaism, came into China from Tibet under the Mongol dynasty
(1280). Khubilai considered this the best religion for his Mongols and
numerous Lamaist temples and convents were established and still exist
in northern China. Lamaism has not perhaps been a great religious or
intellectual force there, but its political importance was considerable,
for the Ming and Manchu dynasties who wished to assert their rule over
the Tibetans and Mongols by peaceful methods, consistently strove to win
the goodwill of the Lamaist clergy.

The Buddhism of Korea, Japan and Annam is directly derived from the
earlier forms of Chinese Buddhism but was not affected by the later
influx of Lamaism. Buddhism passed from China into Korea in the fourth
century and thence to Japan in the sixth. In the latter country it was
stimulated by frequent contact with China and the repeated introduction
of new Chinese sects but was not appreciably influenced by direct
intercourse with Hindus or other foreign Buddhists. In the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries Japanese Buddhism showed great vitality,
transforming old sects and creating new ones.

In the south, Chinese Buddhism spread into Annam rather late: according
to native tradition in the tenth century. This region was a battlefield
of two cultures. Chinese influence descending southwards from Canton
proved predominant and, after the triumph of Annam over Champa, extended
to the borders of Camboja. But so long as the kingdom of Champa existed,
Indian culture and Hinduism maintained themselves at least as far north
as Hue.

6. The Buddhism of Tibet is a late and startling transformation of
Gotama's teaching, but the transformation is due rather to the change
and degeneration of that teaching in Bengal than to the admixture of
Tibetan ideas. Such admixture however was not absent and a series of
reformers endeavoured to bring the church back to what they considered
the true standard. The first introduction is said to have occurred in
630 but probably the arrival of Padma Sambhava from India in 747 marks
the real foundation of the Lamaist church. It was reformed by the Hindu
Atisa in 1038 and again by the Tibetan Tsong-kha-pa about 1400.

The Grand Lama is the head of the church as reorganized by Tsong-kha-pa.
In Tibet the priesthood attained to temporal power comparable with the
Papacy. The disintegration of the government divided the whole land into
small principalities and among these the great monasteries were as
important as any temporal lord. The abbots of the Sakya monastery were
the practical rulers of Tibet for seventy years (1270-1340). Another
period of disintegration followed but after 1630 the Grand Lamas of
Lhasa were able to claim and maintain a similar position.

Mongolian Buddhism is a branch of Lamaism distinguished by no special
doctrines. The Mongols were partially converted in the time of Khubilai
and a second time and more thoroughly in 1570 by the third Grand Lama.

7. Nepal exhibits another phase of degeneration. In Tibet Indian
Buddhism passed into the hands of a vigorous national priesthood and was
not exposed to the assimilative influence of Hinduism. In Nepal it had
not the same defence. It probably existed there since the time of Asoka
and underwent the same phases of decay and corruption as in Bengal. But
whereas the last great monasteries in Bengal were shattered by the
Mohammedan invasion of 1193, the secluded valley of Nepal was protected
against such violence and Buddhism continued to exist there in name. It
has preserved a good deal of Sanskrit Buddhist literature but has become
little more than a sect of Hinduism.

Nepal ought perhaps to be classed in our second division, that is those
countries where Indian culture was introduced not by missionaries but by
the settlement of Indian conquerors or immigrants. To this class belong
the Hindu civilizations of Indo-China and the Archipelago. In all of
these Hinduism and Mahayanist Buddhism are found mixed together,
Hinduism being the stronger element. The earliest Sanskrit inscription
in these regions is that of Vochan in Champa which is apparently
Buddhist. It is not later than the third century and refers to an
earlier king, so that an Indian dynasty probably existed there about
150-200 A.D. Though the presence of Indian culture is beyond dispute, it
is not clear whether the Chams were civilized in Champa by Hindu
invaders or whether they were hinduized Malays who invaded Champa from
elsewhere.

8. In Camboja a Hindu dynasty was founded by invaders and the Brahmans
who accompanied them established a counterpart to it in a powerful
hierarchy, Sanskrit becoming the language of religion. It is clear that
these invaders came ultimately from India but they may have halted in
Java or the Malay Peninsula for an unknown period. The Brahmanic
hierarchy began to fail about the fourteenth century and was supplanted
by Siamese Buddhism. Before that time the state religion of both Champa
and Camboja was the worship of Siva, especially in the form called
Mukhalinga. Mahayanist Buddhism, tending to identify Buddha with Siva,
also existed but enjoyed less of the royal patronage.

9. Religious conditions were similar in Java but politically there was
this difference, that there was no one continuous and paramount kingdom.
A considerable number of Hindus must have settled in the island to
produce such an effect on its language and architecture but the rulers
of the states known to us were hinduized Javanese rather than true
Hindus and the language of literature and of most inscriptions was Old
Javanese, not Sanskrit, though most of the works written in it were
translations or adaptations of Sanskrit originals. As in Camboja,
Sivaism and Buddhism both flourished without mutual hostility and there
was less difference in the status of the two creeds.

In all these countries religion seems to have been connected with
politics more closely than in India. The chief shrine was a national
cathedral, the living king was semi-divine and dead kings were
represented by statues bearing the attributes of their favourite gods.

6. _New Forms of Buddhism_

In the three or four centuries following Asoka a surprising change came
over Indian Buddhism, but though the facts are clear it is hard to
connect them with dates and persons. But the change was clearly
posterior to Asoka for though his edicts show a spirit of wide charity
it is not crystallized in the form of certain doctrines which
subsequently became prominent.

The first of these holds up as the moral ideal not personal perfection
or individual salvation but the happiness of all living creatures. The
good man who strives for this should boldly aspire to become a Buddha in
some future birth and such aspirants are called Bodhisattvas. Secondly
Buddhas and some Bodhisattvas come to be considered as supernatural
beings and practically deities. The human life of Gotama, though not
denied, is regarded as the manifestation of a cosmic force which also
reveals itself in countless other Buddhas who are not merely his
predecessors or destined successors but the rulers of paradises in other
worlds. Faith in a Buddha, especially in Amitabha, can secure rebirth in
his paradise. The great Bodhisattvas, such as Avalokita and Manjusri,
are splendid angels of mercy and knowledge who are theoretically
distinguished from Buddhas because they have indefinitely postponed
their entry into nirvana in order to alleviate the sufferings of the
world. These new tenets are accompanied by a remarkable development of
art and of idealist metaphysics.

This new form of Buddhism is called Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, as
opposed to the Small Vehicle or Hinayana, a somewhat contemptuous name
given to the older school. The idea underlying these phrases is that
sects are merely coaches, all travelling on the same road to salvation
though some may be quicker than others. The Mahayana did not suppress
the Hinayana but it gradually absorbed the traffic.

The causes of this transformation were two-fold, internal or Indian and
external. Buddhism was a living, that is changing, stream of thought and
the Hindus as a nation have an exceptional taste and capacity for
metaphysics. This taste was not destroyed by Gotama's dicta as to the
limits of profitable knowledge nor did new deities arouse hostility
because they were not mentioned in the ancient scriptures. The
development of Brahmanism and Buddhism was parallel: if an attractive
novelty appeared in one, something like it was soon provided by the
other. Thus the Bhagavad-gita contains the ideas of the Mahayana in
substance, though in a different setting: it praises disinterested
activity and insists on faith. It is clear that at this period all
Indian thought and not merely Buddhism was vivified and transmuted by
two great currents of feeling demanding, the one a more emotional
morality the other more personal and more sympathetic deities.

I shall show in more detail below that most Mahayanist doctrines, though
apparently new, have their roots in old Indian ideas. But the presence
of foreign influences is not to be disputed and there is no difficulty
in accounting for them. Gandhara was a Persian province from 530 to 330
B.C. and in the succeeding centuries the north-western parts of India
experienced the invasions and settlements of numerous aliens, such as
Greeks from the Hellenistic kingdoms which arose after Alexander's
expedition, Parthians, Sakas and Kushans. Such immigrants, even if they
had no culture of their own, at least transported culture, just as the
Turks introduced Islam into Europe. Thus whatever ideas were prevalent
in Persia, in the Hellenistic kingdoms, or in Central Asia may also have
been prevalent in north-western India, where was situated the university
town of Taxila frequently mentioned in the Jatakas as a seat of Buddhist
learning. The foreigners who entered India adopted Indian religions[14]
and probably Buddhism more often than Hinduism, for it was at that time
predominant and disposed to evangelize without raising difficulties as
to caste.