Ten Great Religions by James Freeman Clarke

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These resemblances are chiefly between the Buddhists and the monastic
orders of the Church of Rome. Now it is a fact, but one which has never
been sufficiently noticed, that the whole monastic system of Rome is based
on a principle foreign to the essential ideas of that church. The
fundamental doctrine of Rome is that of salvation by sacraments. This
alone justifies its maxim, that "out of communion with the Church there is
no salvation." The sacrament of Baptism regenerates the soul; the
sacrament of Penance purifies it from mortal sin; the sacrament of the
Eucharist renews its life; and that of Holy Orders qualifies the priest
for administering these and the other sacraments. But if the soul is saved
by sacraments, duly administered and received, why go into a religious
order to save the soul? Why seek by special acts of piety, self-denial,
and separation from the world that which comes sufficiently through the
usual sacraments of the church? The more we examine this subject, the more
we shall see that the whole monastic system of the Church of Rome is an
_included Protestantism_, or a Protestantism within the church.

Many of the reformers before the Reformation were monks. Savonarola, St.
Bernard, Luther himself, were monks. From the monasteries came many of the
leaders of the Reformation. The Protestant element in the Romish Church
was shut up in monasteries during many centuries, and remained there as a
foreign substance, an alien element included in the vast body. When a
bullet, or other foreign substance, is lodged in the flesh, the vital
powers go to work and build up a little wall around it, and shut it in. So
when Catholics came who were not satisfied with a merely sacramental
salvation, and longed for a higher life, the sagacity of the Church put
them together in convents, and kept them by themselves, where they could
do no harm. One of the curious homologons of history is this repetition in
Europe of the course of events in Asia. Buddhism was, for many centuries,
tolerated in India in the same way. It took the form of a monasticism
included in Brahmanism, and remained a part of the Hindoo religion. And
so, when the crisis came and the conflict began, this Hindoo Protestantism
maintained itself for a long time in India, as Lutheranism continued for a
century in Italy, Spain, and Austria. But it was at last driven out of its
birthplace, as Protestantism was driven from Italy and Spain; and now only
the ruins of its topes, its temples, and its monasteries remain to show
how extensive was its former influence in the midst of Brahmanism.

Sec. 2. Extent of Buddhism. Its Scriptures.

Yet, though expelled from India, and unable to maintain its control over
any Aryan race, it has exhibited a powerful propagandist element, and so
has converted to its creed the majority of the Mongol nations. It embraces
nearly or quite (for statistics here are only guesswork)[98] three hundred
millions of human beings. It is the popular religion of China; the state
religion of Thibet, and of the Birman Empire; it is the religion of Japan,
Siam, Anam, Assam, Nepaul, Ceylon, in short, of nearly the whole of
Eastern Asia.

Concerning this vast religion we have had, until recently, very few means
of information. But, during the last quarter of a century, so many sources
have been opened, that at present we can easily study it in its original
features and its subsequent development. The sacred books of this religion
have been preserved independently, in Ceylon, Nepaul, China, and Thibet.
Mr. G. Turnour, Mr. Georgely, and Mr. R. Spence Hardy are our chief
authorities in regard to the Pitikas, or the Scriptures in the Pali
language, preserved in Ceylon. Mr. Hodgson has collected and studied the
Sanskrit Scriptures, found in Nepaul. In 1825 he transmitted to the
Asiatic Society in Bengal sixty works in Sanskrit, and two hundred and
fifty in the language of Thibet. M. Csoma, an Hungarian physician,
discovered in the Buddhist monasteries of Thibet an immense collection of
sacred books, which had been translated from the Sanskrit works previously
studied by Mr. Hodgson. In 1829 M. Schmidt found the same works in the
Mongolian. M. Stanislas Julien, an eminent student of the Chinese, has
also translated works on Buddhism from that language, which ascend to the
year 76 of our era.[99] More recently inscriptions cut upon rocks,
columns, and other monuments in Northern India, have been transcribed and
translated. Mr. James Prinsep deciphered these inscriptions, and found
them to be in the ancient language of the province of Magadha where
Buddhism first appeared. They contain the decrees of a king, or raja,
named Pyadasi, whom Mr. Turnour has shown to be the same as the famous
Asoka, before alluded to. This king appears to have come to the throne
somewhere between B.C. 319 and B.C. 260. Similar inscriptions have been
discovered throughout India, proving to the satisfaction of such scholars
as Burnouf, Prinsep, Turnour, Lassen, Weber, Max Muller, and
Saint-Hilaire, that Buddhism had become almost the state religion of
India, in the fourth century before Christ.[100]

Sec. 3. Sakya-muni, the Founder of Buddhism.

North of Central India and of the kingdom of Oude, near the borders of
Nepaul, there reigned, at the end of the seventh century before Christ, a
wise and good king, in his capital city, Kapilavastu[101]. He was one of
the last of the great Solar race, celebrated in the ancient epics of
India. His wife, named _Maya_ because of her great beauty, became the
mother of a prince, who was named Siddartha, and afterward known as the
Buddha[102]. She died seven days after his birth, and the child was
brought up by his maternal aunt. The young prince distinguished himself by
his personal and intellectual qualities, but still more by his early
piety. It appears from the laws of Manu that it was not unusual, in the
earliest periods of Brahmanism, for those seeking a superior piety to turn
hermits, and to live alone in the forest, engaged in acts of prayer,
meditation, abstinence, and the study of the Vedas. This practice,
however, seems to have been confined to the Brahmans. It was, therefore, a
grief to the king, when his son, in the flower of his youth and highly
accomplished in every kingly faculty of body and mind, began to turn his
thoughts toward the life of an anchorite. In fact, the young Siddartha
seems to have gone through that deep experience out of which the great
prophets of mankind have always been born. The evils of the world pressed
on his heart and brain; the very air seemed full of mortality; all things
were passing away. Was anything permanent? anything stable? Nothing but
truth; only the absolute, eternal law of things. "Let me see that," said
he, "and I can give lasting peace to mankind. Then shall I become their
deliverer." So, in opposition to the strong entreaties of his father,
wife, and friends, he left the palace one night, and exchanged the
position of a prince for that of a mendicant. "I will never return to the
palace," said he, "till I have attained to the sight of the divine law,
and so become Buddha."[103]

He first visited the Brahmans, and listened to their doctrines, but found
no satisfaction therein. The wisest among them could not teach him true
peace,--that profound inward rest, which was already called Nirvana. He
was twenty-nine years old. Although disapproving of the Brahmanic
austerities as an end, he practised them during six years, in order to
subdue the senses. He then became satisfied that the path to perfection
did not lie that way. He therefore resumed his former diet and a more
comfortable mode of life, and so lost many disciples who had been
attracted by his amazing austerity. Alone in his hermitage, he came at
last to that solid conviction, that KNOWLEDGE never to be shaken, of the
laws of things, which had seemed to him the only foundation of a truly
free life. The spot where, after a week of constant meditation, he at last
arrived at this beatific vision, became one of the most sacred places in
India. He was seated under a tree, his face to the east, not having moved
for a day and night, when he attained the triple science, which was to
rescue mankind from its woes. Twelve hundred years after the death of the
Buddha, a Chinese pilgrim was shown what then passed for the sacred tree.
It was surrounded by high brick walls, with an opening to the east, and
near it stood many topes and monasteries. In the opinion of M.
Saint-Hilaire, these ruins, and the locality of the tree, may yet be
rediscovered. The spot deserves to be sought for, since there began a
movement which has, on the whole, been a source of happiness and
improvement to immense multitudes of human beings, during twenty-four
centuries.

Having attained this inward certainty of vision, he decided to teach the
world his truth. He knew well what it would bring him,--what opposition,
insult, neglect, scorn. But he thought of three classes of men: those who
were already on the way to the truth, and did not need him; those who were
fixed in error, and whom he could not help; and the poor doubters,
uncertain of their way. It was to help these last, the doubters, that the
Buddha went forth to preach. On his way to the holy city of India,
Benares, a serious difficulty arrested him at the Ganges, namely, his
having no money to pay the boatman for his passage. At Benares he made his
first converts, "turning the wheel of the law" for the first time. His
discourses are contained in the sacred books of the Buddhists. He
converted great numbers, his father among the rest, but met with fierce
opposition from the Hindoo Scribes and Pharisees, the leading Brahmans. So
he lived and taught, and died at the age of eighty years.

Naturally, as soon as the prophet was dead he became very precious in all
eyes. His body was burned with much pomp, and great contention arose for
the unconsumed fragments of bone. At last they were divided into eight
parts, and a tope was erected, by each of the eight fortunate possessors,
over such relics as had fallen to him. The ancient books of the North and
South agree as to the places where the topes were built, and no Roman
Catholic relics are so well authenticated. The Buddha, who believed with
Jesus that "the flesh profiteth nothing," and that "the word is spirit and
life," would probably have been the first to condemn this idolatry. But
fetich-worship lingers in the purest religions.

The time of the death of Sakya-muni, like most Oriental dates, is
uncertain. The Northern Buddhists, in Thibet, Nepaul, etc., vary greatly
among themselves. The Chinese Buddhists are not more certain. Lassen,
therefore, with most of the scholars, accepts as authentic the period upon
which all the authorities of the South, especially of Ceylon, agree, which
is B.C. 543. Lately Westergaard has written a monograph on the subject, in
which, by a labored argument, he places the date about two hundred years
later. Whether he will convince his brother _savans_ remains to be seen.

Immediately after the death of Sakya-muni a general council of his most
eminent disciples was called, to fix the doctrine and discipline of the
church. The legend runs that three of the disciples were selected to
recite from memory what the sage had taught. The first was appointed to
repeat his teaching upon discipline; "for discipline," said they, "is the
soul of the law." Whereupon Upali, mounting the pulpit, repeated all of
the precepts concerning morals and the ritual. Then Ananda was chosen to
give his master's discourses concerning faith or doctrine. Finally,
Kasyapa announced the philosophy and metaphysics of the system. The
council sat during seven months, and the threefold division of the sacred
Scriptures of Buddhism was the result of their work; for Sakya-muni wrote
nothing himself. He taught by conversation only.

The second general council was called to correct certain abuses which had
begun to creep in. It was held about a hundred years after the teacher's
death. A great fraternity of monks proposed to relax the conventual
discipline, by allowing greater liberty in taking food, in drinking
intoxicating liquor, and taking gold and silver if offered in alms. The
schismatic monks were degraded, to the number of ten thousand, but formed
a new sect. The third council, held during the reign of the great Buddhist
Emperor Asoka, was called on account of heretics, who, to the number of
sixty thousand, were degraded and expelled. After this, missionaries were
despatched to preach the word in different lands. The names and success of
these missionaries are recorded in the _Mahawanso_, or Sacred History,
translated by Mr. George Turnour from the Singhalese. But what is
remarkable is, that the relics of some of them have been recently found in
the Sanchi topes, and in other sacred buildings, contained in caskets,
with their names inscribed on them. These inscribed names correspond with
those given to the same missionaries in the historical books of Ceylon.
For example, according to the _Mahawanso_, two missionaries, one named
Kassapo (or Kasyapa), and the other called Majjhima (or Madhyama), went to
preach in the region of the Himalayan Mountains. They journeyed, preached,
suffered, and toiled, side by side, so the ancient history informs us,--a
history composed in Ceylon in the fifth century of our era, with the aid
of works still more ancient;[104] and now, when the second Sanchi tope was
opened in 1851, by Major Cunningham, the relics of these very missionaries
were discovered.[105] The tope was perfect in 1819, when visited by
Captain Fell,--"not a stone fallen." And though afterward injured, in
1822, by some amateur relic-hunters, its contents remained intact. It is a
solid hemisphere, built of rough stones without mortar, thirty-nine feet
in diameter; it has a basement six feet high, projecting all around five
feet, and so making a terrace. It is surrounded by a stone railing, with
carved figures. In the centre of this tope was found a small chamber, made
of six stones, containing the relic-box of white sandstone, about ten
inches square. Inside this were four caskets of steatite (a sacred stone
among the Buddhists), each containing small portions of burnt human bone.
On the outside lid of one of these boxes was this inscription: "Relics of
the emancipated Kasyapa Gotra, missionary to the whole Hemawanta." And on
the inside of the lid was carved: "Relics of the emancipated Madhyama."
These relics, with those of eight other leading men of the Buddhist
Church, had rested in this monument since the age of Asoka, and cannot
have been placed there later than B.C. 220.

The missionary spirit displayed by Buddhism distinguishes it from all
other religions which preceded Christianity. The religion of Confucius
never attempted to make converts outside of China. Brahmanism never went
beyond India. The system of Zoroaster was a Persian religion; that of
Egypt was confined to the Valley of the Nile; that of Greece to the
Hellenic race. But Buddhism was inflamed with the desire of bringing all
mankind to a knowledge of its truths. Its ardent and successful
missionaries converted multitudes in Nepaul, Thibet, Birmah, Ceylon,
China, Siam, Japan; and in all these states its monasteries are to-day the
chief sources of knowledge and centres of instruction to the people. It is
idle to class such a religion as this with the superstitions which debase
mankind. Its power lay in the strength of conviction which inspired its
teachers; and that, again, must have come from the sight of truth, not the
belief in error.

Sec. 4. Leading Doctrines of Buddhism.

What, then, are the doctrines of Buddhism? What are the essential
teachings of the Buddha and his disciples? Is it a system, as we are so
often told, which denies God and immortality? Has _atheism_ such a power
over human hearts in the East? Is the Asiatic mind thus in love with
eternal death? Let us try to discover.

The hermit of Sakya, as we have seen, took his departure from two profound
convictions,--the evil of perpetual change, and the possibility of
something permanent. He might have used the language of the Book of
Ecclesiastes, and cried, "Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!" The profound
gloom of that wonderful book is based on the same course of thought as
that of the Buddha, namely, that everything goes round and round in a
circle; that nothing moves forward; that there is no new thing under the
sun; that the sun rises and sets, and rises again; that the wind blows
north and south, and east and west, and then returns according to its
circuits. Where can rest be found? where peace? where any certainty?
Siddartha was young; but he saw age approaching. He was in health; but he
knew that sickness and death were lying in wait for him. He could not
escape from the sight of this perpetual round of growth and decay, life
and death, joy and woe. He cried out, from the depths of his soul, for
something stable, permanent, real.

Again, he was assured that this emancipation from change and decay was to
be found in knowledge. But by knowledge he did not intend the perception
and recollection of outward facts,--not learning. Nor did he mean
speculative knowledge, or the power of reasoning. He meant intuitive
knowledge, the sight of eternal truth, the perception of the unchanging
laws of the universe. This was a knowledge which was not to be attained by
any merely intellectual process, but by moral training, by purity of heart
and lite. Therefore he renounced the world, and went into the forest, and
became an anchorite.

But just at this point he separated himself from the Brahmans. They also
were, and are, believers in the value of mortification, abnegation,
penance. They had their hermits in his day. But they believed in the value
of penance as accumulating merit. They practised self-denial for its own
sake. The Buddha practised it as a means to a higher end,--emancipation,
purification, intuition. And this end he believed that he had at last
attained. At last he _saw_ the truth. He became "wide awake." Illusions
disappeared; the reality was before him. He was the Buddha,--the MAN WHO
KNEW.

Still he was a man, not a God. And here again is another point of
departure from Brahmanism. In that system, the final result of devotion
was to become absorbed in God. The doctrine of the Brahmans is divine
absorption; that of the Buddhists, human development. In the Brahmanical
system, God is everything and man nothing. In the Buddhist, man is
everything and God nothing. Here is its atheism, that it makes so much of
man as to forget God. It is perhaps "without God in the world," but it
does not deny him. It accepts the doctrine of the three worlds,--the
eternal world of absolute being; the celestial world of the gods, Brahma,
Indra, Vischnu, Siva; and the finite world, consisting of individual
souls and the laws of nature. Only it says, of the world of absolute
being, Nirvana, we know nothing. That is our aim and end; but it is the
direct opposite to all we know. It is, therefore, to us as nothing. The
celestial world, that of the gods, is even of less moment to us. What we
know are the everlasting laws of nature, by obedience to which we rise,
disobeying which we fall, by perfect obedience to which we shall at last
obtain Nirvana, and rest forever.

To the mind of the Buddha, therefore, the world consisted of two orders of
existence,--souls and laws. He saw an infinite multitude of souls,--in
insects, animals, men,--and saw that they were surrounded by inflexible
laws,--the laws of nature. To know these and to obey them,--this was
emancipation.

The fundamental doctrine of Buddhism, taught by its founder and received
by all Buddhists without exception, in the North and in the South, in
Birmah and Thibet, in Ceylon and China, is the doctrine of the four
sublime truths, namely:--

1. All existence is evil, because all existence is subject to change
and decay.

2. The source of this evil is the desire for things which are to change
and pass away.

3. This desire, and the evil which follows it, are not inevitable; for
if we choose we can arrive at Nirvana, when both shall wholly cease.

4. There is a fixed and certain method to adopt, by pursuing which we
attain this end, without possibility of failure.

These four truths are the basis of the system. They are: 1st, the evil;
2d, its cause; 3d, its end; 4th, the way of reaching the end.

Then follow the eight steps of this way, namely:--

1. Right belief, or the correct faith.

2. Right judgment, or wise application of that faith to life.

3. Right utterance, or perfect truth in all that we say and do.

4. Right motives, or proposing always a proper end and aim.

5. Right occupation, or an outward life not involving sin.

6. Right obedience, or faithful observance of duty.

7. Right memory, or a proper recollection of past conduct.

8. Right meditation, or keeping the mind fixed on permanent truth.

After this system of doctrine follow certain moral commands and
prohibitions, namely, five, which apply to all men, and five others which
apply only to the novices or the monks. The five first commandments are:
1st, do not kill; 2d, do not steal; 3d, do not commit adultery; 4th, do
not lie; 5th, do not become intoxicated. The other five are: 1st, take no
solid food after noon; 2d, do not visit dances, singing, or theatrical
representations; 3d, use no ornaments or perfumery in dress; 4th, use no
luxurious beds; 5th, accept neither gold nor silver.

All these doctrines and precepts have been the subject of innumerable
commentaries and expositions. Everything has been commented, explained,
and elucidated. Systems of casuistry as voluminous as those of the Fathers
of the Company of Jesus, systems of theology as full of minute analysis as
the great _Summa Totius Theologiae_ of St. Thomas, are to be found in the
libraries of the monasteries of Thibet and Ceylon. The monks have their
Golden Legends, their Lives of Saints, full of miracles and marvels. On
this simple basis of a few rules and convictions has arisen a vast fabric
of metaphysics. Much of this literature is instructive and entertaining.
Some of it is profound. Baur, who had made a special study of the
intricate speculations of the Gnostics, compares them with "the vast
abstractions of Buddhism."

Sec. 5. The Spirit of Buddhism Rational and Humane.

Ultimately, two facts appear, as we contemplate this system,--first, its
rationalism; second, its humanity.

It is a system of rationalism. It appeals throughout to human reason. It
proposes to save man, not from a future but a present hell, and to save
him by teaching. Its great means of influence is the sermon. The Buddha
preached innumerable sermons; his missionaries went abroad preaching.
Buddhism has made all its conquests honorably, by a process of rational
appeal to the human mind. It was never propagated by force, even when it
had the power of imperial rajas to support it. Certainly, it is a very
encouraging fact in the history of man, that the two religions which have
made more converts than any other, Buddhism and Christianity, have not
depended for their success on the sword of the conqueror or the frauds of
priestcraft, but have gained their victories in the fair conflict of
reason with reason. We grant that Buddhism has not been without its
superstitions and its errors; but it has not deceived, and it has not
persecuted. In this respect it can teach Christians a lesson. Buddhism has
no prejudices against those who confess another faith. The Buddhists have
founded no Inquisition; they have combined the zeal which converted
kingdoms with a toleration almost inexplicable to our Western experience.
Only one religious war has darkened their peaceful history during
twenty-three centuries,--that which took place in Thibet, but of which we
know little. A Siamese told Crawford that he believed all the religions of
the world to be branches of the true religion. A Buddhist in Ceylon sent
his son to a Christian school, and told the astonished missionary, "I
respect Christianity as much as Buddhism, for I regard it as a help to
Buddhism." MM. Hue and Gabet converted no Buddhist in Tartary and Thibet,
but they partially converted one, bringing him so far as to say that he
considered himself at the same time a good Christian and a good Buddhist.

Buddhism is also a religion of humanity. Because it lays such stress on
reason, it respects all men, since all possess this same gift. In its
origin it broke down all castes. All men, of whatever rank, can enter its
priesthood. It has an unbounded charity for all souls, and holds it a duty
to make sacrifices for all. One legend tells us that the Buddha gave his
body for food to a starved tigress, who could not nurse her young through
weakness. An incident singularly like that in the fourth chapter of John
is recorded of the hermit, who asked a woman of low caste for water, and
when she expressed surprise said, "Give me drink, and I will give you
truth." The unconditional command, "Thou shalt not kill," which applies to
all living creatures, has had great influence in softening the manners of
the Mongols. This command is connected with the doctrine of transmigration
of souls, which is one of the essential doctrines of this system as well
as of Brahmanism. But Buddhism has abolished human sacrifices, and indeed
all bloody offerings, and its innocent altars are only crowned with
flowers and leaves. It also inculcates a positive humanity, consisting of
good actions. All its priests are supported by daily alms. It is a duty of
the Buddhist to be hospitable to strangers, to establish hospitals for the
sick and poor, and even for sick animals, to plant shade-trees, and erect
houses for travellers. Mr. Malcom, the Baptist missionary, says that he
was resting one day in a _zayat_ in a small village in Birmah, and was
scarcely seated when a woman brought a nice mat for him to lie on. Another
brought cool water, and a man went and picked for him half a dozen good
oranges. None sought or expected, he says, the least reward, but
disappeared, and left him to his repose. He adds: "None can ascend the
river without being struck with the hardihood, skill, energy, and
good-humor of the Birmese boatmen. In point of temper and morality they
are infinitely superior to the boatmen on our Western waters. In my
various trips, I have seen no quarrel nor heard a hard word."