Part 7

The second Piṭaka, called Sutta (Sūtra), ‘precepts,’ contains the ethical doctrines which at first constituted the whole Buddhist Law. It consists of five Nikāyas, or collections, viz. _a._ the Dīgha, or collection of 34 long suttas, among which is the Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta (one of the oldest parts of the Canon after the Pātimokkha); _b._ the Majjhima, or collection of 152 suttas of middling length; _c._ the Saṃyutta, or collection of 55 groups of joined suttas, some of them very short; _d._ the Aṅguttara, or miscellaneous suttas in divisions, which go on increasing by one (aṅga); _e._ the Khuddaka, or minor collection, consisting of fifteen works.

According to one school, this fifth Nikāya is more correctly referred to the Abhi-dhamma Piṭaka. In character, however, it conforms more to the Sutta. Of its fifteen works, perhaps the most important are the following six:—

The Khuddaka-pāṭha, ‘short readings;’ the Dhamma-pada, ‘precepts of the Law’ (or ‘verses of the Law,’ or ‘footsteps of the Law’); the Jātaka (with their commentaries), a series of stories relating to about 550[28] previous births of the Buddha (p. 111), which have formed the basis of many stories in the Pañća-tantra, fables of Æsop, etc.; the Sutta-nipāta, ‘collection of discourses;’ the Thera-gāthā ( = Sthavira-g°), ‘verses or stanzas by elder monks;’ Therī-gāthā, ‘verses by elder nuns.’

The other nine are the Udāna, containing 82 short suttas and joyous utterances of the Buddha at crises of his life; the Itivuttaka, ‘thus it was said’ ( = ity ukta), 110 sayings of the Buddha; the Vimāna-vatthu, on the mansions of the gods (which move about at will and sometimes descend on earth); the Peta-vatthu ( = Preta-vastu, Peta standing for Preta and Pitṛi), on departed spirits; the Niddesa, a commentary on the Sutta-nipāta; the Paṭi-sambhidā, on the supernatural knowledge of Arhats; the Apadāna (Sanskṛit Avadāna), ‘stories about the achievements’ of Arhats; the Buddha-vaṉsa, or history of the 24 preceding Buddhas (the Dīgha mentions only six) and of Gautama; the Ćariyā-piṭaka, ‘treasury of acts,’ giving stories based on the Jātakas, describing Gautama’s acquisition of the ten transcendent virtues (p. 128) in former births.

The works included in this Sutta-piṭaka frequently take the form of conversations on doctrine and morality, between Gautama, or one of his chief disciples, and some inquirer. As constituting the ethical Dharma, they are the most interesting portion of the Canon.

With regard to the third Piṭaka, called Abhi-dhamma (Abbhi-dharma, ‘further dharma’), which is held by modern scholars to be of later origin and supplementary to the Sutta (p. 62), it contains seven prose works[29]. Moreover, it was once thought to relate entirely to metaphysics and philosophy; but this is now held to be an error, for all seven works treat of a great variety of subjects, including discipline and ethics. Metaphysical discussions occur, but it is probable that originally Buddha kept clear of metaphysics (see p. 98).

Besides the numerous works we have thus described as constituting the Tri-piṭaka or three collections of works of the Southern Buddhists, there are the Pāli commentaries called Aṭṭha-kathā (Artha-kathā, ‘telling of meanings[30]’), which were translated into Sinhalese, according to tradition, by Mahendra himself. Afterwards the original Pāli text was lost and some of the commentaries were retranslated into Pāli by Buddha-ghosha, ‘he who had the very voice of Buddha,’ at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century of our era.

The Mahā-vaṉṡa or ‘history of the great families of Ceylon,’ a well-known work (written in Pāli by a monk named Mahā-nāma in the fifth century and translated by Turnour), gives an account of this writer[31]. It says that a Brāhman youth, born near Buddha-Gayā in Magadha, had achieved great celebrity as a disputant in Brāhmanical philosophy. This youth was converted by a Buddhist sage in India, and induced to enter the Buddhist monastic Order. He soon became renowned for his eloquence, and was on that account called Buddha-ghosha. He wrote a commentary, called Aṭṭha-sālinī, on the Dhamma-saṅgani, a work belonging to the Abhi-dharma. He also wrote a most valuable Pāli compendium of Buddhist doctrine called Visuddhi-magga, ‘path of purity,’ and a commentary on the Dharma-pada containing many parables. He went to Ceylon about A.D. 430 for the purpose of retranslating the Sinhalese commentaries into Pāli. His literary reputation stands very high in that island, and he was instrumental in spreading Buddhism throughout Burma.

It may be noted that the two important Pāli works, Mahā-vaṉṡa and Dīpa-vaṉṡa (Dvīpa-vaṉṡa), perhaps the oldest extant histories of Ceylon, are also fairly authentic sources for Buddhistic history before Christ.

Turn we now to the Mahāyāna or ‘Great Vehicle.’ This cannot be said to possess any true Canon distinct from the Tri-piṭaka, though certain Nepalese Sanskṛit works, composed in later times, are held to be canonical by Northern Buddhists.

To understand this part of the subject we must revert to the great king Aṡoka. It is usual to call this second and more celebrated Aṡoka the Constantine of Buddhism. Being of Ṡūdra origin he was the more inclined to favour the popular teaching of Gautama, and, as he was the first king who adopted Buddhism openly (about 257 B.C.) he doubtless did for Buddhism very much what Constantine did for Christianity.

The Buddhist system then spread over the whole kingdom of Aṡoka, and thence over other portions of India, and even to some outlying countries. For gradually during this period most of the petty princes of India, from Peshāwar and Kashmīr to the river Kistna, and from Surat to Bengal and Orissa, if not actually brought under subjection to the king of Magadha, were compelled to acknowledge his paramount authority.

This is proved by Aṡoka’s edicts, which are inscribed on rocks and stone pillars[32] (the earliest dating from about 251 B.C.), and are found in frontier districts separated from each other by enormous distances.

These inscriptions are of the greatest interest and value, as furnishing the first authentic records of Indian history. They are written in a more ancient language than the Pāli of Ceylon, and in at least three different dialects. Ten of the most important are found on six rocks and five pillars (Lāṭs), though numerous other monuments are scattered over Northern India, from the Indian Ocean to the Bay of Bengal, from the Vindhya range on the south to the Khaibar Pass on the north[33].

In these proclamations and edicts (one of which was addressed to the third Buddhist Council), king Aṡoka, who calls himself Priya-darṡī (Pāli Piya-dassī), issues various orders. He prohibits the slaughter of animals for food or sacrifice, gives directions for what may be called the first hospitals, i. e. for treating men and even animals medically, appoints missionaries for the propagation of Buddhist doctrines, inculcates peace and mercy, charity and toleration, morality and self-denial, and what is still more remarkable, enjoins quinquennial periods of national humiliation and confession of sins by all classes, accompanied by a re-proclamation of the Buddha’s precepts. Aṡoka, in fact, became so zealous a friend of Buddhism, that he is said to have maintained 64,000 Buddhist monks in and around the country of Magadha, which was on that account called the land of monasteries (Vihāra = the modern Bihār or Behār).

No doubt it was Aṡoka’s propagation of Buddhism by missions in various countries—where it came in contact with and partly adopted various already existing indigenous faiths and superstitions—that led to the ultimate separation of the Buddhist system into the two great divisions of Southern and Northern.

Indeed, the formation of a Northern School, as distinct from a Southern, became inevitable after the conversion of Kanishka, the Indo-Scythian king of Kashmīr, who came from the North, and became a zealous Buddhist. He probably reigned in the second half of the first century (A.D.), and extended his dominions as far as Gujarāt, Sindh, and even Mathurā (see p. 167, note 2).

It was during Kanishka’s reign that a fourth Council[34] was held at Jālandhara in Kashmīr, under Pārṡva and Vasu-mitra. It consisted of 500 monks, who composed three Sanskṛit works of the nature of commentaries (Upadeṡa, Vinaya-vibhāshā, Abhidharma-vibhāshā) on the three Pāli Piṭakas. These were the earliest books of the Mahā-yāna or Northern School, which afterwards formulated its more developed doctrines on the Indus, while the Pāli Canon of the South represented the true doctrine promulgated on the Ganges.

Kashmīr was a centre of Sanskṛit learning, and Kanishka, who was a patron of it, became to Northern Buddhism what Aṡoka had been to Southern. Hence in process of time other Northern Buddhist books were written in Sanskṛit, with occasional Gāthās or stanzas in an irregular dialect, half Sanskṛit, half Prākṛit.

It is usual to enumerate nine Nepalese canonical scriptures (Dharmas):—1.Prajñā pāramitā, ‘transcendent knowledge,’ or an abstract of metaphysical and mystic philosophy; 2. Gaṇḍa-vyūha; 3. Daṡa-bhūmīṡ-vara (describing the ten stages leading to Buddhahood); 4. Samādhi-rāja; 5. Laṅkāvatāra; 6. Saddharma-puṇḍarīka, ‘Lotus of the True Law;’ 7. Tathāgaṭa-guhyaka (containing the secret Tantric doctrines); 8. Lalita-vistara (giving a legendary life of Buddha); 9. Suvarṇa-prabhāsa. The eighth is probably as old as the 2nd century of our era, and next comes the sixth. Tibetan translations were made of all of them. These extend to 100 volumes and are collectively called Ka’gyur or Kan’gyur (Kanjur). We owe our knowledge of these to the indefatigable Hungarian traveller, Alexander Csoma de Körös.

Copies of the Sanskrit works were brought to England by Mr. B. H. Hodgson. The sixth has been translated by Burnouf and recently by H. Kern. Dr. Rājendralāla-mitra has edited the eighth. As to the non-canonical works M. Senart has edited part of the Mahā-vastu, and Professor E. B. Cowell and Mr. R. A. Neil, the Divyāvadāna. They contain interesting old legends—some about the achievements of Aṡoka, some about Buddha himself, some perhaps from lost Vinaya books.

As to the Pāli written character, it is a question whether that current in the holy land of Buddhism, or in Ceylon, or in Siam (Kambodia), or in Burma—that is, Devanāgarī, Sinhalese, Kambodian, or Burmese—should be used. Many think Burmese most suited to it, and in Europe the Roman character is preferred.

It should be added that the recitation (Bhāṇa, Sanskṛit root Bhaṇ, ‘to speak;’ in Sinhalese spelt Baṇa) of the Law is one of the principal duties of monks, the reciter being called Bhāṇaka. A peculiar mode of intoning is called Sara-bhañña (sara = svara). The Buddha, they say, is not extinct, for he lives in the Dharma and in the Saṅgha, in the Law and in the monks who recite it. Hence the importance of recitation in the Buddhist system (p. 84).

LECTURE IV. _The Saṅgha or Buddhist Order of Monks._

Perhaps the first point made clear by the study of the Buddhist Scriptures is, that the Buddha never seriously thought of founding a new system in direct opposition to Brāhmanism and caste. Even his Order or fraternity of Monks, which attained a world-wide celebrity and spread through a great part of Asia, was a mere imitation of an institution already established in India. He himself was a Hindū of the Hindūs, and he remained a Hindū to the end. His very name, Gautama, connected him with one of the most celebrated Hindū sages, and was significant of his original connexion with orthodox Brāhmanism. It is true he was a determined opponent of all Brāhmanical sacerdotalism and ceremonialism, and of all theories about the supernatural character of the Vedas (see p. 53); but, being himself a Hindū, he never required his adherents to make any formal renunciation of Hindūism, as if they had been converted to an entirely new faith; just as, if I may say so with all reverence, the Founder of the Christian Church, being Himself a Jew, never required His followers to give up every Jewish usage.

Nor had the Buddha any idea of courting popularity as a champion of social equality and denouncer of all distinctions of rank and ancient traditions—a kind of Tribune of the people, whose mission was to protect them from the tyranny of the upper classes.

There was, no doubt, at one time a prevalent opinion among scholars that Gautama aimed at becoming a great social reformer. It was generally supposed that he began by posing before his fellow-countrymen in a somewhat _ad captandum_ manner as a popular leader and liberator, whose mission was to deliver them from the tyranny of caste. But such an opinion is now known to be based on mistaken assumptions. What ought rather to be claimed for him is that he was the first to establish a universal brotherhood (Saṅgha) of cœnobite monks, open to all persons of all ranks. In other words, he was the first founder of what may be called a kind of universal monastic communism (for Buddhist monks never, as a rule, lived alone), and the first to affirm that true enlightenment—the knowledge of the highest path leading to saintship—was not confined to the Brāhmans, but open to all the members of all castes. This was the only sense in which he abolished caste. His true followers, however, constituted a caste of their own, distinguished from the laity. From the want of a more suitable term we are forced to call them ‘monks[35].’

And this Order of monks was not a hierarchy. It had no ecclesiastical organization under any centralized authority. Its first Head, Gautama, appointed no successor. It was not the depository of theological learning. Nor was it a mediatorial caste of priests, claiming to mediate between earth and heaven. It ought not to be called a Church, and it had no rite of ordination in the true sense. It was a brotherhood, in which all were under certain obligations of celibacy, moral restraint, fasting, poverty, itineration and confession to each other—all were dominated by one idea, and pledged to the propagation of the one doctrine, that all life was in itself misery, and to be got rid of by a long course of discipline, as not worth living, whether on earth or in heaven, whether in present or future bodies. The founding of a monastic brotherhood of this kind which made personal extinction its final aim, and might be co-extensive with the whole world, was the Buddha’s principal object.

In point of fact, the so-called enlightenment of mind which entitled him to Buddhahood, led him at the early stage of his career into no abstruse or transcendental region of thought, but took a very practical direction. It led him to see that an association of monks offering equality of condition to high and low, rich and poor, and a haven of refuge to all oppressed by the troubles of life, would soon become popular. His Order started with first ten, then fifty, then sixty original members (see p. 45), but its growth soon surpassed all anticipations, and its ramifications extended to distant countries, where, like the branches of the Indian fig-tree, they sent down roots to form vigorous independent plants, even after the decay of the parent stem. On this account it was called the fraternity of the four quarters (Ćātuddisa, Mahā-vagga VIII. 27. 5) of the globe.

In brief, a carefully regulated monastic brotherhood, which opened its arms to all comers of all ranks, and enforced on its members the duty of extending its boundaries by itinerancy, and by constantly rolling onward the wheel of the true doctrine (Law), constituted in its earliest days the very essence, the very backbone of Buddhism, without which it could never have been propagated, nor even have held its own.

But we repeat that in this, his main design, Gautama was after all no innovator; no introducer of novel ideas.

Monachism had always been a favourite adjunct of the Brāhminanical system, and respect for monastic life had taken deep root among the people. Thus we find it laid down in its most authoritative exponent, Manu’s Law-book (Book VI), that every twice-born man was bound to be first an unmarried student (Brahma-ćārī), next a married householder, and then at the end of a long life he was to abandon wife and family and become a Sannyāsī, ‘ascetic,’ or Bhikshu, ‘mendicant,’ wandering from door to door. In fact, it was through these very states of life that Gautama himself, as a Kshatriya, was theoretically bound to have passed.

Hindū monks, therefore, were numerous before Buddhism. They belonged to various sects, and took various vows of self-torture, of silence, of fasting, of poverty, of mendicancy, of celibacy, of abandoning caste, rank, wife and family. Accordingly they had various names. The Brāhman was called a Sannyāsī, ‘one who gives up the world.’ Others were called Vairāgī, ‘free from affections;’ Yogī, ‘seeking mystic union with the Deity;’ Dig-ambara, ‘sky-clothed,’ ‘naked;’ Tapasvī, ‘practising austerities;’ Yati, ‘restraining desires;’ Jitendriya, ‘conquering passions;’ Ṡramaṇa, ‘undergoing discipline;’ Bhikshu, ‘living by alms;’ Nirgrantha, ‘without ties.’ Such names prove that asceticism was an ancient institution. The peculiarity about Gautama’s teaching in regard to monachism was that he discouraged[36] solitary asceticism, severe austerities, and irrevocable vows, though he enjoined moral restraint in celibate fraternities, conformity to rules of discipline, upright conduct, and confession to each other.

Seated, as a Brāhman Sannyāsī, in meditation (described at p. xiii of the Preface).

His usual mode of designating his monks was by the old term Bhikshu (Pāli Bhikkhu), ‘living by alms,’ to indicate their poverty. They were also called Ṡrāmaṇera and Ṡramaṇa (Pāli Sāmaṇera, Samaṇa), as subject to monastic discipline[37]. Those who entered the stream leading to Arhatship (p. 132) were called Ārya.

The term Ṡrāvaka, ‘hearers,’ seems to have been used in the Hīna-yāna system to denote great disciples only, and especially those ‘great disciples’ (p. 47) of Gautama who heard the Law from his own lips, and were afterwards called Sthaviras and became Arhats (p. 133). They had also the title Āyushmat, ‘possessing life.’

We perceive again the close connexion between Brāhmanism and Buddhism; for clearly the Brahma-ćārī and Sannyāsī of the one became the Ṡrāmaṇera or junior monk, and Ṡramaṇa or senior monk of the other.

As to the name Ṡramaṇa (from root Ṡram, ‘to toil’), bear in mind that, although Buddhism has acquired the credit of being the easiest religious system in the world, and its monks are among the idlest of men—as having no laborious ceremonies and no work to do for a livelihood—yet in reality the carrying out of the great object of extinguishing lusts, and so getting rid of the burden of repeated existences, was no sinecure if earnestly undertaken. Nor was it possible for men to lead sedentary lives, whose only mode of avoiding starvation was by house to house itinerancy.

As to the form of admission, there was no great strictness in early times, when all applicants were admitted without inquiry. It was only when the Order increased that murderers, robbers, debtors, soldiers and others in the King’s service, lepers, cripples, blind, one-eyed, deaf and dumb, and consumptive persons, and all subject to fits were rejected[38].

Originally it was enough for the Buddha to have said, ‘Come (ehi), follow me.’ This alone conferred discipleship. In time, however, he commissioned those he had himself admitted to admit others. Then the form of admission to the brotherhood was divided into two stages, marked by two ceremonies, which have been very unsuitably compared to our ordination services for deacon and priest. At any rate the term ‘ordination’ is wholly misleading, if any idea of a priestly commission or gift of spiritual powers be implied.

The youthful layman who desired admission to the first degree, or that of a novice, had to be at least fifteen years old[39] (Mahā-v° I. 50); and such novices had to be at least twenty (from conception) before the second rite or admission to the full monkhood.

The first rite was called pravrajyā (pabbajjā), ‘going forth from home’ (Mahā-v° I. 12). Persons admitted to this first degree of monkhood were called Ṡrāmaṇera (Sāmanera), ‘novices,’ though they were also called ‘new’ or ‘junior monks’ (Navako Bhikkhu). They might be admitted by a senior monk without appearing before any formal conclave; but not without the consent of their parents, and not without attaching themselves to a religious teacher (upādhyāya) after their admission. It is said that Gautama was urged by his father Ṡuddhodana to require the sanction of parents, in rather touching and remarkable words, to the following effect:—

‘The love for a son cuts into the cuticle (ćhavi); having cut into the cuticle, it cuts into the inner skin (ćamma); having cut into the inner skin, it cuts into the flesh; having cut into the flesh, it cuts into the tendons (nhāru or nahāru); having cut into the tendons, it cuts into the bones; having cut into the bones, it reaches the marrow (aṭṭhi-miṅjā), and abides in the marrow. Let not Pabbajjā, therefore, be performed on a son without his father’s and mother’s permission’ (Mahā-vagga I. 54).

The admission ceremony of a novice was extremely simple, and confined to certain acts and words on the part of the candidate, witnessed by any competent monk. The Saṅgha, as a body, took no part in it. The novice first cut off his hair, put on three yellow ragged garments (tri-ćīvara), adjusted the upper robe so as to leave the right shoulder bare, and then before a monk repeated three times the three-refuge formula:

‘I go for refuge to the Buddha (Buddhaṃ ṡaraṇaṃ gaććhāmi).’ ‘I go for refuge to the Law (Dharmaṃ ṡaraṇaṃ gaććhāmi).’ ‘I go for refuge to the Order (Saṅghaṃ ṡaraṇaṃ gaććhāmi).’

Very remarkably, this, the only prayer of true Buddhism, resembled the Gāyatrī or sacred prayer of the Veda (repeated by the Brahma-ćārī) in consisting of three times eight syllables. But if the Buddhist novice had a right to the Brahma-ćārī’s sacred cord (upavīta), this was probably abandoned on admission. He was then instructed in the Ten Precepts (Dasa-sīla or sikkhā-pada), which were really ten prohibitions (Mahā-vagga I. 56), requiring ten abstinences (veramaṇī):—

1. from destroying life (pāṇātipato = prāṇātipāta); 2. from taking anything not given (adinnādāna); 3. from unchastity (abrahmaćariyā); 4. from speaking falsely (musā-vāda = mṛishā-vāda); 5. from drinking strong drinks (surā); 6. from eating at forbidden times (vikāla-bhojana); 7. from dancing, singing, music, and worldly spectacles (visūka); 8. from garlands, scents, unguents or ornaments; 9. from the use of a high or broad bed; 10. from receiving gold or silver. The prohibition not to receive money, even in return for religious teaching or any supposed spiritual benefits conferred, was held to be most important, and was for a long time obeyed, though in the end monasteries became owners of large property and landed estates.