Chapter 71

On another occasion he is said to have brought back to her right mind a young mother whom sorrow had for a time deprived of reason. Her name was Kis[=a]gotam[=i]. She had been married early, as is the custom in the East, and had a child when she was still a girl. When the beautiful boy could run alone he died. The young girl in her love for it carried the dead child clasped to her bosom, and went from house to house of her pitying friends asking them to give her medicine for it. But a Buddhist convert thinking "she does not understand," said to her, "My good girl, I myself have no such medicine as you ask for, but I think I know of one who has." "Oh, tell me who that is?" said Kis[=a]gotam[=i]. "The Buddha can give you medicine; go to him," was the answer. She went to Gotama; and doing homage to him said, "Lord and master, do you know any medicine that will be good for my child?" "Yes, I know of some," said the teacher. Now it was the custom for patients or their friends to provide the herbs which the doctors required; so she asked what herbs he would want. "I want some mustard-seed," he said; and when the poor girl eagerly promised to bring some of so common a drug, he added, "you must get it from some house where no son, or husband, or parent or slave has died." "Very good," she said; and went to ask for it, still carrying her dead child with her. The people said, "Here is mustard-seed, take it"; but when she asked, "In my friend's house has any son died, or a husband, or a parent or slave?" They answered, "Lady! what is this that you say? the living are few, but the dead are many." Then she went to other houses, but one said "I have lost a son," another "We have lost our parents," another "I have lost my slave." At last, not being able to find a single house where no one had died, her mind began to clear, and summoning up resolution she left the dead body of her child in a forest, and returning to the Buddha paid him homage. He said to her, "Have you the mustard-seed?" "My lord," she replied, "I have not; the people tell me that the living are few, but the dead are many." Then he talked to her on that essential part of his system, the impermanency of all things, till her doubts were cleared away, she accepted her lot, became a disciple, and entered the "first path."

For forty-five years after entering on his mission Gotama itinerated in the valley of the Ganges, not going farther than about 250 m. from Benares, and always spending the rainy months at one spot--usually at one of the _viharas_,[8] or homes, which had been given to the society. In the twentieth year his cousin [=A]nanda became a mendicant, and from that time seems to have attended on the Buddha, being constantly near him, and delighting to render him all the personal service which love and reverence could suggest. Another cousin, Devadatta, the son of the r[=a]ja of Koli, also joined the society, but became envious of the teacher, and stirred up Ajatasattu (who, having killed his father Bimbisara, had become king of Rajagaha) to persecute Gotama. The account of the manner in which the Buddha is said to have overcome the wicked devices of this apostate cousin and his parricide protector is quite legendary; but the general fact of Ajatasattu's opposition to the new sect and of his subsequent conversion may be accepted.

The confused and legendary notices of the journeyings of Gotama are succeeded by tolerably clear accounts of the last few days of his life.[9] On a journey towards Kusin[=a]r[=a], a town about 120 m. north-north-east of Benares, and about 80 m. due east of Kapilavastu, the teacher, being then eighty years of age, had rested for a short time in a grove at P[=a]w[=a], presented to the society by a goldsmith of that place named Chunda. Chunda prepared for the mendicants a mid-day meal, and after the meal the Buddha started for Kusin[=a]r[=a]. He had not gone far when he was obliged to rest, and soon afterwards he said, "[=A]nanda, I am thirsty," and they gave him water to drink. Half-way between the two towns flows the river Kukusht[=a]. There Gotama rested again, and bathed for the last time. Feeling that he was dying, and careful lest Chunda should be reproached by himself or others, he said to [=A]nanda, "After I am gone tell Chunda that he will receive in a future birth very great reward; for, having eaten of the food he gave me, I am about to die; and if he should still doubt, say that it was from my own mouth that you heard this. There are two gifts which will be blest above all others, namely, Suj[=a]t[=a]'s gift before I attained wisdom under the Bo tree, and this gift of Chunda's before I pass away." After halting again and again the party at length reached the river Hiranyavati, close by Kusin[=a]r[=a], and there for the last time the teacher rested. Lying down under some Sal trees, with his face towards the south, he talked long and earnestly with [=A]nanda about his burial, and about certain rules which were to be observed by the society after his death. Towards the end of this conversation, when it was evening, [=A]nanda broke down and went aside to weep, but the Buddha missed him, and sending for him comforted him with the promise of Nirv[=a]na, and repeated what he had so often said before about the impermanence of all things,--"O [=A]nanda! do not weep; do not let yourself be troubled. You known what I have said; sooner or later we must part from all we hold most dear. This body of ours contains within itself the power which renews its strength for a time, but also the causes which lead to its destruction. Is there anything put together which shall not dissolve? But you, too, shall be free from this delusion, this world of sense, this law of change. Beloved," added he, speaking to the rest of the disciples, "[=A]nanda for long years has served me with devoted affection." And he spoke to them at some length on the kindness of [=A]nanda.

About midnight Subhadra, a brahmin philosopher of Kusin[=a]r[=a], came to ask some questions of the Buddha, but [=A]nanda, fearing that this might lead to a longer discussion than the sick teacher could bear, would not admit him. Gotama heard the sound of their talk, and asking what it was, told them to let Subhadra come. The latter began by asking whether the six great teachers knew all laws, or whether there were some that they did not know, or knew only partially. "This is not the time," was the answer, "for such discussions. To true wisdom there is only one way, the path that is laid down in my system. Many have already followed it, and conquering the lust and pride and anger of their own hearts, have become free from ignorance and doubt and wrong belief, have entered the calm state of universal kindliness, and have reached Nirv[=a]na even in this life. O Subhadra! I do not speak to you of things I have not experienced. Since I was twenty-nine years old till now I have striven after pure and perfect wisdom, and following the good path, have found Nirv[=a]na." A rule had been made that no follower of a rival system should be admitted to the society without four months' probation. So deeply did the words or the impressive manner of the dying teacher work upon Subhadra that he asked to be admitted at once, and Gotama granted his request. Then turning to his disciples he said, "When I have passed away and am no longer with you, do not think that the Buddha has left you, and is not still in your midst. You have my words, my explanations of the deep things of truth, the laws I have laid down for the society; let them be your guide; the Buddha has not left you." Soon afterwards he again spoke to them, urging them to reverence one another, and rebuked one of the disciples who spoke [v.04 p.0687] indiscriminately all that occurred to him. Towards the morning he asked whether any one had any doubt about the Buddha, the law or the society; if so, he would clear them up. No one answered, and [=A]nanda expressed his surprise that amongst so many none should doubt, and all be firmly attached to the law. But the Buddha laid stress on the final perseverance of the saints, saying that even the least among the disciples who had entered the first path only, still had his heart fixed on the way to perfection, and constantly strove after the three higher paths. "No doubt," he said, "can be found in the mind of a true disciple." After another pause he said: "Behold now, brethren, this is my exhortation to you. Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out, therefore, your emancipation with diligence!" These were the last words the Buddha spoke; shortly afterwards he became unconscious, and in that state passed away.

AUTHORITIES ON THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA.--Canonical P[=a]li (reached their present shape before the 4th century B.C.); episodes only, three of them long: (1) _Birth_; text in _Majjhima Nik[=a]ya_, ed. Trenckner and Chalmers (London, P[=a]li Text Society, 1888-1899), vol. iii. pp. 118-124; also in _Anguttara Nik[=a]ya_, ed. Morris and Hardy (P[=a]li Text Society, 1888-1900), vol. ii. pp. 130-132. (2) _Adoration of the babe_; old ballad; text in _Sutta Nip[=a]ta_, ed. Fausböll (P[=a]li Text Society, 1884), pp. 128-131; translation by the same in _Sacred Books of the East_ (Oxford, 1881), vol. x. pp. 124-131. (3) _Youth at home_; text in _Anguttara Nik[=a]ya_, i. 145. (4) _The going forth_; old ballad; text in _Sutta Nipata_, pp. 70-74 (London, 1896), pp. 99-101; prose account in _D[=i]gha Nik[=a]ya_, ed. Rhys Davids and Carpenter (P[=a]li Text Society, 1890-1893), vol. i. p. 115, translated by Rhys Davids in _Dialogues of the Buddha_ (Oxford, 1899), pp. 147-149. (5) _First long episode_; the going forth, years of study and penance, attainment of Nirv[=a]na and Buddhahood, and conversion of first five converts; text in _Majjhima_, all together at ii. 93; parts repeated at i. 163-175, 240-249; ii. 212; _Vinaya_, ed. Oldenberg (London, 1879-1883), vol. i. pp. 1-13. (6) _Second long episode_; from the conversation of the five down to the end of the first year of the teaching; text in _Vinaya_, i. 13-44, translated by Oldenberg in _Vinaya Texts_, i. 73-151. (7) _Visit to Kapilavastu_; text in _Vinaya_, i. 82; translation by Oldenberg in _Vinaya Texts_ (Oxford, 1881-1885), vol. i. pp. 207-210. (8) _Third long episode_; the last days; text in _D[=i]gha Nik[=a]ya_ (the _Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na Suttanta_), vol. ii. pp. 72-168, translated by Rhys Davids _in Buddhist Suttas_ (Oxford, 1881), pp. 1-136. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: (i) _Mah[=a]vastu_ (probably 2nd century B.C.); edited by Senart (3 vols., Paris, 1882-1897), summary in French prefixed to each volume; down to the end of first year of the teaching. (2) _Lalita Vistara_ (probably 1st century B.C.); edited by Mitra (Calcutta, 1877); translated into French by Foucaux (Paris, 1884); down to the first sermon. (3) _Buddha Carita_, by A['s]vaghosha, probably 2nd century A.D. edited by Cowell (Oxford, 1892); translated by Cowell (Oxford, 1894, S.B.E. vol. xlix.); an elegant poem; stops just before the attainment of Buddhahood. (These three works reproduce and amplify the above episodes Nos. 1-6; they retain here and there a very old tradition as to arrangement of clauses or turns of expression.) Later P[=a]li: The commentary on the _J[=a]taka_, written probably in the 5th century A.D., gives a consecutive narrative, from the birth to the end of the second year of the teaching, based on the canonical texts, but much altered and amplified; edited by Fausböll in _J[=a]taka_, vol. i. (London, 1877), pp. 1-94; translated by Rhys Davids in _Buddhist Birth Stories_ (London, 1880), pp. 1-133. Modern Works: (i) Tibetan; _Life of the Buddha_; episodes collected and translated by W. Woodville Rockhill (London, 1884), from Tibetan texts of the 9th and 10th centuries A.D. (2) Sinhalese; episodes collected and translated by Spence Hardy from Sinhalese texts of the 12th and later centuries, in _Manual of Buddhism_ (London, 1897, 2nd edition), pp. 138-359. (3) Burmese: _The Life or Legend of Gaudama_ (3rd edition, London, 1880), by the Right Rev. P. Bigandet, translated from a Burmese work of A.D. 1773. (The Burmese is, in its turn, a translation from a P[=a]li work of unknown date; it gives the whole life, and is the only consecutive biography we have.) (4) Kambojian: _Pathama Sambodhian_; translated into French by A. Leclère in _Livres sacrés du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1906).

(T. W. R. D.)

[1] _Note on the Date of the Buddha._--The now generally accepted date of the Buddha is arrived at by adding together two numbers, one being the date of the accession of Asoka to the throne, the second being the length of the interval between that date and that of the death of the Buddha. The first figure, that of the date of Asoka, is arrived at by the mention in one of his edicts of certain Greek kings, as then living. The dates of these last are approximately known; and arguing from these dates the date of Asoka's accession has been fixed by various scholars (at dates varying only by a difference of five years more or less) at about 270 B.C. The second figure, the total interval between Asoka's accession and the Buddha's death, is given in the Ceylon Chronicles as 218 years. Adding these two together, the date of the Buddha's death would be 488 B.C., and, as he was eighty years old at the time of his death, the date of his birth would be 568 B.C. The dates for his death and birth accepted in Burma, Siam and Ceylon are about half a century earlier, namely, 543 and 623 B.C., the difference being in the date of Asoka's accession. It will be seen that the dates as adopted in Europe are approximate only, and liable to correction if better data are obtainable. The details of this chronological question are discussed at length in Professor Rhys Davids' _Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon_ (London, 1877), where the previous discussions are referred to.

[2] See report of _Rex_. v. _Neuhaus_, Clerkenwell Sessions, September 15, 1906.

[3] The various legends of Mara are the subject of an exhaustive critical analysis in Windsisch's _Mara and Buddha_ (Leipzig, 1895).

[4] Bigandet, p. 49; and compare _Jataka_, p. 67, line 27.

[5] _Vinaya Texts_, i. 97-99; cf. _Jataka_, vol. i. p. 82, lines 11-19.

[6] _Samyutta_, i. 105.

[7] Cf. Big. p. 99, with Hardy, _M.B._ p. 191. The Pali name is _aditta-pariyaya_: the sermon on the lessons to be drawn from burning. The text is _Vinaya_, i. 34 = _Samyutta_, iv. 19. A literal translation will be found in _Vinaya Texts_, i. 134, 135.

[8] These were at first simple huts, built for the mendicants in some grove of palm-trees as a retreat during the rainy season; but they gradually increased in splendour and magnificence till the decay of Buddhism set in. See the authorities quoted in _Buddhist India_, pp. 141, 142.

[9] The text of the account of this last journey is the _Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na Suttanta_, vol. ii. of the _D[=i]gha_ (ed. Rhys Davids and Carpenter) The translation is in Rhys Davids' _Buddhist Suttas_.

BUDDHAGHOSA, a celebrated Buddhist writer. He was a Brahmin by birth and was born near the great Bodhi tree at Budh Gay[=a]; in north India about A.D. 390, his father's name being Kes[=i]. His teacher, Revata, induced him to go to Ceylon, where the commentaries on the scriptures had been preserved in the Sinhalese language, with the object of translating them into P[=a]li. He went accordingly to Anuradhapura, studied there under Sanghap[=a]la, and asked leave of the fraternity there to translate the commentaries. With their consent he then did so, having first shown his ability by writing the work _Visuddhi Magga_ (the Path of Purity, a kind of summary of Buddhist doctrine). When he had completed his many years' labours he returned to the neighbourhood of the Bodhi tree in north India. Before he came to Ceylon he had already written a book entitled _N[=a]nodaya_ (the Rise of Knowledge), and had commenced a commentary on the principal psychological manual contained in the _Pitakas_. This latter work he afterwards rewrote in Ceylon, as the present text (now published by the P[=a]li Text Society) shows. One volume of the _Sumangala Vil[=a]sin[=i]_ (a portion of the commentaries mentioned above) has been edited, and extracts from his comment on the Buddhist canon law. This last work has been discovered in a nearly contemporaneous Chinese translation (an edition in P[=a]li is based on a comparison with that translation). The works here mentioned form, however, only a small portion of what Buddhaghosa wrote. His industry must have been prodigious. He is known to have written books that would fill about 20 octavo volumes of about 400 pages each; and there are other writings ascribed to him which may or may not be really his work. It is too early therefore to attempt a criticism of it. But it is already clear that, when made acceptable, it will be of the greatest value for the history of Indian literature and of Indian ideas. So much is uncertain at present in that history for want of definite dates that the voluminous writings of an author whose date is approximately certain will afford a standard by which the age of other writings can be tested. And as the original commentaries in Sinhalese are now lost his works are the only evidence we have of the traditions then handed down in the Buddhist community. The main source of our information about Buddhaghosa is the _Mah[=a]vamsa_, written in Anur[=a]dhapura about fifty years after he was working there. But there are numerous references to him in P[=a]li books on P[=a]li literature; and a Burmese author of unknown date, but possibly of the 15th century, has compiled a biography of him, the _Buddhaghos' Uppatti_, of little value and no critical judgment.

See _Mah[=a]vamsa_, ch. xxxvii. (ed. Turnour, Colombo, 1837); "Gandhavaramsa," p. 59, in _Journal of the P[=a]li Text Society_ (1886); _Buddhghosuppatti_ (text and translation, ed. by E. Gray, London, 1893); _Sumangala Vil[=a]sin[=i]_, edited by T. W. Rhys Davids and J. E. Carpenter, vol. i. (London, P[=a]li Text Society, 1886). (T. W. R. D.)

BUDDHISM, the religion held by the followers of the Buddha (_q.v._), and covering a large area in India and east and central Asia.

_Essential Doctrines._--We are fortunate in having preserved for us the official report of the Buddha's discourse, in which he expounded what he considered the main features of his system to the five men he first tried to win over to his new-found faith. There is no reason to doubt its substantial accuracy, not as to words, but as to purport. In any case it is what the compilers of the oldest extant documents believed their teacher to have regarded as the most important points in his teaching. Such a summary must be better than any that could now be made. It is incorporated into two divisions of their sacred books, first among the _suttas_ containing the doctrine, and again in the rules of the society or order he founded (_Samyutta_, v. 421 = _Vinaya_, i. 10). The gist of it, omitting a few repetitions, is as follows:--

"There are two aims which he who has given up the world ought not to follow after--devotion, on the one hand, to those things whose attractions depend upon the passions, a low and pagan ideal, fit only for the worldly-minded, ignoble, unprofitable, and the practice on the other hand of asceticism, which is painful, ignoble, unprofitable. There is a Middle Path discovered by the Tath[=a]gata[1]--a path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace, to insight, to the higher wisdom, to Nirv[=a]na. Verily! it is this Noble Eightfold Path; that is to say, Right Views, Right Aspirations, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Mode of Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Rapture.

"Now this is the Noble Truth as to suffering. Birth is attended with pain, decay is painful, disease is painful, death is painful. Union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant; and any craving unsatisfied, that too is painful. In brief, the five aggregates of clinging (that is, the conditions of individuality) are painful.

"Now this is the Noble Truth as to the origin of suffering. Verily! it is the craving thirst that causes the renewal of becomings, that is accompanied by sensual delights, and seeks satisfaction now here, now there--that is to say, the craving for the gratification of the senses, or the craving for a future life, or the craving for prosperity.

[v.04 p.0688] "Now this is the Noble Truth as to the passing away of pain. Verily! it is the passing away so that no passion remains, the giving up, the getting rid of, the being emancipated from, the harbouring no longer of this craving thirst.

"Now this is the Noble Truth as to the way that leads to the passing away of pain. Verily! it is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is to say, Right Views, Right Aspirations, Right speech, conduct and mode of livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Rapture."

A few words follow as to the threefold way in which the speaker claimed to have grasped each of these Four Truths. That is all. There is not a word about God or the soul, not a word about the Buddha or Buddhism. It seems simple, almost jejune; so thin and weak that one wonders how it can have formed the foundation for a system so mighty in its historical results. But the simple words are pregnant with meaning. Their implications were clear enough to the hearers to whom they were addressed. They were not intended, however, to answer the questionings of a 20th-century European questioner, and are liable now to be misunderstood. Fortunately each word, each clause, each idea in the discourse is repeated, commented on, enlarged upon, almost _ad nauseam_, in the _suttas_, and a short comment in the light of those explanations may bring out the meaning that was meant.[2]