RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Buddhism.
about to die there were marvels, and the course of nature was' again disturbed, until the Tathagata passed to Nirvana.
The key-note of Buddhism is the transitoriness and vanity of life, which is conditioned by karma, the fruit of deeds done in countless previous lives; nor can existence be ended before the expiration of many reincarnations devoted to works of holiness and spent in unceasing efforts to gain Nirvana. Three elements common to all post-Vedic
3. Buddha's Hindu thought are at once discernible Teaching, in this teaching; viz., transmigration,
karma, and the dissolution of individuality. In its shortest form Buddha's teaching may be summarized as follows: Birth is sorrow, age is sorrow, sickness is sorrow, death is sorrow, clinging to earthly things is sorrow. Birth and rebirth, the chain of reincarnation, result from the thirst for life together with passion and desire. The only escape from this thirst is to follow the Eightfold Path: Right belief, right resolve, right word, right act, right life, right effort, right thinking, right meditation.
The goal of Buddhism is Nirvana. A definition of this term is almost impossible for the simple reason that Buddha himself gave no clear idea, and in all probability possessed none, of this state.
He was indeed asked by more than
4. Nirvana, one of his disciples whether Nirvana
was postmundane or postcelestial existence, or whether it was annihilation. To all these questions, however, he refused an answer, for it was characteristic of his teachings that they were practically confined to the present life, and concerned themselves but little either with problems of merely academic philosophy or with the unknowable. Some measure of light, however, may be gained from the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy which are based upon the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the Veda. According to all of these, the summum bonum is release from karma and reincarnation, a goal which is to be attained by knowledge, and which consists in absorption into or reunion with the Over-Soul. This involves the annihilation of individuality, and in this sense Nirvana is nihilism, so that with the tacit ignoring of any real conception of the divine in the teachings of Buddha, Nirvana seems to imply the annihilation of the soul rather than its absorption. It is noteworthy, furthermore, that the word Nirvana etymologically denotes " a blowing out," the extinguishing of the fires of hatred, infatuation, and all passions. Nirvana seems to have been twofold, a secondary condition which may be reached by the righteous in this life, and the blessed state of freedom from rebirth.
Surpassing the teachers who had preceded him, Buddha denied both the authority of the Vedas, whose recognition, however formal, constitutes orthodoxy in India, and the power of sacrifice, while he practically ignored the existence of the divine. He rejected the entire system of caste, thus unconsciously preparing his doctrines to be potentially a world-religion instead of an ethnic faith. In the later Buddhist theology an elaborate cosmology is developed, with thirty-one
worlds inhabited by fourteen classes of beings, of which the three highest are the supreme Buddhas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats, the latter being those who are almost ready to attain Nirvana, while the Pratyekabuddha has attained the knowledge necessary to Nirvana but does not preach it. In addition to these must be noted the Bodhisattva, a potential Buddha who will attain to Buddhahood in due time. Even in his lifetime Buddha established an order, thus forming the " triple jewel," Buddha, Dhamma (the law), and Sangha (the congregation). In this order were gathered the followers of the teacher, who were bound by the ten vows: neither to kill nor to steal, to abstain from impurity, falsehood, and intoxicating drinks, not to eat at forbidden times, to abstain from the folly of dancing,
singing, music, pnd the theater, to use
5. Buddhist no manner of adornment, not to sleep
Monks. in a high or a broad bed, and to receive
neither gold nor silver. The monks, who were bound to celibacy and poverty, and were called, in old Hindu fashion, bhikkus, or beggars, might be received as novices at the age of seven or eight, although they could not be ordained before their twentieth year. Twice a month the monks of each monastery assembled for the confession of sins, and annually in the rainy season a retreat was held both for rest from the pilgrimages of the preceding year and to gain new strength for the coming season. Even in the lifetime of Buddha women were admitted to the order and nunneries were built for their accommodation.
The history of Buddhism is a curious bit of irony; the founder who had ignored the existence of a god himself became a god. In Southern India, however, the religion remained relatively pure, although some heretical doctrines crept in at an early period and a number of councils were held to maintain the faith in its integrity. The first of these took
place at Rajagaha in the year of
6. Develop- Buddha's death, the second at Vaisali
ment after about a century later, the third, a
Buddha's sectarian meeting, at Pataliputra
Death. about 246 B.C., and the fourth at Jal-
andhara under the Indo-Scythian king Kanishka in 78 a.d. The religion gained royal approval at an early date, its great kingly adherent being Asoka, who was crowned at Pataliputra in Madagha about 259 B.C. and reigned thirty-seven years. Not only did he spread the faith throughout his dominions, but his son Mahendra carried the new creed to Ceylon. In the second century B.C. the Indo-Scythian kings of Cabul and Bactria established Buddhism in their lands, whence it was promulgated in Northwestern India. Thus the faith spread by degrees over all the country north of the Vindhyas, existing side by side with Brahmanism and Jainism in harmony and peace. Its downfall in the land of its birth was due to two causes, the conflict of the sects which arose within itself and the Mohammedan invasion of India, but there was no persecution by the other Hindu sects. In Ceylon, on the other hand, Buddhism still exists, especially in the southern part of the island, and it is there that the purest Buddhism is found.
Buddhism Buell