BUDDHISM. emperor as a third state religion. The Chinese Buddhists have always looked on India as their 'holy land;' and, beginning with the 4th c. of our era, a stream of Buddhist pilgrims continued to flow from China to India during six centuries. Several of these pilgrims have left accounts of their travels, which throw a light on the course of Buddhism in India, and on the internal state of the country in general, that is looked for in vain THSANG. As to the spread of Buddhism north of the Himalayan mountains, we have the historical fact, that a Chinese general, having about the year 120 B. C. defeated the barbarous tribes to the north of the Desert of Gobi, brought back as a trophy a golden statue of the Buddha. stages of contemplation, he realises this in his own person, and attains the perfect wisdom of the Buddha. The scene of this final triumph received the name of Bodhimanda (the seat of intelligence), and the tree under which he sat was called Bodhidruma (the tree of intelligence), whence Bo-tree. The Buddhists believe the spot to be the centre of the earth. Twelve hundred years after the Buddha's death, Hiouen-Thsang, the Chinese Pilgrim, found the Bodhidruma-or a tree in the literature of India itself. See HIOUENthat passed for it still standing. Although the religion of Buddha is extinct in the neighbourhood, there are, about 5 miles from Gaya Proper, in Bahar, extensive ruins and an old dagoba, or a temple, which are believed to mark the place. Near the temple there flourished, in 1812, a peepul-tree, apparently 100 years old, which may have been planted in the place of the original Bo-tree. Having arrived at the knowledge of the causes of misery, and of the means by which these causes are to be counteracted, the Buddha was now ready to lead others on the road to salvation. It was at Benares that he first preached, or, in the consecrated phrase, 'turned the wheel of the law;'* but the most important of his early converts was Bimbisara, the sovereign of Magadha (Bahar), whose dynasty continued for many centuries to patronise the new faith. During the forty years that he continued to preach his strange gospel, he appears to have traversed a great part of Northern India, combating the Brahmans, and everywhere making numerous converts. He died at Kusinagara (in Oude), at the age of 80, in the year 543 B. C.; and his body being burned, the relics were distributed among a number of contending claimants, and monumental tumuli were erected to preserve them. See TOPES. The most important point in the history of Buddhism, after the death of its founder, is that of the three councils which fixed the canon of the sacred scriptures and the discipline of the church. The Buddha had written nothing himself; but his chief followers, assembled in council immediately after his death, proceeded to reduce his teaching to writing. These canonical writings are divided into three classes, forming the Tripitaka, or 'triple basket.' The first class consist of the Soutras, or discourses of the Buddha; the second contains the Vinaya, or discipline; and the third the Abhidharma, or metaphysic. The first is evidently the fundamental text out of which all the subsequent writings have been elaborated. The other two councils probably revised and expanded the writings agreed upon at the first, adding voluminous commentaries. As to the dates of the other two councils, there are irreconcilable discrepancies in the accounts; but at all events the third was not later than 240 B. C., so that the Buddhist canonical scriptures, as they now exist, were fixed two centuries and a half before the Christian era. The Buddhist religion early manifested a zealous missionary spirit; and princes and even princesses, became devoted propagandists. A prince of the royal House of Magadha, Mahindo, carried the faith to Ceylon, 307 B. C. The Chinese annals speak of a Buddhist missionary as early as 217 B. C.; and the doctrine made such progress, that in 65 A. D. it was acknowledged by the Chinese * From a too literal understanding of this phrase have arisen, probably, those praying-wheels, or rather wheels for meditation, seen standing before Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and elsewhere. The doctrines of Buddha are inscribed on the wheel, which is then set in motion by a windlass, or even by horse-power. The individual monks have portable ones, with which they perform their devotions wherever they may happen to be. A prominent name in the history of Buddhism is that of Asoka, king of Magadha, in the 3d c. of our era, whose sway seems to have extended over the whole peninsula of Hindustan, and even over Ceylon. This prince was to Buddhism what Constantine was to Christianity. He was at first a persecutor of the faith, but being converted— by a miracle, according to the_legend-he became its zealous propagator. Not, however, as princes usually promote their creed; for it is a distinguishing characteristic of Buddhism, that it has never employed force, hardly even to resist aggression. Asoka shewed his zeal by building and endowing viharas or monasteries, and raising topes and other monuments over the relics of Buddha and in spots remarkable as the scenes of his labours. Hiouen-Thsang, in the 7th c. of our era, found topes attributed to Asoka from the foot of the Hindu Kush to the extremity of the peninsula. There exist, also, in different parts of India, edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars, inculcating the doctrines of Buddha. The edicts are in the name of King Piyadasi; but Orientalists are almost unanimous in holding Piyadasi and Asoka to be one and the same. Not a single building or sculptured stone has been discovered in continental India of earlier date than the reign of this monarch, whose death is assigned to 226 B. C. A remarkable spirit of charity and toleration runs through these royal sermons. The king beloved of the gods' desires to see the ascetics of all creeds living in all places, for they all teach the essential rules of conduct. 'A man ought to honour his own faith only; but he should never abuse the faith of others. There are even circumstances where the religion of others ought to be honoured, and in acting thus, a man fortifies his own faith, and assists the faith of others.' For the glimpses we get of the state of Buddhism in India, we are indebted chiefly to the accounts of Chinese pilgrims. Fa-hian, at the end of the 4th c., found some appearances of decline in the east of Hindustan, its birthplace, but it was still strong in the Punjab and the north. In Ceylon, it was flourishing in full vigour, the ascetics or monks numbering from 50,000 to 60,000. In the 7th c.— that is, 1200 years after the death of the BuddhaHiouen-Thsang represents it as widely dominant and flourishing, and patronised by powerful rajahs. Its history was doubtless more or less checkered. The Brahmans, though little less tolerant than the followers of Buddha, seem to have been in some cases roused into active opposition; and some princes employed persecution to put down the new faith. turies of our era, and as a result of persecution, that It was probably during the first four or five cenBuddhists, driven from the great cities, retired among the hills of the west, and there constructed those cave-temples which, for their number, vastness, Section of Buddhist Cave-temple at Karli-from Fergusson's Handbook of Architecture. internal corruption, or the persecution of powerful princes, adherents of the old faith-we are utterly in the dark. But it is certain that from the time of Hiouen-Thsang's visit, its decay must have been rapid beyond precedent; for about the 11th or 12th c., the last traces of it disappear from the Indian peninsula. What, then, is the nature of this faith, which has been for so long, and is still, the sole light of so many millions of human beings? In answering this question, we must confine ourselves here to a brief outline of the intellectual theory on which the system is based, and of the general character of its morality and ritual observances, as they were conceived by the founder and his more immediate followers; referring for the various forms which the external observances have assumed to the several countries where it is believed and practised. See BURMAH, CEYLON, CHINA, JAPAN, TIBET. in an exalted and happy position on earth, or as a blessed spirit, or even divinity, in one of the many heavens; in which the least duration of life is about 10 billions of years. But however long the life, whether of misery or of bliss, it has an end, and at its close the individual must be born again, and may again be either happy or miserable-either a god or, it may be, the vilest inanimate object.* The Buddha himself, before his last birth as Sakyamuni, had gone through every conceivable form of existence on the earth, in the air, and in the water, in hell and in heaven, and had filled every condition in human life. When he attained the perfect knowledge of the Buddha, he was able to recall all these existences; and a great part of the Buddhist legendary literature is taken up in narrating his exploits when he lived as an elephant, as a bird, as a stag, and so forth. beings, is peculiar. They do not conceive any god or gods as being pleased or displeased by the actions, and as assigning the actors their future condition by way of punishment or of reward. The very idea of a god, as creating or in any way ruling the world, is utterly absent in the Buddhist system. God is not so much as denied; he is simply not known. Contrary to the opinion once confidently and generally held, that a nation of atheists never existed, it is no longer to be disputed that the numerous Buddhist nations are essentially atheist ; for they know no beings with greater supernatural power than any man is supposed capable of attaining to by virtue, austerity, and science; and a remarkable indication of this startling fact is to be seen in the circumstance, that some at least of the Buddhist nations the Chinese, Mongols, and Tibetans-have no word in their languages to express the notion of God. The future condition of the Buddhist, then, is not assigned him by the Ruler of the universe; the Karma' of his actions determines it by a sort of virtue inherent in the nature of things-by the blind and unconscious concatenation of cause and effect. But the laws by The Buddhist conception of the way in which the Buddhism is based on the same views of human quality of actions-which is expressed in Pali by existence, and the same philosophy of things in the word Karma, including both merit and demerit. general, that prevailed among the Brahmans. It-determines the future condition of all sentient accepts without questioning, and in its most exaggerated form, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which lies at the root of so much that is strange in the Eastern character. For a particular account of this important doctrine or notion, which seems ingrained in the constitution of Eastern minds, and without a knowledge of which no phase of thought or feeling among them can be understood, the reader is referred to TRANSMIGRATION; while the peculiar cosmogony or system of the universe with which it is associated, and which is substantially the same among Hindus and Buddhists, will be described under HINDUISM. It is sufficient here to say, that, according to Buddhist belief, when a man dies, he is immediately born again, or appears in a new shape; and that shape may, according to his merit or demerit, be any of the innumerable orders of being composing the Buddhist universe-from a clod to a divinity. If his demerit would not be sufficiently punished by a degraded earthly existence-in the form, for instance, of a woman or a slave, of a persecuted or a disgusting animal, of a plant, or even of a piece of inorganic matter he will be born in some one of the 136 Buddhist hells, situated in the interior of the earth. These places of punishment have a regular gradation in the intensity of the suffering and in the length of time the sufferers live, the least term of life being 10 millions of years, the longer terms being almost beyond the powers of even Indian notation to express. A meritorious life, on the other hand, secures the next birth either *One legend makes Bhagavat, in order to impress upon the monks of a monastery the importance of natural insight, reveal to them that it had once been their duties, point to a besom, and, by his supera novice, who had been negligent in sweeping the hall of assembly; the walls and pillars, again, he told them, had once existed as monks, who soiled the walls of the hall by spitting upon them. BUDDHISM. which consequences are regulated seem dark, and even capricious. A bad action may lie dormant, as it were, for many existences; the taint, however, is there, and will some time or other break out. A Buddhist is thus never at a loss to account for any calamity that may befall himself or others. matter of dispute. According to its etymology, the word means 'extinction,' 'blowing out,' as of a candle; and most Orientalists are agreed that in the Buddhist scriptures generally it is equivalent to annihilation. Even in those schools which attempt to draw a distinction, the distinction is of the most evanescent kind. Another basis of Buddhism is the assumption, that human existence is on the whole miserable, and a curse rather than a blessing. This notion, or rather feeling, is, like transmigration, common to Buddhism and Brahmanism, and is even more prominent in Buddhism than in the old faith. It is difficult for a European to conceive this state of mind, or to believe that it can be habitual in a whole people; and many signal errors in dealing with the Indian nations have arisen from overlooking the fact. The cause would seem to lie chiefly in the comparatively feeble physical organisation of Easterns in general. With a vigorous animal vitality, there is a massive enjoyment in mere bodily existence sufficient to drown a large amount of irritation and suffering, leaving life still sweet and desirable; while the spontaneous activity attending this vigour, makes it a pleasure instead of a pain to contend with and conquer difficulties. The Indian, on the contrary, even when he looks robust, has little intensity of animal vitality; and therefore, bodily existence, in itself, has to him little relish. Tedium of life, it is well known, arises more from negative than positive sources; and it requires but little bitter added to make his cup disgusting. So far, again, from finding activity a source of enjoy-ments adhering to him, and the accumulation of ment, exertion is painful, and entire quiescence is, in his eyes, the highest state of conceivable enjoyment. When to this we add that want of security and peace, and that habitual oppression of the many by the few, with all the attendant degradation and positive suffering, which may be considered the normal state of things in the East, need we wonder that to men so constituted and so circumstanced, life should seem a burden, a thing rather to be feared than otherwise? The little value that Hindus set upon their lives is manifested in many ways. The punishment of death, again, has little or no terror for them, and is even sometimes coveted as an honour. For, in addition to the little value of their present existence, they have the most undoubting assurance that their soul, if dislodged from its present tenement, will forthwith find another, with a chance, at least, of its being a better one. The key of the whole scheme of Buddhist salvation lies in what Gautama called his Four Sublime Verities. The first asserts that pain exists; the second, that the cause of pain is desire or attachment-the meaning of which will appear further on ; the third, that pain can be ended by Nirvana; and the fourth shews the way that leads to Nirvana. This way to Nirvana consists in eight things: right faith, right judgment, right language, right purpose, right practice, right obedience, right memory, and right meditation. In order to understand how this method is to lead to the proposed end, we must turn to the metaphysical part of the system contained in the concatenation of causes,' which may be looked upon as a development of the second 'verity'-namely, that the cause of pain is desire-or rather, as the analysis upon which that verity is founded. The immediate cause of pain is birth, for if we were not born, we should not be exposed to death or any of the ills of life. Birth, again, is caused by previous existence; it is only a transition from one state of existence into another. All the actions and affections of a being throughout his migrations leave their impressions, stains, attachthese determines at each stage the peculiar modification of existence he must next assume. But for these adhesions, the soul would be free; not being bound down to migrate into any determinate condition of life, it would follow that it need not migrate at all. These adhesions or attachments, good and bad, depend upon desire, or rather, upon affection of any kind in the soul towards the objects; as if only what moved the soul to desire or avoidance could leave its impress upon it. We thus arrive at desire-including both the desire to possess, and the desire to avoid-as one link in the chain of causes of continued existence and pain. Beyond this the dependence of the links is very difficult to trace; for desire is said to be caused by perception, perception by contact, and so on, until we come to ideas. Ideas, however, are mere illusions, the results of ignorance or error, attributing durability and reality to that which is transitory and imaginary. Cut off this ignorance, bring the mind into a state in which it can see and feel the illusory nature of things, and forthwith the whole train vanishes; illusory ideas, distinction of forms, senses, contact, perception, desire, attachment, existence, birth, misery, old age, death! In the eyes, then, of Sakya-muni and his followers, sentient existence was hopelessly miserable. Misery was not a mere taint in it, the removal of which would make it happy; misery was its very essence. Death was no escape from this inevitable lot; for, according to the doctrine of transmigration, death was only a passage into some other form of Morality and Religious Observances.-The eight existence equally doomed. Even the heaven and parts or particulars constituting the theoretical the state of godhead which form part of the cycleway' (to Nirvana), was developed by Gautama into of changes in this system, were not final; and a set of practical precepts enjoining the various this thought poisoned what happiness they might be capable of yielding. Brahman philosophers had sought escape from this endless cycle of unsatisfying changes, by making the individual soul be absorbed in the universal spirit (Brahm); Gautama had the same object in view-viz., exemption from being born again; but he had not the same means of reaching it. His philosophy was utterly atheistic, like that of the original Sankhya school of philosophy, whose views he chiefly borrowed, and ignored a supreme God or Creator; it did not leave even an impersonal Spirit of the universe into which the human soul could be absorbed. Gautama sees no escape but in what he calls NIRVANA, the exact nature of which has been duties of common life and of religion. They are all ostensibly intended as means of counteracting or destroying the chain of causes that tie men to existence and necessitate being born again, especially that most important link in the chain constituted by the attachments or desires resulting from former actions; although the special fitness of some of the precepts for that end is far from being apparent. It is easy to understand how the austerities that are prescribed might subdue the passions and affections, and lessen the attachment to existence; but how the exercise of benevolence, of meekness, of regardi to truth, of respect to parents, &c., on which Gautama laid so much stress, should have this effect, it is difficult to conceive. Luckily for the Buddhist BUDDHISM. world, Gautama's moral nature was better than his logic, or rather than the perverse assumptions from which his logic starts; and as he felt stronglywhat all men have felt more or less that these things are essentially right and good, he takes it for granted that they must contribute to what was in his eyes the chief good-escape from existence, or Nirvana. In delivering his precepts, the Buddha considers men as divided into two classes-those who have embraced the religious life (Sramanas), and those who continue in the world, or are laymen. These last are considered as too much attached to existence to feel any desire or have any hope of emancipation, at least at this stage. But there are certain precepts which it is necessary for all to obey, that they may not bring greater misery upon themselves in their next births, and rivet the bonds of existence more indissolubly. There are ten moral precepts or precepts of aversion.' Five of these are of universal obligation-viz., not to kill; not to steal; not to commit adultery; not to lie; not to be drunken. Other five are for those entering on the direct pursuit of Nirvana by embracing the religious life: to abstain from food out of season that is, after mid-day; to abstain from dances, theatrical representations, songs, and music; to abstain from personal ornaments and perfumes; to abstain from a lofty and luxurious couch; to abstain from taking gold and silver. For the regular ascetics or monks, there are a number of special observances of a very severe kind. They are to dress only in rags, sewed together with their own hands, and to have a yellow cloak thrown over the rags. They are to eat only the simplest food, and to possess nothing except what they get by collecting alms from door to door in their wooden bowl. They are allowed only one meal, and that must be eaten before mid-day. For a part of the year, they are to live in forests, with no other shelter except the shadow of a tree, and there they must sit on their carpet even during sleep, to lie down being forbidden. They are allowed to enter the nearest village or town to beg food, but they must return to their forests before night. Besides the absolutely necessary aversions and observances' above mentioned, the transgression of which must lead to misery in the next existence, there are certain virtues or perfections' of a supererogatory or transcendent kind, that tend directly to 'conduct to the other shore' (Nirvana). The most essential of these are almsgiving or charity, purity, patience, courage, contemplation, and knowledge. Charity or benevolence may be said to be the characteristic virtue of Buddhism-a charity boundless in its self-abnegation, and extending to every sentient being. The benevolent actions done by the Buddha himself, in the course of his many millions of migrations, were favourite themes with his followers. On one occasion, seeing a tigress starved and unable to feed her cubs, he hesitated not to make his body an oblation to charity, and allowed them to devour him. Benevolence to animals, with that tendency to exaggerate a right principle so characteristic of the East, is carried among the Buddhist monks to the length of avoiding the destruction of fleas and the most noxious vermin, which they remove from their persons with all tenderness. There are other virtues of a secondary kind, though still highly commendable. Thus, not content with forbidding lying, the Buddha strictly enjoins the avoidance of all offensive and gross language, and of saying or repeating anything that can set others at enmity among themselves; it is a duty, on the contrary, especially for a sramana, to act on all occasions as a peacemaker. Patience under injury, and resignation in misfortune, are strongly inculcated. | Humility, again, holds a no less prominent place among Buddhist graces than it does among the Christian. The Buddhist saints are to conceal their good works, and display their faults. As the outward expression of this sentiment of humility, Gautama instituted the practice of confession. Twice a month, at the new and at the full moon, the monks confessed their faults aloud before the assembly. This humiliation and repentance seems the only means of expiating sin that was known to Gautama. Confession was exacted of all believers, only not so frequently as of the monks. The edicts of Piyadasi recommend a general and public confession at least once in five years. The practice of public confession would seem to have died out by the time of Hiouen-Thsang's visit to India. Such are the leading features of the moral code of the Buddha, of which it has been said, that 'for pureness, excellence, and wisdom, it is only second to that of the Divine Lawgiver himself.' But the original morality of Buddhism has, in the course of time, been disfigured by many subtilties, puerilities, and extravagances, derived from the casuistry of the various schools of later times; just as the casuistry of the Jesuits, for instance, perverted many of the precepts of Christianity. The theory on which the Buddha founds his whole system gives, it must be confessed, only too much scope to such perversions; for, on that theory, truth is to be spoken, self to be sacrificed, benevolence to be exercised, not for the sake of the good thus done to others, but solely for the effect of this conduct on the soul of the actor, in preparing him for escape from existence. To teach men the means of arriving at the other shore,' was another expression for teaching virtue; and that other shore was annihilation. On this principle, the Buddhist casuist can, like the Jewish, render of none effect the universal law of charity and the duty of respecting and aiding parents, on which the Buddha laid such stress. Thus, a Bikshu-that is, one who has engaged to lead a life of self-denial, celibacy, and mendicancy, and is thus on the high road to Nirvana -is forbidden to look at or converse with a female, lest any disturbing emotion should ruffle the serene indifference of his soul; and so important is this, that if his mother have fallen into a river, and be drowning, he shall not give her his hand to help her out; if there be a pole at hand, he may reach that to her; but if not, she must drown.'- Wilson. Contemplation and science or knowledge (i. e., of the concatenation of causes and effects) are ranked as virtues in Buddhism, and hold a prominent place among the means of attaining Nirvana. It is reserved, in fact, for abstract contemplation to effect the final steps of the deliverance. Thought is the highest faculty of man, and, in the mind of an Eastern philosopher, the mightiest of all forces. A king who had become a convert to Buddhism is represented as seating himself with his legs crossed, and his mind collected; and cleaving, with the thunderbolt of science, the mountain of ignorance,' he saw before him the desired state. It is in this cross-legged, contemplative position that the Buddha is almost always represented that crowning intellectual act of his, when, seated under the Bo-tree (q. v.), he attained the full knowledge of the Buddha, saw the illusory nature of all things, broke the last bonds that tied him to existence, and stood delivered for evermore from the necessity of being born again, being considered the culmination of his character, and the highest object of imitation to all his followers. 'Complete' Nirvana or extinction cannot, of course, take place till death; but this state of preparation for it, called simply Nirvana, seems BUDDHISM. attainable during life, and was, in fact, attained by Gautama himself. The process by which the state Colossal Gautama near Amarapura, Burmah. is attained is called Dhyana, and is neither more nor less than ecstasy or trance, which plays so important a part among mystics of all religions. The individual is described as losing one feeling after another, until perfect apathy is attained, and he reaches a region where there are neither ideas, nor the idea of the absence of ideas!' The ritual or worship of Buddhism-if worship it can be called-is very simple in its character. There are no priests, or clergy, properly so called. The Sramanas or Bikshus (mendicants) are simply a religious order-a kind of monks, who, in order to the more speedy attainment of Nirvana, have entered on a course of greater sanctity and austerity than ordinary men; they have no sacraments to administer or rites to perform for the people, for every Buddhist is his own priest. The only thing like a clerical function they discharge, is to read the scriptures or discourses of the Buddha in stated assemblies of the people held for that purpose. They have also everywhere, except in China, a monopoly of education; and thus in Buddhist countries education, whatever may be its quality, is very generally diffused. In some countries, the monks are exceedingly numerous; around Lhassa in Tibet, for instance, they are said to be one-third of the population. They live in viharas or monasteries, and subsist partly by endowments, but mostly by charity. Except in Tibet, they are not allowed to engage in any secular occupation. The vow is not irrevocable. This incubus of monachism constitutes the great weakness of Buddhism in its social aspect. Further particulars regarding Buddhist monks and monasteries, as well as the forms of Buddhist worship generally, will be given when speaking of the countries where the religion prevails. The adoration of the statues of the Buddha and of his relics is the chief external ceremony of the religion. This, with prayer and the repetition of sacred formulas, constitutes the ritual. The centres of the worship are the temples containing statues, and the topes or tumuli erected over the relics of the Buddha, or of his distinguished apostles, or on spots consecrated as the scenes of the Buddha's acts The central object in a Buddhist temple, corresponding to the altar in a Roman Catholic church, is an image of the Buddha, or a dagoba or shrine containing his relics. Here flowers, fruit, and incense The quantity of flowers used as offerings is prodigious. A royal devotee in Ceylon, in the 15th c., are daily offered, and processions are made with singing of hymns. Of the relics of the Buddha, the most famous are the teeth that are preserved with intense veneration in various places. HiouenThsang saw more than a dozen of them in different parts of India; and the great monarch Ciladitya was on the eve of making war on the king of Cashmere for the possession of one, which, although by no means the largest, was yet an inch and a half long. The tooth of the Buddha preserved in Ceylon, a piece of ivory about the size of the littlefinger, is exhibited very rarely, and then only with permission of the English government so great is the concourse and so intense the excitement. See CEYLON. There appears at first sight to be an inconsistency between this seeming worship of the Buddha, and the theory by which he is considered as no longer existing. Yet the two things are really not irreconcilable; not more so, at least, than theory and practice often are. With all their admiration of the Buddha, his followers have never made a god of him. Gautama is only the last Buddha-the Buddha of the present cycle. He had predecessors in the cycles that are past (twenty-four Buddhas of the past are enumerated, and Gautama could even tell their names); and when, at the end of the present cycle, all things shall be reduced to their elements, and the knowledge of the way of salvation shall perish with all things else; then, in the new world that shall spring up, another Buddha will appear, again to reveal to the renascent beings the way to Nirvana. Gautama foretold that Mitraya, one of his earliest adherents, should be the next Buddha* (the Buddha of the future), and he gratified several of his followers with a like prospect in after-cycles. The Buddha was thus no greater than any mortal may aspire to become. The prodigious and supernatural powers which the legends represent him as possessing, are quite in accordance with Indian ideas; for even the Brahmans believe that by virtue, austerities, and science, a man may acquire power to make the gods tremble on their thrones. The Buddha, then, is not a god; he is the ideal of what any man may become; and the great object of Buddhist worship is to keep this ideal vividly in the minds of the believers. In the presence of the statue, the tooth, or the footprint, the devout believer vividly recalls the example of him who trod the path that leads to deliverance. This veneration of the memory of Buddha is perhaps hardly distinguishable, among the ignorant, from worship of him as a present god; but in theory, the ritual is strictly commemorative, and does not necessarily involve idolatry, any more than the garlands laid on the tomb of a parent by a pious child. The prayers addressed to the Buddha are more difficult to reconcile with the belief in his having ceased to exist. It is improbable, indeed, that the original scheme of Buddhism contemplated either the adoration of the statues of the Buddha, or the offering of prayers to him after his death. These are an after-growth-accretions upon the simple scheme of Gautama, and in a manner forced upon it during its struggle with other religions. For, a offered on one occasion 6,480,320 flowers at the shrine of the tooth. At one temple it was provided that there should be offered 'every day 100,000 flowers, and each day a different flower. One who is on the way to become a supreme Buddha, and has arrived at that stage when he has only or.e more birth to undergo, is styled a Bodhisatva (having the essence of knowledge); a mere candidate for Nirvana is an arhat (venerable). |