persecutor prospers in the world, the sufferer-if he believed in fate-might think, "This was pre-ordained; I must submit," and would try to rectify the balance of justice by assuming a result, beyond what he sees, in the darkness of the future. If he believed in Karma, he would think, "This is my own doing, I must bear no malice," and would try to rectify the balance of justice by assuming a cause, beyond what he sees, in the darkness of the past. Karma, from a Buddhist point of view, avoids the superstitious extreme on the one hand of those who believe in the separate existence of some entity called the soul, and the irreligious extreme on the other of those who do not believe in moral justice and retribution. Buddhism claims to have looked through the word "soul" for the fact it purports to cover, and to have found no fact at all, but only one or other of twenty different delusions which blind the eyes of men. Nevertheless, if a man reaps sorrow, disappointment, pain, he himself, and no other, must at some time have sown folly, error, sin; and, if not in this life, then in some former birth. Where, then, in the latter case, is the identity between him who sows and him who reaps? In that which alone remains, when a man dies and the constituent parts of the sentient being are dissolved; in the result, namely, of his action, speech, and thought, in his good or evil Karma (literally his doing), which does not die. We are familiar with the doctrine, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," and can enter into the Buddhist feeling that, whatever a man reaps, that he must also have sown. We are familiar with the doctrine of the indestructibility of force, and can sympathize with the Buddhist dogma that no exterior power whatever can destroy the fruit of a man's deeds; that they must work out their full effect to the pleasant or the bitter end. But the peculiarity of Buddhism lies in this, that the result of what a man is or does is held (not to be dissipated, as it were, into many streams), but to be concentrated together in the formation of one new sentient being-new, that is, in its constituent parts and powers, but the same in its essence, its being, its doing, its Karma. As one generation dies and gives way to another-the heir of the consequences of all its virtues and all its vices, the exact result of pre-existing causes-so each individual in the long chain of beings inherits all of good or evil which all its predecessors have done or been; and takes up the struggle towards enlightenment precisely there, where they have left it. But it is never conscious (except in a few rare instances when it has risen above the possibility of pleasure or of pain) of what its predecessors were, or of what its successors shall be. And so the true Buddhist saint does not stain the purity of his self-denial by lusting after a positive happiness *See the passage quoted above, p. 254. fold Path that we shall find the original idea, the motive force, of the whole of Gautama's system. The four Noble Truths are those laid down in Gautama's first sermon, the "Sutra of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness," and may be briefly explained as follows:* 1. Sorrow. Birth, the five Groups, Decay, Disease, and Death (those conditions which are especially distinctive of individual existence), and also Contact with disagreeable objects, Separation from loved ones, Unfulfilled Desire of possession (those feelings which bring forcibly into mind the sense of our separate individuality), are precisely those conditions and feelings which are full of suffering and sorrow. 2. The Origin of Sorrow. The kind of craving excitement which follows on sensation, and causes the delusion of self and the lust of life; which leads either to delight in the objects that present themselves or to a grasping (at straws) to supply a felt want; which grows into sensuality, desire of future life, or love of the present world-this eager yearning thirst (Trishna) is the origin of all suffering. "The man whom this contemptible thirst (the poison of the world) overcomes, that man's sorrows grow, like the Birana-weed when it is spreading."t 3. The Destruction of Sorrow.-Sorrow and suffering will be overcome, extinguished, if this "thirst" be quenched, this lust of life destroyed. "He who overcomes this thirst, difficult to be overcome in this world, sufferings fall off from him, like water drops from a lotus leaf."‡ 4. The Noble Path.-To accomplish this end there is only one way, the "Noble Path" of a perfect life, that is, a virtuous and thoughtful life. "Enter on this Path and put an end to sorrow: verily the Path has been preached by me, who have found out how to quench the darts of grief. You yourselves must make the effort; the Buddhas are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the Path are freed from the bondage of the Deceiver (Māra)."§ The meaning of the expression "Noble Path" will be best understood by a consideration of its divisions into eight Angas or Parts, and into four Stages, with their four Fruits. The eight divisions are: The Pali text will be found in "Parinibbana Sutta," p. 65; Gogerly's translation of the first sermon in the J. R. A. S., 1867; and the Sanskrit text in chapter xxvi. of the Lalita Vistara. All other versions are modifications, more or less correct, of these. + Dhamma-pada, verse 335. As Trishna is produced by sensations received through the five senses, or through the memory, it is said to be six-fold; as each of these may grow in the three ways mentioned in the text, it becomes eighteen-fold; by further dividing each class into two outward and inward), it becomes thirty-six-fold; and as each of these may be past, present, or future, it becomes 108-fold, " and thus the little Trishna becomes a hydra-headed monster, possessed of one hundred and eight modes of inflicting suffering on humanity." Wijesinha Mudaliar, apud Childers's Pāli Dict. s. v. Tanhã. Dhamma-pada, verse 336. § Dhamma-pada, verses 275, 276. which he himself is to enjoy hereafter. His consciousness will cease to feel, but his virtue will live and work out its full effect in the decrease of the sum of the misery of sentient beings. There may be some who say, "Seek for happiness here by the satisfaction of your natural cravings and desires:" others may say, "This is folly, but the faithful and the holy shall find happiness hereafter in a better world beyond." Buddhism maintains that the one hope is as delusive as the other, that the consciousness of self is a delusion, and that the attempt to satisfy the desires, born of sensation and ignorance, can never succeed in this world or in any other. "Drop then," it would say, "this petty foolish longing for such happiness, either here or hereafter! Here it comes of ignorance and leads to sin, which leads to sorrow; and there the conditions of existence are the same, and no new birth will render you anything but finite and ignorant still. Be pure then, and kind, not lazy in thought! Be awake, shake off your delusions. catch no longer at these drifting straws, and enter resolutely on 'the Path' which will lead you away from the restless tossing waves of the ocean of life, and take you to the calm City of Peace. to the real joy and rest of Nirvāna !” We may learn, I think, a grave lesson from the influence which this appeal has had over the human race, its attractive power over so many earnest hearts! They have trusted themselves to the soseeming stately arch which Buddhism has tried to build over the river of the mysteries and sorrows of life; they have been charmed and awed, perhaps, by the delicate or noble beauty of some of the several stones of which the arch is built; they have seen that the whole rests on a more or less solid foundation of fact, that on one side of the keystone is the necessity of justice, on the other the law of causation. But they have failed to see that the very keystone itself, the link between one life and another, is a mere word-this wonderful hypothesis, this airy nothing, this imaginary cause beyond the reach of reason-the individualized and individualizing force of Karma.* The reader who has persevered thus far will begin to think perhaps that the doctrines of the Groups or Skandhas and of Karma have rendered impossible any kind of Nirvana at all; but I would ask his special attention to the two doctrines of the Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path, which we must now briefly explain. These seem to me to be the centre teachings of Buddhism, which all the other doctrines were invented to lead up to and explain and justify; and it is especially in the Noble Eight Individualized in so far as the result of a man's actions is concentrated in the formation of one second sentient being; individualizing in so far as it is the force by which different beings become one individual. In other respects the force of Karma is real enough. fold Path that we shall find the original idea, the motive force, of the whole of Gautama's system. The four Noble Truths are those laid down in Gautama's first sermon, the "Sutra of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness," and may be briefly explained as follows: 1. Sorrow.-Birth, the five Groups, Decay, Disease, and Death (those conditions which are especially distinctive of individual existence), and also Contact with disagreeable objects, Separation from loved ones, Unfulfilled Desire of possession (those feelings which bring forcibly into mind the sense of our separate individuality), are precisely those conditions and feelings which are full of suffering and sorrow. 2. The Origin of Sorrow. The kind of craving excitement which follows on sensation, and causes the delusion of self and the lust of life; which leads either to delight in the objects that present themselves or to a grasping (at straws) to supply a felt want; which grows into sensuality, desire of future life, or love of the present world-this eager yearning thirst (Trishna) is the origin of all suffering. "The man whom this contemptible thirst (the poison of the world) overcomes, that man's sorrows grow, like the Birana-weed when it is spreading."t 3. The Destruction of Sorrow.-Sorrow and suffering will be overcome, extinguished, if this "thirst" be quenched, this lust of life destroyed. "He who overcomes this thirst, difficult to be overcome in this world, sufferings fall off from him, like water drops from a lotus leaf."‡ 4. The Noble Path.-To accomplish this end there is only one way, the "Noble Path" of a perfect life, that is, a virtuous and thoughtful life. "Enter on this Path and put an end to sorrow: verily the Path has been preached by me, who have found out how to quench the darts of grief. You yourselves must make the effort; the Buddhas are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the Path are freed from the bondage of the Deceiver (Māra).”§ The meaning of the expression "Noble Path" will be best understood by a consideration of its divisions into eight Angas or Parts, and into four Stages, with their four Fruits. The eight divisions are: The Pali text will be found in "Parinibbana Sutta," p. 65; Gogerly's translation of the first sermon in the J. R. A. S., 1867; and the Sanskrit text in chapter xxvi. of the Lalita Vistara. All other versions are modifications, more or less correct, of these. Dhamma-pada, verse 335. As Trishna is produced by sensations received through the five senses, or through the memory, it is said to be six-fold; as each of these may grow in the three ways mentioned in the text, it becomes eighteen-fold; by further dividing each class into two outward and inward), it becomes thirty-six-fold; and as each of these may be past, present, or future, it becomes 108-fold, "and thus the little Trishna becomes a hydra-headed monster, possessed of one hundred and eight modes of inflicting saffering on humanity." Wijesinha Mudaliar, apud Childers's Pali Dict. s. r. Tanhã. Dhamma-pada, verse 336. § Dhamma-pada, verses 275, 276. |