The Buddhist Catechism Part 11

A. To the ripened Karma of the individual in his preceding births.

238. Q. _What is the force of energy that is at work, under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?_

A. Tanha--the will to _live_.[12]

239. Q. _Upon what is the doctrine of rebirths founded?_

A. Upon the perception that perfect justice, equilibrium and adjustment are inherent in the universal system of Nature. Buddhists do not believe that one life--even though it were extended to one hundred or five hundred years--is long enough for the reward or punishment of a man's deeds. The great circle of rebirths will be more or less quickly run through according to the preponderating purity or impurity of the several lives of the individual.

240. Q. _Is this new aggregation of Skandhas--this new personality--the same being as that in the previous birth, whose Tanha has brought it into existence?_

A. In one sense it is a new being; in another it is not. In Pali it is--"_nacha so nacha anno_" which means not the same nor yet another. During this life the _Skandhas_ are constantly changing;[13] and while the man A. B., of forty, is identical, as regards personality, with the youth A. B., of eighteen, yet, by the continual waste and reparation of his body, and change of mind and character, he is a different being. Nevertheless, the man in his old age justly reaps the reward of suffering consequent upon his thoughts and actions at every previous stage of his life. So the new being of a rebirth, being the same individuality as before, but with a changed form, or new aggregation of _Skandhas_, justly reaps the consequences of his actions and thoughts in the previous existence.

241. Q. _But the aged man remembers the incidents of his youth, despite his being physically and mentally changed. Why, then, is not the recollection of past lives brought over by us from our last birth, into the present birth?_

A. Because memory is included within the _Skandhas_; and the _Skandhas_ having changed with the new reincarnation, a new memory, the record of of that particular existence, develops. Yet the record or reflection of all the past earth-lives must survive; for, when Prince Siddhartha became Buddha, the full sequence of his previous births was seen by him. If their several incidents had left no trace behind, this could not have been so, as there would have been nothing for him to see. And any one who attains to the fourth state of _Dhyana_ (psychical insight) can thus retrospectively trace the line of his lives.

242. Q. _What is the ultimate point towards which tend all these series of changes in form?_

A. Nirvana.

243. Q. _Does Buddhism teach that we should do good with the view of reaching Nirvana?_

A. No; that would be as absolute selfishness as though the reward hoped for had been money, a throne, or any other sensual enjoyment.

Nirvana cannot be so reached, and the unwise speculator is foredoomed to disappointment.

244. Q. _Please make it a little clearer?_

A. Nirvana is the synonym of unselfishness, the entire surrender of selfhood to truth. The ignorant man aspires to nirvanic happiness without the least idea of its nature. Absence of selfishness is Nirvana. Doing good with the view to getting results, or leading the holy life with the object of gaining heavenly happiness, is not the n.o.ble Life that the Buddha enjoined. Without hope of reward the n.o.ble Life should be lived, and that is the highest life. The nirvanic state can be attained while one is living on this earth.

245. Q. _Name the ten great obstacles to advancement, called Sanyojanas, the Fetters?_

A. Delusion of self (_Sakkaya-ditthi_); Doubt (_Vicikiccha_); Dependence on superst.i.tious rites (_Silabbata-paramasa_); Sensuality, bodily pa.s.sions (_Kama_); Hatred, ill-feeling (_Patigha_); Love of life on earth (_Ruparaga_); Desire for life in a heaven (_Aruparaga_); Pride (_Mana_); Self-righteousness (Uddhacca); Ignorance (_Avijja_).

246. Q. _To become an Arhat, how many of these fetters must be broken?_

A. All.

247. Q. _What are the five Nirwaranas or Hindrances?_

A. Greed, Malice, Sloth, Pride, and Doubt.

248. Q. _Why do we see this minute division of feelings, impulses, workings of the mind, obstacles and aids to advancement so much used in the Buddha's teachings? It is very confusing to a beginner._

A. It is to help us to obtain knowledge of ourselves, by training our minds to think out every subject in detail. By following out this system of self-examination, we come finally to acquire knowledge and see truth as it is. This is the course taken by every wise teacher to help his pupil's mind to develop.

249. Q. _How many of the Buddha's disciples were specially renowned for their superior qualities?_

A. There are eighty so distinguished. They are called the Asiti Maha Savakas.

250. Q. _What did the Buddha's wisdom embrace?_

A. He knew the nature of the Knowable and the Unknowable, the Possible and the Impossible, the cause of Merit and Demerit; he could read the thoughts of all beings; he knew the laws of Nature, the illusions of the senses and the means to suppress desires; he could distinguish the birth and rebirth of individuals, and other things.

251. Q. _What do we call the basic principle on which the whole of the Buddha's teaching is constructed?_

A. It is called Paticca Samuppada.[14]

252. Q. _Is it easily grasped?_

A. It is most difficult; in fact, the full meaning and extent of it is beyond the capacity of such as are not perfectly developed.

253. Q. _What said the great commentator Buddha Ghosha about it?_

A. That even he was as helpless in this vast ocean of thought as one who is drifting on the ocean of waters.

254. Q. _Then why should the Buddha say, in the Parinibbana Sutta, that he "has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher, who keeps something back"? If his whole teaching was open to every one's comprehension why should so great and learned a man as Buddha Ghosha declare it so hard to understand?_

A. The Buddha evidently meant that he taught everything freely; but equally certain is it that the real basis of the Dharma can only be understood by him who has perfected his powers of comprehension. It is, therefore, incomprehensible to common, unenlightened persons.

255. Q. _How does the teaching of the Buddha support this view?_

A. The Buddha looked into the heart of each person, and preached to suit the individual temperament and spiritual development of the hearer.

[1] Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic view of the Nirvanic state, regarding it as annihilation. Later students disagree with him.

[2] _Saranam_. Wijesinha Mudaliar writes me: "This word has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered _Refuge_, by European Pali scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali scholars. Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies the translation. _Refuge_, in the sense of a _fleeing back or a place of shelter_, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emanc.i.p.ation.

The root _Sr_ in Samskrt (_sara_ in Pali) means to move, to go; so that _Suranim_ would denote a moving, or he or that which goes before or with another--a Guide or Helper. I construe the pa.s.sage thus: _Gachchami_, I go, _Buddham_, to Buddha _Saranam_, as my Guide. The translation of the _Tisarana_ as the "Three Refuges," has given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in non-ent.i.ties and believing in unrealities. The term refuge is more applicable to Nirvana, of which _Saranam_ is a synonym. The High Priest Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root _Sara_ has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys. _Buddham saranam gachchhami_ might thus be rendered "I go to Buddha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my fears--the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the third by their various examples and precepts."

[3] This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only profess to keep five precepts; a Bhikkhu must observe strict celibacy. So, also, must the laic who binds himself to observe eight of the whole ten Precepts for specified periods; during these periods he must be celibate. The five Precepts were laid down by Buddha for all people.

Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and eight Precepts may profitably bo observed by all. It is the taking of the "Three Refuges"

that const.i.tutes one a Buddhist.

[4] Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions. The law of Cause and Effect is called the _Patice a Samuppada Dhamma_. In the _Anguttara Nikaya_ the Buddha teaches that my action is my possession, my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb which bears me, my action is my relative, my action is my refuge.

[5] After the appearance of the first edition, I received from one of the ablest Pali scholars of Ceylon, the late L. Corneille Wijesinha, Esq., Mudaliar of Matale, what seems a better rendering of _Dhammacakka-ppavattana_ than the one previously given; he makes it "The Establishment of the Reign of Law". Professor Rhys-Davids prefers, "The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness". Mr.

Wijesinha writes me: "You may use 'Kingdom of Righteousness,' too, but it savours more of dogmatic theology than of philosophic ethics.

_Dhammacakkappavattana suttum_ is the discourse ent.i.tled 'The Establishment of the Reign of Law'." Having shown this to the High Priest, I am happy to be able to say that he a.s.sents to Mr. Wijesinha's rendering.

[6] The mixing of these arts and practices with Buddhism is a sign of deterioration. Their facts and phenomena are real and capable of scientific explanation. They are embraced in the term "magic," but when resorted to, for selfish purposes, attract bad influences about one, and impede spiritual advancement. When employed for harmless and beneficent purposes, such as healing the sick, saving life, etc., the Buddha permitted their use.

[7] A Buddhist ascetic who, by a prescribed course of practice, has attained to a superior state of spiritual and intellectual development.

Arhats may be divided into the two general groups of the _Samathayanika_ and _Sukkha Vipa.s.saka_. The former have destroyed their pa.s.sions, and fully developed their intellectual capacity or mystical insight; the latter have equally conquered pa.s.sion, but not acquired the superior mental powers. The former can work phenomena, the latter cannot. The Arhat of the former cla.s.s, when fully developed, is no longer a prey to the delusions of the senses, nor the slave of pa.s.sion or mortal frailty. _He penetrates to the root of whatsoever subject his mind is applied to_ without following the slow processes of reasoning. His self-conquest is complete; and in place of the emotion and desire which vex and enthral the ordinary man, he is lifted up into a condition which is best expressed in the term "Nirvanic". There is in Ceylon a popular misconception that the attainment of Arhats.h.i.+p is now impossible; that the Buddha had himself prophesied that the power would die out in one millennium after his death. This rumour--and the similar one that is everywhere heard in India, _viz._, that this being the dark cycle of the _Kali Yuga_, the practice of Yoga Vidya, or sublime spiritual science, is impossible--I ascribe to the ingenuity of those who should be as pure and (to use a non-Buddhistic but very convenient term) psychically wise as were their predecessors, but are not, and who therefore seek an excuse! The Buddha taught quite the contrary idea. In the _Niga Nikaya_ he said: "Hear, Subbhadra! The world will never be without Arhats if the ascetics (Bhikkhus) in my congregations _well and truly keep my precepts_." (_Imeccha Subhaddabhikkhu samma vihareiyum asunno loko Arahantehia.s.sa._)

[8] Kolb, in his _History of Culture_, says: "It is Buddhism we have to thank for the sparing of prisoners of war, who heretofore had been slain; also for the discontinuance of the carrying away into captivity of the inhabitants of conquered lands."

[9] The fifth Sila has reference to the mere taking of intoxicants and stupefying drugs, which leads ultimately to drunkenness.