The liber ation of the soul. each act bearing its own consequences. Misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable result of our conduct in a past life; and our actions here will determine our happiness or misery in the life to come. When any creature dies, he is born again in some higher or lower state of existence, according to his meri or demerit. His merit, or demerit, that is his character, consists of the sum total of his actions in all previous lives. By this great law of Karma, Buddha explained the inequalities and apparent injustice of man's estate in this world as the consequence of acts in the past; while Christianity compensates those inequalities by rewards in the future. A system in which our whole well-being, past, present, and to come, depends on ourselves, theoretically leaves little room for the interference, or even existence, of a personal God.1 But the atheism of Buddha was a philosophical tenet, which so far from weakening the sanctions of right and wrong, gave them new strength from the doctrine of Karma, or the Metempsychosis of Character. To free ourselves from the thraldom of desire and from the fetters of selfishness, was to attain to the state of the perfect disciple, Arahat in this life, and to the everlasting rest after Nirvána. death, Nirvána. Some Buddhists explain Nirvána as absolute annihilation, when the soul is blown out like the flame of a lamp. Others hold that it is merely the extinction of the sins, sorrows, and selfishness of individual life. The fact is, that the doctrine underwent processes of change and development, like all theological dogmas. 'But the earliest idea of Nirvána,' says one of the greatest authorities on Chinese Buddhism, 'seems to have included in it no more than the enjoyment of a state of rest consequent on the extinction of all causes of 72 sorrow." The great practical aim of Buddha's teaching was to subdue the lusts of the flesh and the cravings of self; and Nirvána has been taken to mean the extinction of the sinful grasping condition of heart which, by the inevitable law of Karma, would involve the penalty of renewed individual existence. As the Buddhist strove to reach a state of quietism or holy meditation in this world, namely, the 1 'Buddhism,' says Mr. Beal, Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 153, 'declares itself ignorant of any mode of personal existence compatible with the idea of spiritual perfection, and so far, it is ignorant of God.' 2 Beal, Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese, p. 157, ed. 1871; and the Buddhist Tripitaka, App., Letter to Dr. Rost, sec. 6. Max Müller deals with the word from the etymological and Sanskrit side in his Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. pp. 279, 290, ed. 1867. But see, specially, Childers' Páli Dictionary, s.v. Nilbánam, pp. 265-274. MISSIONARY WORK OF BUDDHISM. 143 state of the perfect disciple or Arahat; so he looked forward to an eternal calm in a world to come, Nirvána. code. Command Buddha taught that this end could only be attained by the Moral practice of virtue. He laid down eight precepts of morality, with two more for the religious orders, making ten commandments (dasa-síla) in all. He arranged the besetting faults of mankind into ten sins, and set forth the special duties appli- The Ten cable to each condition of life; to parents and children, to ments. pupils and teachers, to husbands and wives, to masters and servants, to laymen and the religious orders. In place of the Brahman rites and sacrifices, Buddha prescribed a code of practical morality as the means of salvation. The four essential features of that code were-reverence to spiritual teachers and parents, control over self, kindness to other men, and reverence for the life of all sentient creatures. Buddhism. He urged on his disciples that they must not only follow Missionary the true path themselves, but that they should preach it to all aspects of mankind. Buddhism has from the first been a missionary religion. One of the earliest acts of Buddha's public ministry was to send forth the Sixty; and he carefully formulated the four chief means of conversion. These were companionship with the good, listening to the Law, reflection upon the truths heard, and the practice of virtue. He also instituted a religious Order, one of whose special duties it was to go forth and preach to the nations. While, therefore, the Bráhmans kept their ritual for the twice-born Aryan castes, Buddhism addressed itself not only to those castes and to the lower mass of the people, but to all the non-Aryan races throughout India, and eventually to almost the whole Asiatic world. Two features of the Buddhist Order were its fortnightly meetings and public confession, or 'Disburdenment' of sins. 543 B.C. (?) On the death of Buddha, five hundred of his disciples met The First Council, in a vast cave near Rájágriha to gather together his sayings. This was the First Council. They chanted the lessons of their master in three great divisions-the words of Buddha to his disciples; his code of discipline; 2 and his system of doctrine. These became the Three Collections of Buddha's teaching; and the word for a Buddhist Council 5 means literally 'a singing together.' A century afterwards, a Second Second Buddhist Council, of seven hundred, was held at Vaisali, to settle disputes Council, between the more and the less strict followers of Buddhism. 443 B.C. (?) It condemned a system of ten 'Indulgences' which had grown 3 Abhidharma. 2 Vinaya. 1 Sútras. 5 Sangiti in Páli. The work of Asoka. up; but it led to the separation of the Buddhists into two hostile parties, who afterwards split into eighteen sects. Third During the next two hundred years Buddhism spread over Buddhist Council, Northern India, perhaps receiving a new impulse from the Greek 244 B.C. (?) kingdoms in the Punjab. About 257 B.C., Asoka, the King of Magadha or Behar, became a zealous convert to the faith.1 Asoka was grandson of the Chandra Gupta whom we shall meet as an adventurer in Alexander's camp, and afterwards as an ally of Seleukos. Asoka is said to have supported 64,000 Buddhist priests; he founded many religious houses, and his kingdom is called the Land of the Monasteries (Vihára or Behar) to this day. Asoka did for Buddhism what Constantine afterwards effected for Christianity; he organized it on the basis of a State religion. This he accomplished by five means-by a Council to settle the faith, by edicts promulgating its principles, by a State Department to watch over its purity, by missionaries to spread its doctrines, and by an authoritative revision or canon of the Buddhist scriptures. In 244 B.C., Asoka convened at Patna the Third Buddhist Council, of one thousand elders. Evil men, taking on them the yellow robe of the Order, had given forth their own opinions as the teaching of Buddha. Such heresies were now corrected; and the Buddhism of Southern Asia practically dates from Asoka's Council. (1) His Great Council. 1 Much learning has been expended upon the age of Asoka, and various dates have been assigned to him. But, indeed, all Buddhist dates are open questions, according to the system of chronology adopted. The middle of the 3rd century B. C. may be taken as the era of Asoka. The following table from General Cunningham's Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, p. vii. (1877), exhibits the results of the latest researches on this subject :— - BUDDHIST COUNCIL UNDER ASOKA. 145 edicts. In a number of edicts, before and after the synod, he published (2) His throughout India the cardinal principles of the faith. Such edicts are still found graven deep upon pillars, caves, and rocks, from the Yusafzai valley beyond Peshawar on the north-western frontier, through the heart of Hindustán and the Central Provinces, to Káthiáwár in the west, and Orissa in the east coast of India. Tradition states that Asoka set up 84,000 memorial columns or topes. The Chinese pilgrims came upon them in the inner Himalayas. Forty-two inscriptions still surviving show how widely these royal sermons were spread over India itself.1 In the year of the Council, Asoka founded a State Depart- (3) His Department to watch over the purity, and to direct the spread, of the ment of faith. A Minister of Justice and Religion (Dharma Mahámátra) Public directed its operations; and, as one of its first duties was to Worship. proselytize, this Minister was charged with the welfare of the aborigines among whom his missionaries were sent. Asoka did not think it enough to convert the inferior races, without looking after their material interests. Wells were to be dug, and trees planted, along the roads; a system of medical aid was 1 Major-General Cunningham, Director-General of the Archæological Survey of India, enumerates 14 rock inscriptions, 17 cave inscriptions. and II inscribed pillars. The rock inscriptions are at―(1) Sháhbázgarhi in the Yusafzai country, 40 miles east-north-east of Peshawar; (2) Khálsi on the west bank of the Jumna; (3) Girnár in Káthiáwár, 40 miles north of Somnáth; (4 to 7) Dhauli in Cuttack, midway between Cuttack and Puri, and Jaugada in Ganjám District, 18 miles north-north-west of Barhampur,-two inscriptions at each, virtually identical; (8) Sasseram, at the north-east end of the Kaimur range, 70 miles south-east of Benares; (9) Rúpnáth, a famous place of pilgrimage, 35 miles north of Jabalpur ; (10 and 11) Bairát, 41 miles north of Jaipur; (12) the Khandgiri Hill, near Dhauli in Cuttack; (13) Deotek, 50 miles south-east of Nagpur; (14) Mánsera, north-west of Rawal Pindi, inscribed in the Bactrian character. The cave inscriptions, 17 in number, are found at-(1, 2, 3) Barábar, and (4, 5, 6) Nágárjuni Hills, both places 15 miles north of Gayá; (7 to 15) Khandgiri Hill in Cuttack, and (16 and 17) Rámgarh in Sirguja. The eleven inscribed pillars are-(1) the Delhi-Siwálik, at Delhi; (2) the DelhiMeerut, at Delhi; (3) the Allahábád; (4) the Lauriya-Araráj, at Lauriya, 77 miles north of Patná; (5) the Lauriya-Navandgarh, at another Lauriya, 15 miles north-north-west of Bettia; (6 and 7) two additional edicts on the Delhi-Siwálik, not found on any other pillar; (8 and 9) two short additional edicts on the Allahábád pillar, peculiar to itself; (10) a short mutilated record on a fragment of a pillar at Sánchi, near Bhílsa; (11) at Rampura in the Tarái, north-east of the second Lauriya, near Bettia. The last-named pillar and the rock inscription at Mánsera (No. 14) are recent discoveries since the first edition of this work was published. The Mánsera rock inscription is interesting as being the second in the Bactrian character, and for its recording twelve Edicts complete. VOL. VI. K (4) Missionary efforts. established throughout his kingdom and the conquered Provinces, as far as Ceylon, for man and beast.1 Officers were appointed to watch over domestic life and public morality, and to promote instruction among the women as well as the youth. Asoka recognised proselytism by peaceful means as a State duty. The Rock Inscriptions record how he sent forth missionaries to the utmost limits of the barbarian countries,' to 'intermingle among all unbelievers,' for the spread of religion. They shall mix equally with soldiers, Bráhmans, and beggars, with the dreaded and the despised, both within the kingdom ' and in foreign countries, teaching better things.' Conversion is to be effected by persuasion, not by the sword. Buddhism was at once the most intensely missionary religion in the world, and the most tolerant. This character of a proselytizing faith, which wins its victories by peaceful means, so strongly impressed upon it by Asoka, has remained a prominent feature of Buddhism to the present day. Asoka, however, not only took measures to spread the religion, he also endeavoured to secure its orthodoxy. He collected the body of doctrine into an authoritative version, in the Mágadhí language or Buddhist dialect of his central kingdom in Behar; a version which for scriptures. two thousand years has formed the canon (pitakas) of the Southern Buddhists. In this way, the Mágadhí dialect became the Páli or sacred language of the Ceylonese. (5) Reformed canon of Edicts of Mr. Robert Cust thus summarizes Asoka's Fourteen Edicts: 1. Prohibition of the slaughter of animals for food or sacrifice. 2. Provision of a system of medical aid for men and animals, and of plantations and wells on the roadside. 3. Order for a quinquennial humiliation and re-publication of the great moral precepts of the Buddhist faith. 4. Comparison of the former state of things, and the happy existing state under the king. 5. Appointment of missionaries to go into various countries, which are enumerated, to convert the people and foreigners. 6. Appointment of informers (or inspectors) and guardians of morality. 7. Expression of a desire that there may be uniformity of religion and equality of rank. 8. Contrast of the carnal pleasures of previous rulers with the pious enjoyments of the present king. 9. Inculcation of the true happiness to be found in virtue, through which alone the blessings of heaven can be propitiated. 1 Rock Inscriptions, Edict ii., General Cunningham's Corpus Inscriptionum, p. 118. 2 Rock Inscriptions, Edict vi. etc., Corpus Inscriptionum, p. 120. These Inspectors of Morals are supposed to correspond to the Sixth Caste of Megasthenes, the 'Exirxona of Arrian. 3 Rock Inscriptions, Edict v. etc., Corpus Inscriptionum, p. 120. |