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CHAPTER II.

BUDDHISM.*

HINDOSTAN, BURMAH, CHINA, &c.

THE FIVE BUDDHIST COMMANDMENTS.

1. Not to destroy life.

2. Not to obtain another's property by unjust means. 3. Not to indulge the passions, so as to invade the legal or natural rights of other men.

4. Not to tell lies.

5. Not to partake of anything intoxicating.

OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD.

Buddha said: A man who foolishly does me wrong (or regards me as being or doing wrong), I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the more evil goes from him, the more good shall go from me. The fragrance of these good actions always redounding to me, the harm of the slanderer's words returning to him.

A foolish man once heard Buddha, in preaching, defend this great principle of returning good for evil, and therefore came and abused him. Buddha was silent, pitying his mad folly. The man having finished his abuse, Buddha said: "Son, when a man forgets the rules of politeness in making a present to another, the custom is to say: 'Keep your present.' Son! you have railed at me! I decline to entertain your abuse! and ask you to keep it, a source of misery to yourself. For, as sound belongs to the drum, and shadow to the sub

See Appendix B, for notes.

stance, so in the end misery will certainly overtake the evil doer.'"

Buddha said: A wicked man who reproaches a virtuous one, is like a man who looks up and spits at Heaven; the spittle soils not Heaven, but comes back and defiles his own person.

Again: He is like one who flings dirt at another against the wind-the dirt does but return on him who threw it. The virtuous man cannot be hurt-the misery that the other would inflict comes back on himself.

WHO IS A GOOD MAN?

Buddha said: Who is the good man? The religious man only is good. And what is goodness? First and foremost, it is the agreement of the will with the conscience (reason). Who is the great man? He who is strongest in the exercise of patience, who patiently endures injury and maintains a blameless life; he is a man indeed! And who is a worshipful man (one deserving reverence, or a Buddha)? A man whose heart has arrived at the highest degree of enlightenment. All dust removed, all wicked actions uprooted, all within calm and pure, without blemish, who is acquainted with all things from first or last, and even with those things that have not yet transpired; who knows and sees and hears all things; such universal wisdom is rightly called "illumination.”

SPIRITUAL CULTURE-ILLUMINATION.

Buddha said: A man who cherishes lust and desire, and does not aim after supreme knowledge, is like a vase of dirty water, in which all sorts of beautiful objects are placed-the water being shaken up men can see nothing of the beautiful objects therein placed; so lust and desire, causing confusion and disorder in the heart, are like the mud in the water-they prevent our seeing the beauty of supreme reason (religion). But if a man, by the gradual process of confession and penance,

comes near to the acquirement of knowledge, then, the mud in the water being removed, all is clear and pure; remove the pollution, and immediately, of itself, comes forth the substantial form. So the three poisons (covetousness, anger, delusion) which rage within the heart, and the five obscurities (envy, passion, sloth, vacillation, unbelief) which embrace it, effectually prevent one from attaining supreme reason. But once get rid of the pollution of the heart, and then we perceive the spiritual portion of ourselves, which we have had from the first, although involved in the net of life and death. Gladly then we mount to the Paradise of all the Buddhas, where reason and virtue continually abide.

A man who devotes himself to religion is like one who takes a lighted torch to a dark house; the darkness is dissipated! Persevere in the search after wisdom, and obtain knowledge and truth; error and delusion rooted out, what perfect illumination will there be !

In reflection, in life, in conversation, in study, I never for a moment forget the supreme end—Religion.

"BODHI"-SUPREME REASON.

Buddha said: The Shaman who has left his home, banished desire, expelled love, fathomed the bottom of his own heart, penetrated the deep principles of universal mind (Buddha); understood the principle that there is no subjective personal existence, or objective aim in life, or result to be obtained; whose heart is neither hampered by the practice of religion, or fettered by the bonds of life; without anxious thought, without active endeavor, without careful preparation, without successful accomplishment, attaining the highest possible point of true being, without passing through any successive and distinct stages of progress; this is indeed "to be religious" (or to attain or practice Bodhi, i. e., Supreme Reason).

TWENTY DIFFICULT THINGS.

Buddha said: There are twenty difficult things in the world being poor, to be charitable; being rich and great, to be religious; to escape destiny; to get sight (or understanding) of the Scriptures; to be born when a Buddha is in the world; to repress lust and banish desire; to see an agreeable object and not seek to obtain it; to be strong without being rash (or, having power, not to be proud); to bear insult without anger; to move in the world without setting the heart on it; to investigate a matter to the very bottom; not to contemn the ignorant; thoroughly to extirpate self-esteem; to be good, and at the same time learned and clever (or sagacious); to see the hidden principles in the profession of Religion; to attain one's end without exultation; to show, in the right way, the doctrine of expediency to save men by converting them; to be the same in heart and life; to avoid controversy.

ILLUMINATION-CLAIRVOYANCE.

At this time Ananda and all the great congregation, gratefully attentive to the words of Buddha Tathagata, as he opened the abstruse points of his argument, their bodies and minds worn out with exertion, they obtained illumination. This great assembly perceived that each one's heart was co-extensive with the universe, seeing clearly the empty character of the universe as plainly as a leaf or trifling thing in the hand, and that all things in the universe are all alike, merely the excellently bright and primeval heart of Bodhi, and that this heart is universally diffused, and comprehends all things within itself.

And still reflecting, they beheld their generated bodies, as so many grains of dust in the wide expanse of the universal void, now safe, now lost; or as a bubble of the sea, sprung from nothing and born to be destroyed. But their perfect and independent soul not to be destroyed, but ever the same; identical with the substance of Buddha; incapable of increase or

diminution. And thus, standing before Tathagata, they uttered these verses of commendation, in praise of his august presence : O the mysterious depth, the all-embracing extent, the undisturbed and unmoved Majesty !

O! that we now might obtain the fruit, and perfect the Royal Treasure (of Nirvana); and yet be the means of converting endless worlds of beings, and causing them to experience this same deep heart of gratitude through endless worlds!

Thus would we return the boundless love of Buddha, and so humbly seek the illuminating energy of the world. Honored, passing through the various worlds, we would rescue the countless beings yet immersed in sin, and in the end with them find rest.

GATHAS, OR HYMNS OF BUDDHIST PRIESTS.
[From the Daily Manual of Shaman, in the Pratimoksha.]

On putting on the clothes:

Assuming this my upper robe,
I pray that every living soul,
Obtaining the most perfect principle,
May reach the other shore of life.

Assuming this my under robe,

I pray that every living soul,
Attaining every virtuous principle,
May perfect himself in true penitence.

On binding on my sash, I pray

That every living soul may closely bind
Each virtuous principle around himself.

On walking so as not to crush an insect, say :
As thus I walk upon my feet,

I pray that every living soul,

Emerging from the sea of life and death,
May soon attain the fulness of the Law.

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