English
A passage for editorial review. BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA FROM THE LIBRARY OF FRANCIS CUTTING OF OAKLAND 1834-1913 ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SCHOOL Tue Biocen Series, No. 3. OLCOTT'S BUDDHIST CATECHISM. PUBLISHERS’: NOTICE. ——— The undersigned will publish from time to time a collection of books entitled THE BIOGEN SERIES, of which ‘Biogen: A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life,” now in its third edition, was the first. “The Demon of Darwin” was the second of this series. A third, the present volume, is “A Bud- dhist Catechism.” The series will consist of concise essays on live questions of the day or of historical research in Religion, Science, and Philosophy, pre- pared by writers of the most eminent ability, and will be under the editorial direction of Dr. Cougs. Estes & LAURIAT. NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA. A BUDDHIST CATECHISM, ACCORDING TO THE CANON OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. By HENRY 8S. OLCOTT, PRESIDENT OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, ETC. Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist schools by WH. SUMANGALA, High Priest of the Sripada and Galle, and Principal of the Widyodaya Parivena. Property, of ~ GBSK Please retum te / Pa's AND rauniaGadcate T heclogiea : 1885. CERTIFICATE. version of the Catechism prepared by Colonel H. S. Olcott, and the same is in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddh to all others who may wish to impart information to beginners conce: the essential features of our He H. SUMANGAERE High Priest of the Sripada and Gaile, Principal of the Widyodaya P. CoPyYRIGHT, 1885, BY EsTES AND LAURIAT. Gnibersity Press: Joun Witson anp Son, CAMBRIDGE. AMERICAN EDITOR’S PREFACE. ot RANGOON, BRITISH BURMA, March 9, 1885. ProFessorR ELLiorr Coves, Washington, D. C. DEAR Sir,—So much interest is taken in the subject of Bud- dhism, not only throughout Europe, but in America as well, that I should. be glad if you could see your way to bring out an American edition of my “ Buddhist Catechism.” Its fidelity as an exposition of the canon of the Southern Buddhist Church is avouched by the certificate of the High Priest Sumangala of Ceylon. Not only have seventeen thousand copies of it in the Sinhalese language been distributed throughout the schools and homes of Ceylon, but a Burmese edition, of fifteen thousand copies, in the vernacular and in English, is now going through the press at this place. The translator is a Burmese official of good position, and the text has been revised and criticised by a committee of ‘‘ Elders” who are thoroughly orthodox Buddhists. An excellent edition in French appeared at Paris last year, and one in German is now preparing at Munich. With these evidences of its trustworthiness as an ele- mentary exposition of Exoteric Orthodox Southern Buddhism, you may not be unwilling to stand as its godfather in our own country. ca es a Faithfully yours, j H. S. Oxucortr. vi AMERICAN EDITOR'S PREFACE. I FIND that I shall have the pleasure of answering my esteemed friend’s letter by sending him a copy of his interesting and valuable little book, bearing an American imprint and also, I fear, quite heavily freighted with his American editor’s notes. But for these, of course, he is not responsible, except indirectly, through the won- derful quality of suggestiveness which his presentation of the sub- ject has had for an unworthy one of his lay-cheelas. If the Notes subserve no other end, they at least obviate the necessity of any lengthy preface by way of introducing the Catechism to American readers, —be they only idly curious about a strange thing, or merely affected with Buddhism as a fashionable craze, or be they, as is hoped, appreciative of one of the most significant signs of the times, and therefore desirous of authentic information respecting a system of moral and religious philosophy which sways the mind and heart of a third of the human race. The official “authority” of the Catechism is as indisputable as that of any Christian catechism which goes out with a bishop’s imprimatur or sign of the Holy Cross, ansate or other; it is, in fact, exactly what the title purports. This satisfies the technical requirements of the case. No real lover of truth, no earnest seeker for the blessed “ That which is,” need be told that the real author- ity of the book, like that of any other in Christendom or elsewhere, depends entirely upon whether the statements it contains are true or not. “ Anathema’’ means anachronism now; else the editor himself would save any authority the trouble of pronouncing it against a member of the Church Militant who should read this candidate for an Index Expurgatorius. No good Catholic should read it, because it is too much like the wisdom of his own communion to have been AMERICAN EDITOR'S PREFACE. Vil drawn from a heathen well, and too little like what is taught to those uninitiated in the councils of the Vatican. No Episcopalian, because the virility of India is as shocking as the scarlet of Rome to the decorous mugwump that he is in matters of the Mother Church’s administration, which disconcerted even Henry VIII. No true-blue Presbyterian or Calvinist, because if anything could ' make him ‘‘bluer ” than he is, it would be to shake his faith in hell. No Lutheran, because Gautama and Luther were both Pro- testants, and the contrast between their personal characters might be painful. No Methodist, because there is too much method in it to suit orthodox madness. No Baptist, because it is too “hard-shelled” to be cracked without immersion. In fine, no Protestant of any shade of disbelief or discontent should read it, becausé it does not protest enough ; it does not even protest against the difference between Jehovah and Juggernauth. Besides, it seems too much like giving him change in his own coin for the imperti- nence of presuming that a Buddhist needs his missionaries, or that anything in his religion or irreligion could be news to an educated Hindu. Not even a Unitarian should read it, because he is as likely to agree with it as with his own sect on any theological point ; nor a pseudo-scientist, because it might make him suspect himself of a soul. Who then? Whoever thinks for himself, believes in his fellow-man, and knows that anima mundi is never anachronistic. . Catechisms are fot children; and criticism of this one should proceed upon that understanding, —at any rate so faras the author’s text is concerned. The editor will add that itis the only catechism he ever studied that he could see much sense in, or make much use of ; and probably his experience is not exceptional. But there viii AMERICAN EDITOR'S PREFACE. are children of larger as well as of smaller growth, of and to whom he might say further, did he not here recall the conclusion of a famous magic motto, —c’est le tatre. Aside from esoteric Buddhistic and theosophical literature pro- fessing to teach the wisdom-religion,—that divine science which the “chosen noble few” have known since Man first knew himself a God, — one of the wisest, soundest, and most learned treatises on religion that has ever come under the present writer’s observation is entitled “ The Keys of the Creeds.” It is anonymous, but purports to be by a Catholic; the preface is dated in London. One edition was published in 1875 in New York (G. P. Putman’s Sons), The editor gives the Olcott text verbatim, except touching a word here and there, not in the slightest degree affecting the sense, and setting the author’s appendix among the footnotes. The Colombo edition used for copy was not very well printed, and there are other reasons why the editor should feel dubious about the orthography,’ and especially the accentuation, of the Sanscrit words which occur. But the Catechism is not a treatise on linguistics ; so philology is of the least possible consequence in a case where de minimis non curat lex. The editor’s notes are bracketed, and bear his initial ; beyond them, neither his credit nor his responsibility extends for anything that the volume does or does not contain. E. €. WasuineTon, D. C., April 30, 1885. SREPFACE TO THE FOURTEENTH THOUSAND. —__o—_— TuAr a demand exists for a succinct exposition of the beliefs of Sinhalese Buddhists has been proved by the large sales of this little work and by the general favor with which it has been received by the non-Buddhistic as well as the Buddhistic pub- lic. It is within bounds to say that it has already found its way into ten thousand Sinhalese households, and that many thousands of Buddhist children have for the first time derived from it that elementary knowledge of their religion which until the appearance of this Catechism they could get neither from parents nor school:teachers. ‘The translation of the Catechism “into the German, Siamese, Japanese, and Tamil languages is additional evidence of its circulation. It was announced to be, and has by the learned High Priest Sumangala Thero been I 2 PREFACE TO THE FOURTEENTH THOUSAND. indorsed, as a presentation of Orthodox Southern Buddhism ; as such only should it be regarded, and not as the creed of any particular Buddhistic sect or individual Buddhist. ‘The author, confining himself strictly to his subject, did not make the com- parison he easily might have made between the ideas respect- ively held by the Northern and Southern Buddhists, — those of Tibet on the one hand, and those of Ceylon on the other, — countries which are the acknowledged foci of the purest doctrine prevalent in their respective geographical divisions.