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Bright as a mirror was the opening of his wisdom^s store, lofty as the mountains, deep as the sea, like the thunder and the lightning flash was the brilliancy and the depth of his penetration. His teaching was developed according to the three periods above named, every species of being was able to receive his doctrine, he answered well the four questions of Ananda, he converted the ten Rishis, he delivered his prediction concerning Maitreya, he lay down beneath the Sala trees, at the opening of spring, he bequeathed the precious relics after the burning of the perfumed pyre. Such are the records which I, the last of my race, born in this latest period, have compiled as a legacy of truth. [For explanations of the various incidents and allusions referred to in the above " Legend of Sakya," I must refer the reader to the translation found in the twentieth vol. of the Journal of the B. Asiatic 8oc., part II, I860.] SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 143 PART II. Chapter L— BUDDHISM AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. ^^Relig'ioiij we are told, is always the expression of an idea.^^^ The idea vmderlying the Buddhist religious system is simply this, " all is vanity .^^ Earth is a vain show, and Heaven is a vain reward. This is the fundamental idea of Buddhism. And this idea of unreality, which took its rise from a moral conviction, penetrated the system when it passed into a Philosophy. At first, indeed, the existence of the world and its phpenomena was not controverted. Primitive Buddhism did not concern itself with questions of that kind. It was engrossed, absorbed by one thought — the vanity of finite existence, the priceless value of the one condition of Eternal Rest. But when it was driven into the region of speculation, this idea of ^^ vanity'^ projected itself on the front of its argu- ments. All is "'vain'^ was still its theme; only the empti- ness spoken of here is the absence of any substantial exist- ence in the phaanomenal world. '' The Nature of individual substance is impermanency ; that which is called substance is therefore no such thing, the Nature of individual sub- stance being thus without any substantial element or basis : we speak of it as vain (empty) and perishable."^ This is the philosophical idea underlying the speculations of mediaeval Buddhism. How this led to the third stage of belief,^ that everything is vain except the One great reality, a universally 1 Bariug Gould, Orighi and Development of Religious Belief, p. 68. 2 The sloka on which the Shaster known in Chinese as the "Yih- shu-lu-kia-lun" is founded. Vide Journal of the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society, No. 1, June 1858, p. 110. ^ The Doctrine of Tathagata embraces three periods : in the first, he proves that everything exists ; in the second, he proves that all is empty ; in the third, he proves that there is nothing either existent or non- existent (i. e., that there is only one state of existence, which admits of no formula). Wassilief, Duddhisme (Ed. Fr.), p. 183. 144 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST diffused " self" or essence, may be noticed elsewhere ; we simply remark that this conclusion is perfectly in keeping with the oriofinal Text of the system. The non-existence of the "Eg-o" (to use the common phrase) forced the confession of the necessary existence of the '' non-ego"; fo^ Buddhism never went so far as to deny the fact of " existence." The King of Sagal said to Nagasena "Does the all-wise (Buddha) exist ?^ Nagasena replied — '*■ He who is the most meritori- ous does exist"; and again — '' Great King ! Nirwana is."- It follows, then, as a philosophical necessity, that if all else is unreal except that which necessarily is, there can be no place or time in which " That" does not exist ; and this I take to be the idea of the '' ultimate unity" into which Buddhism finally resolved itself. To revert, however, to the basis of Primitive Buddhism, or. Buddhism regarded as a Rehgious system. We must remember that the origin of this system is no mere isolated fact in the history of Religious Beliefs ; it was the rectifica- tion, so to speak, of the rehgious element in man, after ages of oppression. It was just one of those reactions which, if we may use a somewhat unusual expression, " vertebrate" History, whether religious or profane. The grand objective Belief of the Yedic age had subsided into an unintelligent and servile worship, the invention of a priestly class which arrogated to itself the exclusive privilege of framing for the rest the objects of worship, as well as regulating- the method of it. The expression of religious feelings and of religious convictions is an instinct, and can no more be forbidden or checked than we can forbid the river to flow or check its progress. Neither is it a blind instinct ; it will always search after, and in the end find out, its object, as the " cygnet finds the water."^ Therefore, when Sakya Muni, in the midst of the existing degradation of Rehgion, de- clared that there was no peace or Rest to be found in the world, except by seeking out the cause of all sorrow, and ' Eastern Monachism, p. HOO. - Eastern Afonachism, p. 295. ' Aurora Leitili. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 145 crushing it in its bud ; and when he further declared that the cause of all sorrow consisted in '' cleaving to Life" (upadana) and "evil desire" (trishna), and that in order to destroy these^ men must mortify appetite and practise virtue, and walk in the " paths" of a Religion, the object of which was to bind them to this mode of life, and to facilitate their advance in it — in teaching this — he satisfied the instinct of the people, and according to his degree and the light he had, he rectified the religious tendency of the age. Primitive Buddhism, then, is just this, a revulsion from a degraded and unsatisfying ceremonial worship to a moral conviction that Life and its pleasures are insufficient to satisfy the Cleavings of the heart; and, that virtue is the only road to happiness. There are three ways in which his apprehension of such fundamental truths may be explained : either Sakya had been brought into contact with those already acquainted with them ; or he had returned from his own choice to a traditional belief; or he had discovered them by his own heart-searchings and the spiritual perception he possessed. In either way, it is possible to account for the fact of his illu- mination. Perhaps, however, the second supposition is the most probable one. There were undoubtedly Traditions amongst the people of the Doctrines of other Buddhas who preceded Sakya. Someof these we shall give below. Whence- soever derived, they contain truth; and Sakj'-a^s illumination may have resulted from acquaintance with them, and deep ponderings about them. At any rate, however we may account for it, the phsenomenon remains the same, that at an early period, perhaps as early as the seventh century before Christ, a Sage appeared in India, who, by the simple power of his Teaching, inaugurated a new sera in the Religious History of the Eastern world, and whose Doctrine still exercises a vast influence over the destinies of millions of the human race. We cannot afford to ignore such a fact. We may affect to disregard it, but every candid person will desire to have the subject impartially discussed. 146 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST Bat Eeligion is not only the expression of an idea, but it is the discovery of a plan.^ To say that the world is a vain show, and that there is only one condition of Rest, may be recognised as True by the Religious instinct ; but the ques- tion then springs to the lips, how shall we attain the Rest and escape the sorrow. We are told by a writer- well ac- quainted with the subject " that Buddhism presents no ade- quate knowledge of the means which are indispensable for the attainment of the end it proposes, viz., happiness here and hereafter and therefore the utmost Triumph of this Religion is to live without fear and to die without hope." Whether such a conclusion is justified by the premisses, we shall not now consider, but merely remark that the necessity of supplying a knowledge of the means requisite for the desired end was recognised by the Founder of the Religion.