English
A passage for editorial review. A MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY A MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY BY WILLIAM MONTGOMERY McGOVEKN, PH.D. (Oxox.), Lecturer in Japanese and Chinese at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London; Priest of the Nishi Honganji, Kyoto, Japan. Author of Introduction to Mahdydna Buddhism, Modern Japan, Colloquial Japanese, etc. VOL. I COSMOLOGY LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. NEW YOEK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1923 as MB v). Printed in Great Britain by Stephen Austin & Sons, Ltd., Hertford. CONTENTS Introduction 1. THE STUDY OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY . 1 2. THE DIVISIONS OF BUDDHIST COSMOLOGY . 8 3. THE THREE COSMOLOGICAL SCHOOLS . . 12 4. SOURCES OF REFERENCE . . . .22 PARTICULAR AUTHORITIES SELECTED FOR THE PRESENT WORK 36 Part I 1. COSMIC SYNTHESIS 39 2. COSMIC GEOGRAPHY 48 3. THE DIVISIONS OF THE THREE DHATUS . 60 4. THE WORLD OF SENTIENT BEINGS . . 73 Part II : Cosmic Analysis . . . .81 Part III : Cosmic Dynamics 1. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF CAUSALITY . 163 / 2. THE LAW OF CAUSALITY APPLIED TO THE A INDIVIDUAL 169 ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON KARMA . .180 THE LAW OF CAUSALITY APPLIED TO THE ELEMENTS OF EXISTENCE . . . . 183 £ A INTRODUCTION 1. THE STUDY OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY LL forms of Buddhism, however divergent, claim to have but three objects of worship, viz. the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The first is the founder of the faith, the second the teaching which he gave, and the third the order which he founded. Regarding each of the Ratnas or jewels, as they are called, an enormous amount of speculation has grown up, with many different opinions concerning the proper method of interpretation. Questions concerning the Sarigha are largely dealt with in the various versions of the Vinaya Pitaka, or books of Canon law, and their later commentaries. These are con cerned with the proper organization of the monasteries, the rites which should accompany the reception of men and women into the order, and the food, clothing, and furniture which should be used by them afterwards. All these questions lie entirely outside the scope of philosophy, and hence outside the scope of our present undertaking. Speculations concerning the Buddha, or, rather, the Buddhas, together with less elevated beings such as Pratyeka Buddhas and Arhats, have played an even greater part in Buddhist history, for fierce controversies have been waged concerning the nature and powers of each type of Being, and the means by which such rank might be achieved. But as all such problems are more closely associated with religion than with philosophy, they are equally foreign to our present work. The dharma or law taught by the Buddha to his disciples and thence transmitted to later generations who gradually modified and reinterpreted the older doctrines, was the basis upon which Buddhist philosophy, properly so called, was later erected. Primitive Buddhism was much more a simple 2 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY religious and ethical code than a metaphysical attempt to solve the problems of the universe, but as time elapsed and later commentators, delighting in subtlety, strove to further truth and enhance their own reputations by applying the old formulae to a rational explanation of the whole universe, the old Dharma was supplemented by a new Abhidharma. Abhidharma is usually called metaphysic, but the first Abhidharma works were but dogmatic treatises, giving a would-be systematic classification of the older doctrinal categories, gradually fitting in others as these came to be formulated. As yet there was little formal logic or even rational argument from universally accepted data. The basis of truth was considered to be the body of doctrines laid down by an omniscient teacher, and the most that a commentator could do was to give a new and better arrangement to the old dharma-paryayas, and to bring out the ideas which were considered to be inherent in the older statements. Consequently the old or Canonical Abhidharma is more to be ranked with what we should call theology (save that Buddhism theologized without a thesis) than with philosophy. Controversy between the various Buddhist sects necessitated the introduction of more abstract reasoning, but appeal could still be made to the sutras, or, at least, to those sutras which were held to be sacred by all the schools, so that the most important developments of Buddhist philosophy were made when the Buddhist speculators came into violent conflict with fully developed alien philosophies. This took place, as far as India is concerned, between the first and the fifth centuries A.D., and in China between the fifth and ninth centuries A.D. Beginning with Buddhaghosa, the Pali school of Buddhism in Ceylon and later in Burma made many important doctrinal additions to the Buddhist lore, but for the most part the Pali school remained sufficiently sheltered to make it pre dominantly theological rather than philosophical in tone. INTRODUCTION 3 Those who would study Buddhist philosophy must turn their attention to the Abhidharma works, including in that term not only the original Canonical books of such schools as the Sarvastivadins and Sthaviravadins, but also and more especially the later commentaries, with particular reference to those works in which the Buddhist monks set out to defend their doctrines from outside attack. For the Pali theories we have, of course, to turn to the works of Buddhaghosa and Anuruddha and their followers. For the Hinayana 1 tradition of India proper, we must look to the Sarvastivadin school, including therein the Mahavibhasa, and the works of Vasubandhu and Sanghabhadra. For the Mahay anists of India we have the great representatives of the two principal Mahayana schools, the Madhyamika and the Yogacarin systems, including Nagarjuna, Arya Deva, and Candragomin f or the former, and Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dignaga, Dharmapala, and Dharmakirtti for the latter. The mainsprings of the Chinese Buddhist philosophy are to be found in the writings of the patriarchs of the T'ien T'ai and Hua Yen schools. Here, however, we meet with great initial difficulty. The Pali texts have indeed come down to us, and the Pali Text Society has rendered, and is rendering, very valuable service in making them accessible to the Western public by means of new editions in the original tongue, and by means of English translation. But the labour of those who would study the more philosophic works of Sanskrit Buddhism is rendered difficult by the fact that most of the important philosophic texts are no longer extant in their original form, for with the destruction of Buddhism in India, much of the literature of Buddhism likewise perished, and though a number of Sutras, chiefly Mahayana, and Avadanas or pious tales have remained, the more serious works have disappeared. From among the numerous Abhidharma works of the 1 For the definition of Hinayana and Mahayana and for the chief points of difference between the two branches of Buddhism see the introduction to my Introduction to Mahayana Buddhism. 4 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Sarvastivadins, only a single commentary on the Abhidharma Kosa remains. Though we have in the Madhyamika Vrtti a fair exposition of the Madhyamika school, most of the philosophic texts of the Yogacarins have been lost, and what remain are like the Sutra Alamkara, devotional handbooks for the aspirant after Buddhahood, rather than textbooks of metaphysics. Fortunately a certain number of texts were translated into Tibetan, and as years go by, these will probably be revealed to us. But, alas, the Tibetan texts are by no means complete. The Tibetan people, prior to the introduction of Buddhism, were possessed of practically no culture of their own. They were ignorant even of the art of writing, so it is little wonder that when they adopted Buddhism there was a greater demand for Sutras, Avadanas, Jatakas, and Dharams 1 than for abstruse works dealing with the minutiae of ontology and phenomenology. Kather must we be thankful for what has been preserved. On many points where the Sanskrit remnants are silent, however, and where even the Tibetan Canon can give no help, we find a full explanation in the Chinese translations of the Buddhist works, which are generally though somewhat incorrectly known as the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka.