English
From the com- plete separation from, and cessation of ignorance, is the ces- sation of merit and demerit ; from the cessation of merit and demerit is the cessation of consciousness ; from the cessation of consciousness is the cessation of (the existence of) body and mind ; from the cessation of (the existence of) body and mind is the cessation of (the production of) the six organs ; from the cessation of (the production of) the six organs is the cessation of touch ; from the cessation of touch is the cessation of desire ; from the cessation of desire is the ces- sation of (pleasurable or painful) sensation ; from the cessa- tion of sensation is the cessation of the cleaving to existing objects ; from the cessation of cleaving to existing objects is the cessation of a reproduction of existence ; from a cessa- tion of a reproduction of existence is the cessation of birth ; from a cessation of birth is the cessation of decay. Thus, this whole body of sorrow ceases to exist." There arc three terms in this series that will require further explanation : 1. Ignorance. 2. The cleaving to existing objects. 3. Merit and demerit 1. The first term in this circle of generation is ignorance, awidya. It is an abstract quality producing another abstract quality, merit and demerit, karma ; which karma produces a third abstraction, coDSciousness ; and this consciousness is endowed with physical power, and produces body and mind, in which is included all the particulars that in their aggrega- tion form what is called a sentient being. We have no in- formation as to the origin of awidya. How did it first arise V To what was it then attached ? These are questions to which we have no answer, as no one but a Budha can tell how karma operates, or how the chain of existence commenced. It is as vain to ask in what part of the tree the fruit exists before the blossom is put forth, as to ask for the locality of karma. We can learn how error is produced in a being abeady existent ; but we are not taught, in any work I have seen, how the primary karma, the first link (not in the circle. 408 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. but in tho series of circles) was produced. We are told that each circle comes from a previous circle ; as any given flame comes from a previous flame ; or any given tree comes from a previous tree ; or any given egg comes from a previous e^ ; but, as in all similar arguments, the declaration is un- satisfactory. It only carries back the process to a more distant period. We want to know whence came the first egg, or tree, or flame, or circle. We cannot think of a second, or of any number in a series, however extended, that is not de- pendent on a first. The brahmanical account of the origin of awidya is more intelligible, though not more satisfactory, "Whilst Brahmd formerly, in the beginning of the kalpa, was meditating on creation, there appeared a creation be- ginning with ignorance, and consisting of darkness. From that great being appeared fivefold ignorance, consisting of obscurity, illusion, extreme illusion, gloom, and utter dark- ness. The creation of the creator thus plunged in abstraction, was the fivefold (immovable) world, without intellect or re- flection, void of perception or sensation, incapable of feeling, and destitute of motion. Since immovable things were first created, this is called the first creation." — Wilson's Vishnu Purina. But as this was an imperfect creation, it was suc- ceeded by eight others, each more perfect than the preceding act. According to this theory, awidya is the primary operation of the divine energy. Nearly all the ancient cosmogonies commenced in a similar manner, which is only a poetical mode of confessing ignorance of the Great First Cause, by changing the subjective into the objective* In the Orphic fragments, Night is called " the source of all things." With this agrees the well-known passage in Hesiod's Theogony : — " First of aU was Chaos. Afterwards arose the wide-bosomed Earth, the firm resting-place of all things ; and gloomy Tai> tara in the depth of the earth ; and Eros, the fairest of the immortal gods," The world was called by Democritus, *' an egg of the night." From the worship of the mus araneus by the Egyptians, we may learn that amidst the gloom of their solemn temples a similar idea was entertained. There IX. THE ONTOLOGY OF BUDHISM. 409 is this difference between the east and west, that whilst the Greeks personified what are called the powers of nature, the Hindus give to them intelligence and efficiency, without per- sonification. 2. The cleaving to existing objects is upddAna. There are two properties inherent in all sentient beings, except the rahats : — first, updddna, and secondly, karma, literally action, the aggregate result of all previous acts, in imbroken succes- sion, from the commencement of existence, in the births in- numerable that have been received in past ages. At death, the five khandas are dissolved. As they no longer exist in combination, they can maintain no reciprocity of influence ; their mutuality of operation has ceased for ever. But the upddana still exists, and the karma lives on. The cleaving to existing objects, or the breaking up of the khandas, by some unexplained instrumentality, produces another being. The updddna cannot but exert its power; another being must necessarily be produced. It is as impossible, imder ordinary circumstances, to separate reproduction from up4- dana, as it would be to separate heat from fire or solidity from the rock ; the one follows as naturally as the other, and all are equally mysterious in the manner of their operation. As it is the grand tenet of Budhism, that all existence is an evil, it thus becomes consistent with right reason to seek the destruction of upiddna, which alone can secure the reception of nirwdna, or the cessation of being. 3. By updddna a new existence is produced, but the man- ner of its operation is controlled by the karma with which it is connected. It would sometimes appear that upaddna is the efficient cause of reproduction, and at other times that it is karma. But in all instances it is the karma that appoints whether the being to be produced shall be an insect in the sunbeam, a worm in the earth, a fish in the sea, a fowl in the air, a beast in the forest, a man, a restless demon, or a d^wa or brahma of the celestial world. The renewed existence may be in any world of any sakwala; it may be in any species of being ; and in that species it may be of any grade. 410 A MANUAL OF BUDHISIC. Thus> if the existence be as a man, it is the karma that ap- points whether it shall be as a male or female, as a monarch or as an outcaste, as beautiful or ugly, or happy or miserable. The karma is itself controlled by its own essential character. If it be good, it must necessarily appoint the being that will be produced to a state of happiness and privilege ; but if it be evil, it must as necessarily appoint the being to a state of misery and degradation. In the act of reproduction, karma can work without the aid of a material instrumentality, as some beings in this world, and all in the d6wa-16kas, are pro- duced by what is called the apparitional birth (8). It is difficult to speak with technical precision on Bud- histical subjects, in another language, unless great circumlo- cution be used. We have to alter the meaning of words, if we would rightly understand the system. We may notice, for instance, the personal pronoun ... I. With the Budhist, this is a non-entity. And it is not because he is a nominalist rather than a realist. He knows all that constitutes what is regarded as a sentient being. He can enumerate all the parts that enter into its composition. But he denies that there exists anything equivalent to that which, in other sys- tems, is called the soul. It ia true that the five khandas exist. There is no delusion as to them. But when we assert the existence of any element or essence in addition, we deceive ourselves ; it is not a reality. Uttering the senti- ments of Budhism, rather than adopting its language, I may regard myself as a sentient being, now existent in the world of men. But I have existed, in a similar manner, in many myriads of previous births, and may have passed through all possible states of being, from the highest to the lowest, and have been in some of them repeatedly. I am now under the influence of all that I have ever done, in all these ages. This is my karma, the arbiter of my destiny.