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About the members of the body, or the wealth of relatives, or because they have received a bribe, they knowingly speak that which is not true. Four things are necessary to constitute a lie : — 1. There most be the utterance of the thing that is not. 2 There must be the knowledge that it is not. 8. There must be some endeavour to prevent the person addressed from learning the truth* 4. There must be the discovery by the person deceived that what has been told him is not true. {SadharmmaratnakdrS.) The magnitude of the crime increases in proportion to the value of the article, or the importance of the matter, about which the lie is told. From the time that Gh5tama became a Bddhisat, through all his births, until the attainment of the Budhaship, he never told a lie ; and it were easier for the sakwala to be blown away than for a supreme Budha to utter an untruth. It is said by the brahmans that it is not a crime to tell a lie on behalf of the guru, or on account of cattle, or to save the person's own life, or to gain the victory in any contest ; but this is contrary to the precept. On one occasion Budha said that when a lie is uttered knowingly it is pdrajika, or excludes from the priesthood; yet on another occasion he said that it is a venial or minor offence. It was in this manner that it occurred. A number of priests kept was near the river Waggumuda, in the country caUed X. Tfl£ ETHICS OF BUDHISM. 487 WoedB9 ; bnt as the people were remiss in providing them with food and other requisites, they f alselj gave ont that they had attained to the first dhy4na, or had entered the first path, or had become rahats, by which means they obtained abnndance of all that they wanted. At the conclnsion of the ceremony they went to Budha, who, after enquiring about their welfare, began to reprore them, and said, " Foolish men, for the sake of the belly you have assumed to yourselves the glory of the dharmma, afl if you yourselves had promxdgated it. Better would it have been for you, than to have practised this deception for the sake of a little food, to have had your intestines torn out, or to have swaUowed molten metal. There are five opponents of my religion who for their crimes are afterwards bom in hell: — ]. The priest who places himself at the head of a hundred, or a thousand others, merely that he may obtain a livelihood from the laity. 2. The priest who understands the bana, but pro- claims it as his own. 3. The priest who falsely accuses another of having violated the law of chastity. 4. The priest who takes the lands, couches, chairs, pillows, vessels, axes, hoes, withes, and other things that have been presented as an offering to the associated priesthood, and gives them to the laity that he may secure their favour. But worse than any that have yet been named, is the priest who proclaims himself to be a rahat, that he may gain respect and assistance. Therefore, priests, as you have practised this deception, you are declared to be pdrajikd." The other occasion on which Budha spoke about lying was when he declared that if a priest knowingly utters a falsehood relative to anything that he has said or done, and in an humble manner shall confess it to another priest, it is pichiti, a minor fault, or one that requires only confession in order to secure absolution. Thus, if one man strikes another in the street, he is merely fined for the ofience ; but if he were to strike the king, his hands and feet and then his head would be cut off, and all his relatives, both on the side of his father and mother to the seventh degree of relationship, would be destroyed.* In * In 1846, when the life of the Idng of the French was attempted, and the ciiminal was only sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, though found guilty, I had the opportunity, in a small periodical I then published in {Singhalese, of showing the great change that has taken place in the sererity of punishments, by publishing the above sentence in juxta-poaition with this extract from the Questions of Milinda. 488 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. like manner there is a difference in the amonnt of culpability between one lie and another. {Milinda Prasna.) He who keeps the precept that forbids the uttering of that which is not true will in f atare births have all his senses per- fect, a sweet voice, and teeth of a proper size, regular and clean ; he will not be thin, nor too tall nor too short ; his skin will smell like the lotns ; he will have obedient servants and his word will be believed ; he will have blue eyes, like the petal of the nelum, and a tongue red and soft like the petal of the piyum ; and he will not be proud, though his situation will be exalted. (FvQdwaliya.) 5. Slander, When any one, to put friends at enmity, or to sow dissension between societies, says here what he heard there, or there what he heard here, it is slander ; or if he speaks evil of persons and places that are esteemed by others, or if by insinuation he leads friends to question the sincerity of each others' profes- sions, it is also slander. He who does these things will be bom in hell, there to remain during many ages; and when released from this misery he will become a pr6ta, and endure great privations during a whole kalpa. The brahmans say that it is no crime to utter slander, when it will tend to the benefit of the guru, but this also is contrary to the precept.* 6. JJwprofitahle ConversaMon, When things are said out of the proper time, or things that cannot in any way tend to profit are spoken of, the precept that forbids unprofitable conversation is broken. (Sdleyyorguira^ aanne.) 7. Govetousness. When any one sees that which belongs to another, and desires to possess it, or thinks, It would be good were this to belong to me, he transgresses the precept that forbids covetousness. * I have not met with any advices or explanations relative to the third crime connected with speech, abuse, or railing ; and have to say the same of the second crime connected with the mind, malice. X. THE ETHICS OF BUDHISM. 489 8. Scepticism, A man thinks thas : — There is no reward for alms-giving, or for that which is ofEered to the associated priesthood, or for service done in the temples ; there are no consequences proceed- ing from merit or demerit ; those who are in another world cannot come to this, and those who are in this world cannot enter any other world, as there is no passing from one world to another ; there is no apparitional birth ; there is no one in the world who can teach the trne way, no one who has attained it ; there is no Bndha, no bana, no priesthood, no present world, no future world, no future existence. This is scepticism. The sceptic induces many to leave the right path, thus causing grief to both d6was and men; but the wise man prevails on others to leave the wrong path and enter the right one. The sceptic will be punished in one or other of these two ways ; he will be bom in hell, or as a beast. The wise man will be rewarded in one or other of these two ways ; he will be born in a dewa-ldka, or as a man. There are five great crimes, but scepticism is a still greater crime. At the end of a kalpa, they who have committed any of the five great crimes will be released from hell, but to the misery of the sceptic there is no end appointed. Scepticism is the root or cause of successive existence ; there is no release for the sceptic ; he cannot enter the paths, neither can he enter a d6wa-16ka. The being that is bom in hell, may, at the end of a kalpa, be bom in a brahma-16ka, on account of previous merit, but the sceptic has no such privilege ; he will be bom in the hell of some outer sakwala, and when this is destroyed he will be bom in the air, but still in misery. This is declared in the prakarana S&rasangraha. {Sdleyya-Bvira^ The folly of the sceptic is like that of the brahman who was deceived by the jackal. One night, a jackal entered a certain city, and finding some refuse of toddy that had been thrown away, he devoured it, and became drunk. When he came to his senses it was already light, and he was greatly afraid ; but he resolved to put forth all his cunning in order that he might rescue himself from the imminent danger. Soon afterwards he offered a brahman whom he met two hundred pieces of gold if 490 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. he wonld ajssist him in his escape.