The Essence of Buddhism

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THIS volume is the final form assumed by a series of THIS essays on Buddhist subiects originally contributed to certain South Indian magazines. It has been prepared with the aim of bringing together, within a small compass, the leading ideas of Buddhism, and interpreting them in the light of modern knowledge. It lays no claim to originality. Much of the material it contains may be found in the works of well-known orientalists. Nor does it pretend to be the fruit of Pali or Sanskri: scholarship, despite the quotations it may contain from works in those languages. It professes to be nothing more than the humble offering of a disciple in the service of his Master.

In presenting the teachings of his master it is incumbent on the disciple never to lose sight of the fundamental principles on which those teachings themselves rest. For the Buddha the voice of authority is in truth itself, and wherever the truth leads, thither the disciple must follow. Accordingly, the dictum accepted in all schools of Buddhism as the sole regulative principle is that nothing can be the teaching of the Master, which is not in strict accord with reason, or with what is known to be true. In giving a conspectus of their religion all Buddhist writers of note have sought the aid of logic and psychology. Their regard for the general validity of ideas has been so great that they have not infrequently set aside the Sutras, which are commonly regarded as the basis of their religion. Hence, in expound- ing Buddhism in the light of modern knowledge, the author has in no way swerved from his position as a Buddhist, but has only followed a practice current among the Buddhists from the very earliest times. If he has succeeded in giving Buddhism the aspect of modernity, he has done so, not by seasoning modern ideas with a little Buddhistic sauce, but by getting beneath all forms of Buddhism and bringing to light the essential truths therein contained. The attention of thoughtful men in Europe and America has been drawn to Buddhism.

Already there are in those countries organizations for the spread of Buddhism A branch of the Mahabodhi Society with its headquarters in Chicago is doing valuable work in the United States. A Japanese Buddhistic Mission, established in San Francisco, publishes a journal, called The Light of Dharma, which is said to be widely read in America. A Buddhistic Society, established in Leipzig, besides publishing a journal, called Der Buddhist, is actively at work in disseminating the teachings of the Tathagata by means of popular lectures and cheap literature. Divested of certain mystical out growths, Buddhism will doubtless attract many occidentals. Nevertheless it has been asserted that Buddhism is too chaste to win adherents where marriage is not considered detrimental to high thinking. But even on this score Buddhism has nothing to fear. There have been from the earliest times schools of Buddhism that have maintained that a laic also can attain arhatship. A religion that is supple enough to include the Vajracharyas of Nepal as well as the Siluviras of Ceylon has certainly room in it for puritanical ascesticism as well as the innocent pleasures of a conjugal life.

I have read with pleasure, rather rapidly, the "Essence of Buddhism" and glanced through the chapters: Historic Buddha: Rationality of Buddhism; Morality of Buddhism : Buddhism and Caste; Women in Buddhism; The Four Great Truths; Buddhism and Asceticism: Buddhism and Pessimism; The Noble Eightfold Path; The Riddle of the World; Personality; Death and After; The Summum Bonum.

The author is a scientist and as such deserves to be heard. He has made a study of Buddhism from authoritative sources, and as a scholar has analysed the comprehensive system of religion founded by the Tathagato.

India is the home of Buddhism. It is to the people of India that our Lord first proclaimed the Dhamma, 2496 years ago. His first five disciples were Brahman ascetics, and His two prominent disciples, Sariputta and Maha Moggallana, were Brahmans; the President of the first Council, held three months after His Parinibbana, was Maha Kasyapa, a Brahman: and the Upholder of the Faith in the time of Asoka was Tissa the "son of the Brahmani Moggali of Moggali." According to the prophetic utterance of our Lord the Dhamma, shedding lustre in its purity, lasted for full 1,000 years in India, and then began the decline following the law of disintegration five hundreds later, when it was brought into contact with the cohorts of Allah, whose fire and sword played havoc with the followers of our Blessed Tathagato. The ruins in Bamian, Central Turkestan, Afghanistan, Kandahar, Kashmir, the Gangetic Valley, and in distant Java, testify to the extirpation of the great religion by the iconoclastic Arabs, fresh in their zeal for the glorification of the 'Prophet of Arabia.'

Book's Contents and Sample Pages