He Would
Not Accept My Gifts At All, And Went Away Saying, 'If You Were Now
To Offer Me Your Whole Kingdom I Would Not Receive It From You.' "
This studied indifference about a matter of more than a thousand
pounds, though perhaps not often exercised upon so large a scale, is
just that which these wandering fanatics display towards every offering
they receive, and in every action of their useless lives.
Whatever
may be said against them, however, their profession of poverty and
suffering is no mockery, as was that of the well-fed "monks of old,"
whose reasonings were something similar on religious points.
The Fukeer soliloquizes: "The condition of our being born is, that
our griefs are many and our pleasures few, because this world is the
root of misery. What happiness, therefore, has man? If any man should
climb to the top of a tree, or sit down on the summit of a hill, or
remain concealed in water, yet death does not allow him to escape. At
the most, man's age is a hundred years, half of which passes away in
night, half of the other half is expended in childhood and old age;
the remainder is spent in altercation, separation from those we love,
and affliction, and the soul is restless as a wave of the sea. No
one who has come into the world has escaped from affliction. It
is vain to fix one's affections on it, and therefore it is best to
cultivate and practise religion." And so, as a remedy for the evil
which he has discovered to exist upon the earth, and to work out a
successful escape from it, he sits himself down in dust and ashes,
and, mistaking the sign-post, adopts the path which leads him furthest
from the point he wishes to arrive at.
As the Hindoo is the most ancient of religions, so the Buddhist
is the one which is professed by the largest portion of the human
race. It is the religion of Burmah, Ceylon, China, Siam, Thibet, and
Russian Tartary, and is computed to claim as many as three hundred
and sixty-nine millions among its Votaries.[36] "Gautama," or "Sakya
mounee," its founder, was born in Bengal about the seventh century
before Christ. Yet India at present contains no modern temples of its
worship, and no native of India, that I have ever met, knew anything
of its founder, or was even acquainted with the term "Buddha," or
"Buddhist." Its doctrines are the most curious of those that have
ever been promulgated, and appear even now to be scarcely understood
in all their ramifications. According to original Buddhism, there is
no Creator, nor being that is self-existent and eternal. The great
object is the attainment, in this life, of complete abstraction from
all worldly affairs and passions, and the ultimate result, of entire
annihilation. Like the Hindoo, the Buddhist believes in transmigration
of souls, and until utter annihilation is reached, he is doomed to
shift his earthly tenement, from form to form, according to the deeds
done in the flesh. It is, therefore, the great object of all beings,
who would be released from the sorrows of successive birth, to seek
the destruction of the moral cause of continued existence, that is,
the cleaving to existing objects or evil desire. It is only possible to
accomplish this end by attending to a prescribed course of discipline,
and by fixing the mind upon the perfections of Buddha. Those who after
successive births have entirely destroyed all evil desires are called
"Rahuts," and after death the Rahut attains "Nirwana," or ceases to
exist. The actual meaning of the word "Rahut," is "Tranquillity,"
and it appears to be the same word which is used on a small scale,
to express the soothing qualities of that far-famed Eastern sweetmeat,
the Rahut-lukma, or "Morsels of tranquillity."
The Buddhas themselves are beings who appear after intervals of
time inconceivably vast. Previous to their reception of the state,
they pass through countless phases of being, at, one time appearing
in human form, at another as a frog, or fish, &c., in each of which
states they acquire a greater degree of merit.
In the birth in which they become Buddha, they are always of woman
born, and pass through infancy and youth like ordinary mortals,
until at the prescribed age they abandon the world and retire to the
wilderness, where they receive the supernatural powers with which
the office is endowed. Their highest glory is that they receive the
wisdom by which they can direct sentient beings to the path that
leads to the desired cessation of existence.
The Buddhism of Thibet appears to be an innovation on the original
system of religion. It was introduced into the country about the
seventh century of our era; and although Sakya mounee, who is supposed
by the Thibetians to have lived one thousand years before Christ,
is still believed to be the founder of the present system, the Delai
Lama, at Lassa, is regarded as an incarnation of Buddha, and is the
supreme infallible head of the whole Thibetian religious community.
The original tenets, too, have been modified, and the modern Scriptures
have been adapted to three different capacities of mankind - viz. the
lowest, mean (or middle), and the highest. The principles thus declared
are as follows : -
"1. Men of vulgar capacity must believe that there is a God, a future
life, and that they shall therein reap the fruits of their works in
this life.
"2. Those that are in a middle degree of intellectual and moral
capacity, besides admitting the former position, must know that every
compound thing is perishable, that there is no reality in things,
that every imperfection is pain, and that deliverance from pain or
bodily existence is final happiness.
"3. Those of the highest capacities, besides the above enumerated
articles, must know that, from the body to the supreme soul, nothing
is existing by itself, neither can it be said that it will continue
always or cease absolutely, but that everything exists by a dependant
or casual connexion."[37]
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