It has been stated, on apparently3 incontrovertible grounds, in the foregoing pages, that Buddhism4 has originated to a considerable extent from Brahminism. The following remarks will corroborate5 the statement, and give an additional weight to the reasons already brought forward. In fact, both systems have the same objects in view, viz., the disentangling of the soul from passions and the influence of the material world, and its perfect liberation from metempsychosis and the action of matter. The final end to be arrived at is, however, widely different. The perfected Brahmin longs for his absorption in the infinite being; the perfect Buddhist1 thirsts after a state of complete isolation6, which is nothing short of total annihilation. But the means for obtaining the ardently7 coveted8 perfection are in many respects the same. The moral observances enforced by both creeds9 differ so little from each other that they appear to be almost identical. In both systems, moreover, we find a body of individuals who aim at a complete and perfect observance of the highest injunctions, striving to reach the very summit of that perfection pointed11 out by the founders12 of their respective institutions: these are the Brahminical and Buddhist religious. To glance over the regulations enjoined13 on the Brahmins, such as we find them in the Institutes of Menoo, and those prescribed by the Wini to the Talapoins, cannot fail to be truly interesting. A summary comparison will enable the reader to perceive at once how closely allied14 are the two creeds, and how great is the resemblance between them both. He will see on the clearest evidence that to Buddha15 is not to be ascribed the merit of having originated so many fine moral precepts16[245] and admirable disciplinary regulations, but that he found in his own country, in the schools where he studied wisdom, already well-known, pure moral precepts, actually discussed, studied, and by many strictly17 observed, together with the disciplinary regulations. He was brought up in a society which beheld18 with astonishment19 and admiration20 a body of religious men entirely21 devoted22 to the great work of securing the triumph of the spiritual principle over the material one, and endeavouring by dint23 of the greatest and severest austerities, the most rigorous penances24, and the most entire renouncing25 of all this material world, to break down the material barriers that had hitherto kept the soul captive, and prevented her from taking her flight into regions of blissful freedom and perfect quiescence26. There is, however, a remarkable27 difference between the sacerdotal caste of Brahmins and the members of the Buddhist monkish28 institution. The position of the former is hereditary30; he is rendered illustrious by his lineage and descent. That of the second is personal, and ends with him; it is the result of his own free choice; he derives31 all the glory that shines round him from his virtuous32 life and a strict adherence33 to the institutions of the Wini. The Brahmin owes everything to religion and to birth. The Buddhist religious is indebted for all that he is solely34 to religion; the monk29’s title to distinction is the holy mode of the saintly life that he has embraced. Both are the greatest and most distinguished35 in their respective societies; but merit and intrinsic worth alone elicit36 veneration37 and respect in behalf of the humble38 religious, whilst the casual birth of the Brahmin from individuals belonging to the highest caste centres upon his person the reluctant homage39 of men belonging to inferior castes, who, in virtue40 of the prejudices in which they are reared, consider themselves obliged to do homage to him. The person of both is sacred and looked upon with awe41 and veneration, but from somewhat opposite and different motives42.
Notwithstanding these and many other differences and[246] discrepancies43, it is not the less striking to find in the Brahminical body, such as it is constituted by the regulations of the Vedas, the germ of all the principal observances enjoined on the Buddhist that leaves the world, to follow the path leading to perfection.
The life of a Brahmin, not as it is now, but as it originally was, and now ought to be, if the regulations of the Vedas had not been partly set aside, is one of laborious44 study, austerity, self-denial, and retirement45. The first quarter of his life is spent in the capacity of student. His great and sole object is the study of the Vedas, and the mastering of their contents. Worldly studies are not to be thought of. He is entirely under the control of his preceptor, to whom he has to yield obedience46, respect, and service in all that relates to his daily wants. He must, moreover, daily beg his food from door to door. The Buddhist novice47 likewise withdraws from his family, enters the monastery48, lives under the discipline of the head of the house, whom he obeys and serves in his daily necessities, and devotes all his undivided attention to the study of religious books. He pays no regard to worldly knowledge. He has likewise to go out every morning to beg the food that he will use during the day.
The second quarter of the Brahmin’s life is thus employed. He marries and lives with his family, but he must consider his chief employment to be the teaching of the Vedas and a zealous49 discharge of the religious observances and of all that relates to public worship. He must sedulously50 abstain51 from too sensual and worldly enjoyments52, even from music, dancing, and other amusements calculated to lead to dissipation. The Buddhist monkish institution being not hereditary, and its continuance and development having not to depend upon generation, its members are bound to a strict celibacy53, and to an absolute and entire abstinence from all sensual and worldly enjoyments inconsistent with gravity, self-recollection, and self-denial.[247] Their chief occupation is teaching to children the rudiments54 of reading and writing, that they might read religious books, which are the only ones used in schools. He must pay a strict regard to devotional practices, and take care that the religious observances and ceremonies be regularly attended to in his monastery.
The third quarter of his life is spent by the Brahmin in solitude55 as an anchorite. He dwells in the forests, where he must procure56 what is necessary for food and raiment. The latter article is looked after when he thinks it to be a requisite57 to cover his nakedness. With many of them fanaticism58 has so far prevailed over reason and the sense of decency59 that they live in a state of disgusting nakedness. The roots of plants, the fruits and leaves of wild trees, will supply the needful for the support of nature. That time too must be devoted to the infliction60 of the severest penances and to the practice of the hardest deeds of mortification61. To the Buddhist monk solitude and retirement must ever be dear. Ascetic62 life is much recommended, and praised as most excellent. It was formerly63 much in use among religious Buddhists64. In Burmah several places are pointed out with respect as having been sanctified by the residence of holy anchorites. Now in our days a few zealots, to bear, as it were, witness to this ancient observance, retire into solitude during a portion of the three months of Lent. The spirit of mortification and self-renouncing is eminently65 Buddhist; but from the very days of Gaudama we remark a positive tendency on the part of his religious to give up and renounce66 those unnatural67 and ultra-rigorous penances regularly observed by their brethren of the opposite creed10. The principle is cherished by them, but the mode of carrying it into practice is more mild, and more consonant68 with reason and modesty69.
The last portion of the Brahmin’s life is devoted likewise to meditation70 and contemplation. He is no more subjected to the ordeal71 of rigorous penances; nature has been subdued72; passions silenced and destroyed; the soul has[248] obtained the mastery over the body and the material world. She is free from all the trammels and obstacles that impeded73 her contemplation of truth. She is ready to quit this world, as the bird leaves the branch of the tree when it pleases him. The Buddhist religious, having likewise crushed his passions and disentangled his soul from affection to matter, delights only in the contemplation of truth. As the mighty74 whale sports in the bosom75 of the boundless76 ocean, so the perfected Buddhist launches forth77 into abstract and infinite truth, delights in it, completely estranged78 from this world, which meditation has taught him to consider as a mere79 illusion, as destitute80 of reality. He is then ripe for the so ardently coveted state of Neibban.
When Buddha originated the plan of a society of religious, and framed the regulations whereby it was to be governed, he had but to look around him for patterns of a religious life. The country where he had been born, the society in which he had been brought up, swarmed81 with religious following the different systems of philosophy prevailing82 in those days. He saw them, conversed83 with them, and for some time lived in their company under the same disciplinary institutions. He was, therefore, thoroughly84 conversant85 with all that in his days constituted a religious life. But the same bold and enterprising spirit which made him dissent86 from his masters and contemporaries on many important questions of morals and metaphysics, and induced him to improve, as he thought, and perfect theories in speculative87 and practical philosophy, impelled88 him also to do something similar respecting the disciplinary regulations to which his religious were to be hereafter subjected. We freely confess that on this latter point he was eminently successful. The body of Buddhist religious is infinitely89 superior in most respects to the other societies of Indian religious. The regulations of the former breathe a spirit of modesty, mildness, and unaffectation, which in a striking manner contrasts with those disgusting exhibitions[249] of self-inflicted penances so fondly courted by Brahmins, where immodesty seems to dispute the palm with cruelty. Buddha opened the door of his society to all men without any distinction or exception, implicitly90 pulling down the barriers raised by the prejudices of caste. Did he in the beginning of his public career lay down the plan of destroying all vestiges91 of caste, and proclaiming the principle of equality amongst men? It is, to say the least, very doubtful. The equalising principle itself was never distinctly mentioned in his discourses92. But he had sown all the elements constitutive of that principle in his instructions. Every member put on the religious dress of his own free choice, and set it aside at his pleasure; no hereditary right, therefore, could be thought of; the dying religious could bequeath to his brethren but the example of his virtues93. His complete separation from the world had broken all the ties of relationship. The double vow94 of strict poverty and of celibacy, cutting the root of cupidity95 and sensual enjoyments, precluded96 him from aiming at the influence and power which is conferred by wealth and rank. With the Brahminical religious the case is the very reverse. His sacerdotal caste, exclusive of his personal merits, confers on him an almost divine sacredness, which is to be propagated by generation. He may possess riches and have a numerous posterity97. He is, therefore, almost irresistibly98 impelled to seize on a power which is forced on him by the treble influence of birth, religion, and wealth.
The subject of the comparison between the two societies of religious might receive further developments, but what has been briefly99 stated appears sufficient to bear out the point it was intended to establish, viz., the close resemblance subsisting100 between the two religious orders in both systems, and the necessary inference that the order of Buddhist religious is an improvement on the orders of religious subsisting in India in the days of Gaudama.
There is another characteristic of the religious order of[250] Buddhists which has favourably101 operated in its behalf, and powerfully contributed to maintain it for so many centuries in so compact and solid a body that it seems to bid defiance102 to the destructive action of revolutions. We allude103 to its regularly constituted hierarchy104, which is as perfect as it can be expected, particularly in Burmah and Siam. The power and influence of him whom we may call the general of the order in Burmah, and who is known under the appellation105 of Tha-thana-paing, when, as was very often the case, backed by the temporal power, was felt throughout the whole country, and much contributed to maintain good order and discipline in the great body of religious. The action of the provincial106 or superior of the religious houses of a province is more directly and immediately felt by all the subordinates. It does not appear that the religious of the Hindu schools, at least in our days, possess such an advantage that they may well envy their brethren of the Buddhist sect107. The members of the Brahminical body are not kept together by the power and government of superiors, but by regulations that are so deeply rooted and firmly seated in the mind of individuals that they are faithfully observed. The superiority of caste, connected too with a certain amount of spiritual pride, has been hitherto sufficient to maintain that body distinct and separate from all that is without itself. The religious spirit that pervades108 that body in our days seems to have abated109 from its original fervour and energy. The Brahmin has maintained with the utmost jealousy110 the superiority that caste confers upon him, but appears not to have been so particular in keeping up the genuine spiritual supremacy111, which a strict adherence to the prescriptions112 of the Vedas must have ever firmly secured to him.
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1
Buddhist
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| adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒 | |
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Buddhistic
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| adj.佛陀的，佛教的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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Buddhism
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| n.佛教（教义） | |
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corroborate
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| v.支持，证实，确定 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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Buddha
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| n.佛；佛像；佛陀 | |
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precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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penances
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| n.（赎罪的）苦行，苦修( penance的名词复数 ) | |
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renouncing
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的现在分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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quiescence
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| n.静止 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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monkish
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| adj.僧侣的，修道士的，禁欲的 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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discrepancies
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| n.差异，不符合（之处），不一致（之处）( discrepancy的名词复数 ) | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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infliction
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| n.（强加于人身的）痛苦，刑罚 | |
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mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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Buddhists
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| n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 ) | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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consonant
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| n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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impeded
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| 阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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conversant
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| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
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dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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precluded
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| v.阻止( preclude的过去式和过去分词 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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subsisting
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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101
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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102
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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103
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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104
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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108
pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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110
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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111
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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112
prescriptions
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| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
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