which he has not sufficient self-control to reject. Twice a month, when the rules of the order are read, a monk who has broken them is to confess his crime. If it be slight some slight penance is laid upon him, to sweep the courtyard of the wiliara, or to sprinkle dust round the sacred Bo tree, but no inquisitorial questions are put to any one. Charges may be brought against a monk for breach of the ordinances laid down by Buddha, and must then be exami ned i nto by a chapter, but none can change or add to the existing law, or claim
obedience from any other member of the order, however young.The daily life of the novice should, according to a manual in Sinhalese called Dina Chariyaiua, be about as follows. He shall rise before daylight and wash, then sweep the wiliara and round the Bo tree, fetch the drinking water for the day, filter it, and place it ready for use. Returning to a solitary place he shall then meditate on the regulations. Then he shall offer flowers before the sacred clagaba or Bo tree, thinking of the great virtues of the Teacher, and of his own faults. Soon after, taking the begging-bowl, he is to follow his superior in his daily round for food, and on their return is to bring water for his feet, and place the alms-bowl before him. After the meal is over, he is to wash the alms-bowl, then again retire, and meditate on kind ness and love. About an hour afterwards he is to begin his studies from the books, or copy one of them, asking his superior about passages he does not understand. At sun set he is again to sweep the sacred places, and lighting a lamp, to listen to the teaching of his superior, and repeat such passages from the canon as he has learnt. If he finds he has committed any fault he is to tell his superior; he is to be content with such things as he has, and, keeping under his senses, to grow in wisdom without haughtiness of body, speech, or mind.[1] The superiors, relieved by the novices from any manual labour, were expected to devote theaiselves all the more earnestly to intellectual culture and meditation. There are five principal kinds of medi tation, which in Buddhism takes the place of prayer. The first is called Maitri-bhavana, or meditation on Love, in which the monk thinks of all beings, and longs for happi ness for each. First, thinking how happy he himself would be if free from all sorrow, anger, and evil desire, he is then to wish for the same happiness for others; and lastly, to long for the welfare of his foes, remembering their good actions only, and that in some former birth his enemy may have been his father or his friend, he must endeavour in all earnestness and trutli to desire for him all the good hd would seek for himself. The second is Karuna-bhavana, or meditation on Pity, in which he thinks of all beings in distress, realizes as far as he can their un happy state, and thus awakens the sentiment of pity. The third meditation is Mudita-bhavana, or meditation on Gladness, the converse of the last. The fourth is Asubha- bhavana, or Purity, in which the monk thinks of the vileness of the body, and of the horrors of disease and cor ruption, how everything corporeal passes away like the foam of the sea, arid how by the continued repetition of birth and death mortals become subject to continual sorrow. We hear of the mirage in the desert cheating the unwary traveller s eyes with the promise of water to quench his burning thirst ; but this mirage of human life, raising hopes of joy that turns bitter in the drinking, is a more real mockery. The fifth is Upeksha-bhavana, or the meditation on Serenity, wherein the monk thinks of all things that men hold good or bad, power and oppression, love and hate, riches and want, fame and contempt, youth and beauty, decrepitude and disease, and regards them all with fixed indifference, with utter calmness and serenity of mind.
The Duty of the Laity.—Gautama s ideal was that all men should sooner or later join the order, and thus that an end should be put at once to individual existence and to misery and sin ; but even those who did not enrol them selves in the Sangha could obey many of the precepts, and by a virtuous life here raise themselves in their next birth to a higher and less material state of existence. Laymen could thus take the " three refuges," and keep five of the " ten precepts," viz., not to take life, to steal, to lie, to commit adultery or fornication, or to drink strong drink.[2] There are also ten commandments applicable to the laity, viz., to avoid taking life, theft, illicit intercourse, lying, slander, swearing, idle talk, covetousness, anger, and wrong belief, i.e., either superstition, doubt, or heresy; the first three are sins of the body., the next four sins of the mouth, the last three sins of the mind. The following short ex tracts from the Buddhist Scriptures will perhaps give a better idea of the lay position in the Buddhist system than any longer description in modern terms. In answer to a question as to what he considered the sv.mmum lonvm, Gautama is reported to have said—
"1. To serve wise men, and not to serve fools, to give honour to whom honour is due, this is the greatest blessing. 2. To dwell in a pleasant land, to have done good deeds in a former birth, to have right desires for one s self, this is the greatest blessing. 3. Much in sight and much education, a complete training and pleasant speech, this is the greatest blessing. 4. To succour father and mother, to cherish wife and child, to follow a peaceful calling, this is the greatest blessing. 5. To give alms, and live righteously, to help one s relatives, and do blameless deeds, this is the greatest bless ing. 6. To cease and abstain from sin, to eschew strong drink, not to be weary in well doing, this is the greatest blessing. 7. Rever ence and lowliness, contentment and gratitude, the regular hearing of the law, this is the greatest blessing. 8. To be long-suffering and meek, to associate with members of the Sangha, religious talk at due seasons, this is the greatest blessing. 9. Temperance and chastity, a conviction of the four great truths, the hope of Nir vana, this is the greatest blessing. 10. A mind unshaken by the things of the world, without anguish or passion, and secure, this is the greatest blessing. 11. They that act like this are invincible on every side, on every side they walk in safety, and theirs is the greatest blessing. "[3]
ation thoughts, the web and the woof of Buddhism, the melodies on the variations of which its enticing harmony is built up. Such a religion could never remain buried in the cloister, or remain the privilege of the few. From the first it became an appeal to the many, and addressed itself not to the learned or the rich but to all mankind, to men and women, slaves and bondmen, Brahmins and Sudras, nobles and peasants alike. The abuses of caste and priest craft could no longer grow and thrive among men who looked at every question from a rationalistic standpoint, while their hearts were aglow with real and practical philanthropy. In Guatama s view men differed one from another not by the accident of birth, but by their own attainments and character ; the same path to the same salvation lay equally open to all ; and even in this life the poor and the despised were welcomed to the ranks of the order, where wealth was abandoned, and birth went for nothing in comparison with character or insight. It is true that, like Christianity, it did not in so many words condemn any of the political institutions amid which it arose ; there is nothing said, at least in the older books, against slavery or despotism or wealth; and even as regards caste, Gautama did not directly interfere with it outside the limits of his
Society. But the new wine soon burst the old bottles ;- ↑ For Dina chariyiiwa, see Hardy, Eastern Monachism, 24-28 ; for the five meditations, t&id. pp. 243, et seq.
- ↑ " Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 460.
- ↑ The above is from the Pali text of the Khuddaka Patlia, edited by Childers, in the Journal of the Royal As. Soc,, new series, vol. iv. part ii. Translations have been published by Prof. Childers, loc. cit. ; by Sir Coomara Swamy in his Sutta Nipata, p. 72 ; and by Gogerly, in the Ceylon Friend for June 1839.
