r«'.<^y;<>'.«y/i:<'.«'^n:«ii:«;' .J.'."'-' •' ■' .■'> r /•f^-'..^ i' i iJ :'i:ti>^:'::V -• ^ ' • , V - •^ ■' - ■ ■ > I"'./' ^^^^*^^- PRINCETON, N. J. Shel/ Divhion X>)rr\^ '-^ Section ,0 -i-l-^- •'• ^ Number iut ^'^r''^' ■■If.:. ■'■ ■ >!'■ A* ; • • ■ • ■ . >^J^' •^"" ^■^"1 m 1 ♦^v 4. i*. ■■'Ti-S' BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM BV THE S.UIE AUTHOR. THE POPULAR LIFE OF BUDDHA: CONTAINING AN Answer to the " Hibbert Lectures" of iSSi. Crenon 8vo, cloth, bs. "Contends that the atheistic and soulless Buddhism was drawn from the 'Great Vehicle,' which was a spurious system introduced about the time of the Christian era, whereas the 'Little Vehicle' compiled by Asoka contained the motto, 'Confess and believe in God.' There are a large number of passages drawn from the sacred books, which tend to prove that Mr. Lillie is right in his theory of Buddhist theology. Even Dr. Rhys Davids admits that the Cakkavati Buddha was to early Buddhists what the Messiah Logos was to early Christians. ' If this be so,' as Mr. Lillie is justified in asking, how can an atheist believe in a ' Word of God made flesh '? "Mr. Lillie thus sums up the originalities of the Buddhist movement :— Enforced vegetarianism for the whole nation ; enforced abstinence from wine ; abolition of slavery ; the introduction of the principle of forgiveness of injuries in opposition to the lex talionis : uncompromising antagonism to all national religious rites that were opposed to the gnosis or spiritual development of the individual ; beggary, continence, and asceticism for religious teachers." — Spectator. " Contains many quotations from the Buddhist religious writings, which are beautiful and profound— a most readable hook." Saturday Review. " Our author has unquestionably the storj'-teller's gift, and is able to infuse into his allegorical Buddha something of the personal power and sweet magnanimity which must have distinguished the beloved Tathagata. What is more, Mr. Lillie, who has evidently been an eye-witness of the scenes he describes, most happily relieves the somewhat monotonous marvels of the ' Lalita Vistara,' with bright realistic pictures of Indian religious ceremonies and jungle scenery." — St. James's Gazette. " Mr. Lillie shows that Buddha's object was, as Christ's was afterwards, to teach a belief in a spiritual God, and a future state of existence depending on the spiritual state of the soul in this life, and to destroy priesicraft. Instead of his disciples denying a God, they honoured Him, solely because they believe that God spoke through him." — IVest- vtinsier Review. "A story of marvellous interest. . . . The author has treated his subject with great lucidity and vigour, and displays great acuteness and erudition." — Liverpool Albion. "The main object of the volume is to refute the erroneous view of Buddhism furnished by the Hibbert Lectures of 1881, and the refutation is complete. . . . Mr. Lillie shows, on the best authority, that at the time of Hwen Thsang, when the controversy between the two parties was furiously raging, the Buddhism of Ceylon was that of the CJreat Vehicle, the innovating Buddhism. . . . Dr. Rhys Davids has plainly shuffled the two Buddhisms together." — Public Opinion. London : Kecan Paul, Trench & Co., i. Paternoster Square. I I CHKIST WITH THE CHAJOTH. "BKHOI-U, I HAVE SET liEKOKE THEE A UOOK Ol'ENEU."— ReV. iii . Fr(»itis/>hccA BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM OR JESUS, THE ESSENE BY arthur'lillie AUIHOR OF "THE POPULAR LIFE OF BUDDHA ' " He shall be the last to obtain the great spiritual light ; and he will become a Lord called the Buddha of Brotherly Love (INIaitreya)." — Buddkas prophecy of his successor in ilie " Saddharina P itndarika" WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1887 (jriic tij^hti of ttamlaiion and of ixpioduciwn arc racrucd.) PREFACE. It has been wisely said that, to understand any solitary religion, two, at least, must be studied. This seems essen- tially important when the religion is Eastern, and the student has been educated in the West. There is a tendency in the human mind to explain to itself that which is remote by that which is familiar. The Western mind is logical, matter-of- fact, impatient of symbolism. And yet Christianity is an Asiatic religion, and all Asiatics tell us that symbolism is the only language by which the facts of the spiritual world can be treated. Thus it has been shown by the Orientalist, Professor Wilson, that the three Avesthas of the Trinity (translated " hypostases " by the Gnostics) have come from India.-* Colebrooke has pointed out that the hymns of the Rig Veda, though avowedly addressed to many deities, are, " according to the most ancient annotations of the Indian scripture," resolvable into a triad, and, ultimately, " one God." ^ It seems to result from this that the meaning of this triad may be more profitably sought in the ancient Indian books than in vaticinations of the blunt and literal monks that composed the Council of Nicoea. We interpret the great drama that began our era by our local experience. Thus the author of " Ecce Homo " has pictured to himself the great sacramentum, or mystery of 1 "Vishnu Purana," p. 7, note. ^ «< Essays," vol. i. p. 25. a 3 VI PREFACE. Christianity, by his experience of " club dinners." And Archdeacon Palcy has seen in the twelve apostles twelve British jurymen empanneled to investigate "miracles." I must confess that, until I studied the religions of the East, the great drama of Palestine appeared to me a drama with unintelligible antagonisms and a motiveless character. The Old and New Testaments are .studied very carefully in England, and the Indian religions are scarcely studied at all. And yet the latter throw quite invaluable light on the former. To this day the maidens of Krishna weep for the Indian Tammuz, the departed god of summer. To this day, as in the days of Aaron, the priest of Siva throws ashes in the air to bring a malediction on his foemen. To this day the Indian prophet sits under the " tree of Deborah " and the " oak of enchantments." ^ He explains to us the mystery of yoga, or union between the seen and the unseen worlds. He explains to us what the Roman Catholic Prayer-book means by its prayer that, as Christ deigned to become a par- ticipator in our humanity, we may be allowed to partake of His Divinity. If only for the sake of historical illustration, a civilization v/hich is still so like the civilization of Palestine in the holy epoch deserves to be studied. The position of her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria is a very peculiar one. In the sixteenth century, one Trithemius, a Benedictine, uttered a strange prophecy. He announced that, in November, 1879, a new universal kingdom would arise which would seize the gates of the East. Whatever may be thought of this prediction, it is plain that the gates of the East are now in English hands. Owing to free-trade, also, fifty-five out of every hundred sailors on the ocean are P^nglishmen ; and the even balance of military force on the Continent, as well as in the opposing sections of the United States, has given to us a physical prominence that the ^ See Dean Stanley's " Sinai and Palestine,'" p. 141. PREFACE. vii victories of Marlborough and Wellington failed to gain us. But if we leave the plane of matter, the position of the queen is more remarkable still. She holds in her dominions the most vital sections of all the great religions of the past. Her subjects pray to Christ, and Buddha, and Brahma, and Jehovah. They honour Zarathustra and Moses and Ma- homet. Benares, the holy city of the greatest religious section of her subjects, is in her domains. She guards the so-called " Tooth of Buddha," whose possessor is always promised the empire of the world. No wonder that thoughtful minds begin to see in all this a possible mission for England, namely, to fuse the old creeds in one great crucible, and eliminate the superstitious parts. Ancient creeds had much once in common, and it is chiefly this common portion, the vital essence, that has been allowed to evaporate. " Five hundred years, Ananda," said Buddha, in the " Cul- lavagga," " will the doctrine of the truth abide ! " ^ He also prophesied that a new Buddha would come — Maitreya (the Buddha of Brotherly Love). Buddha died 470 B,C. ; so exactly five hundred years after his death, the Buddha of Brotherly Love began to preach. 1 Cited by Dr. Oldenberg, " Buddhism,'" p. 327 ; see also Beal, " Romantic History," p. 16. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE Object of Ancient Scriptures — To reveal the Mysteries— The " Kab- balah "—Origen— The Heavenly Man— The Conceivable and the Inconceivable God — Genealogies of Buddha and Christ — Miraculous Conception — The Elephant i CHAPTER II. The Double Annunciation — Birth of Buddha under a Bending Tree —Similar Legends concerning Christ — The Star of Buddha and the Star of Christ — The Buddhist Simeon— Name-giving not a Jewish rite— The Child Christ and the Sparrows— King Herod and King Bimbisara — " Thy Parents seek Thee " 14 CHAPTER III. The Homage of the Idols— " Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh"— The Disputation with the Doctors cS CHAPTER IV. "Out of Egypt have I called My Son"— "The Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt" — Two Alothers of the Perfected Mystic—Two Births— Why Mary and her Son arc always together in the "Gospel of the Infancy" CHAPTER V. Buddha's " Great Renunciation " 41 CHAPTER VI. The Nazarite— Mystical and Anti-mystical Israel— Christ usually supposed to have belonged to the latter — Position combated — Early Persecution of Disciples ... ... ... 64 J3 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PAl.li Mystical Israel— Essenes and Therapeuts— Letter of Philo to Hc- phicstion— Therapeut and liuddhist Monasteries— Points of Contact between the Kuddhists and Israel Mystical — The Buddliist and Essene Baptism— The Buddhist and Essene Mystcrium 11 CHAPTER VIII. Buddhism and the " Kabbalah " 86 CHAPTER IX. The Baptist— "The People prepared for the Lord"— Were they Essenes.' — f> NoCaparos— Nazarites or Sabeans — The Book of Adam 9'^ CHAPTER X. Jesus and the Baptist — Great Importance of the Baptism of Jesus — Initiation of Early Christians — Buddha's Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation ... ... ... ... ... ••• •■• ••■ io7 CHAPTER XI. Growth in Spirit symbolized by the Growth of the Food of the People — Buddhist Festivals regulated by Rice Culture — The Zodiac as a Symbol of Stages of Spiritual Progress — In Buddhism— In Christianity — The "Monastery of our Lord" — Description by Josephus ... ... ... ... ... .•• ii6 CHAPTER XII. The "Signs of an Apostle "—Conflicting views of Catholics and Protestants about Miraculous Gifts — Magic Rites of the " Kab- balah "—The " Twelve Great Disciples" of Buddhism— " Go ye into all the World " I3- CHAPTER XIII. Essenism in the Bible — Continence exacted with Communism, Vegetarianism, and Water-drinking — "Follow Me" — The Voice in the Sky — The King of Remedies — The Buddhist " Sermon on the Mount" — The Buddhist Beatitudes — The New Commandment ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 144 CHAPTER XIV. "Glad Tidings" — Faith — The Sower — The Armour of Light — " How hardly shall they that have Riches instruct themselves in the Way" — Names of Buddha — The Metempsychosis in Ju- daism and Christianity ... ... ... ... ... ... 137 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XV. PAGE Feeding the Multitudes — Similarity to Buddhist Festivals — Feet- washing — Walking on the Water — Parables — Dress 167 CHAPTER XVI. Christianity and Buddhism at first propagated secretly — Descent into Hell — Transfiguration on a Mount — Triumphal Entry into the "City of the King"— The Buddhist "Last Supper"— Cup of Agony — Portents at the Death of a Buddha — "They parted My Garments " — Trinity in Unity ... ... ... ... ... 185 CHAPTER XVn. Ritual — Saint Worship — Cosmology — Progress of Buddhism — In- dulgences— Dispensations — Councils to put down Heresy — ■ Close Similarities in the Election of the Grand Lama and the Pope 202 CHAPTER XVIII. How did Buddhism reach the West .'' ... ... ... ... ... 230 CHAPTER XIX. Christianity at Alexandria — The Church at Jerusalem 241 CHAPTER XX. Bishop Lightfoot on the Essenes ... ... ... ... ... 257 CHAPTER XXI. Pope Victor — Rome supersedes Jerusalem — The Introduction of Religion by Body-Corporate— Marcion — He represented the Teaching of St. Paul — His Gospel — Accused and Accusers changing Places — Testimony of Marcion against Roman Inno- vators ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 286 CHAPTER XXII. Rama — The " Grove of Perfection " — Early Brahmin Rites — Bow- shooting — Marriage of Rama — Palace Intrigues — Banished to the Forest — Rape of Sita — Hanuman — Passage of Adam's Bridge by Monkeys— Fight between Rama and Ravana ... 304 CHAPTER XXIII. Zodiacal Interpretation of the Story — The Horse the Indian Aries — The Lower Marriage — The Indian Tree or Virgo with the Lion Throne — The Bird Garucla — Scorpion and the Bow — The Elephant, Cup, and Quoit of Death ... ... ... ... 327 XII CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIV. rAr;r Eleusis— Similarity between the Story of Rama and the Story of Bacchus— Other roints of Contact between the Indian and Eleusinian Mysteries... ... .. ... ••• •■• ••• 343 CHAPTER XXV. The Legend of Osiris— The Novice Utanka — Hiram Abif CHAPTER XXVI. The Avatara of Krishna ... 347 ... 365 CHAPTER XXVII. The Legend of the Five Sons of Pandu Index 384 .. 407 ILLUSTRATIONS. Christ with the Chajoth The Four Horses of the Apocalypse ... Rude Monastery, Siam Worship of Buddha as the Rice-cake ... Old Buddhist Zodiac Buddha preaching Buddhist Monks Buddhist Nuns, the Black and White Veil Triratna Outline The Gnostic Triad The Buddhist Virgin and Child The Cave-temple of Karli The Buddhist High Altar ... Buddha appearing at the Altar during Worship The Heavens as conceived by the Buddhists of Ceylon ... Fro77tispiece To face 36 It 75 ., 83 5? 119 „ 140 JJ 182 >I 184 1) 200 ,, 201 )? 205 ,, 207 >J 208 [IP „ 210 221 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM, CHAPTER I. Object of Ancient Scriptures — To reveal the Mysteries — The "Kabbalah" — Origen — The Heavenly Man — The Conceivable and the Incon- ceivable God — Genealogies of Buddha and Christ — Miraculous Con- ception— The Elephant. Ancient Scriptures. Origen informs us that all Scriptures have two meanings — the one spiritual, the other " historical " or " bodily," the last for those that are not prepared to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. These mysteries in all ancient religions were, in brief, that man had matter for a mother, and spirit for a father ; and that the object of his earth-life was to conquer his material nature and unite himself with the Great Spirit of the universe. The Christian " mysteries " did not differ in essence from the other mysteries. This fact was put forward as a virtue by the early Fathers of the Church, although it has since been deemed a blemish and denied. _ ■ — y The process by which man advanced in knowledge of spirit was called the " contemplative life " in Palestine ; " magic " in Persia ; the " Bodhi," or " Buddhism," in India ; "Gnosticism," the Greek equivalent of the Indian word in Alexandria. ^ ^^ B 2 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. About two hundred years before the Christian era a re- markable mystical movement arose amongst the Jews. It came from Alexandria, but its head-quarters in Palestine nestled amongst the protecting malaria of the shores of the Lake Marca, for it was bitterly persecuted. In Egypt these mystics were called Therapeuts ; in Palestine, Essenes and Nazarites. In the view of Dean Mansel, this movement was due to Buddhist missionaries, who visited Egypt within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great ^ — a proposi- tion which I shall show is confirmed by the stones of King Asoka in the East, and by Philo in the West. I shall show, further, that the rites of this, the higher section of Judaism, were purely Buddhist, and that two remarkable works, which embody their teaching, minutely reproduce the theogony of Buddhism. These works are the " Sohar " of the " Kabbalah," and the " Codex Nasara^us." "^ (Tpurpose further to show that Christianity emerged from this, the higher Judaism, and that its Bible, containing the life of its Founder, its rites, dress, teachings, hierarchy, architectural buildings. Councils to put down heresy, theogony and cosmogony, bear so minute a resemblance to the rites, etc., of Buddhism, that it seems hard to doubt that some communication existed and long continued between the twgi Does this mean that Christianity " was borrowed en bloc from Buddhism " } as the CImrch Quarterly Review, misquoting an early work of mine, reports me to have announced. It certainly does not mean that, for no mysticism can be borrowed from the outside world at all. It simply means that the movement of Jesus sought the aid of mystical, and not anti-mystical, Israel. In Palestine, as in India, the gnosis, or knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, was restricted to a priestly faction, and Christ's main design, like that of Buddha, was to break up this exclusiveness. To get the meaning of an ancient Scripture eighteen hundred years after it was written, it is important to study less the words than the writers of the words. Christianity and its gospel emerged from the mystical section of Israel. ^ "Gnostic Heresies," p. 31. ANCIENT SCRIPTURES. 3 Have we any means of judging what canons of composition would guide such writers in framing a Hfe of Jesus, or Samson, or David ? Fortunately we possess the " Kabbalah," the secret wisdom of these mystics. Listen to the " Sohar " on the Jewish Scriptures — " If the Law simply consisted of ordinary expressions and narratives, e.g. the words of Esau, Hagar, Laban, the ass of Balaam, or of Balaam himself, why should it be called the Law of truth, the perfect Law, the true witness of God ? Each word contains a sublime source, each narrative points, not only to the single instance in question, but also to generals " (" Sohar," iii. 149 h). "Woe be to the son of man who says that the Tora [Pentateuch] contains common sayings and ordinary narra- tives. For if this were the case, we might in the present day compose a code of doctrines from profane writings which should excite greater respect. If the Law contains ordinary matter, then there are nobler sentiments in profane odes. Let us go and make a selection from them, and we shall be able to compile a far superior code. But every word of the Law has a sublime sense and a heavenly mystery. . . . Now, the spiritual angels had to put on an earthly garment when they descended to earth ; and if they had not put on such a garment they could neither have remained nor have been understood on the earth. And just as it was with the angels, so it is with the Law. When it descended on earth the Law had to put on an earthly garment to be understood by us, and the narratives are its garment. There are some who think that this garment is the real Law, and not the spirit which it clothed ; but these have no portion in the world to come. And it is for this reason that David prayed, ' Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold the wondrous things out of Thy Law' (Ps. cxix. 18). What is under the garment of the Law ? There is the garment which every one can see ; and there are foolish people who, when they see a well- dressed man, think of nothing more worthy than his beautiful garment, and take it for the body, whilst the worth of the body itself consists in the soul. The Law, too, has a body. 4 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. This is the commandments which are called the body of the Law. This body is clothed in garments which are the ordinary narratives. The fools of this world look at nothing else but this garment, which consists of the narratives of the Law. They do not know any more, and do not understand what is beneath this garment. But those who have more understanding do not look at the garment, but at the body beneath it {i.e. the moral) ; whilst the wisest, the servants of the heavenly King who dwells at Mount Sinai, look at nothing else but the soul {i.e. the secret doctrine), which is the root of all the real Law ; and these are destined in the world to come to behold the Soul of this soul {i.e. the Deity), which breathes in the Law" (" Sohar," iii. 152 a).'^ Origen also affirms that the object of all Scriptures, the Jewish and the Christian, is "to wrap up and conceal, under the covering of some history and narrative of visible things, the hidden mysteries."^ He says, further, that the outside story or historical narrative contains purposely interruptions, improbabilities, impossibilities. All this is done by the Holy Spirit, " in order that, seeing those events which lie on the surface can be neither true nor useful, we may be led to the investigation of that truth which is more deeply concealed, and to the ascertaining of a meaning worthy of God in those Scriptures which we believe to be inspired by Him." ^ He says, further, that the Christian Scriptures, like the Jewish, are to be subjected to the same canons of interpreta- tion. In the case of Christ's temptation, for instance, on the surface this cannot plainly be a literal narrative of a purely historical event. "And many other instances similar to this will be found in the Gospels by any one who will read them with attention and will observe that in those narratives which appear to be literally recorded there are inserted and inter- woven things which cannot be admitted historically, but which may be accepted in a spiritual signification." ^ ^ Ginsburg, " The Kabbalah," p. 47. ^ "Dc Principiis," lib. iv. cap. i, ^ "Anti-Nicene Christian Library : Origen," i. p. 311. Mbid., p. 317. ANCIENT SCRIPTURES. 5 Turning to the life of Buddha, as contained in the " LaHta Vistara," we iind that that work also explicitly states that it is written to reveal the mysteries of the Indian wise men (Buddhas), and show how a mortal can acquire the "divine vision," with its concomitant " magical powers." ^ When we see thus that the lives of Jesus and of Buddha are framed upon the same lines, we should not be astonished to find considerable analogy between them. As a revelation of the mysteries, they must be almost identical, if there is great divergence historically. But if our somewhat material modern theology errs in one direction in attempting to eliminate the mystical element, certain mystical writers, like Mr. Melville and Mr. Frederick Tennyson, have erred as conspicuously in another. They have sought to eliminate the historical element with equal completeness, forgetting a prominent doctrine of all mysticism, that all things in the unseen world have their counterparts in the seen. " The lower world," says the " Sohar " (ii. 20 a), " is made after the pattern of the upper world. Everything that exists in the upper world is to be found, as it were, in a copy upon earth. Still the whole is one." ^ PURUSHA, THE HEAVENLY MAN. " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds ; who being the Brightness of His gloiy, and the express Image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. i.). In the Pali legendary life of Buddha, when the holy infant first sees the light, the immortal spirits thus greet him — " O Purusha, the equal to thee exists not here. Where will a superior be found ? " Who was Purusha .-' From very early days man seems to have known that 1 Foucaux's translation, pp. 7, 401. ^ See Ginsburg, p. 22. 6 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. he had a great destiny before him. This was to unite himself at length, without loss of individuality, with the Great Spirit of the universe. Thus a delicate problem arose, namely, how to find some analogy or symbolic connection between the two-legged creature, man, and the splendid mountains and seas and stars that clothed the Great Spirit. Two answers suggested themselves. 1. God was imaged as a transcendental man. In the " Kabbalah," or secret wisdom of the Jews, he was called "the Heavenly Man," and he represented the universe and its breathing inhabitants. This was the Indian Purusha. 2. The second solution took for symbol the dome of heaven, with the ecliptic for base, and the Dragon, " the Centre of the Macrocosm," as it is called in the "Kabbalah," for apex. This figured God, and it was feigned that man, in his passage from the animal to the deific, passed through the various mansions of the ecliptic like the sun. " The mysteries are written in the vault of heaven," says the " Kabbalah." The great bible of Catholic mystics has always been the works of the so-called Dionysius the Areopagite. These may not be quite due to St, Denis of France, as Parisian abbes imagine ; and A.D. 90 rnay be too early a date for them ; but it is difficult to date them A.D. 600, as is now the fashion, for without doubt we get in them an able exposition of early Christian Gnosticism. The absence of anything like a con- troversial tone is very remarkable. The writer does not seem to be aware that there is any other Christianity besides his lofty mysticism. If he had had any knowledge of the shallow diatribes of Irenaeus and Tertullian, he would cer- tainly have met some of their anti-Gnostic arguments at least indirectly. St. Dionysius affirms that, in the view of the Therapeut, or perfected mystic, God is a Being dwelling in the super- luminous obscurity which it is the special function of the mystic to try and pierce. This God can only be defined by negatives, and He is to be understood by Agnosticism rather than Gnosticism. He has no form, body, quantity, ({uality, action, passion. He cannot be called Soul, Know- ANCIENT SCRIPTURES. y ledge, Wisdom, Father, Son. " He made darkness His secret place," says the writer, citing Ps. xviii. 12. "His pavilion round about Him was the dark waters." ^ The descent of this inert, inconceivable God is the main teaching of Buddhism. The Indian Capricorn (I copy a bas- Fig. I. relief from Buddha Gaya) is an elephant emerging from a makara, or leviathan. This is the meaning of Buddha coming to earth as a white elephant. It is called in the " Lalita Vis- tara," Airavana (born of the waters).^ In the symbolism of the catacombs this sea-monster is equally prominent. "The sign of the kingdom of heaven Fig. 2. is the Prophet Jonah," said Christ. In consequence, we con- stantly see his figure emerging from a sea-monster. But ^ St. Denys, " CEuvres," traduites par I'Abbe J. Deluc, pp. 306, 314. ^ " Lalita Vistara," p. 196. 8 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. sometimes the "Jonah" is only a child (Fig. 3). This, of course, means that Jonah is the Child Christ. Fig. 4, also from the catacombs, is an interesting one. Christ's special symbol is Aries, which in India is a horse. Here we see the horse emerging from the waters. It is si "Cast off this tawdry show! The streams of earth wash down their shining gold ; Men gather it for their bedizenments, But in that far-off river, on whose banks The sweet rose-apple - chisters o'er the pool, There is an ore that mocks all earthly sheen — The gold of blameless deeds." &^ Seydel, in a chapter headed " Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh," ^ draws attention to the similarity of the gift presenta- tions in the Indian and Christian narratives. In the Dulva it is more than once announced that " myrrh, garlands, incense, etc.," were sacrificed to Buddha.^ Gold pieces are placed on the Buddhist altar by the Chinese, and ' Ch. X. '^ Jambu. •' " Evangelium von Jesu,'' p. 139. "• "Asiatic Researches," vol. xx. p. 312. GIFTS AND HOMAGE. 3 I the consecrated elements remain on the altar by a lacquered tabernacle.-^ The Disputation with the Doctors. A little Brahmin was " initiated," girt with the holy thread, etc., at eight, and put under the tuition of a holy man. Buddha's like Rama's guru was named Visvamitra. But the youthful Buddha soon showed that his lore was far greater than that of his teacher. When Visvamitra proposed to teach him the alphabet, the young prince went off — " In sounding '«,' pronounce it as in the sound of the word * anitya.' " In sounding ' /,' pronounce it as in the word ' indriya.' " In sounding ' z/,' pronounce it as in the word ' upagupta.' " And so on through the whole Sanskrit alphabet.^ At his writing-lesson he displayed the same miraculous proficiency ; and no possible sum that his teachers or young companions could set him in arithmetic^ could baffle him. In poetry, grammar, in music, in singing, he also proved Avithout a rival. In "joining his hands in prayer," in the knowledge of the Rig Veda and the holy books, in rites, in magic, and in the mysteries of the yogi or adept his proficiency was proclaimed. In the " Gospel of the First Infancy," it is recorded that, when taken to his schoolmaster, Zacchaeus — " The Lord Jesus explained to him the meaning of the letters Aleph and Beth. " 8. Also which were the straight figures of the letters, which were the oblique, and what letters had double figures ; which had points and which had none ; why one letter went before another ; and many other things He began to tell him and explain, of which the master himself had never heard nor read in any book. "9. The Lord Jesus further said to the master, 'Take notice how I say to thee.' Then He began clearly and dis- ^ Langl(^s, " Rituel des Tartares Mantchous." 2 " Rom. Hist.," p. 70. 3 " Lalita Vistara," pp. 121 and 149. 32 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. tinctly to say, * Alcph, Beth, Gimcl, Dalcth ; ' and so on to the end of the alphabet. " lo. At this the master was so surprised that he said, * I believe this boy was born before Noah.' " We read, also, in the twenty-first chapter of the " First Gospel of the Infancy," the following amplification of the disputation with the doctors : — " 5. Then a certain principal Rabbi asked Him, ' Hast Thou read books .'' ' " 6. Jesus answered that He had both read books and the things which were contained in books. " 7. And He explained to them the books of the Law, and precepts, and statutes, and the mysteries which are contained in the books of the prophets, things which the mind of no creature could reach. " 8. Then said that Rabbi, ' I never yet have seen or heard of such knowledge. What do you think that boy will be .? ' " 9. Then a certain astronomer who was present asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied astronomy ? " 10. The Lord Jesus replied, and told him the number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, as also their triangular, square, and sextile aspects ; their progressive and retrograde motions, their size, and several prognostications, and other things which the reason of man had never discovered. "11. There was also among them a philosopher, well- skilled in physic and natural philosophy, who asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied physic. " 12. He replied, and explained to him physics and metaphysics. " 13. Also those things which were above and below the power of nature. " 14. The powers, also, of the body ; its humours and their effects. " 1 5. Also the number of the bones, veins, arteries, and nerves. " 16. The several constitutions of body, hot and dry, cold and moist, and the tendencies of them. GIFTS AND HOMAGE. 33 " 17. How the soul operated on the body. " 18. What its various sensations and faculties were. " 19. The faculty of speaking, anger, desire. " 20. And, lastly, the manner of its composition and dis- solution, and other things which the understanding of no creature had ever reached, "21. Then that philosopher worshipped the Lord Jesus, and said, ' O Lord Jesus, from henceforth I will be Thy disciple and servant.' " Visvamitra in like manner worshipped Buddha by falling at his feet. I have now shown, I think, that Mr. Collins's assertions that the points of contact between the lives of Buddha and Christ are found only in the northern scriptures, is based on error. I must cite from his lecture another passage — " There is no thought in the early Buddhism of which we read in the Palis texts, of a deliverance at the hand of a god ; but the mail Gautama Buddha stands alone in his striving after the true emancipation from sorrow and ignorance. The accounts of his descending from heaven, and being conceived in the world of men when a preternatural light shone over the worlds, the blind received sight, the dumb sang, the lame danced, the sick were cured, together with all such embellish- ments, are certainly added by later hands." ^ Again I must ask. Has Mr. Collins read the Pali texts 1 or their translations by Professor Rhys Davids or Mr. Tumour ? I will cite a passage from the " Birth Stories " — "Now, at the moment when the future Buddha made himself incarnate in his mother's womb, the constituent elements of the ten thousand world-systems quaked and trembled, and were shaken violently. The Thirty-two Good Omens, also, were made manifest. In the ten thousand world- systems an immeasurable light appeared. The blind received their sight as if from very longing to behold his glory ; the deaf heard the noise ; the dumb spake one with another ; the crooked became straight ; the lame walked ; all prisoners 1 " Buddhism in relation to Christianity," p. 6. D 34 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. were freed from their bonds and chains. In each hell the fire was extinguished." ^ Surely this is a " deliverance." Buddha rules the Triloka (heaven, earth, and hell), and his avatara clears out the latter region of torment. Have there not been efforts in the English Church to prove that the dominions of Christ are far less extensive ? This brings us to the close of the earlier history, both of Christ and Buddha, and it is not astonishing that these histories should be similar, for they symbolize the same crucial phenomenon. The higher mystics, like St. Dionysius, St. John of the Cross, and Fenelon, have not, on the surface, been as frank as Origen upon the subject of the relative value of the historical and the mystical elements of Scripture ; but practically they have allowed the mystical portion to over- shadow the historical. To assert, as some grave divines have done, that Origen's interpretation is exceptional and heretical is to ignore the Jewish genius at the epoch of Philo and Christ. The latter distinctly asserted that a parabolic teach- ing of the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven was alone permissible to the outside public ; and St. Paul tells us that the narrative of Agar and Sarah is purely an allegorical exposition of the " bondage " of the lower life and the freedom of those "born after the spirit" (Gal. iv. 22-29). "My httle children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be found in you" (Gal. iv. 19). The child Christ is in every human being. It is of royal line, for its father is the universal spirit. It comes to earth, and the branches of the tree of knowledge bend down to it, for the tree of knowledge in the " Kabbalah " represents the kosmos from the material side. Its life is sought by the kings and high priests of Beelzebub, and the thrones and kings of ghost-land greet it with spiritual incense and gold. It is by-and-by reborn of water and the Spirit, and sits under, or is nailed upon the tree of life, which, in the " Kabbalah," images the life of the Spirit. 1 Rhys Davids, " Birth Stories," p. 64. ( 35 ) CHAPTER IV. " Out of Egypt have I called My Son "— " The Great City which spiri- tually is called Sodom and Egypt "—Two Mothers of the Perfected Mystic— Two Births — Why Mary and her Son are always together in the " Gospel of the Infancy." "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Modern exegesis gives to the "Gospel of the Infancy" a much later date than our four Gospels. The chief reason for this is that the work is full of impossible and apparently aimless marvels. This would be a sufficient reason if it could be proved that these gospels were indigenous to Palestine ; but if the tales of wonder in them are probably derived from a foreign source, then such an argument has a modified force. It must be noticed, too, that when the " Gospel of the In- fancy " was written, its author did not seem to be aware of the existence of our canonical gospels, at least, in their present form. The only other gospel that he takes cogni- zance of is the " Gospel of Perfection " (" First Infancy," ch. viii. V. 13). That such a Gospel was once in the Church is proved by Epiphanius (" Haer." 26, para. 2). But a careful study of the " First Gospel of the Infancy" has brought to my mind another curious fact. It is a revela- tion of the Christian mysteries, rounded and concise. The time has now come to state what the ancient mysteries really were. They shadowed forth the earth-life of the ideal man, under the symbolism of the sun's yearly journey. For the first six months he is in the "great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt " (Rev. xi. 8). Then comes the turning- 36 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. point of his career. At the date of the Indian festival of the Tree, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, he forsakes the lowcr life for the life of what the " Kabbalah " calls the " chosen one." He enters a second time into his mother's womb, and is born again, this time of the celestial virgin now dominating the sky. Hence, in the " Litany of the Blessed Virgin," she is still hymned as "Janua Coeli." Man is born of matter and spirit. The life of the Jina, the Jesus, the Buddha, begins at the last octave of the old year, the festival in India of the Black Durga, called also the Maya Devi, whose name, in consequence, the Buddhists adopted for the mother of Buddha. She dies in a week, because in a week the festival closes with her death. Her image is thrown into the Ganges yearly in India. The burning of the yule-log, according to Wilson, is another pre- sentation of this death. When Buddha abandons his palace for the life of the Bhiksu, or Beggar, his mother comes down from heaven to him once more ; but it is in reality a new mother — Dharma the Holy Spirit. The Buddhist ascetics are called the sons of Dharma. In the great Bible of Christian mystics, the works of St. Dionysius, this great change is called the " God Birth ;" and the " Mother of Adoption," as he calls it, is symbolized by the baptismal font, which in his day must have been some- thing like the tanks in Buddhist temples in China, for a triple immersion was part of the ceremony. In the benedic- tion of fonts in the Catholic Church occurs this passage, " ad recreandos novos populos quos tibi fens baptismatis parturit, Spiritum adoptionis emitte." St. Dionysius tells us that the Perfected Mystic in the early Church was called the " Thera- peut." There were three stages of spiritual progress — 1. Purification. 2. Illumination. 3. Perfection. In the Middle Ages mysticism was profoundly studied. I give from Didron (Plate I.) an illumination from a missal. It is the planisphere of the Apocalypse. I add a little design to make its meaning more clear. ri.AiK I. THE FOUR HORSES OF THE APOCALYl'SE. From Didron. {Page 36. MYSTICAL "EGYPT." Z7 Fig. 5- The special symbol of Christ was Aries, in India a horse and here we see it passing along the ecliptic. The stages in the Apocalypse are — 1. The white horse with a sword (Gemini). 2. The black horse with the scales (Virgo, strictly, but" the balance was very important in Kabbalistic mysticism). 3. The white horse with the bow (Sagittarius). 4. The pale horse of death (Pisces, in India, as I shall show, Dharma Chakra, the Quoit of Death, see Fig. 5). The ancient mystics divided the plani- sphere into two halves. I shall go more deeply into this subject by-and-by. The first, or lower life, is spiritually called Egypt in the Apocalypse. The second is the New Jerusalem. These in India figure as women, the black and the white Durga. In the " Kabbalah " these are Sophia and " the Whore." The husband of the latter is Samael, the Prince of Darkness. The pair in union were known as "the Beast." ^ "There are two cities," says St. Augustine, " one of angels and good men, the other the city of the wicked." ^ The four grades of spiritual progress with Essenes and Buddhists were represented by the four cardinal points. These are the four sphinxes of Ezekiel, formulated when the Bull dominated. The sphinx with the face of a man is Aquarius. The lion-faced sphinx is Leo. The ox-faced sphinx is Taurus. And I shall be able to show later on that the eagle Garuda in India was the early sign for the Balances of the Zodiac." It is the Jewish Sun of Righteousness with healing in its wmgs. 1 Ginsburg, " The Kabbalah," p. 28. 2 " City of God," bk. xii. c. i. 38 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. The ingenious symbolic turns and twists that have been given to these four cardinal points by the mystics of all nations would fill volumes. They represent the four spiritual grades of Buddhists, Essenes and Pythagoreans. The Adept in the " Golden Verses " is called "the Quaternary." They explain the mystical figure of Durga in India, with the four arms bearing the club, the shell, the sword or lingam, and the noose of death. They were represented by the four great officers of the Elcusinian Mysteries — the Hieorophant, who was in reality En Soph, Brahma, God viewed a pure spirit ; the Torch-Bearer and Altar Minister, who had for symbols the sun and moon, and meant, of course, the fatherly and motherly principles ; and the Herald, whose symbol was Mercury. These four characters, it is urged, have come down to us by route of the mysteries and miracle-plays in the modern pantomime. Harlequin, with his jod or wand, and Columbine from Colujnba, the dove or eagle, the old man, and the clown. In the cards, too, it has been contended we get them likewise. Cards were originally the tarot used for divination, and in them we have the ace or monod, the father and mother, and the herald or messenger. And each little army of thirteen months is again marshalled under one of the four mystic signs — the red heart, the club or "tree" (Virgo); the black spade, which is like the thunderbolt of Indra. In the apparatus of the old magician, the four points run riot. His four great instruments — his wand, his crescent, his lamp, and his sword — are nothing more than these four points. The Essene was bound by a terrible oath to keep the secrets of the " Cosmogony " and the " Tetragrammaton " — two secrets, in fact, rolled into one. The Kabbalists said they could class mankind by gazing on their faces. The animal nature of those who were in the first or ox stage needs no interpreter. This animal stage terminates in India with the sign of the Twins, called in India by a homely word which signifies sexual love. " Out of Egypt have I called My Son ! » The meaning of this passage will now be more plain, and MYSTICAL "EGYPTy 39 the "Gospel of the Infancy" appear less extravagant. The mother and the Child Jesus pass into the mystic " Egypt," and then the mother and the Christ-child pass into "Jerusalem." The gnostics drew a wide distinction between "Jesus" and " Christ." This is the story told every Sunday in the Christian ritual. The " Lesser Entrance " of the priest signifies Christ's descent into the flesh, " Egypt ; " the " Greater Entrance " typifies " Jerusalem," the new and higher life of the Therapeut. It is to be observed that in the " Gospel of the Infancy " the mother and the child are inseparable, and Christ always a child. There is a deep meaning in this. They heal the sick, they give sight to the blind, cure deafness, restore the im- potent. This is always done, likewise, through the instrumentality of the water that has washed the Child Christ. This is very Buddhistic. Mary herself is the water of life, and it is only by the birth of the Child Christ in each of us that we can hope to gain it. I give from Didron a design, which manifestly signifies much more than a mere mother and child on the material plane. Whether this means to re- present or not the Child Christ in the transparent womb of the mother,^ I cannot say. Neither Christ nor the early Christian writers held the modern jealousy of the " mysteries " of other nations. Christ : " I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foun- dation of the world." ^ St. Paul : " Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." ^ 1 See a7ite, p. i6. 2 ^^t^^ ^^^i. 35. 3 Qq\^ \ 26. Fig. 6. 40 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " The gospel which ye have heard, and which was prca.hed to every creature under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister." ^ Clement of Alexandria : "And those who lived according to the Logos were really Christians, though they have been thought to be atheists, as Socrates and Heraclitus were among the Greeks, and such as resembled them." ^ St. Augustine : " For the thing itself which is now called the Christian religion really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race until the time that Christ came in the flesh, from whence the true religion which had previously existed began to be called ' Christian ; ' and this in our day is the Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former times, but as having in later times received this name." ^ Justin Martyr: "If, then, we hold some opinions near of kin to the poets and philosophers in greatest repute amongst you, why are we unjustly hated .? . . . By declaring the Logos the first-begotten of God, our Master, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin without any human mixture, and to be crucified and dead, and to have risen again and ascended into heaven, we say no more in this than what you say of those whom you style the Sons of Jove." Violent polemical writers like Tertullian are still more explicit : " The devil, whose business it is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the divine sacraments in the mysteries of idols. He himself baptizes some— that is to say, his believers and followers. He promises forgiveness of sins from the sacred fount, and thus initiates them into the reliction of Mithras. He marks on the forehead his own o soldiers. He then celebrates the Oblation of Bread, and introduces an image of the resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown." ^ I Col. i. 23. - Clemen. Alex., " Strom." 3 "Opera," vol. i. p. 12. ^ " Hicr.," cap. .\I. ( 41 ) CHAPTER V. BUDDHA'S GREAT RENUNCIATION. Christ has frequently been judged a non-existent person, and so has Buddha. The main reason for this is, that the hves of each have for symboHsm the course of the sun during its yearly journey. For this, however, there were two reasons quite distinct from vulgar sun-worship. The first was, that all the mysteries consisted in the revealing of the infinite transcendental God, through the medium of the heavenly Man, whose symbol was the great dome of heaven. This was not God Himself, as Dupuis asserted, but what the " Kabbalah" calls the " Garment of God." Indian Upanishads draw the same distinction. And along the zodiacal hem of this garment, it was figured that the " Chosen One " had to travel to become one with the heavenly Man. Hence the importance of the word Chakravartin in the Buddhist scriptures. The stages of spiritual, or in mystic parlance interior progress, were marked by the signs of the zodiac. A second sufficient reason was, that the grosser anthropomorphic forms of worship for the least spiritual of the community had, of course, to be regulated by the kalendar. Proof that both Christ and Buddha were historical per- sonages comes most completely from examining their lives together. Much is like and much is unlike. At this point their histories diverge for some time, and I will turn to Buddha, condensing my " Popular Life of Buddha," to which all who wish for more ample details are referred. The soothsayers had pronounced that the infant would be 42 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. one of two things — a mighty earthly conqueror or a hermit. This prophecy plainly gave the king much concern. An earthly emperor, surrounded by elephants and horsemen, and spearmen and bowmen was a tangible object — tangible as his rich palaces and towers and shining emeralds ; but the advan- tages of the pious hermit were very unsubstantial indeed — " Gaining, who knows what good, when all is lost Worth keeping." ^ So by-and-by it came into the mind of the king that he would consult more soothsayers, to see if more definite knowledge about the young man's future could be obtained. A number of pious hermits, gifted with the divine wisdom, were in con- sequence got together. They pronounced the following : — " The young boy will, without doubt, be either a king of kings or a great Buddha. If he is destined to be a great Buddha, ' four presaging tokens' will make his mission plain. He will see — " I. An old man. " 2. A sick man. " 3. A corpse. " 4. A holy recluse. " If he fails to see these four presaging tokens of an avatara, he will be simply a Chakravartin." King Suddhodana was very much comforted by the last prediction of the soothsayers. He thought in his heart, It w^ill be an easy thing to keep these four presaging tokens from the young prince. So he gave orders that three magni- ficent palaces should at once be built — the Palace of Spring, the Palace of Summer, the Palace of Winter. These palaces, as we learn from the " Lalita Vistara," were the most beautiful palaces ever conceived on earth. Indeed, they were quite able to cope in splendour with Vaijayanta, the immortal palace of Indra himself Costly pavilions were built out in all directions, with ornamented porticoes and furbished doors. Turrets and pinnacles soared into the sky. Dainty little oval windows gave light to the rich apartments. Galleries, balus- 1 " Light of Asia," p. 25. THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 43 trades, and delicate trellis-work were abundant everywhere. A thousand bells tinkled on each roof. We seem to have the lacquered Chinese edifices of the pattern which architects believe to have flourished in early India. The gardens of these fine palaces rivalled the chess-board in the rectangular exactitude of their parterres and trellis-work bowers. Cool lakes nursed on their calm bosoms storks and cranes, wild geese and tame swans ; ducks, also, as parti-coloured as the white, red, and blue lotuses amongst which they swam. Bending to these lakes were bowery trees — the champak, the acacia serisha, and the beautiful asoka-tree with its orange- scarlet flowers. Above rustled the mimosa, the fan-palm, and the feathery pippala, Buddha's tree. The air was heavy with the strong scent of the tuberose and the Arabian jasmine. It must be mentioned that strong ramparts were prepared round the palaces of Kapilavastu, to keep out all old men, sick men, and recluses, and, I must add, to keep in the prince. And a more potent safeguard still was designed. When the prince was old enough to marry, all the young girls of the kingdom were marshalled before him. To each he gave a rich bangle, or a brooch set in diamonds, or some expensive gewgaw. But the spies who had been set to watch him remarked that he gazed upon them all vith listless eye. When the rich collection of jewels was quite exhausted, a maiden of exquisite beauty entered the apartment. Buddha gazed at her spell-bound, and felt confused because he had no gift to ofler to her. The young girl, without any false modesty, went to him, and said abruptly — " Young man, what offence have I given thee, that thou shouldst contemn me thus .'' " " I do not contemn thee, young girl," said the prince, " but in truth thou hast come in rather late ! " And he sent for some other jewels of great value, which he presented to the young girl. " Is it proper, young man," she said, with a slight blush, " that I should receive such costly gifts from thee ? " " The ornaments are mine," he said, " therefore take them away ! " 44 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. The young girl answered simply, " Not having any trinkets I could not deck myself, but now I will bear me bravely." The spies, cunning in furtive glances and blushes, reported everything to the king. The name of the young girl was Gopa. M. Foucaux con- ceives that the name is identical with the " milkmaid," beloved by Krishna, The king was delighted that his son had fallen in love. He at once sent the Brahmin Purohita to Sakya Dandapani, the young girl's father, to demand her hand in marriage for his son, Dandapani's reply to the king was this : — " The noble young man has lived all his life in the sloth and luxury of a palace, and my family never gives a daughter excepting to a man of courage and strength, one who can ply the bow and wield the two-handed sword." This answer made the king sad. Several other haughty Sakya families had previously said, " Our daughters refuse to come near a young milksop." When the king confided the source of his sadness to his son, the latter said, with a smile — "If this is the cause of thy grief, O father, let me try con- clusions with these valiant young Sakyas." " Canst thou wrestle ? Canst thou shoot with the bow ? " " Summon these young heroes, and we will see." Immense importance was attached by the Aryas to the festival of the Summer Solstice. The Greeks had their Olympia, when the whole population met together to witness the wrestling, the bow shooting, the chariot races. The victor in these was carried home in a pompous procession. In ancient India, a woman, famous for her beauty, was made the chief prize, and the marriage was called Swayamvara (marriage by athletic competition). By this institution the manhood and courage of the State were powerfully stimulated. It must be borne in mind that a skilful use of the bow, the club, and the war-chariot meant independence to the community. On the other hand, an unskilful use subjected the whole tribe to be captured and detained as prisoners of war. They might be sacrificed to Rudra at the autumn festival. Or if they THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 45 were lucky enough to escape this, they were slaves for the rest of their lives. As details of the memorable Swayamvara where the beautiful Gopa was the prize are rather meagre, perhaps I may be permitted to supply some from the epics. A vast plain was selected on these occasions, and levelled and swept. Round this pavilions and lacquered palaces of the Chinese pattern were hastily erected. Their dainty spires and columns and roofs stood out against the blue sky, " like the snowy pinnacles of the mountain range Kailasa," says the Mahabharata. Carpets and sofas and thrones were spread in these for the kings and competing heroes. In front of each pavilion were heavy awnings on glittering poles. The power- ful perfumes of India, the aloes, and the balm, could be scented from afar. The priests poured clarified butter into the holy fire. Mummers and dancers and singers performed miracle-plays, not differing much from the modern pantomime; religious disputants chopped logic. Each guest was expected to be lavish of his gifts. This made the poor man as merry as the rich one. Devadatta, a rival of Buddha, slaughters an elephant, and places it in the pathway of Buddha when he was proceeding to the tournament. Buddha, with unexpected strength hurls it to a distance to prevent it from infecting the neighbour- hood. "The elephantine cloud," says M. Senart, "and the lightning were much to Indian myth-makers." A competition for a high-born princess includes learning, as well as the athleticism. Buddha, as I have already mentioned, first eclipses his neighbours in the former. Then come swimming, jumping, running, and none have a chance against him. Then comes the important issue of wrestling. This in India has been cultivated and honoured from time immemorial. Buddha first vanquishes Nanda and Ananda. Ananda is the brother of the unfriendly Devadatta, who next comes forward to avenge him : — " Then the young Sakya Devadatta, puffed with the pride of race and the insolence of strength, came forth to the con- test. He circled round with much rapidity and skill, and, watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the prince." 46 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. But Buddha is merciful as well as strong. He causes the conceited young man to execute a somersault in the air, and then catches him before he can be hurt. Afterwards, all the young heroes in a body attack the prince, but with the same ill-fortune. But the Aryas, like their descendants, the Anglo-Saxons of Crecy, were unrivalled bowmen. Archery was the real test of a hero in the old epics. Preparations now take place for that crucial issue. Ananda sets up a drum of iron. Devadatta sets up another at double the distance. Sundarananda sets up a third drum at a distance of six krosas. Dandapani sets up a drum at a greater distance still. By Dandapani's drum are seven tall palm-trees, and beyond this a figure of a wild beast in iron. Ananda lets fly a shaft. It pierces the drum which he had set up. Beyond that distance he cannot shoot. Deva- datta pierces his drum. Sundarananda pierces the drum set up at six krosas. Dandapani smites his drum. But beyond his selected distance each archer is powerless. And now it is the turn of Buddha to shoot, but no bow is strong enough to bear the strength of his arm. One after another they break in the stringing. At last it is recollected that, in one of the shrines, there is the bow of his grandfather, Simhahanu (Lion Jaw), a weapon so mighty that no warrior can even lift it. Attendants are sent off to fetch it. The strongest Sakyas attempt to string it, but all in vain. Then the prince himself takes up the bow of the might}' Lion Jaw. With ease he strings it, and the sound of its stringing re-echoes through the wide city of Kapilavastu. Amid immense excitement he adjusts an arrow and prepares to shoot. His shaft transfixes the first drum, the second drum, the third drum, the fourth drum, and then tearing swiftly through the seven trees and the wild beast of iron, buries itself like the lightning in the ground. Other competitions take place. The prince shows his superiority in riding the horse, riding the elephant with an iron goad ; in poetry, painting, music, dancing, and even THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 47 jocularity, in the " art of the fist " and in " kicking." He also shines in his knowledge of occult mysteries, in " prophecy," in the explanation of dreams, in "magic," in "joining his hands in prayer." After this manner Buddha won the beautiful Gopa. She is called Yasodhara in the Southern narrative. Perhaps, at this time, the good King Suddhodana was more happy than even the prince in the ecstasy of his honey- moon. He had found for that prince the most beautiful wife in the world. He had built him palaces that were the talk of the whole of Hindostan. No Indian maharaja before had had such beautiful palaces, such lovely wives and handmaidens, such dancing girls, singers, jewels, luxuries. In his bowers of camphor cinnamon, amid the enchanting perfumes of the tuberose and the santal-tree, his life must surely be one long bliss, a dream that has no awakening. But suddenly this exultation was dashed with a note of woe. The king dreamt that he saw his son in the russet cowl of the beggar-hermit. Awaking in a fright, he called an eunuch — " Is my son in the palace? " he asked abruptly. " He is, O king." The dream frightened the king very much, and he ordered five hundred guards to be placed at every corner of the walls of the Palace of Summer. And the soothsayers having announced that a Buddha, if he escapes at all, always escapes by the Gate of Benediction, folding doors of immense size were here erected. The sound of their swing on their hinges resounded to a distance of half a yogana (three and a half miles). Five hundred men were required to stir either gate. These precautions completely quieted the king's mind, until one day he received a terrible piece of news. His son had seen the first of the four presaging tokens. He had seen an Old Man. This is how the matter came about. The king had pre- pared a garden even more beautiful than the garden of the Palace of Summer. A soothsayer had told him that if he could succeed in showing the prince this garden, the prince 48 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. would be content to remain in it with his wives for ever. No task seemed easier than this, so it was arranged that on a certain day the prince should be driven thither in his chariot. But, of course, immense precautions had to be taken to keep all old men, and sick men, and corpses from his sight. Quite an army of soldiers was told off for this duty, and the city was decked with flags. The path of the prince was strewn with flowers and scents, and adorned with vases of the rich kadali plant. Above were costly hangings and garlands, and pagodas of bells. But, lo and behold ! as the prince was driving along, plump under the wheels of his chariot, and before the very noses of the silken nobles and the warriors with javelins and shields, he saw an unusual sight. This was an old man, very decrepit and very broken. The veins and nerves of his body were swollen and prominent ; his teeth chattered ; he was wrinkled, bald, and his few remaining hairs were of dazzling whiteness ; he was bent very nearly double, and tottered feebly along, supported by a stick. \) " What is this, O coachman ? " said the prince. " A man with his blood all dried up, and his muscles glued to his body! His head is white; his teeth knock together; he is scarcely able to move along, even with the aid of that stick ! " " Prince," said the coachman, " this is Old Age. This man's senses are dulled ; suffering has destroyed his spirit ; he is contemned by his neighbours. Unable to help himself, he has been abandoned in this forest." " Is this a peculiarity of his family ? " demanded the prince, " or is it the law of the world .'' Tell me quickly." " Prince," said the coachman, " it is neither a law of his family, nor a law of the kingdom. In every being youth is conquered by age. Your own father and mother and all your relations will end in old age. There is no other issue to humanity." " Then youth is blind and ignorant," said the prince, "and sees not the future. If this body is to be the abode of old age, what have I to do with pleasure and its intoxi- / THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 49 cations ? Turn round the chariot, and drive me back to the palace ! " Consternation was in the minds of all the courtiers at this untoward occurrence ; but the odd circumstance of all was that no one was ever able to bring to condign punishment the miserable author of the mischief The old man could never be found. King Suddhodana was at first quite beside himself with tribulation. Soldiers were summoned from the distant pro- vinces, and a cordon of detachments thrown out to a distance of four miles in each direction, to keep the other presaging tokens from the prince.^ By-and-by the king became a little more quieted. A ridiculous accident had interfered with his plans : *' If my son could see the Garden of Happiness he never would become a hermit." The king determined that another attempt should be made. But this time the pre- cautions were doubled. On the first occasion the prince left the Palace of Summer by the eastern gate. The second expedition was through the southern gate. But another untoward event occurred. As the prince was driving along in his chariot, suddenly he saw close to him a man emaciated, ill, loathsome, burning with fever. Com- panionless, uncared for, he tottered along, breathing with extreme difficulty. "Coachman," said the prince, "what is this man, livid and loathsome in body, whose senses are dulled, and whose limbs are withered ? His stomach is oppressing him ; he is covered with filth. Scarcely can he draw the breath of life ! " " Prince," said the coachman, " this is Sickness. This poor man is attacked with a grievous malady. Strength and com- fort have shunned him. He is friendless, hopeless, without a country, without an asylum. The fear of death is before his eyes." " If the health of man," said Buddha, " is but the sport of a dream, and the fear of coming evils can put on so loathsome 1 Spence Hardy, " Manual of Buddhism," p. 155, ct seq. E 50 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. a shape, how can the wise man, who has seen what hfc really means, indulge in its vain delights ? Turn back, coachman, and drive me to the palace ! " The angry king, when he heard what had occurred, gave orders that the sick man should be seized and punished, but although a price was placed on his head, and he was searched for far and wide, he could never be caught. A clue to this is furnished by a passage in the " Lalita Vistara." The sick man was in reality one of the Spirits of the Pure Abode, masquerading in sores and spasms. These Spirits of the Pure Abode are also called the Buddhas of the past, in many passages. And it would almost seem as if some influence, malefic or otherwise, was stirring the good King Suddhodana. Un- moved by failure, he urged the prince to a third effort. The chariot this time was to set out by the western gate. Greater precautions than ever were adopted. The chain of guards was posted at least twelve miles off from the Palace of Summer. But the Buddhas of the Ten Horizons again arrested the prince. His chariot was suddenly crossed by a phantom funeral procession. A phantom corpse, smeared with the orthodox mud, and spread with a sheet, was carried on a bier. Phantom women wailed, and phantom musicians played on the drum and the Indian flute. No doubt also, phantom Brahmins chanted hymns to Jatavedas, to bear away the immortal part of the dead man to the home of the Pitris. " What is this ? " said the prince. " Why do these women beat their breasts and tear their hair ? Why do these good folks cover their heads with the dust of the ground. And that strange form upon its litter, wherefore is it so rigid ? " "Prince," said the charioteer, "this is Death! Yon form, pale and stiffened, can never again walk and move. Its owner has gone to the unknown caverns of Yama. His father, his mother, his child, his wife cry out to him, but he cannot hear." Buddha was sad. " Woe be to youth, which is the sport of age ! Woe be to THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 5 1 health, which is the sport of many maladies ! Woe be to life, which is as a breath ! Woe be to the idle pleasures which debauch humanity ! But for the ' five aggregations ' there would be no age, sickness, nor death. Go back to the city. I must compass the deliverance." A fourth time the prince was urged by his father to visit the Garden of Happiness. The chain of guards this time was sixteen miles away. The exit was by the northern gate. But suddenly a calm man of gentle mien, wearing an ochre- red cowl, was seen in the roadway. " Who is this } " said the prince, " rapt, gentle, peaceful in mien } He looks as if his mind were far away elsewhere. He carries a bowl in his hand." " Prince, this is the New Life," said the charioteer. " That man is of those whose thoughts are fixed on the eternal Brahma [Brahmacharin]. He seeks the divine voice. He seeks the divine vision. He carries the alms-bowl of the holy beggar [bhikshu]. His mind is calm, because the gross lures of the lower life can vex it no more." " Such a life I covet," said the prince. " The lusts of man are like the sea-water — they mock man's thirst instead of quenching it. I will seek the divine vision, and give im- mortality to man ! " King Suddhodana was beside himself He placed five hundred corseleted Sakyas at every gate of the Palace of Summer. Chains of sentries were round the walls, which were raised and strengthened. A phalanx of loving wives, armed with javelins, was posted round the prince's bed to " narrowly watch " him. The king ordered all the allurements of sense to be constantly presented to the prince. " Let the women of the zenana cease not for an instant their concerts and mirth and sports. Let them shine in silks and sparkle in diamonds and emeralds." Maha Prajapati, the aunt who since Queen Maya's death has acted as foster-mother, has charge of these pretty young women, and she incites them to encircle the prince in a " cage of gold." The allegory is in reality a great battle between two camps 5^ BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. — the denizens of the Kamaloka, or the Domains of Appetite, and the denizens of the Brahmaloka, the Domains of Pure Spirit. The latter are unseen, but not unfelt. For one day, when the prince recHned on a silken couch, listening to the sweet crooning of four or five brown-skinned, large-eyed Indian girls, his eyes suddenly assumed a dazed and absorbed look, and the rich hangings and garlands and intricate trellis-work of the golden apartment were still present, but dim to his mind. And music and voices, more sweet than he had ever listened to, seemed faintly to reach him. I will write down some of the verses he heard, as they contain the mystic inner teaching of Buddhism. " Mighty prop of humanity March in the pathway of the Rishis of old, Go forth from this city ! Upon this desolate earth, When thou hast acquired the priceless knowledge of the Jinas, When thou hast become a perfect Buddha, Give to all flesh the baptism (river) of the Kingdom of Righteousness. Thou who once didst sacrifice thy feet, thy hands, thy precious body, and all thy riches for the world, Thou whose life is pure, save flesh from its miseries ! In the presence of reviling be patient, O conqueror of self! Lord of those who possess two feet, go forth on thy mission ! Conquer the evil one and his army." Thus run some more of these gathas : — " Light of the world ! [lamp du monde — Foucaux], In former kalpas this vow was made by thee : ' For the worlds that are a prey to death and sickness I will be a refuge ! ' Lion of men, master of those that walk on two feet, the time for thy mission has come ! Under the sacred Bo-tree acquire immortal dignity, and give Amrita (immortality) to all ! When thou wcrt a king (in a former existence), and a subject inso- lently said to thee : ' These lands and cities, give them to me ! ' Thou wert rejoiced and not troubled. Once when thou wert a virtuous Rishi, and a cruel king in anger hacked off thy limbs, in thy death agony milk flowed from thy feet and thy hands. When thou didst dwell on a mountain as the Rishi Syama, a king having transfixed thee with poisoned arrows, didst thou not forgive this king 1 THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 53 When thou wert the king of antelopes, didst thou not save thine enemy the hunter from a torrent ? When thou wert an elephant and a hunter pierced thee, thou forgavest him, and didst reward him with thy beautiful tusks ! Once when thou wert a she-bear thou didst save a man from a torrent swollen with snow. Thou didst feed him on roots and fruit until he grew strong ; And when he went away and brought back men to kill thee, thou forgavest him ! Once when thou wert a white horse,^ In pity for the suffering of man. Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons, To secure the happiness of mankind. Persecutions without end, Revilings and many prisons, Death and murder. These hast thou suffered with love and patience, Forgiving thine executioners. Kingless, men seek thee for a king ! 'Stablish them in the way of Brahma and of the ten virtues. That when they pass away from amongst their fellow-men, they may all go to the abode of Brahma. In times past, having seen men fallen into evil ways, and vexed by age, sickness, and many griefs, thou didst make them understand which was the straight way from this world of destruction ! Conqueror of the darkness, thou hast done priceless service to the worlds ! To creatures of all sorts thou madest many offerings. Thou gavest thy wife, thy son, thy daughter, thy body, thy kingdom, thy life ! Strong king ! thou didst prefer the glory of blameless deeds. Thou who art Krishna, Nimindara, Nimi, Brahmadatta, Dharmachinti, etc., having pondered upon the aim of life, thou hast abandoned to mortals things difficult to abandon. Rishi of kings, of body like the moon-god (Chandra), thy march is over the horizon and the dust. King of Kasi (Benares), thou proclaimest the peace of heaven. Long hast thou seen that the life of man is like the sands of the Ganges. In pursuit of the spiritual knowledge (Bodhi), O first of the pure ! thou hast made innumerable offerings to the Buddhas : To Amoghadarsi, the flowers of the Sala-tree ; To Vairochana, a gentle thought ; To Chandana, a torch of kusa-grass ; '^ Yearly the sun-god as the zodiacal horse (Aries) was supposed by the Vedic Aryans to die to save all flesh. Hence the horse-sacrifice. 54 BUDDHISM JN CHRISTENDOM. To Remi thou didst fling a handful of gold-dust ! Didst thou not encourage Dharmesvara, when he was teaching the law, by saying, ' Well ! ' Upon beholding Sarmantadarsi thou didst cry, ' Adoration ! Adora- tion ! ' Thou gavest the garb of the Muni to Nagadatta ! To Sakya Muni ^ thou gavest a handful of suvarnas [pieces of gold]." " By these gathas the prince is exhorted," says the narra- tive. And whilst the Jinas sing, beautiful women, with flowers and perfumes, and jewels and rich dresses, try to incite him • to mortal love. Again the music of the immortals breaks through their songs : — " Guide of the world ! think quickly of thy resolve to appear in it ; Make no delay ! In the old times a precious treasure, gold, silver, and ornaments, were abandoned by thee. To Bhaichadyaraja thou didst offer a precious parasol ; Thou gavest thy kingdom to Tagarasikhin ; To Mahapradipa thou didst offer thine own self ; To Dipaiikara a blue lotus ; Remember the Buddhas of the past, their teachings and thy sacrifices. Contemn not poor mortals without a guide. When thou didst see Dipankara thou didst acquire the Great Patience and the five transcendental sacrifices ! Then, after innumerable kalpas, in all parts of the world, having taken delight in making offerings inconceivably precious to all these Buddhas, The kalpas have rolled away. The Buddhas have gone to Nirvana, And all their bodies, that once belonged to thee, and even their names — Where are they .'' It is the work of the Law of Righteousness to put an end to the aggre- gations of matter. That which has been created is not durable. Earthly empire, earthly desire, earthly riches are as a dream. In the terminable kalpas of the world, like a fire that burns with a fearful light, sickness, age, and death draw near with their tremors. The Law of Righteousness alone can put an end to substance. What is composite is not durable. Look at the unhappy creatures of earth ; Go forth into the world ! " ^ Much of this is plainly esoteric Buddhism. The inspirer of prophets, and not the prophet himself, is addressed. THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 55 But the king was on the other side. It is recorded that he offered to resign his royal umbrella in favour of his son. His urgent entreaty that the prince should abandon all thoughts of a religious life was answered thus : — "Sire, I desire four gifts. Grant me these, and I will remain in the Palace of Summer." ' What are they ? " said King Suddodhana. " Grant that age may never seize me. Grant that I may retain the bright hues of youth. Grant that sickness may have no power over me. Grant that my life may be without end." 1 This gives us the very essence of the apologue. Mara, the tempter, describes the story in a sentence : — " This is a son of King Suddodhana, who has left his kingdom to obtain deathless life [amrita]." ^ About this time Gopa had a strange dream. She beheld the visible world with its mountains upheaved and its forests overturned. The sun was darkened, the moon fell from heaven. Her own diadem had fallen off her head, and all her beautiful pearl necklaces and gold chains were broken. Her poor hands and feet were cut off; and the diadem and ornaments of her husband were also scattered in confusion upon the bed where they were both lying. In the darkness of night lurid flames came forth from the city, and the gilded bars that had been recently put up to detain the prince were snapped. Afar the great ocean was boiling with a huge turmoil, and Mount Meru shook to its very foundations. She consulted her husband about this dream, and he gave her the rather obvious interpretation that this dismemberment of her mortal body, and this passing away of the visible universe and its splendours, was of good, and not bad augury- She was becoming detached from the seen, the organic ; her inner vision was opening. She had seen the splendid handle of Buddha's parasol broken. This meant that in a short time he was to become the " unique parasol of the world." But to bring about this result more quickly, the Spirits of 1 " Lalita Vistara," p. 192. 2 ji^jj^ p_ 2g7_ 56 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the Pure Abode have conceived a new project. The beautiful women of the zenana are the main seductions of Mara, the tempter, whom philologists prove to be closely connected with Kama, the god of love. The Spirits of the Pure Abode deter- mine that the prince shall see these women in a new light. By a subtle influence they induce him to visit the apartments of the women at the moment that they, the Jinas, have put all these women into a sound sleep. Everything is in disorder — the clothes of the women, their hair, their trinkets. Some are lolling ungracefully on couches, some have hideous faces, some cough, some laugh sillily in their dreams, some rave. Also deformities and blemishes that female art had been careful to conceal are now made prominent by the superior magic of the spirits. This one has a discoloured neck, this one an ill-formed leg, this one a clumsy fat arm. Smiles have become grins, and fascinations a naked hideousness. Sprawling on couches in ungainly attitudes, all lie amidst their tawdry finery, their silent tam- bourines and lutes. " Of a verity I am in a graveyard ! " said the prince, in great disgust. And now comes an incident in his life which is of the highest importance. He has determined to leave the palace altogether. " Then Buddha uncrossed his legs, and turning his eyes towards the eastern horizon, he put aside the precious trellis-work, and repaired to the roof of the palace. Then joining the ten fingers of his hands, he thought of all the Buddhas and rendered homage to all the Buddhas, and, looking across the skies, he saw the Master of all the gods, he of the ten hundred eyes" (Dasasata Nayana). Plainly he prayed to Indra. The Romantic Life also retains this incident, but it omits Indra, and makes Buddha pray only to all the Buddhas. At the moment that Buddha joined his hands in homage towards the eastern horizon, the star Pushya, which had pre- sided at his birth, was rising. The prince on seeing it said to Chandaka — " The benediction that is on me has attained its perfection THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 57 this very night. Give me at once the king of horses covered with jewels ! " " Guide of men ! " said the poor charioteer, " thou knowest the hour and the commands of the king. The great gates are shut." Buddha persisted, and mounted his good horse Kantaka, The gates were opened by the heavenly spirits. And through them he passed out of the debasing palace with the seven moats. It was the change to the higher life. He became a yogi. The Buddhist movement was the revolt of the higher Brahminism against the lower. It was led by one of the most searching reformers that ever appeared upon the page of history. He conceived that the only remedy lay in awakening the spiritual life of the individual. The bloody sacrifice, caste, the costly tank pilgrimages, must be swept completely away. This is proved by a very valuable Sutra, the " Sutta Nipata," one of the most ancient books of Ceylon. It records that when the great Muni was at Sravasti (Sahet Mahet), certain old Brahmins came to listen to his teaching. They asked him if the Brahmin religion (Brahmana Dharma) was the same as in ancient days. Buddha replied that, in olden time, the Brahmana Dharma was completely different. It was this Dharma that he proposed to restore in its original purity. The points of difference that he detailed were these — I. The ancient Brahmanas were simple ascetics (isayo), who had abandoned the "objects of the five senses." 2. They ate contentedly the food that was placed at their door. They had no cattle, or gold, or corn. The gold and corn of holy dreaming alone was theirs. 3. They never married a woman of another caste, or bought wives. The most rigid continence was theirs.^ 4. They made sacrifices of rice, butter, etc., and never 1 FausboU " Sutta Nipata," p. 49, ver. 10. It was not clear whether Buddha means that marriage was quite unknown to them. The verses are contradictory. 58 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. killed the cows, the best friends of man, the givers of medicines. 5. But the kings of the earth by-and-by grew powerful, and had palaces and chariots and jewelled women. 6. Then the Brahmanas grew covetous of these beautiful women and this vast wealth, and schemed to gain both. They instituted costly sacrifices, the horse sacrifice (assa- medha), the man sacrifice (purisa-mcdha), and other rites. Through these they obtained costly offerings — gold, cows, beds, garments, jewelled women, bright carpets, palaces, grain, chariots drawn by fine steeds. 7. " Hundreds of thousands of cows " w^ere slaughtered at these sacrifices — " cows that like goats do not hurt any one with their feet or with either of their horns — tender cows, yielding vessels of milk. " Seizing them by the horns, the king caused them to be slain with a weapon." The true Dharma being lost, the world plunged into sensuality, caste disputes, blood. That lost Dharma it is the mission of Buddha to hold up once more " as an oil lamp in the dark, that those who have eyes may see." ^ 1 now come to another piece of evidence. The " Tevigga Sutta," or " Sutra," plainly belongs to the " Little Vehicle," and shows that in the view of its disciples Buddha proclaimed the existence of an intelligent eternal God. When the great Tathagata was dwelling at Manasakata in the mango grove, some Brahmins, learned in the three Vedas, come to consult him on the question of union with the eternal Brahma. They ask if they are in the right pathway towards that union. Buddha replies at great length. He suggests an ideal case. He supposes that a man has fallen in love with the " most beautiful woman in the land." Day and night he dreams of her, but has never seen her. He does not know whether she is tall or short, of Brahmin or Sudra caste, of dark or fair complexion ; he does not even know her name. The Brahmins are asked if the talk of that man about that w^oman be wise or foolish. They confess that it is " foolish 1 " Sutta Nipata," p. 52. THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 59 talk." Buddha then applies the same train of reasoning to them. The Brahmins versed in the three Vedas are made to confess that they have never seen Brahma, that they do not know whether he is tall or short, or anything about him, and that all their talk about union with him is also foolish talk. They are mounting a crooked staircase, and do not know whether it leads to a mansion or a precipice. They are standing on the bank of a river and calling to the other bank to come to them. Now it seems to me that if Buddha were the uncom- promising teacher of atheism that Dr. Rhys Davids pictures him, he has at this point an admirable opportunity of urging his views. The Brahmins, he would of course contend, knew nothing about Brahma, for the simple reason that no such being as Brahma exists. But this is exactly the line that Buddha does not take. His argument is that the Brahmins knew nothing of Brahma, because Brahma is purely spiritual, and they are purely materialistic. Five "Veils," he shows, hide Brahma from mortal ken. These are — 1. The Veil of Lustful Desire, 2. The Veil of Malice. 3. The Veil of Sloth and Idleness. 4. The Veil of Pride and Self-righteousness. 5. The Veil of Doubt. Buddha then goes on with his questionings : " Is Brahma in possession of wives and wealth 1 " " He is not, Gautama," answers Vasettha the Brahmin. " Is his mind full of anger, or free from anger ? " " Free from anger, Gautama." " Is his mind full of malice, or free from malice ? ''' " Free from malice, Gautama." " Is his mind depraved or pure ? " " It is pure, Gautama." " Has he self-mastery, or has he not ? " " He has, Gautama." The Brahmins are then questioned about themselves. 60 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Are the Brahmins versed in the three Vedas, in possession of wives and wealth, or are they not ? " " They arc, Gautama." " Have they anger in their hearts, or have they not ? " " They have, Gautama." " Do they bear malice, or do they not? " " They do, Gautama." " Are they pure in heart, or are they not ? " " They are not, Gautama." " Have they self-mastery, or have they not .-' " " They have not, Gautama." These replies provoke, of course, the very obvious retort that no point of union can be found between such dissimilar entities. Brahma is free from malice, sinless, self-contained, so, of course, it is only the sinless that can hope to be in harmony with him. Vasettha then puts this question : " It has been told me, Gautama, that Sramana Gautama knows the way to the state of union with Brahma ? " " Brahma I know, Vasettha," says Buddha in reply, " and the world of Brahma, and the path leading to it." The humbled Brahmins learned in the three Vedas then ask Buddha to " show them the way to a state of union with Brahma." Buddha replies at considerable length, drawing a sharp contrast between the lower Brahminism and the higher Brah- minism, the " householder " and the " houseless one." The householder Brahmins are gross, sensual, avaricious, insincere. They practice for lucre black magic, fortune-telling, cozenage. They gain the ear of kings, breed wars, predict victories, sacrifice life, spoil the poor. As a foil to this he paints the recluse, who has renounced all worldly things, and is pure, self-possessed, happy. To teach this " higher life," a Tathagata " from time to time is born into the world, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom, a guide to erring mortals." He sees the universe face to face, the spirit world of Brahma and that of Mara the tempter. He makes his knowledge known to others. The THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 6 1 houseless one, instructed by him, " lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of pity, sympathy, and equanimity ; and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart of pity, sympathy and equanimity, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure." ^ " Verily this, Vasettha, is the way to a state of union with Brahma," and he proceeds to announce that the Bhikshu, or Buddhist beggar, " who is free from anger, free from malice, pure in mind, master of himself, will, after death, when the body is dissolved, become united with Brahma." The Brah- mins at once see the full force of this teaching. It is as a conservative in their eyes that Buddha figures, and not an innovator. He takes the side of the ancient spiritual religion of the country against rapacious innovators. " Thou hast set up what was thrown down," they say to him. In the Burmese Life he is described more than once as one who has set the overturned chalice once more upon its base. An extract from the Mundaka Upanishad of the Atharva Veda may here throw a light on Brahma and^union with him : " He is great and incomprehensible by the senses, and con- sequently his nature is beyond human conception. He, though more subtle than vacuum itself, shines in various ways. From those who do not know him he is at a greater distance than the limits of space, and to those who acquire a know- ledge of him he is near ; and whilst residing in animate creatures is perceived, although obscurely, by those who apply their thoughts to him. He is not perceptible by vision, nor is he describable by means of speech, neither can he be the object of any of the organs of sense, nor can he be conceived by the help of austerities or religious rites ; but a person whose mind is purified by the light of true knowledge through incessant contemplation perceives him the most pure God. Such is the invisible Supreme Being. He should be seen in the heart wherein breath consisting of five species rests. The 1 " Buddhist Suttas," p. 201. 62 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. mind being perfectly freed from impurity, God, who spreads over the mind and all the senses, imparts a knowledge of himself to the heart." ^ In point of fact the language of the Buddhist mystic is very like that of all other mystics. Thomas a Kempis, in his " Soliloquy of the Soul," has a chapter headed, " On the Union of the Soul with God." ^ Indeed, all the Christian mystics sought this "union" quite as earnestly as Buddha. St. Theresa had her oraison d'tmio?i.^ St. Augustine based all his mysticism on the text (John xiv. 23), "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words : and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." "* Clement of 'Alexandria sketches the end to be kept in view by the " Christian Gnostic : " " Dwelling with the Lord He will continue His familiar friend, sharing the same hearth according to the Spirit." ^ Madame Guyon renewed her mystical " Marriage with the Child Jesus " every year. The mystics of all religions sought this union with God by means of extasia. The method is described in the Persian Sharistan and the Zerdusht Afshar ; and the processes are completely similar to those of the Indian yogi. He whom the ancient Persian called Izad, and the modern Persian Allah, is thus described by Maulavi Jami — "Thou but an atom art. He, the Great Whole. But if for a icw days thou meditate with care on the Whole thou becomest one with it."^ Mr. Vaughan, in his " Hours with the Mystics," shows that the motto of the Neo-Platonist was, " Withdraw into thyself; and the Adytum of thine own soul will reveal to thee profounder secrets than the cave of Mithras." He asserts that a mystic, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, is not merely a sacred personage acquainted with the doctrines, 1 Rajah Rammohun Roy, " Translation of the Veds," p. 36. 2 Ch. xiii. ^ Madame Guyon, " Discours Chretiens," vol. ii. p. 344. * Cited by Madame Guyon. '" " Misc.," p. 60. « Olcott, "Yoga Philosophy," p. 271. THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. 63 and participator in the rites called mysteries, but one also who, exactly after the Neo-Platonist pattern, by mortifyino- the body attains the " divine union." ^ Cornelius Agrippa and Behmen held the same views. I may mention, as an interesting fact, that catholic mysticism has very nearly the same terminology as Buddhism. Madame Guyon and the mystics have their " states " likewise, the " mystic indifference," ^ " I'aneantissement," ^ the mystical "death."* When Buddha was performing his " Dhyana," it is said that the " Chakravala " (visible universe) became invisible, and the azure domains of the Buddhas (the spirit world) " luminous." ^ Madame Guyon, in her " Moyen Court," cites Revelations iii. 7, 8, to show that the mystic " key of David " consists in " shutting the eyes of the body and opening the eyes of the soul." ^ Of course this " annihilation," this " death," this " indifference " only refers to the lower life with St. Francois de Sales and Madame Guyon. And I think we must say the same of early Buddhism. 1 Vaughan, vol. i. p. 22. - L. Guerrier, " Madame Guyon," p. 342. ^ Ibid., p. 112. * Ibid., p. 116. 5 " Lalita Vistara," p. 267. « u Moyen Court," p. 10. 64 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER VI. The Nazarite — Mystical and Anti-mystical Israel — Christ usually sup- posed to have belonged to the latter — Position combated — Early Persecution of Disciples. The Nazarite. The theory about Christ at present the most in vogue is based upon the idea that He accepted the rehgion of Israel as interpreted by its recognized interpreters. It is held that when He declared that not a jot or tittle of the Law should be relaxed until the heavens and earth shall pass away, He alluded to the Law of Moses as interpreted by the dominant party. His life in consequence, in respect to customs, con- duct, and rites, was strictly in accordance with the Mosaic edicts. Dr. Lightfoot, as well as Baur, and Strauss, and Gibbon, holds this view. The latter writers lay emphasis on the fact that He announced that His mission was to be confined to the house of Israel, and that He called the rest of the world " dogs." Dr. Lightfoot expresses practically the same idea ; for he says that, " after Christ's death the Church was still confined to one nation," and that " the Master Himself had left no express instructions " for a wider propagandism. "Emancipation," he says, from the "swathing-bands " of the Mosaic ritual, came from the Apostles " under the guidance of the Holy Spirit," ^ the doctor failing to explain why in the matter of institutions that God Almighty had just come on earth in bodily form expressly to perpetuate any " emanci- pation," was required. 1 " Commentary on Galatians," pp. 286, 287. THE NAZARITE. 65 But will this theory bear scrutiny ? In an early chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, we read the following : — " And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying. Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days .? that they might accuse Him. And He said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out .'' How much then is a man better than a sheep .'* Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith He to the man. Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth ; and it was restored whole, like as the other. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him. But when Jesus knew it. He with- drew Himself from thence : and great multitudes followed Him, and he healed them all ; And charged them that they should not make Him known" (Matt. xii. 10-16). This is from Matt. ix. 32-35 — " As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake : and the multitudes marvelled, saying. It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said. He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." This is another passage — " They answered Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man : how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free ? Jesus answered them. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever : but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed ; but ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with My Father : and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus F 66 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God : this did not Abraham" (John viii. 33-40). It will be seen from these passages that the Jews sought the life of Jesus on the following charges : — 1. Sabbath breaking. 2. Demonology. 3. " Speaking the truth," or assailing the views of the dominant party. If one of these narratives is an authentic narrative, it is plain that the theory that Jesus was a strict observer of the Law of Moses, as interpreted by the dominant party, falls to the ground. I come to a still more striking passage. It seems to me to traverse the position of Bishop Lightfoot, who, in his " Commentary on the Colossians," maintains that Christ attended the three bloody festivals of the sacrificial or anti- mystical Israel. " And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things : and they derided Him. And He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men ; but God knoweth your hearts : for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The Law and the prophets were until John : since that time the king- dom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke xvi. 14-17). This passage is of great importance. If Christ actually uttered the speech contained in it, it unmistakably shows that, far from considering the Mosaic edicts as interpreted by their recognized interpreters binding until the day of judg- ment, he believed them to have been annulled by John the Baptist, who, according to Josephus, was put to death to satisfy the priestly party. Here is another pregnant passage — " And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up : and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on THE NAZARITE. 6/ the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was dehvered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor ; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son ? And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Thyself: whatsover we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said. Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land ; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet ; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down head- long. But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were aston- ished at His doctrine : for His word was with power" (Luke iv. 16-32). This seems of the greatest importance. Instead of be- holding soldiers strike down their most prominent champion by reason of a mistaken password — a necessary inference if 68 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Christ belonged to anti-mystical Israel, — we sec here the word " Messiah " interpreted by two sets of disputants with the utmost precision. Christ says that he is " Messiah," or " Anointed," in the sense that Isaiah announces that he also is "Anointed." He is the "prophet," like Elijah. The Spirit of God is upon Him in order that He may preach the gospel to the poor. In i Kings xix. i6, we find also that EHsha was anointed as Messiah. The word, with the Jews, meant a prophet as well as a king. The action of anti-mystical Israel is equally intelligible. They remember, of course, that it is laid down in the Tora (Lev. xviii. 20), that " the prophet who shall presume to speak a word" in God's name, which the Almighty has not commanded him to speak must die. They remember, also, that divination (the occultism of rivals) is also (Lev. xviii. 10) a capital offence. And if Christ had really pronounced that the Law of Moses was annulled, the scribes and doctors would quickly have jumped to the conclusion that a prophet so speaking was not the mouthpiece of Jehovah, who had positively pronounced that the law and covenant was an ever- lasting covenant (i Chron. xvi. 17 ; Isa. xxiv. 5) ; and that " the statutes, and ordinances, and the law, and the command- ment which He wrote, was to be observed for evermore " (2 Kings xvii. 37). Another instructive group of facts may here be adduced — the circumstances attending the death of Stephen. We there see that within three short years of Christ's death, there was a vast apparatus of persecution actively at work. St. Paul tells us that he himself persecuted to the "death;" that "entering every house and haling men and women, he committed them to prison." He shows also that this vast apparatus of "havock," and " threatenings and slaughter," had already branches in Damascus and in the provinces, as well as in Jerusalem. What is the explanation of this } Certainly Caiaphas, who denied any after-life, could at this time have had no \\&\v of Christ's Kingship in heavenly abodes definite enough to stir up all this activity. The ex- planation given by Dean Howson and Mr. Conybeare appears THE NAZARITE. 6g the true one. These Christians were persecuted not because they were Christians, but because they were Jews, who set the Laws of Moses at defiance. Was not this the charge against Paul as late as his last visit to Jerusalem. " And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, crying out. Men of Israel, help : this is the man, that teacheth all men every- where against the people, and the law, and this place " (Acts xxi. 27). As I go on I shall make it plain that from the very earliest institution of the disciples the Laws of Moses, as interpreted by the dominant party, were systematically violated. From the same early period I shall make it also plain that the recognized interpreters of those laws sought the lives of Christ and His followers for capital offences against Jerusalem and the Mosaic edicts. And the answer of the Christians from first to last may be summed up in the words of Paul — " Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Csesar, have I offended anything at all " (Acts XXV. 8). What is the meaning of this paradox ? Here we have two sets of disputants, both of a nation not behind, but rather ahead of the rest of the world in acuteness, reasoning appa- rently with the inconsequence of a nightmare. The position of the first set is something after this fashion. Jehovah, they say, through his Prophet Moses, has categorically given forth certain edicts for the avowed object of making the Hebrew nation an ensample to the other nations of the earth for ever and ever. Thus it has been ordained that every male shall come up to Jerusalem, the capital city, for the three great yearly festivals. Certain rites and sacrifices must then be gone through to honour God and enrich the priesthood. It is ordained also that the sabbath day shall be strictly kept holy. It is ordained that the phenomena of supernaturalism, prophecy, healing by exorcism, etc., shall not be practised except under the supervision of the recognized priesthood. And yet the rival party violate these plain edicts, not inad- 70 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. vertently, upon occasion ; but perpetually, on system. Plainly the punishments of the Laws of Moses, whatever their rigour, must everywhere be put in force to protect the religion of Jehovah. To all this the second party make one plain answer : " Not one tittle of the law have we violated, or will we violate till doomsday." Is it not plain, that by the word " law," each party mean something different. This will, I think, come out more clearly if we consider the curious way in which another section of the Jews, the Essenes and Therapeuts, like the early Christians, professed to be extra strict followers of the edicts of Moses, and yet violated those laws at every turn. " Our law-giver," says Philo, " trained into fellowship great numbers of pupils who bear the name of Essenes, being, I imagine, honoured with the appellation by virtue of their holiness." This is from his work, " Every Virtuous Man is Free." A passage from another work of his leaves us in no doubt as to who this legislator was to taken to be — " I will set in contrast the entertainments of those that have consecrated their private life and themselves to gnosis and the contemplation of the affairs of Nature, in accordance with the most sacred guidance of the Prophet Moses " (" Vit. ContempL"). And Josephus does not hesitate to describe these mystics as refusing to take part altogether in the yearly fes- tivals and the sacrifices of the Mosaic ritual as interpreted by those who sat in Moses's seat. " They perform no sacrifices on account of the different rules of purity which they observe. Hence, being excluded from the common sanctuary, they perform sacred rites of their own " (" Antiq.," i, 2, and 5). That the Essenes were also per- secuted, I think is quite plain. Philo talks of their " hiding- places," and of the terrible oaths that each took to preserve the secrets of the order " in the presence of force and at the hazard of his life." Josephus alludes to the terrible tortures that they cheerfully submitted to, rather than eat of things forbidden. It is true that this second assertion refers to them THE NAZARITE. /I at a later date than the. description of Philo ; but Christ tells us that from the date of Zacharius, and even of Abel, mystical Israel was persecuted from city to city at the blood-stained hands of the Pharisees and Scribes (Matt, xxiii. 35). My citations from Origen and the " Kabbalah," in my first chapter, explain in part the crucial issues between mystical and anti-mystical Israel. The latter party said practically : We have a book of sacred law, and that law must be interpreted like any other legal document, or immense confusion will arise. The mystics replied that all scriptures are written by mystics to teach mysticism, and a book must be judged by the canons of its writers. The secret wisdom handed down in the " Kabbalah " taught them that the Tora was intended to conceal more than it was intended to reveal. There was a knowledge that was made known to the " Chosen of God " after painful initiations. It was called the " Luminous Mirror," in contrast with the " Non-luminous Mirror," the vision of ordinary mortals. It was called the " Tree of Life," as contra- distinguished from the " Tree of Knowledge." ^ " Come and see when the soul reaches that place which is called the Treasury of Life — she enjoys a bright and luminous mirror which receives its light from the highest heaven. The soul could not bear this light but for the luminous mantle which she puts on. For just as the soul when sent to this earth puts on an earthly garment to preserve herself here, so she receives above a shining garment in order to be able to look without injury into the mirror whose light proceeds from the Lord of Light. Moses, too, could not approach to look into that higher light which he saw without putting on such an ethereal garment as it is written — ' And Moses went into the midst of the cloud,' which is translated by means of the cloud wherewith he wrapped himself as if dressed in a garment. At that time Moses almost discarded the whole of his earthly nature, as it is written — ' And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.' And he thus approached that dark cloud where God is enthroned. In this ^ Ginsburg, " The Kabbalah," p. y]. 72 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. wise the departed spirits of the righteous dress themselves in the upper regions in luminous garments, to be able to endure that light which streams from the Lord of Light." ^ Origen calls this luminous mirror the " soul " of the scrip- tures, whereas the historical part is " body," is intended only for minds yet in darkness. Clement of Alexandria also held that there was a twofold knowledge, and that the higher knowledge was imparted by Christ to James, Peter, John, and Paul. " It was not designed for the multitude, but communicated to those only who were capable of receiving it orally, not by writing." ^ The same system was prominent amongst the Essenes, who expounded their " hereditary laws " every seventh day. " Then one takes the books and reads," says Philo ; " and another of the most experienced comes forward and expounds such things as are not well known, for most things are philo- sophically treated among them through symbols, according to the old-fashioned mode of pursuit." ^ Of the Therapeuts he writes also : " For they read the sacred scriptures, and seek after wisdom by allegorical expo- sition of the hereditary philosophy, inasmuch as they regard what constitutes the letter of each utterance as the symbol of a nature that is withheld from sight but revealed in the hidden meanings. They possess, besides, compositions of ancient men who were the founders of the school, and bequeathed many a memorial of the allegorical manner of which they avail themselves by way of archetypes, and so closely follow the method of the original school." * Let us now study mystical Israel a little more closely, beginning with the Essenes and Therapeuts. 1 Ginsburg, " The Kabbalah," p. 38, 2 See " Clement of Alexandria," by Dr. Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln, p. 241. 3 " Every Virtuous Man is Free." ^ Philo, " Vit. Contcmpl." ( 73 ) CHAPTER VII. Mystical Israel— Essenes and Therapeuts— Letter of Philo to Hephjestion — Therapeut and Buddhist Monasteries— Points of Contact between the Buddhists and Israel Mystical— The Buddhist and Essene Bap- tism—The Buddhist and Essene Mysterium. Mystical Israel. Neander divides Israel at the date of Christ into three sections — 1. Phariseeism, the "dead theology of the letter." 2. Sadduceeism, " debasing of the spiritual life into world- liness." 3. Essenism, Israel mystical— a "commingling of Judaism with the old Oriental theosophy." ^ Concerning this latter section, Philo wrote a letter to a man named Hephaestion, of which the following is a portion : — " I am sorry to find you saying that you are not likely to visit Alexandria again. This restless, wicked city can present but few attractions, I grant, to a lover of philosophic quiet. But I cannot commend the extreme to which I see so many hastening. A passion for ascetic seclusion is becoming daily more prevalent among the devout and the thoughtful, whether Jew or Gentile. Yet surely the attempt to combine contem- plation and action should not be so soon abandoned. A man ought at least to have evinced some competency for the dis- charge of the social duties before he abandons them for the divine. First the less, then the greater. " I have tried the life of the recluse. Solitude brings no 1 Neander, " Life of Christ," vol. i. pp. 36-40 ; also " History of the Christian Religion," vol. i. p. 60. 74 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. escape from spiritual danger. If it closes some avenues of temptation, there are few in whose case it does not open more. Yet the Therapeutae, a sect similar to the Essenes, with whom you are acquainted, number many among them whose lives are truly exemplary. Their cells are scattered about the region bordering on the farther shore of the Lake Mareotis. The members of either sex live a single and ascetic life, spending their time in fasting and contemplation, in prayer or reading. They believe themselves favoured with divine illumination — an inner light. They assemble on the Sabbath for worship, and listen to mystical discourses on the tradi- tionary lore which they say has been handed down in secret among themselves. They also celebrate solemn dances and processions of a mystic significance by moonlight on the shore of the great mere. Sometimes, on an occasion of public rejoicing, the margin of the lake on our side will be lit with a fiery chain of illuminations, and galleys, hung with lights, row to and fro with strains of music sounding over the broad water. Then the Therapeutse are all hidden in their little hermitages, and these sights and sounds of the world they have abandoned make them withdraw into themselves and pray. " Their principle at least is true. The soul which is occu- pied with things above, and is initiated into the mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body evil, and even hostile. The soul of man is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites. God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible. It may be extended, but it is incapable of sepa- ration. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heavens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world, of which we are conscious, would be impossible, were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed spirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the noblest exercise of man ; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold God is the consummation of our happiness here. BiMMI MYSTICAL ISRAEL. 75 " The confusion of tongues at the building of the tower of Babel should teach us this lesson. The heaven those vain builders sought to reach, signifies symbolically the mind, where dwell divine powers. Their futile attempt represents the pre- sumption of those who place sense above intelligence— who think that they can storm the Intelligible by the Sensible. The structure which such impiety would raise is overthrown by spiritual tranquility. In calm retirement and contempla- tion we are taught that we know like only by like, and that the foreign and lower world of the sensuous and the practical may not intrude into the lofty region of divine illumination." " An alliance with the upper world " was, we see here, the object of these dreaming Essenes. This in India is called yoga (union). Was there any connection between the Indian and Jewish mystics? The most subtle thinker of the modern English Church, the late Dean Mansel, boldly maintained that the philosophy and rites of the Therapeuts of Alexandria were due to Buddhist missionaries who visited Egypt within two genera- tions of the time of Alexander the Great. In this he has been supported by philosophers of the calibre of Schelling and Schopenhauer, and the great Sanskrit authority, Lassen. Renan, in his work " Les Langues Semetiques," also sees traces of this Buddhist propagandism in Palestine before the Christian era. Hilgenfeld, Mutter, Bohlen, King, all admit the Buddhist influence. Colebrooke saw a striking similarity between the Buddhist philosophy and that of the Pytha- o-oreans. Dean Milman was convinced that the Therapeuts sprung from the " contemplative and indolent fraternities " of India. Until I came across this bird's-eye view of a rude monas- tery in Siam (see Plate II.), I had no very clear idea of a monastery of the Therapeuts in the jungle near Alexandria. It is a drawing by an old traveller, given to us by Picart. We see the house of assembly in the centre, where the Therapeuts, according to Philo, assembled every Sabbath for religious ser- vices. We see the cells of the monks sprinkled round in a rude city " four-square." Modern India gives us a far more 76 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. accurate picture than we can get elsewhere of ancient Palestine, for it is an ancient Asiatic civilization that has not yet passed away. When I campaigned against a rude tribe called Sonthals, in 1855, I saw everywhere the "booths of leaves" of the Bible, the pansil of early Buddhist books. Since the days of Job, thieves " dig into " the rude mud walls of the East. Visitors to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition may have seen several straw-thatched houses where this would have been feasible. Of such a pattern with mud or matted walls were the huts, perhaps, of the Therapeuts. Father La Loubere, in his " Description du Royaume de Siam,"^ gives us some very interesting details of Buddhist convent life. In a central quadrangle is the chief building surrounded by mortuary pyramidal columns, each covering the ashes of some rich man or saint, but dedicated to one of the Buddhas, and suggesting the columns in a Christian grave- yard. In a second enclosure are the little mat-built pansils of the monks, surrounding the central building. Each holds a sramana and his servant-pupils, to the number sometimes of three. Each, too, has two little chambers in which a wandering beggar can obtain food and shelter, as amongst the Essenes. " I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not : sick and in prison, and ye visited me not " (Matt. xxv.). Each monastery is presided over by a sancrat or bishop, whose insignia is an accurate mitre, carved on a stone pedestal, which fact satisfied the good father that the Buddhists had stolen many ideas from the Christians. Matins began when a monk could see the veins of his hand, or see clearly enough to prevent him destroying reptile life in walking to the temple. The chanting went on for two hours, and then the begging friars, two and two, as in the Catholic Church, went round the neighbourhood and collected their scanty food. The meal seems to have been something after the pattern of the Thera- peut bloodless oblation, for a portion of the food is always solemnly offered to Buddha. Then comes teaching, reading, ^ Picart, vol. vii. MYSTICAL ISRAEL. yj meditation ; and then what the father calls " La Meridiane," noon-day prayers. His description of a sermon with a text taken from the sayings of Buddha is most interesting. The monks are ranged on one side of the temple, and the nuns on the other. At the close, they say solemnly, " This is the Word of God ! " The Catholic father cites some of their texts : "Judge not thy neighbour. Say not this man is good. This man is wicked ! " This seems specially to have struck him. Assisted by Philo, let us draw up some more points of contact between the Therapeut and Buddhist monks : — 1. Enforced vegetarianism, community of goods, rigid abstinence from sexual indulgence, also a high standard of purity, were common to both the Buddhists and the Thera- peuts. 2. Neither community allowed the use of wine. 3. Both were strongly opposed to the blood sacrifice of the old priesthoods. 4. The monks of both communities devoted their lives exclusively to the acquirement of a knowledge of God. 5. Long fastings were common to both. 6. With both silence was a special spiritual discipline. 7. The Therapeut left " for ever," says Philo, " brothers, children, wives, father, and mother," for the contemplative life. This is Buddhism. 8. Like the Buddhists, the Therapeuts had nuns vowed to chastity. These were quite distinct, as Philo points out, from the vestals of the Greek temples. With the latter the chastity was enforced, with the former voluntary. 9. The preacher and the missionary, two original ideas of Buddhism, were conspicuous amongst the Therapeuts. This was in direct antagonism to the spirit of Mosaism. 10. The Therapeut, as his name implies, was a healer (or " curate " as Eusebius calls him) of body and soul. The Buddhist monks are the only physicians in most Buddhist countries. They cure by simples, and by casting out devils. 11. The Therapeut squatted on a "mat of papyrus" in his sanctuary. The monks " took their seats on mats covered yS BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM with white calico," says Mr. Dickson, describing a general confession in a Buddhist temple.^ 12. The Therapeuts were classed as, first, presbyters (elders), an exact equivalent for the word Arhat, used in Buddha's day for his fully initiated monks. Under the presbyter was the deacon i^diKovoq, covered with dust or dirt). These novices were servant-pupils, the servitor friars (Samaneros) of Buddhism. An ephcmereut, or temporary head, presided at the Thcrapeut service as in Buddhism. That the Christians should have taken over this ephemereut and these presbyters, or priests, and deacons, as their three chief officers, is perhaps the greatest" stumbling-block in the way of those writers, chiefly English and clerical, who main- tain that there was no connection between Christianity and mystic Judaism. We have seen from Philo's letter to Hephaestion that he considered the Therapeuts the same as the Essenes. Indeed in another work, he calls the Essenes, " Therapeuts of God. From Josephus we get some additional facts relative to these mystics. 1. Enforced vegetarianism was one of the main principles of the Essenes as well as of the Buddhists. They refused to go to Jerusalem to the temple sacrifices at the risk of being stoned. 2. The Essenes had a " Sanhedrim of Justice " like the Buddhist Safigha. Excommunication in both was the chief punishment. This was altogether foreign to the lower Mosaism, which allowed no Jew to escape the obligations of the Jewish law. 3. The Essenes, like the Buddhists, forbade slavery, war, revenge, avarice, hatred, worldly longings, etc. 4. Although to "face towards the east" and "worship the sun towards the east " is one of the " abominations " of Ezckiel, the Essenes were not allowed to speak of a morning until they had bowed down to the rising sun. The sun is Buddha's special emblem. In Wung Puh's Life, he is called the "sublime sun, Buddha, whose widespread rays brighten and 1 " Patimokkha,^' p. 2. MYSTICAL ISRAEL. 79 illumine all things." In the same volume Buddha is reported to have said that " bowing to the east was the pdramita of charity." 5. The Essenes, like the Buddhist monks, had ridiculous laws relating to spitting and other natural acts, those of the Essenes being regulated by a superstitious veneration for the Sabbath day, those of the Buddhists, by a superstitious respect for a pagoda.^ 6. In Buddhist monasteries a rigid obedience, together with a quite superstitious respect for the person of a superior, is enacted. In Buddhagosa's Parables is a puerile story of a malicious Muni, who, when an inferior monk had gone out of a hut where the two were sleeping, lay across the doorway in order to make the novice inadvertently commit the great sin of placing his foot above his superior's head. The penalty of such an act is that the offender's head ought to be split into seven pieces. With the Essenes similar superstitions were rife. If an Approacher accidently touched the hem of the garment of an Associate, all sorts of purifications had to be gone through. 7. The principle of thrift and unsavouriness in dress was carried to extremes by both Essenes and Buddhists. The sramana (ascetic) was required to stitch together for his koivat the refuse rags acquired by begging. The Essenes were expected to wear the old clothes of their co-religionists until the}^ tumbled to pieces. In the Tibetan "Life of Buddha," by Rockhill, it is announced that when the great teacher first cast off his kingly silks he donned a foul dress that had been previously worn by ten other saints.^ This throws light on the story of Elisha. Dr. Ginsburg ("The Essenes," p. 13) shows that the Essenes had eight stages of progress in inner or spiritual knowledge. J. Outward or bodily purity by baptism. 2. The state of purity that has conquered the sexual desire. 1 Beal, " Catena," pp. 236, 237. ^ Rockhill, p. 26. 8o BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. 3. Inward and spiritual purity. 4. A meek and gentle spirit which has subdued all anger and malice. 5. The culminating point of holiness. 6. The body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the mystic acquires the gift of prophecy. 7. Miraculous powers of healing, and of raising the dead. 8. The mystic state of Elias. The Buddhists have likewise eight stages of inner progress, the Eightfold Holy Path. The first step, " Those who have entered the stream," the Nai'ranjana, the mystic river of Buddha, is precisely the same as the first Essene step. Then follow advances in purity, holiness, and mastery of passion. In the last two stages, the Buddhists, like the Essenes, gained supernatural powers, to be used in miraculous cures, pro- phecies, and other occult marvels. It must be mentioned that the Essenes w^ere circumcised as well as the other Jews.^ The word " Essenes," according to some learned philolo- gists, means the " Bathers " or " Baptisers," baptism having been their initiatory rite. Josephus tells us that this baptism was not administered until the aspirant had remained a whole year outside the community, but " subjected to their rule of life." 2 I will here give the rite of Buddhist baptism (abhisheka) v/hen a novice is about to become a monk. It consists of many washings, borrowed plainly by the early Buddhists from the Brahmins, and brings to mind the frequent use of water attributed to the Hemero Baptists or disciples of John. It may be mentioned that in some Buddhist countries, Nepal for instance, the various monkish vows are now taken only for form sake. This makes the letter, retained after the spirit has departed, all the more valuable. The neophyte having made an offer of scents and unguents (betel-nut, paun, etc.) to his spiritual guide (guru), the latter, after certain formalities, draws four circles in the form of a cross in honour of the Tri Ratna (trinity) on the ground, and 1 See Origen's version of Josephus's narrative. * Josephus, Ue B. J. 11. 8, 2-13. MYSTICAL ISRAEL. 8 1 the neophyte, seated in a prescribed position, recites the following text : " I salute Buddha-nath, Dharma, and Sangha, and entreat them to bestow upon me the Parivrajya Vrata." It is plain here that the prayer is addressed to the transcen- dental triad. The first and second day of the ceremonial are consumed in prayers and formalities carried on by the guide and his pupil alone ; on the second day, another mystic cross is drawn upon the ground, called the " Swastika asan." A pot containing water and other mystic ingredients, a gold lotus, and certain confections and charms, figures conspicuously in these early rites, and is at last poured on the neophyte's head. This is the baptism. The abbot, or head of the vihara, now appears upon the scene, and sprinkles four seers of rice and milk upon the head of the aspirant. This ceremony is repeated three times. The next day, a barber makes a clean shave of the neophyte's head, leaving only the forelock. Previous to this, the latter has pledged himself to forsake intoxicating liquors, women, evil thoughts, pride ; and promised not to injure any living creature. More washings take place, including a fresh baptism by four ecclesiastics of rank. It must be mentioned that a Buddhist baptism is preceded by a confession of sins and much catechising. The catechumen's name is changed after the baptism. He promises to devote his future life to the Divine triad. The monks of rank then invoke a blessing on his head : " May you be as happy as he who dwells in the hearts of all, who is the Universal Soul, the Lord of all, the Buddha called Ratna Sambhava ! " The change is called the " whole birth ; " and at one moment a light is kindled. The early Christians after initiation were called the " illuminati." A solemn address is made to the triad individually — Buddha, whom "gods and men alike worship," who is apart from the world, "the quintessence of all good ;" Dharma, who is the Prajha Para- mita, the mother, the guide to perfect wisdom and peace ; and Sangha, the son. A mitre like the Mithraic cap is put on at one portion of the ceremonial. The ceremonies for Buddha's new birth of water and the spirit must sound hollow G 82 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. indeed, now that nothing but form remains ; but this form to an inquirer into early Buddhism has a special value. In Tibet this baptism also exists. In Japan that excellent authority, Mr. Pfoundes, tells mc that he has frequently seen neophytes being baptized, or sprinkled with water mixed with aromatic simples. Mr. Oung Gyee tells me that baptism is unknown in Southern Buddhism, although in Burmah they sometimes initiate the novice at the bank of a river, without sprinkling. This last seems a trace of it as having once existed, and so do the mighty tanks excavated in Ceylon. Wung Puh informs us that at " Vai.sali, Buddha resided under a tree (the music-tree), and there delivered a sutra entitled ' The baptism that rescues from life and death, and confers salvation.' " ^ The other great rite of the Essenes was what the mystical societies of the era of Christ called the " Bloodless Oblation." This is the name that was given to the Christian sacrament in the early rituals. According to Josephus, this rite, like the early Christian rite, was practically the daily dinner. To it, "as if to the most holy precincts," the monks, bathed and "purified," assembled. Its hour was the fifth hour after sunrise. White garments were donned, and strangers and catechumens rigidly excluded. Philo, speaking of the Therapeuts, calls it " that portion of the mysteries which is most transcendent." He compares, also, the bread used to the shew-bread of the temple, thus explicitly showing that these mysteries were the Jewish mysteries filched from an exclusive priesthood and given to the people. The shew- bread, literally the " Bread of the Faces," or " of the Presence," consisted of twelve loaves, which denoted the " presence " of Jehovah himself, under his twelve mystical faces at the altar.^ In the " Lalita Vistara," it is announced that those who have faith will become sons of Buddha, and partake of " the food of the kingdom." ^ Four things draw disciples to the Great Banquet of Buddha — gifts, soft words, production of ^ yoiirti. As. Soc. vol. xx. p. 172. ^ Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," sub voce " Shew-bread." ' Foucaux, p. 94. Platk III. mmmmimfKr^!^^^^ --H*§^ taaOl^BQBS^Hi^MHMMBi WliKSllIl' (IF lilDDHA AS THE RICE-CAKE. From A iiiart'ivaii. [Paif 83. MYSTICAL ISRAEL. 83 benefits, conformity of benefits.^ In Buddhism, the chief food of the ascetic, the rice and milk, is, by an intelligible trope, called the amrita, the food of immortal life ; and Buddha's era the epoch when the rice and milk came into the world. This use of food, and especially rice and milk, as a symbol of God, existed in India at a very early date. The main rite of the Brahmins, when they worshipped in a temple of un- hewn upright stones, was an exhibition of the birth of the Sisur Jatah, or new-born child. " The clarified butter is the milk of the woman," says the earliest ritual, the " Aitareya Brahmana," " the husked rice grains belong to the male.",^ This symbol of food was perhaps the earliest symbol of God. In India, at certain seasons, it is made up into little idols ; and also in Tibet. In many of the early Buddhist sculptures, groups are to be seen worshipping a large wheaten or rice cake, as big and as round as a footstool. Mr. Pfoundes tells me that at the time of the new year, in Japan, he has seen cakes as large as this on the Buddhist altars. I copy one of these sculptures from the marbles of the Amaravati tope at the British Museum (see Plate III.). I am certain that this object is food. I saw in the South Kensington Museum, on a miniature chaitya from Sanchi, a similar object, ranged by a vase and covered with a cloth. The details of this mystic Therapeut dinner, as given by Philo, have caused Eusebius and a long line of Catholic writers to maintain that we have simply a description of the Christian sacr amentum, a Latin form of the Greek word, fivarripiov, or " mystery." In the main building of the convent the monks and nuns assembled, being separated the one from the other by a par- tition. After the chief monk had read some passages of the sacred writings and delivered an exhortation, " stretching forth one finger of his right hand " the while, the presbyters began to sing hymns in the choir and also at various " stations " of the building (as the Rev. Dom Bernard de Montfaugon trans- lates the passage) and " altars." Whilst the ephemereut sang, Foucauxj p. 51. ^ Vol. ii. p. 5. 84 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the rest of the community chanted responses in a solemn manner. Then a "table" was brought in by the deacons, and a solemn prayer was offered up to God, " that the feast shall be agreeable to Ilim." On the table was bread, salt, and hyssop and water, " the most sacred of all elements in holiness." After the " mysteries " of this holy feast had been gone through, and all the community had satisfied hunger, the monks and nuns danced together under some strange ecstatic influence until sunrise the next morning. This dance has puzzled the Roman Catholic commentators before alluded to, but some of them find records of religious dances in the early Church. This description of the assembly in the hall of the monas- tery, the sermons, the reading of the holy books, etc., is purely Buddhist. The pro- cessions round the shrines of the temple is a marked feature of the Buddhist ritual, which the litany in praise of the seven Buddhas and similar rituals were designed specially to meet. In all Buddhist temples the priest intones and the lower monks chant responses — the Gre- gorian chant, according to Balfour's " Indian Cyclopaedia," being a Buddhist originality.^ Fig. 7. Mr. of feed , — Tabernacle for the Real Presence of Buddha. Pfoundes tells me that in Japan and China the hours ing and the customs vary amongst different sects. 1 Sub voce " Buddha." MYSTICAL ISRAEL. 85 Noonday is the chief meal, and each monk takes his portion from the common mess, and usually retires to his own hut, or cell, except when there is a feast, when they eat together in some portion of the temple, not the sanctuary. But wherever they eat, a portion of the food is always offered to Buddha at a little miniature altar. The Buddhists have a little tabernacle, like the Catholics, for the Real Presence of Buddha on the high altar. I copy one from the French Orientalist, Langles.^ He affirms that the sacred elements are placed inside, but this must be an exception. The rice and the scented water are placed in front usually. In the early Christian Church, the sacramentwn was called the " giving," and the Greek Church still calls the sacred bread " Corban." ^ " Leave there thy gift before the altar," said Christ (Matt. v. 24), alluding, no doubt, to the " giving " of the Essenes. The " Corban " of the Greek Church has twelve impressions of the cross, thus further con- necting it with the twelve mystical "faces" of the Jewish shew-bread. ^ " Rituel des Tartares Mantchous." ^ picart, ill. 189. 86 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER VIII. BUDDHISM AND THE "KABBALAH." In Philo's letter to Hcphaestion we have seen that the Therapeuts hstened every sabbath to discourses on the traditionary lore which was handed down in secret amongst themselves. Has this secret lore passed away from the earth ? Scholars of the calibre of Reuchlin, Joel, and M. Franck, of the Institute of France, affirm that we have it still in the " Kabbalah." This word implies secret tradition. The legend runs that this secret wisdom was first taught by Jehovah to the seven angels that stand round his throne. It was then handed down orally through the seven earthly messengers (Adam, Moses, David, etc.). Finally, the Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, in a cavern amid earth rocking and supernatural coruscations, delivered it to the world in a " Book of Splendour," the " Sohar." It must be confessed, however, that the genuineness of the work, the " Sohar," is disputed. Dr. Ginsburg affirms that it is the original composition of a Spanish Jew, named Moses de Leon, who lived as recently as the fourteenth century, A.D. This question shall be discussed later on. If the work is a forgery, it is a very clever forgery ; for on its appearance in modern times it wrought quite a revolution in the Jewish religion. Philosophical Jews, who had been unable to accept the traditional Christianity, became Christian converts in large numbers ; and Christians felt that without the " Kabbalah " it was impossible to fully understand Christianity. It is asserted by Dr. Ginsburg, that Reuchhn's treatise upon the "Kabbalah" THE ''kabbalah:' 87 powerfully influenced the early reformers.^ It produced also an illustrious school of mystics. Cornelius Henry Agrippa, John Baptist von Helmont, Robert Fludd, and Raymond Lully, developed under its teaching. Assisted by Dr. Ginsburg, let us briefly consider its theosophy. Beine boundless in his nature, which necessarily implies that he is an absolute unity and inscrutable, and there is nothing without him, or that the to ttuv is in him, God is En Soph— Endless, Boundless. In this boundlessness, or as the En Soph, he cannot be comprehended by the intellect or described in words, for there is nothing which can grasp and depict him to us ; and as such he is, in a certain sense, non- existent, because, as far as our minds are concerned, that which is perfectly incomprehensible does not exist. To make his existence perceptible, and to render himself compre- hensible, the En Soph, or the Boundless, had to become active and creative. But the En Soph cannot be the direct creator, for he has neither wall, intention, desire, thought, language, nor action, as these properties imply limit and belong to finite beings, whereas En Soph is boundless. Besides, the imperfect and circumscribed nature of the creation precludes the idea that the world was created or even designed by him, who can have no will nor produce anything but what is like himself, boundless and perfect. On the other hand, again, the beautiful design displayed in the mechanism, the regular order manifested in the preservation, distinction, and renewal of things, forbid us to regard this world as the off- spring of chance, and constrain us to recognize therein an intelligent design. We are therefore compelled to view the En Soph as the creator of the world in an indirect manner. Now, the medium by which the En Soph made his exist- ence known in the creation of the world, are ten sephiroth or intelligences^ which emanated from the Boundless One in the following manner : At first, the En Soph, or Aged of the Aged, or the Holy Aged, as he is alternately called, sent forth 1 "The Kabbalah," p. 131. 2 Translated also " attributes," " powers " {viroaraffeis). 88 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. from the spiritual light one spiritual substance or intelligence. This first scphira, which existed in the En Soph from all eternity, and became a reality by a mere act, has no less than seven appellations. I. The Crown, because it occupies the highest position. II. The Aged, because it is the oldest, or the first emana- tion. III. TJie Primordial Point, or the Smooth Point, because, as the " Sohar " tells us, " When the Concealed of the Con- cealed wished to reveal himself, he first made a single point. The infinite was entirely unknown, and diffused no light before this luminous point violently broke through into vision " ("Sohar" I., 15 a). IV. The White Head V. Tlie Long Face, Macro prosopon, because the whole ten sepJiiroth represent the primordial or heavenly man, of which the first sephira is the head. VI. The Inscrutable Height, because it is the highest of all the sephiroth, proceeding immediately from the En Soph. VII. Absolute Being, expressed in the Bible by EhejeJi, or / am, representing the infinite as distinguished from the finite, and in the angelic order by the celestial beasts of Ezekiel, called chajoth. The first sephira contains the other nine sephira. Plainly it is En Soph reproduced. These nine sephiroth are as follows : — 1. Wisdom, called also the Father, an active male potency. 2. Intelligence, called also the Mother, a passive or female potency. It is from the union of these two, the Ophanim and Arelim, that the other seven sephiroth were produced. 3. Love, greatness. 4. Judgment, justice, strength. 5. Beauty. 6. Firmness. 7. Splendour. 8. Foundation. 9. Kingdom. Summed up, these ten sephiroth, or perfections, were the THE ''kabbalah:' 89 perfections of the heavenly man, God imaged as the seen universe, and as a man, the active, the conceivable God. Now, it is certainly singular that this complete system of theogony, which is supposed by Dr. Ginsburg to be the original composition of Moses de Leon, a Jew who died in Spain, A.D. 1305, should be a literal, I might almost say a servile, reproduction in terminology as well as idea of the theogony of the Buddhists. And the portion that Dr. Gins- burg considers the most modern and spurious part of the " Kabbalah," namely, that of En Soph and the ten sephiroth.^ happens to be the part that is most conspicuously Buddhist in every detail. Buddha, called also the Swayambhu (the Self-Existent), Bhagavan (God), Adi Buddha (the First Intelligence), etc., is the formless, passionless, inactive, indefinable, illimitable, bein^ that the " Kabbalah " describes under the title En Soph. " Know that when in the beginning all was perfect void and the five elements were not, then Adi Buddha, the stain- less, was revealed in the form of flame and light. "He is without parts, shapeless, self-sustained, void of pain and care (Karanda Vyuha)." " He is the essence of all essences. He is the Vajra atma (Being of Adamant). He is the instantly produced lord of the Universe (Nama Sangiti)." Let us see if there are any other points of contact between En Soph and the transcendental Buddha. "The Aged of the Aged," says the "Sohar," "the Unknown of the Unknown has a form, yet has no form. He has a form whereby the universe is preserved, and yet has no form, because he cannot be comprehended. When he first assumed the form (of the first sephira) he caused nine splendid lights to emanate from it, which, shining through it, diffused a bright light in ail directions. Imagine an elevated light sending forth its rays in all directions. Now, if we approach it to examine the rays, we understand no more than that they emanate from the said light. So is the Holy Aged an absolute light, but in himself concealed and incomprehen- sible. We can only comprehend him through those luminous 1 " The Kabbalah," p. 89. 90 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. emanations which again arc partly visible and partly con- cealed. These constitute the sacred name of God." ^ This is asserting what we have seen wu'itten down of the Primordial Buddha, that he is "the form of all things yet formless," and that he was "first revealed in the form of light." A favourite Kabbalistic simile for En Soph is a point or dot. " The indivisible point who has no limit, and who cannot be comprehended because of his purity and brightness, ex- panded from without and formed a brightness which served as a covering to the indivisible point. Yet it, too, could not be viewed in consequence of its immeasurable light. It, too, expanded from without, and this expansion was its garment. Thus everything originated through a constant upheaving agitation, and thus finally the world originated " (" Sohar," I. 20 a). Now listen to the Buddhists : " He whose image is Sun- yata (no image), who is like a cypher, or point, infinite, unsustained in Nirvritti, and sustained in Pravritti, whose essence is Nirvritti, of whom all things are forms, and who is yet formless, who is the Isvara (God), the first intellectual essence, the first Buddha was revealed by his own will." ^ I will proceed to show that the Buddhists have ten paramitas or perfections of Buddha, very like the sephiroth of the " Kab- balah." The conventional image of Buddha is that of an ascetic seated, with his eyes closed in the rapturous trance called Dhyani. 'Twas thus that a man was supposed to gain miraculous powers. The rationale of this, according to modern psychology, is that it is possible, by a species of self- mesmerism, to temporarily detach spirit from its mortal envelope, and to allow it to put forth its full powers. With such ideas current, it would be natural to image God by the figure of a man in Dhyani. This shows us the full force of the first Buddhist .sephira or paramita. The first Jewish sephira represents, as we have seen, " absolute being," " the 1 Ginsburg, p. 15. ^ Cited by Hodgson, p. 'Ji. THE ''KABBALAH." 9 1 infinite as distinguished from the finite." By a fiction, it is represented as the one sephira that had been in existence from all eternity, the meaning, of course, being that the heavenly man must be En Soph as well as the anthropo- morphic God. This first Buddhist paramita is Dhyani, and this seems to symbolize this truth better than the Jewish sephira. We then get two paramitas, Upaya and Prajna, which represent the fatherly and motherly principles, as in the " Kabbalah." " From the union of Upaya and Prajna," says an old Buddhist book cited by Mr. Hodgson, " proceeded the world." ^ Prajna is the exact equivalent of the Alexandrine word Sophia — wisdom imaged as a woman. Upaya is variously translated. Its literal meaning is "approach." Burnouf renders it " wish " or " prayer." Upaya-Prajna, with the Buddhists, is a conception similar to the Ardha Nari (literally, half woman) of the Brahmins — the kosmos imaged as a bi-sexual God.^ "The Anointed they call male-female," says Cyril of Jerusalem.^ The Karmikas hold that Upaya and Prajna parented Manas, the lord of the senses, and that he produced the tangible virtues and vices/ There are three major and seven minor sephiroth in the " Kabbalah," as Franck shows. The seven minor paramitas are — 1. Charity (Dana). 2. Morality (Sila). 3. Patience (Santi). 4. Industry (Virya). 5. Fortitude (Bala). 6. Foreknowledge (Pranidhi). 7. Gnosis (Jnana). But if we are to accept the dictum of Dean Mansel, that Buddhist missionaries visited Alexandria within two genera- 1 "Essays," p. 88. 2 gee Hodgson, pp. 80, 81. 3 Bk. vi. II. * Hodgson, p. 78. 92 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. tions of the time of Alexander the Great, we can conceive that such missionaries would meet with one crucial difficulty. Prominent amongst Buddhist teaching would be the doctrine of Purusha, the heavenly man, and prominent amongst the Buddhist apparatus of worship brought from India would be marble and bronze statues of Purusha, with the celebrated thirty-two signs. But how would a graven image be received by a Jew .-' Did he not interpret the second commandment as forbidding statues, pictures, all art ? The answer given to this question quite proves, I think, the genuineness of the "Kabbalah." It is quite impossible that Moses de Leon,A.D. 1300, could have hit upon so ingenious a device, because it is quite certain that in his day the ques- tion to be solved could not have been appreciated in its full force. The solution was twofold. 1. A compromise was adopted in the matter of the second commandment. Flat representations, pictures, bas-reliefs were permitted. This is proved from the many Alexandrian talismans and incised stones. We have also the evidence of the catacombs, modelled as Dean Stanley has shown, on the sepulchral crypts and rock chapels of Palestine. The Greek Church still only permits " flat icons." 2. As many of the "signs" of Purusha — fingers like copper, feet flat, and figured with lotuses and swastikas, head shaped like a temple, with a toran at the top, and so on — could only be made intelligible by sculpture, it was resolved to mix up the signs and the paramitas. Thus, the sephiroths give physical qualities as well as moral, in that they differ from the paramitas. The heavenly man has a dazzling " crown," " splendour," " beauty," " white hair," a " long face," " firmness," " kingdom " — all these are symbols of Purusha. Sign I. His head has for crown a raised knob. It is con- fessed in many Buddhist writings that the conventional Buddha's head represents a chaitya ; so this raised knob is the most lofty of symbols. It is the toran, the heaven of the transcendental Buddha. Sign 4. Wool (urna) appears between his eyebrows, white as snow and sparkling like silver. THE "KABBALAH." 93 Sign 17. His skin glitters like burnished gold. Sien 20. His trunk is firm as the banyan tree. Sign 31. On the sole of each foot is the impress of the wheel of a thousand spokes. This is the symbol of " king- dom," of universal dominion. No. 38 of the Minor Signs announces that from him issues a pure light which dispels the darkness. I will cite here a passage from the first chapter of the Apocalypse, when St. John, apparently in a Christian temple on " the Lord's day," hears a voice — " And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars : and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword : and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." The hands of Buddha are said to be " like copper," and the feet of the mystic Alpha and Omega are "like brass." Do both descriptions refer to the conventional effigies of each ? Both, too, have a lambent coruscation, and hair like white wool. The coincidence is remarkable. The Buddhist initiate is called Arahat, the " Aged," the " Venerable." Let us now consider the arguments brought forward to impugn the antiquity of the " Sohar." I. The wife and daughter of one Moses de Leon, who died at Arevelo, in Spain, A.D. 1305, positively declared that the said Moses had " confessed to them that he had composed the ' Sohar ' from his own head, and that he wrote it with his own hand." They were promised by a rich man, named Joseph de Avila, a large sum of money if they could produce an ancient manuscript of which Moses de Leon had boasted. This was their reply.^ ^ Ginsburg, p. 91. 94 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. 2. The "Sohar" contains whole passages translated by Moses de Leon from his other works. 3. The doctrine of En Soph and the ten Sephiroth is asserted by Dr. Ginsburg to have been unknown before the thirteenth century. To this he adds, oddly enough, the " doc- trine of metempsychosean retribution." 4. The " Sohar " alludes to very modern events — a " comet that appeared in Rome, July 25, 1264;" the "Crusades and Crusaders;" the "descendants of Ishmael, or the Moham- medans." It mystically explains the Hebrew vowel-points, which were unknown before A.D. 570. It steals two verses from a writer who was not born until A.D. 1021.'- 5. A fifth objection might be here stated. It is affirmed by Franck that the "Sohar" is written in a Hebrew that is not the archaic Hebrew that Rabbi Ben Jochai would have used. It is a form of Hebrew known to scholars as the "dialect of Jerusalem." It disappeared about the sixth cen- tury A.D. This form of Hebrew is, however, utterly unlike the Hebrew of the thirteenth century. Now, I appeal to Dr. Ginsburg. Is it not plain, on the very surface, that these objections are internecine? A scholar has wit enough to compose a work that contains the sub- limated essence of the three greatest creeds that the world has seen — the religions of Moses, Buddha, and Christ. With unrivalled sympathy and insight, he can put forth the postu- lates of the higher Christianity in such a manner that numbers of Jews, on reading the work, became converts. And yet the same man is represented as being dense enough to clumsily allude to " Crusaders," " Roman comets," " Mohammedans," etc. Are not these rather the sort of accretions that come to a genuine manuscript after a long voyage, like barnacles to a ship ? Then, too, if this unrivalled scholar is capable of the unparalleled feat of writing reams upon reams of manuscript in the accurate Hebrew of the sixth century A.D., the question arises, why did he select the sixth century Hebrew, and not the Hebrew of some ten, or at least five, centuries before } To such a scholar one feat would have been as easy as the ^ Ginsburg, " The Kabbalah," p. 85, et scq. THE ''kabbalah:' 95 other ; and his cheat required, perforce, the most archaic Hebrew possible. I think, too, that his alleged citations from his own works are capable of a different construction. A genius of the pattern that we have described would certainly have avoided so clumsy a blunder ; but a poor cheat, who had access to a secret manuscript, might have stolen some of its ideas and found himself unable to conceal his theft. Dr. Ginsburg's theory is that Moses de Leon, for the hope of a few doubloons, worked out his colossal forgery in many rambling books. But are not means and end entirely incommensurate ? At the end of his colossal labour, what certainty would he have of any doubloons at all t Franck accentuates this difficulty. He points out, moreover, that the Rabbi Guedelia affirmed that Moses ben Nachman found the manuscript in Palestine, and sent it to Spain, where Moses de Leon saw it. Franck points out other difficulties in the way of the theory that the "Sohar" is the original composition of Moses de Leon. 1. There is no trace in it of the philosophy of Aristotle, so rampant in the thirteenth century.^ 2. There is no trace of Christ and Christianity.^ 3. An examination of its style, want of unity, etc., makes it impossible to set it down as the work of one man.^ 4. More than a century after its publication in Spain, certain Jews still handed down the bulk of the ideas contained in it by oral tradition.* 5. The discovery of the " Codex Nasarseus " sets at rest the question whether the ideas and philosophy of the " Sohar " were in existence in ancient Palestine.^ "But why," says Franck, "should we glean laboriously, a few scattered hints in the Acts of the Apostles and in the hymns of St. Ephrem, when we can fill our hands from a monument of great price recently published in a Syriac text, and translated by a learned Orientalist. We speak of the ' Codex Nasaraeus,' that Bible of purely oriental gnosticism. 1 See Franck, " La Kabbale," p. 93. 2 ibj^,, p. 106. 3 Ibid., p. 107. * Ibid., p. 123. 5 Ibid., p. 133. 96 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. It is well known that St. Jerome and St. Epiphanius trace up the sect of the Nazarenes to the birth of Christianity. Well, such is the similarity of a great number of its dogmas, and the most essential points of the system of the ' Kabbalah,' that in reading them in the work cited, we fancy that we have come across a stray variorum manuscript of the ' Sohar.' God always figures as the ' King' and the ' Master' of ' Light' He is Himself 'Pure Splendour,' the 'Eternal and Infinite Light' He is 'Beauty,' 'Life,' 'Justice,' and 'Pity.' From Him emanate all forms that we see in the world. He is the Creator and Artisan. But His proper wisdom is His own essence. None know them. All creatures ask each other what is His name, and are compelled to reply that He has none. The King of Light, of that infinite light that has no name that can be evoked, no nature that can be known. Only with a pure heart can one attain to that light, a just soul and a faith abounding in love."^ " The gradation by which the Nazarene teaching descends from the Supreme Being to the extreme limits of creation is exactly the same as in a passage of the ' Sohar ' already quoted more than once in this work. The djins, the kings and the creatures, with prayer and hymn celebrate the supreme king of the light from whom issue five miraculous rays. The first is the light which lights every being. The .second is the soft breath of life. The third is the gentle voice with which they breathe forth their gladness. The fourth is the word which instructs them and trains them to bear witness to the faith. The fifth is the type of all the forms under which they develop, as fruits grow ripe when warmed by the sun." ^ "It is impossible," pursues the French scholar, "not to recognize in these lines, to which we had restricted ourselves in our translation, the different degrees of existence set forth by the Kabbalists by thought, breath, or soul, voice or the word. Here are other familiar images that express the same idea — " Before all creatures was the Life. It was hidden within ^ "Codex Nas.," i. p. ii. ^ jbid.^ p. g. THE ''KABBALAH." 97 itself ; Life eternal and incomprehensible, without light, with- out form. From its bosom was born the luminous atmosphere (Ajar zivo), called also the Word, the Garment, or the sym- bolical river which represents Wisdom. From this river issue the living waters which the Nazarines and Kabbalists represent as the third manifestation of God. It is intelli- gence or spirit which in its turn produces the second life, a conception far removed from the first. This second life is called Juschamin, the region of forms, of ideas, in the bosom of which was conceived first of all the idea of the creation of which it is the loftiest and purest type. The second life by- and-by parented the third life, also called the Good Father, the Unknown Old Man, the Ancient of the World. The Good Father having inspected the abyss, the darkness, and the black waters, left there his image which, under the name of Fetahil, became the demiurge or architect of the universe. Then begins an interminable series of aeons, a hierarchy both infernal and celestial which has no further interest for us. Sufficient that these three lives, these three grades in the Pleroma hold the same position as the three Kabbalistic " faces," whose very name (farsufo) is found in the language of this sect ; and Ave can be the more confident of this inter- pretation since we meet with them also the ten sephiroth divided as in the " Sohar " into three superior and seven inferior attributes. As the singular accident that caused the birth of the demiurge and the generation more or less imperfect of the subaltern spirits they are the mythological expression of this idea, also very clearly laid down in the ' Codex Nasa- ra;us ' that darkness and evil are nothing more than the gradual weakening of the divine light." ^ Franck holds that the " Sohar " is neither borrowed from Plato nor the Alexandrian school of Philo, but is anterior to both.^ The question of the profound and accurate Buddhism of the work has not been touched on. In the almost total paralysis of Oriental studies in the thirteenth century how could a Spaniard know all about the ten paramitas, and the thirty-two lakshanas ? The Portuguese Ribeyro as late as 1 " Codex Nas.," p. 211. 2 page 388. H 98 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. 1701 announces in his " History of Ceylon" that Buddha is St. Thomas. In our next chapter we have to treat of a very important character, whose advent, according to the Christ of St. Luke, put an end to the law and the prophets. ( 99 ) CHAPTER IX. The Baptist — " The People prepared for the Lord " — Were they Essenes ? — o J^aCapaTos — Nazarites or Sabeans — The Book of Adam. The Baptist. I WILL write down a few texts about John — " But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard ; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness ; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the dis- obedient to the wisdom of the just ; to make ready a peopje prepared for the Lord" (Luke i. 13-17). " The Word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low ; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth ; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then he said to the multitude [' Pharisees and Sadducees,' according to Matthew] that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath 1 00 B UDDHISM IN CHRISTEND OM. warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father : for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees : every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. And the people asked him, saying. What shall we do then? He answercth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came also publicans to be bap- tized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do ? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do } And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and be content with your wages" (Luke iii. 2-14). "And all the people that heard him, and the publicans justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." " For I say unto you. Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." " For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say. He hath a devil." Now, if in this we do not get the portrait of an Essene, it is difficult to imagine to what section of the Jews the Baptist belonged. He used the rite of baptism which was peculiar to the Essenes. He ordered a partition of clothes and neces- saries. He abstained from wine and "soft raiment." He strongly assailed the Pharisees and Sadducees, that is, all Israel except the Essenes. They rejected his baptism, and accused him of demonology, the favourite indictment of anti-mystical versus mystical Israel. Moreover, the Baptist is stated to have reached the eighth or crowning Essene state of spiritual advancement, the "spirit and power of Elias." Another point is of the highest importance. The scene of his ministry was the stony " wilderness," the arid moun- THE BAPTIST. lOI tain region that stretches from Jerusalem to the Quarantania mountain, and from the Quarantania to En-Gedi. Now this, according to PHny the elder, was the very spot where the bulk of the Essenes was to be found. Their numbers in his day were enormous. Josephus fixes these numbers at four thou- sand souls. We learn of John, too, that his followers were multitudes, in fact a whole " people prepared for the Lord." Thus, on the hypothesis that John was not an Essene, there must have been two large groups of Israelites inde- pendently dwelling in a mountainous waste which was of all spots in Palestine the least fitted for the sustenance of a crowd. Both were using, moreover, the same rites. How is it that the second vast group has been completely ignored by the writers who have chronicled the deeds of John and his disciples the Nazarenes .'' But, before we go further, we must consider the term Nazarene or Nazarite. Christ, in the inscription on the cross, was called "The Nazarite" (6 Na^wpmoc, Luke iv. 31). The Church of Jerusalem was called the Church of the Nazarenes, or Nazarites. It is the only name for Christians mentioned in the Acts.^ The followers of John the Baptist were called Nazarites or Nazarenes, and they still exist and are called Nazarenes to this day. The Essenes, according to Epipha- nius, were called Nazarines or Nazoraeans.^ Calmet's Dictionary makes the words " Nazarene " and " Nazarite " identical, and so does Tertullian. Speaking of the Christians he says, " For we are they of whom it is written. Their Nazarites were whiter than snow." ^ The Nazarite in old Israel was the prophet, the mystic. The root word is nazir, and it signifies "separation." The true Nazarite, like the prophet Samuel, was separated to the Lord from his mother's womb. He made a vow to let his hair grow like the Indian yogi. He made a vow to abstain from wine. This vow, in the case of the real Nazarite, was for life. Jeremiah (Lam. iv. 7) uses the word as synonymous with the prophets of Israel. " Her Nazarites were purer than 1 Acts xxiv. 5. 2 " Adv. Haen," xi. 29. ^ V. Marcion, cap. viii. p. 196. 102 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. snow." Amos does the same : " I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites" (Amos ii. ii). There is a popular theory amongst EngHsh divines that Christ was called 6 Na^wioaToc, the Nazarite, or as we translate it, "Jesus of Nazareth," because, according to Matthew (ii. 23), •he stayed for a short time at Nazareth with his parents on his return from Egypt ; but Pilate, in writing up Christ's offence upon the cross, would scarcely have taken this small event of His life into consideration. He intended most probably to write up that Jesus was the anointed leader of the Nazarites. So fearful was the importance of the great mystical movement in Palestine in the view of the dominant party, that all devout Jews were required to utter the following curse three times a day — " Send thy curse, O God, upon the Nazarenes." ^ But when Israel began to slaughter prophets instead of listening to them, the Nazarite from a reality became a sham. The form remained, and it was customary on certain occasions for a pious Jew to let his hair grow and to abstain from wine for a week. He was not, of course, a real prophet. The Tree of Deborah with its mystical dreams had been cut down by the priest. Let us examine a little more carefully the picture of the Nazarenes given to us in the recently recovered "Book of Adam," which Franck considers so invaluable. They are also called Sabeans and Mandaites. I make use of the version by Norbcrg, translated by F. Tempestini. ^ The Nazarenes, or Disciples of John, believed in an " inert God," who remained quiescent and concealed in the " black waters." He is also called the Self-existent (p. 71). They divided space into Fira (ethereal spirit substance, the Buthos of the Gnostics) and Ayar (the Pleroma). From the inert God dwelling in Fira emanated Mana, the " Lord of Glory," the " King of Light," and Youra, the " Lord of Light." The word Mana has puzzled Hebrew scholars. It signifies a "vase." Is it an accidental circumstance that the first 1 Jerome, cited by Riddle, "Christian Antiquities," p. 135. 2 Migne, " Diet, des Apocr.yphes," vol. i. p. 2. THE BAPTIST. IO3 emanation of Adi Buddha is called Manas in India ? The Sanskrit word Manas is equivalent to the Greek word Nous. The divine beings Manas, Mana, and Nous, are identical. They represent the inert God in his active form. The Nazarenes held that Mana produced millions of Manas, peopling space with many starry systems, and Fira millions of Firas and Schekintas. Schekinta is a form of the word Shechinah, and signifies " divine majesty rendered present and living with men " (p. 69). " All these stand up and praise Mana, the Lord of Glory, dwelling in Ayar." Important amongst the creations of Mana^ the Lord of Glory, was a heavenly Jordan planted with immortal trees (p. 6^\ This Jordan produced millions of other Jordans. For the benefit of the " Nazarenes of the world " was also instituted the great "Baptism of Light," (pp. 39, 121), called also the " Baptism of the First Life " (p. 59), the various pre- sentments of God being likewise called the " First Life," the " Second Life," and so on. It is recorded in the "Book of Adam" that Fetahil, a subordinate spirit of light, formed a project to bridge earth and heaven with a mighty bridge. In this he was opposed by the Touros, the giant spirits of darkness (p. 82). The institution of the Nazarenes was plainly this bridge. They proposed to bring a " Kingdom of Light " (p. 64) down to the dull dark earth. The denizens of this Kingdom of Light were clothed in white, like the Essenes (p. 39). They were "Apostles of Righteousness." They had the " seal of the Father," They warred with " arms not made of steel." They were " the Elect," the Illuminati. To the humble Nazarenes it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. "Revealer, who makest known the inmost secrets, have mercy on us," says one of their invocations (p. 63). I will write down a few texts from this bible of pre- Christian Christianity — " Blessed are the peaceful " (p. 24). " Blessed are the just, the peacemakers, and the faithful." 104 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Blessed are the peacemakers that abstain from evil " (p. 64). " Desire not gold nor silver, nor the riches of the world. For this world will perish, and all its riches." " Bow not down to Satan, nor to idols and graven images " (P-30- " When thou makest a gift, O chosen one, seek no witness thereof to mar thy bounty. He who collects witnesses of his almsgiving loses his merit. Let thy right hand be ignorant of the gifts of thy left " (p. 32). " Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked ; for he who gives will receive abundantly" (p. 32). " Submit yourselves to the powers " (p. 66). Here is a description of the city of light in the clouds — " The mercy and goodness and majesty of the King of Light cannot be fathomed. None can know these things save the life that is within thee, and the spirits and messengers that gird thee around. " Thy creatures they know not even thy name. " The kings of light ask one another. What is the name of the Great Light } They answer, He has no name. " His throne is stable, like the throne of the Most High. It is stablished from generation to generation. " No poor sculptor of earth has fashioned this throne. The palace of the king was not built up by earthly masons. Immovable he dwells in a city of diamonds, a city without discord and broils. " In that city are no butchers, nor gluttons surcharged with meat. It knows not the wine of wantonness nor the songs of riot. " Its vesture is spotless, and its crown eternal. The tears of weeping women disturb it not. " No corpses are seen in its streets, nor war, nor warriors. The King of Light gives of his own pure joy to all his children. " Monarch of angels and kings, wearing upon his brow a mighty crown, he rules every being by his sweetness and power " (p. 26). THE BAPTIST. IO5 This is how the Nazarenes attacked orthodox Mosaism— " Then will appear that ignoble nation which will slaughter fat ofiferings and make God's sanctuary swim in blood. It will commit wicked acts and call itself the People of the House of Israel. It will circumcise with a bloody sword, and smear its face and lips with gore. Its sons will burn with infamous lust, perverting the faith. I say to the chosen ones. My disciples, peacemakers, and faithful, who live in these days, follow not their example. Shun their feasts and avoid their drinks ; marry not their daughters. A generation of slaves and adulterers, instead of honouring the Most High, they will discard Moses, the prophet of the Holy Ghost, who gave them the Law, and dishonour Abraham, that other prophet of God. . . . " I, the first of Apostles, tell all the sons of Adam who have been, or will be, born into the world, shun the speech of these angels of apostasy. They are able to render apostate the sons of men, creating the pride of gold and silver, of treasure and possessions, the lust of false appearances, and illusive shows. " Their sons will take up arms and engage in the agonies of strife. They will say, fear us, adore us, set up altars in our midst. They will wear the cloak of hypocrisy, and make a pretence of fasting and of deeds of bounty. . . . " Put on your stoles and white garments, O peacemakers, symbols of the water of life. Put on your heads white crowns, like the crowns of glory of heaven's angels. ... " You who are peacemakers say not, This is hidden, and this is unknown. Say not that to the Most High alone is known the mysteries. He has revealed them to you. Take up arms not of steel, but of more worthy metal, the weapons of faith and justice, the weapons of the Nazarene " (pp. 54, 55). The following passages throw some light on the rites of the peacemakers : — " Listen to my words, O chosen ones. Observe the great fast, that fast which contemns the food and drink of this mortal world. " When thou eatest, or drinkest, or sleepest, or restest, in 106 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. all things strive to exalt the Name of the great King of Light, and hasten to the Jordan to receive His baptism." " Give bread, water, and a home, to him who is tormented by the tyranny of persecution" (p. 35). " Assemble the faithful. Read to them the scriptures. Pray to the Lord for His mercy, that His splendour may go before and his light follow after. Say to the chosen ones the soft words that I have spoken to thee, and give them the hymn that I have inspired" (p. 35). ( 107 ) CHAPTER X. Jesus and the Baptist — Great importance of the Baptism of Jesus — Initia- tion of Early Christians — Buddha's Baptism, Fasting, and Temp- tation. Jesus and the Baptist. We now come to the adult Jesus. The first prominent fact of His life is His baptism by John. If John was an Essene the full meaning of this may be learnt from Josephus — " To one that aims at entering their sect, admission is not immediate ; but he remains a whole year outside it, and is subjected to their rule of life, being invested with an axe, the girdle aforesaid, and a white garment. Provided that over this space of time he has given proof of his perseverance, he approaches nearer to this course of life, and partakes of the holier waters of cleansing ; but he is not admitted to their community of life. Following the proof of his strength of control, his moral conduct is tested for two years more ; and when he has made clear his worthiness, he is thus adjudged to be of their number. But before he touches the common meal, he pledges to them, in oaths to make one shudder, first that he will reverence the Divine Being, and, secondly, that he will abide in justice unto men, and will injure no one, either of his own accord or by command, but will always detest the iniquitous, and strive on the side of the righteous ; that he will ever show fidelity to all, and most of all to those who are in power, for to no one comes rule without God ; and that, if he become a ruler himself, he will never carry inso- lence into his authority, or outshine those placed under him by dress or any superior adornment ; that he will always love truth, and press forward to convict those that tell lies ; that I08 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. he will keep his hands from peculation, and his soul pure from unholy gain ; that he will neither conceal anything from the brethren of his order, nor babble to others any of their secrets, even though in the presence of force, and at the hazard of his life. In addition to all this, they take oath not to communi- cate the doctrines to any one in any other way than as imparted to themselves ; to abstain from robbery, and to keep close, with equal care, the books of their sect and the names of the angels. Such are the oaths by which they receive those that join them " (Josephus, De B. J., Ti. 8, 2, 13). As a pendant to this, I will give the early Christian initiation from the Clementine " Homilies." " If any one having been tested is found worthy, then hand over to him according to the initiation of Moses, by which he delivered his books to the Seventy who succeeded to his chair." These books are only to be delivered to " one who is good and religious, and who wishes to teach, and who is circumcised and faithful." " Wherefore let him be proved not less than six years, and then, according to the initiation of Moses, he (the initiator) should bring him to a river or fountain, which is living water, where the regeneration of the righteous takes place." The novice then calls to witness heaven, earth, water, and air, that he will keep secret the teachings of these holy books, and guard them from falling into profane hands, under the penalty of becoming "accursed, living and dying, and being punished with everlasting punishment." " After this let him partake of bread and salt with him who commits them to him." ^ Now if, as is so widely believed in England, the chief object of Christ's mission was to stablish for ever the Mosaism of the bloody altar, and combat the main teaching of the a(TKt)T{i<;, or mystic, which " postulates the false principle of the malignity of matter," why did He go to an «a)c)jrj/9 to be baptized ? Whether or not Christ belonged to mystical Israel, there can be no discussion about the Baptist. He was ' Clem., "Homilies," ch. 3, 4, 5. JESUS AND THE BAPTIST. IO9 a Nazarite "separated from his mother's womb," who had in- duced a whole " people " to come out to the desert and adopt the Essene rites and their community of goods. And we see, from a comparison of the Essene and early Christian initia- tions, what such baptism carried with it. It implied pre- liminary instruction and vows of implicit obedience to the instructor. Continuing our parallelism between the lives of Christ and Buddha, we will now show that he, too, had his baptism, fasting, and temptation. We will turn to the Buddhist narrative, which may here throw light on the Christian account. The first temptation of Buddha was at the great gate of the Palace of Summer. Suddenly Mara, the very wicked one, appeared in the air and called out to the prince — " Prince Siddharta, do not lead the life of a yogi. In seven days' time you shall be a universal monarch, ruling the four great continents. Return to the palace." Buddha refused nobly ; but, by the magic influence of the wicked one, he harboured a strong inclination to look once more on the city of his father. He combated this fancy ; when lo, and behold, by a mighty miracle, Mara the tempter caused the earth to pivot round " like the wheel of a potter." Sud- denly the sad eyes of Buddha fell on the tall towers and brilliant lamps of the great city sleeping in the moonlight. The young man hesitated, and then rode on ^ in the direction of Vaisali. In the morning he reached the Anoma (modern Aumi) River below Sangrampura. At this point the god Indra, disguised as a hunter, induced him to take off his emeralds and silks and put on a hermit's dress. The prince cut off his flowing locks with his own sword. He sent back the charioteer and the good horse Kantaka. Each of these in- cidents was afterwards commemorated by a chaitya at the spot. They meant, of course, that Buddha's guru, personify- ing Indra, had made Buddha go through the customary initiation, the tonsure, vows of poverty, etc. 1 Bigandet, " Burmese Life," p. 65. I 10 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Leaving the Anoma, which is a branch of the modern Raptee, the prince made his first real halt at Vaisali (the modern Besarh), a spot about twenty miles north of Patna. Here he found a number of yogis undergoing their initiation in yoga-vidya, or white magic, in a forest. In this wood, Buddha commenced what the " Lalita Vis- tara " calls the " ecstatic meditation on Brahma and his world." But to obtain yoga, or the mystic union with Brahma, the novice must become a servant-pupil of some eminent adept (Brahmajnani). At Vaisali was a holy man, Arata Kalama, and Buddha said to him, " By thee, O Arata Kalama, must I be initiated into the condition of a seeker of Brahma (Brahma- charin)." For six years Buddha sat cross-legged, seeking to obtain the visions of the higher Buddhism and the magical faculties which by all old mystics were considered a guarantee that the visions were genuine. He stopped his respiration, says the narrative, and got to eat only one grain of the jujube-tree per diem. These practices began by-and-by to reduce the prince to a mere mass of dried skin and bone. The villagers thought he was dying. In the Chinese version it is recorded that he fasted forty-seven days and nights without taking an atom of food. When he was in these straits, Mara appeared before him with a second temptation. He urged him to save his life by breaking his long fast and eating food — " Sweet creature," said the tempter, in dulcet tones, " you are at the hour of death. Sacrifice food, and eat a portion of it to save your life." The reply of Buddha is a fine one — " Death, demon, is the inevitable end of life. Why should I dream of avoiding death } Who falls in battle is noble. Who is conquered is as good as dead. Demon, soon I shall triumph over thee. Lust is thy first army, ennui thy second, hunger and thirst are thy third army. Passions and idleness and fear and rage and hypocrisy are amongst thy soldiers, backbitings, flatteries, false renown, — these are thy inky allies, soldiers of a chief whose doom is near." yESUS AND THE BAPTIST. 1 1 1 It is to be observ^ed how close all this is to the two temp- tations of Christ— the appeal to hunger and the magical view of the glorious material Jerusalem. A third temptation is with the daughters of Mara, dis- guised as beautiful women. Then Mara again accosts Buddha— " I am the lord of desire ; I am the master of this entire world. Gods and men and beasts have all fallen into my power. Thou art in my domain. I charge thee, leave that tree and speak to me ! " " If thou art the lord of appetite," replies Buddha, " thou art not the prince of light. I am the lord of the kingdom of righteousness. Forsake the way of evil." " Ascetic," said the wicked one, " what you seek is not easy to attain. Bhrigu and Angiras by many austerities sought emancipation and failed to find it." Bhrigu and Angiras were two of the seven Rishis of the Vedas. The wicked one draws a sword from its scabbard, and thunders out in a menacing voice, " Rise up as I order. Obey me, or like a green reed thou shalt be cut in pieces." At the same time the spirits of darkness hurl mountains and flames and mighty trees at Buddha. Globes of fire dart through the air, and huge masses of iron, and terrible javelins tipped with a deadly poison. From the four corners of heaven the turmoil rages, and huge monsters are summoned from the vast abyss beneath the earth. With majestic calmness, Buddha views all these demon hostilities as a sickly dream, as illusion. By the aid of his guardians of the unseen world, the bolts launched against him are turned into beautiful flowers. In the most solemn manner, Buddha then calls to Brahma Prajapati, lord of creatures, and to his heavenly host, and to "all the Buddhas that live at the ten horizons." He smites the ground, and earth reverberates like a huge vessel of brass. His prayer is, " Disperse this inky crew ! " Immediately the horses and chariots and elephants of the demon army are tumbled into the mud and the mighty warriors 112 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. dispersed. They fly like birds before a blazing forest. The Wicked One himself becomes haggard, immensely aged, depressed, overcome. A spirit of the immortal tree takes compassion upon him, and restores him with consecrated water. " Because I refused to listen to the wise words of my sons, and opposed this pure being, misery has been my lot, and fear and humiliation. Cursings and contempt have come upon me by mine own seeking." When Buddha was emaciated and almost dead with his terrible fastings, a mystic woman, named Sujata, appeared upon the scene. She took the milk of a thousand cows ; and skimming the cream seven times, she boiled it with rice. It was placed in a golden pot, and lo and behold, prodigies — the outline of the Indian cross (swastika) and Krishna's St. Andrew's cross (srivatsa) appeared on the surface. Sujata with her slave appeared before the failing devotee, and the latter, ashamed of his nakedness in the presence of the young girls, dug up the shroud of a slave recently buried. Then Buddha accepted the offering. When he had eaten the rice milk his body assumed a beauty never known before. From that time he was called " the comely sramana (ascetic)." The gold pot was thrown into the river ; it floated up the stream against the current. A serpent king got possession of it. The name of Sujata ("of happy birth") is a very thin disguise for the happy birth of the new Adam. She is, of course, Dharma or Prajiia, divine wisdom personified as a woman. That there may be no mistake about this, a second episode in the " Lalita Vistara " brings down Queen Rlaya from heaven to persuade her son to eat food. It is said that Buddha after his long fast had his skin loose as a camel, that his ribs pierced through his poor skin and gave him the aspect of a crab. How could this poor emaciated fainting being be called the handsome sramana .-' In the " Aitareya Brahmana " it is announced that the mystic marriage of the rice and milk each day in the temple rites was designed to produce a "sacrificial man," a spiritual double of the officiating priest, who was able to visit the JESUS AND THE BAPTIST. 113 heaven of Indra, and obtain cattle, propitious rain, and so on, for the worshippers. This was the exoteric explanation ; but the esoteric one is, I think, revealed in a Cingalese book, the " Samanna Phala Sutta." Buddha details at considerable length the practices of the ascetic, and then enlarges upon their exact object. Man has a body composed of the four elements. It is the fruit of the union of his father and mother. It is nourished on rice and gruel, and may be trun- cated, crushed, destroyed. In this transitory body his intelli- gence is enchained. The ascetic finding himself thus confined, directs his mind to the creation of a freer integument. He represents to himself in thought another body created from this material body — a body with a form, members, and organs. This body, in relation to the material body, is like the sword and the scabbard ; or a serpent issuing from a basket in which it is confined. The ascetic, then, purified and perfected, com- mences to practise supernatural faculties. He finds himself able to pass through material obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc. ; he is able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many places at once ; he is able to walk upon the surface of water without immersing himself ; he can fly through the air like a falcon furnished with large wings ; he can leave this world and reach even the heaven of Brahma himself. Another faculty is now conquered by his force of will, as the fashioner of ivory shapes the tusk of the elephant accord- ing to his fancy. He acquires the power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as those of the phenomenal world — more distinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of Manas he is able to read the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their characters. He is able to say, " There is a mind that is governed by passion. There is a man that is enfranchised. This man has noble ends in view. This man has no ends in view." As a child sees his earrings reflected in the water, and says, " Those are my ear- rings," so the purified ascetic recognizes the truth. Then comes to him the faculty of " divine vision, and he sees all that men do on earth and after they die, and when they are again reborn. Then he detects the secrets of the universe, I 1 14 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. and why men are unhappy, and how they may cease to be so. The " Lotus " tells us that " at the moment of death thou- sands of Buddhas show their faces to the virtuous man." ^ This clairvoyance of Buddhism seems very like the "dis- cerning of spirits" recorded by St. Paul. Professor Beal shows that the aureole, adopted afterwards for saints in the Christian religion, proceeded from an idea of the Buddhists that the ascetic after practising tapas was supposed to be furnished with an actual coruscation on his head. In all Buddhist writings the double of Buddha, the " glorified body," to use St. Paul's words, is described as being exquisitely beautiful. I think the words, " the handsome sramana," must allude to this phantasmal appearance, and not to the visible body shrivelled and marred by long fastings. To reach the abode of Yama the Indian had to cross the Vaitarani, the River of Death. This river became with Buddhists the Nairanjana, which ran past Buddha's tree. To cross this river and reach the " other bank," the heaven of the mind, was the object of the Buddhist baptism. Buddha plunges into the water. Before plunging in, he exclaims — " I vow from this moment to deliver the world from the thraldom of death and the wicked one ! I will procure sal- vation for all men, and conduct them to the ' other shore.' " But his strength has been so reduced by the penance of six years that he cannot reach it. When lo ! a spirit of the tree stretches forth a hand and assists him. In the Burmese version, the tree itself bends down its branches as at the birth of the prince. In the "Lalita Vistara," Mara opposes in person, and makes the bank grow higher as the prince tries to get out. There is a certain significance in an incident of the Burmese version. On emerging, Buddha dons for the first time the holy yellow dress of the Muni. The advantage of the " Lalita Vistara," in my view, is that it is a jumble of many schools of Buddhism piled the one on the top of the other. Each school has added its quantum 1 " Lotus," p. 279. JESUS AND THE BAPTIST. II5 and left the earlier matter still on its pages. In it Buddha bathes in the mystic Jordan of India, the Nairanjana. But a second narrative describes the gods and cherubs and nymphs of the sky coming down with vases and garlands and fans and umbrellas to perform the mystic abhisheka (baptism).^ The great dome of heaven, glittering with many stars, is described as having become one vast chaitya,^ or Buddhist temple. Vases of water of exquisite perfume are poured over the body of Buddha, and all that trickles down is seized eagerly by some of the spirits, for has it not touched his diamond body .'' In the " Gospel of the Infancy " many miracles are done with water that has bathed the infant Jesus. The time has come to go a little more deeply into the ancient mysteries, especially the Buddhist ones. 1 Page 351. 2 Page 349. Il6 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XL Growth in Spirit symbolized by the Growth of the Food of the People — Buddhist Festivals regulated by Rice Culture — The Zodiac as a Symbol of Stages of Spiritual Progress — In Buddhism— In Chris- tianity— The " Monastery of our Lord " — Description by Josephus. " Keep the mysteries for Me and the sons of My house " (Jesus).^ I must begin by pointing out a prominent feature in ancient mystic symbolism. The food of the people, its growth and culture, was made use of as an image to veil the growth and culture of man's spiritual nature. This was a marked point in the Mysteries of Osiris in Egypt, and Ceres at Eleusis. The grain, the Bread of Life, was buried in a "cave" at the spring or Sowing Festival, like Christ and Buddha, or in a coffin like lacchus and Osiris. The cave was the earth-life. Then at the great Feast of the Pentecost, the Varsha or Feast of the Waters in Buddhism, the Bread of Life was baptized with heaven's own water. This was the period of " Purification," the first of the three great steps made by the mystic in spiritual knowledge according to Dionysius the Areopagite. This was the Festival of the Lesser Mysteries in Greece. It was called sometimes the " Feast of Weeks " in Palestine, as it occurred exactly seven weeks after the second day of the Feast of the Passover, and symbolized the gift of the Law on Sinai and the descent of the Holy Ghost in the Christian Church. The Lesser Mysteries with early Christians are described by Clement of Alexandria as 1 Cited in the Clementine " Homilies," xix. 20 ; apparently from the " Gospel of the Hebrews." THE MYSTERIES. \\^ taking the form of " catechetical instruction," " preparation " etc. They were, according to him, the " milk for babes " in contradistinction to the "Gnostic communication," the goal and focus of the Greater Mysteries. Then came the great festival of the year, the Festival of the Virgin, the Festival of Mary, the Festival of the Tree, the Festival of Tabernacles. The Bread of Life has come forth from the ground and the dark clouds of an Indian rainy season have been followed by the bright sun of an Indian September. This is the period of the " Illumination " of Dionysius the Areopagite, the Feast of Lanterns in Buddhist countries. Finally, at the spring festival, whose rites celebrate the dying as well as the new year, a mighty rice cake about the size of a footstool is placed on the altar. The worship of this is sculptured in all the old topes. The pain bcnit, cross-buns, etc., symbolize the same fancy, the perfection of the mystic at the end of the year. Easter was, of course, the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year in the early Church. A comparison of these rites with the times and seasons of various lands shows that they fit in admirably with the times and seasons of India, and fit in most imperfectly with those of Egypt, Greece, and the West, thus suggesting derivation. India is a vast triangle, flat and torrid. It is admirably adapted to the cultivation of rice. From about the middle of June to the middle of September there falls an almost inces- sant deluge. On the volume of this hinges the question whether the poor, dark-skinned, cotton-clad vegetarians will have abundance in their thatch-roofed mud houses or famine. This suggests three great festivals in honour of the great Giver of Rice. I. The Sowing Festival, the Feast of Flowers. It began formerly seven days before the commencement of the new year, which latter event took place on the ist of March. In rice cultivation the rice fields have to be flattened and surrounded with mud banks to confine the water that falls during the rains. This may be the origin of the smoothing of rough places at the birth of Buddha. I l8 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. 2 The Feast of the Waters. In Siam and the South the image of Buddha is washed with great pomp, and every holy talapoin, or monk, is soused with jars of water by his inferiors. The poor folks then scramble for this sacred fluid. If they can lap up a drop or two that has touched a holy man or an idol they are happy for life. All classes souse and wash one another, sometimes with scented water, as in the Indian Holi. The two large tanks in Chinese temples, reproduced in the large fons or baptisterium of old Christian churches, which was ample enough to baptize a crowd at a time, seem to point to this rite. The Greek Christians still rush into the Jordan on a certain day and splash one another, and sousings were known to the Church of the Middle Ages. This is the Buddhist Varsha, or Lent ; and the monks preach twice a day instead of once a week. During this period the temples are thronged, and the offerings very large. But, according to the acute Father La Loubdre, the cultivation of the material rice has more to do with this lenten piety and generosity than the cultivation of the rice-milk of immortality. " The rice harvest depends upon plentiful rain, and plentiful rain upon piety," say the Siamese.^ 3. The Feast of the Subsidence of the Waters, the Feast of the Tree, the Feast of Lanterns. To this day in India the Hindoos, headed by their Rajah, go out into the jungle and live like the Israelites, in tabernacles and booths of leaves. The Rajah goes solemnly to a rice field and plucks a stalk. His court scramble for the remainder. It is the season for the great illuminations in Buddhist countries, and the tala- poins of Siam, as Father La Loubere tells us, go out at this season for three weeks, and pass the nights in vigils in little huts built of leaves and boughs. Each day they return to the temple for a daily service.^ In Pegu, the night is passed in illuminations by all the people, and the great gate of the city is thrown open. Thanks are everywhere given to Buddha for an abundant harvest. ^ La Loubdre, cited in Picart, vol. vii. pp. 64, 66. See also Purchas on the Pegu Festival, p. y]. ^ Cited by Picart, " Ceremonies, etc.," p. 65. I'LVTE IV (ILL) lilDUHIST ZODIAC. [Page 119. THE MYSTERIES. I 19 This gives us the scaffolding of the story of Buddha, and of the other Avataras. 1. For the due cultivation of the food of the people God was imared as that food, and the festivals and the incidents during the mystical year that his life was supposed to last, arranged to promote that culture. Indeed, those who are familiar with the superstitions of the rice culture still existing in modern Ceylon, and the elaborate incantations performed for an auspicious day to turn the first sod, to soak the rice, to sow it, to charm away the rice grubs, to slaughter the rice flies, to obtain fruitful rain, and at last to reap it, would think that religion was at first the chief branch of agriculture.^ 2. A man becoming at last one with God imaged as the kosmos is painted for the mystics, and the zodiac used to mark the stages of his spiritual progress. This I learnt first from the life of Buddha. It is recorded in the "Lalita Vistara,"^ that the star Pushya (g of Cancer) was shining when he entered his mother's womb. This means, of course, that when Pushya rises in the sky the Celestial Elephant (Capricorn) enters the womb of Earth, the mighty mother. The spring festival, with its ploughing and sowing, is selected for the time of his birth ; his horse, Kantaka, is born at the same moment, because the symbol for Aries is the horse. The first three months lumped together may be classed under the sign of the Indian twins, who are repre- sented as a naked young man and woman, and docketed with a coarse name. Buddha is in the earth-life, in the palace with the seven moats, in the kama loka, or domain of appetite, pure and simple. We have the carnal marriage of the mystic as distinguished from the marriage of the lamb. The period terminates with the Indian Olympia, when Krishna, Buddha, and Rama win each a bride at a great archery or wrestling competition. When the Twins dominate the sky the Bow (Sagittarius) is shining at midnight. But when we view the year as symbolizing the life of 1 See Mr. Le Mesurier's paper in vol. xvii. p. 3, Joiirn. As. Soc. 2 Page 61. 120 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. a mystic, this festival is of immense importance, for it was the festival of what the ancients called the " Lesser Mysteries." See how the signs of the zodiac now prepare us for the " Greater Mysteries," at the crucial festival of the Tree (Virgo). With Cancer commences the gnawing away of animalism. The Buddhist Virgo is often represented by a tree ; which explains the " lion throne " (Leo), round the " tree of know- ledge" that Buddha sat under, a tree on which the pearl Mani (the Balance) glistened. Here commences the great fight of the dreaming mystic with Mara (Scorpio) conquered at length with the bow of Indra the conqueror (Sagittarius). In the Indian religion, this was called the state of Indra the Jina (the conqueror). " To him that overcometh will I give a crown of life," says the Apocalypse. Buddha then attains the " elephant called Bodhi " (gnosis), as the " Lalita Vistara," calls it, the elephant being the symbol of occult wisdom. A mystic maiden then gives him a vase of amrita, or immortal food (Aquarius). Finally, the mystic reaches the sign called Dharma Chakra. This, with Brahmin heroes, was the " Quoit of Death," that never failed in its terrible flight. With Buddhists, it became the " Wheel of the Law," the Zodiac of Dharma, our mystic mother. Without any disguise, the spiritual adept was called Chakra- vartin (he who has turned through the zodiac). Here we have the key of what St. Paul calls the " hidden wisdom." It was based on the text, " And God made man after His own image." To work this out, man had to become one with God's starry tabernacle. The Essenes, at the highest initiation, had to become '.^Temples of the Holy Ghost," and Christians were long called " Temples of God." The mystic gate through which the soul passes from darkness to light is the " Porte Noire " of the Chinese Buddhist, Hwen Thsang. In the Mahabharata are passages describing a gate of a city of cloudland, over which the bird Garuda broods. With the masons it is the royal arch, with the two mystic columns, Jachin and Boaz. Madame Guyon and the Christian mystics saw at once that it was the " open door " of Rev. iii. 8, only to be unlocked by the " Key of THE MYSTERIES. 121 David " (probably the looped cross carried by all Egyptian initiates into the realms of Osiris). I will write down, from the Catholic Prayer-book, a few sentences of the " Litany of the Blessed Virgin." " Holy Mother of God ! " " Mother of Christ ! " " Gate of Heaven ! " " Chalice of the Spirit ! " " Mystical Rose ! " "Tower of Ivory!" "Mirror of Justice!" "Seat of Wisdom ! " To these I will add a part of the hymn of incense from an older Christian ritual, that of the Armenian Church. " Triumph and rejoice, O Sion, daughter of Light, Universal Mother with thy children. Don thy raiment and jewels, August Bride, Shining Tabernacle of Light, an image of Heaven ; because the Anointed God, the Being of Beings, sacrifices himself for thee without being consumed. To reconcile us to the father, and to expiate our sins, he dis- tributes his flesh and blood. By virtue of this sacrifice, pardon him who built this temple. "The Holy Church recognizes and confesses the pure Virgin Mary as Mother of God, by whom has been given to us the bread of life and the consoling cup. Bless her in a spiritual song." (" Hymn of Incense," p. 17.) This is another hymn from the same ritual — " Mother of faith, holy assembly of thousands, Sublime nuptial bed, Of the house of the immortal Spouse, "Who decks thee from eternity. Thou art a second wondrous heaven, Springing from glory to glory. Like rays of light thou bearest us in thy great womb In the birth of baptism. Thou givest us the purifying bread ; Thou givest us the blood revered ; Rank over rank, thou raisest those aloft Who little understand these things. The ancient tabernacle is thy type. Thy new tabernacle is far above the old ; It has broken the gates of diamond, And thou hast broken the gates of hell. We see here the Universal Mother, as the Armenian 122 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. ritual calls her, play the same part as she. does in Buddhist mysticism. She is the "Gate of Heaven," separating the Golden Jerusalem from Babylon, the Tabernacle of Light from the Tabernacle of Darkness. She is "Wisdom," the palm tree, by En Gaddi, that gives forth " a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus " (Eccl. xxiv.). " To him that over- cometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God," ^ said the mystic Alpha and Omega. Here she is as the corn-sheaf (Virgo), surmounted by the dove (Libra), separating the two halves of the zodiac, symbolized by Leo and the old serpent. This is from Smith's " Christian Antiquities." From Martigny's "Antiquites Chre- tiennes " (Fig. 9), we get her between the green tree and the dry, the words ^'S- ^- of Christ used to denote the two trees of the Kabbalah, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. These also symbolize the black and white halves of the zodiac. Zodiacal amu- lets (Fig. 10) were known to the early Christians.^ The scales, the Lion of Judah, the cup (Aquarius), the horse and lamb (Aries), are on all the monuments, and Christ is sometimes drawn as the archer. The Apo- calypse has the "Woman" with the crescent under her feet, and the crown of twelve stars. Like Aditi, of the Rig Veda, she is the mother of the twelve Adityas or months. Also, she has " the wings of an eagle," the significance of this symbol has already been Fig. 9. 1 Rev. ii. 7 2 See Martigny, article " Zodiaque." Fig. lo. THE MYSTERIES. 1 23 noticed. She brings forth a "man child," and the mystic "dragon," with "seven heads," assails both mother and son. " My little children, of whom I travail in birth till Christ be formed in you,"^ said St. Paul. In mysticism the mystic must become the Son of God,^ must be " born again" of the wom.an with the twelve stars, must be vexed of " scorpions five months," or the five months domi- nated by Scorpio, before he can reach the crown, the cross, the " mystical death." The Gnostics, in their great controversy with Irenseus and the Romish Church, asserted that the twelve disciples signified the twelve aeons, the twelve months of Christ's mystical life. They asserted that the woman with the issue of blood twelve years typified the same piece of mysticism, and her cure was, of course, the higher life. There were two Achamoths or mystical women, the higher residing beyond the Pleroma. The mystical " grace " of the Kabbalah was able to make us sit together " in heavenly places," even in this life, according to St. Paul (Eph. ii. 6). "But Sophia is justified of all her children." Christ meant here, according to the Gnostics, the twelve stages of spiritual progress, the mystic woman with the twelve stars, the twelve aeons that stand round the throne of God.^ In the Gnostic initiation, according to this same autho- rity, was a nuptial couch. Do not bishops, nuns, and free- masons, in their initiations, lie down and personate death to this day .? And does not Tertullian talk of a Christian rite that imitated the resurrection .'' " Into the name of the Unknown Father of the Universe, into Truth the mother of all things, into Him who descended on Jesus, into union and redemption and communion with the powers." This is the form of Gnostic baptism given by Irenaeus,^ and is condemned by that very literal monk ; and ^ Gal. iv. 19. '^ Rev. xxi. 7. 3 See Irenseus, "H^r.," bk. i. c. 21, 23. * Ibid., bk. i. c. 3. 124 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. SO is another assertion of the Gnostics, that the real baptism was different from the mere outward rite. They cited, he tells us, these words of Christ : " And I have another baptism to be baptized with, and I hasten towards it." ^ There is a text like it in Luke (xii. 50). This brings us to the catacombs, which are immensely valuable as giving the veiled Christian and also veiled Essene symbolism. The Abb^ Martigny says very justly, "The monuments and writings of the earliest Christian ages are quite clothed in mystery. Allegory and symbolism reign everywhere. The language of the Fathers and teachers is full of reticences. Christian art is a jumble of hieroglyphics and enigmas of which the initiates alone have the key." ^ He cites St. Paul (i Cor. iii. i), who tells the Corinthians that he cannot tell the same truths to the " carnal " and the " spiritual." He cites Christ as forbidding that which is holy (the secret doctrine) to be given to the " dogs " (Matt. vii. 6), a far more plausible interpretation than that of Baur. It means, of course, the unspiritual in all regions, and not the material Gentiles. The catacombs are sepulchral crypts modelled, as Dean Stanley thinks, on the crypts of Palestine. Their symbolism is chiefly from the Old Testament. On the tombs of bishops and martyrs figure rude frescoes of Moses striking the rock, Jonah and the whale, the "three children," Jonah naked, sit- ting under a trellis of gourds. All this puzzled modern Christians when they were first opened. No bleeding Christs were to be seen. What connection was there between these designs and the dead saint whose poor little chapel sepulchre they illustrated ? In point of fact, each design represented a stage of the spiritual progress of the entombed saint. From Bosio ("Sculture et Pittore," etc., 1737) I copy four favourite frescoes for illustration. ^ Irenasus, " Hasr." bk. i. c. 81. 2 "Antiquitds Chrdtiennes," art. "Secret." THE MYSTERIES. 125 I. The Child in the swaddling clothes of flesh introduced to the "manger" of animal Hfe (Fig. 11). iiinnitiiiiiiiimmiiiiiimffmiiiiiiiiroiiiiimiiiiiniiiiimiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiwiiiiiiwiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiwtiiniiii Fig. II. Fig. 12. 2. Moses striking the rock. Purification, the first stage of spirituality in the life of the Chosen One. The water baptism (Fig. 12). 126 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. 3. The fire baptism (illumination), almost invariably de- picted in the catacombs by the three children of Daniel (Fig- 13). Fig- 13- 4. The Lazarus released from the swathings of the flesh by the jod of the Christus, after the four mystical days passed in the " tomb " or earth life (Fig. 14). Fig. 14. The young Christ in the frontispiece also represents the four stages of spiritual progress depicted by the beasts of Daniel. And so do the four horses, sword, or Gemini, scales, bow, and Indian quoit of death (p. 37). Observe that after His progress through the four stages the Christ has the cross on his nimbus. This was the mystical meaning of the cross. the mysteries. 1 27 The Monastery of Our Lord. Whilst Protestant polemics are ever seeking to show that Christ opposed mysticism and the ascetic life, the Roman Catholics are equally active in the other direction. Mon- seigneur Mislin calls the Essenes, Rechabites, and Therapeuts, the " Monks of the Old Law." ^ Catholic writers also call a monastery on the Quarantania mountain the " Monastery of Our Lord." "Monseigneur Mislin tells us that the number of cells pierced in this mountain is so considerable that the rocks of the Quarantania resemble a beehive." ^ Travellers in Burmah and other Buddhist countries record the same always of a hillside where the Buddhist monks have resided. " The holy grotto," says the Francescan, Lievin de Hamme, " which our Lord dwelt in during His forty days' fast has not yet lost the paintings that once covered it. Amongst other scenes of His ministry, Jesus is to be still seen here tempted by the devil." The Carmelite monks maintain that their order has come down direct from Elijah through the sons of the prophets, the Essenes, etc. A book was published by the Carmelite Father Daniel in the seventeenth century with the following title, " The Mirror of Carmel, or the History of the Order of Elias, or the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in which its origin is traced to the Prophet Elias, its propagation to the Children of the Prophets, and its succession shown without interruption through the Essenes, Hermits, and Monks, in answer to attacks, etc. Antwerp, 1680." It is asserted there that the Monastery of Our Lord dates from the Prophet Elisha. Finding the cells of Mount Carmel and the caverns of the prophets insufficient, he came over and established a new school of the prophets on the Quarantania. Josephus gives us a description of this region in his day. It is the longest and most elaborate description that he indulges in of any part of Palestine. On this topic he is generally brief We may argue from this that he knew the 1 Cited by the author of "Jesus Bouddha," p. 195. 2 " Jesus Bouddha," p. 194. 128 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. region well. Wishing to study the different opinions of the three main sects of the Jews of his day — the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes — he tested all three with much labour. " But all this did not satisfy me, and learning that one Banus was living in austerity in the wilderness, that he had no other raiment than the bark of trees, that his sole food was the fruits of the earth, and that to dominate the flesh he bathed many times day and night and summer and winter in cold water, I resolved to imitate him. Having passed three years with him, I returned to Jerusalem at the age of nineteen. I then commenced the duties of civil life, and embraced the sect of the Pharisees." Banus was an Essene, and Josephus's ostentatious profes- sion that he was a Pharisee was plainly a blind to escape the persecution of the Jews, and afterwards of the Romans. In describing the three sects, he dismisses the Pharisees and Sadducees in a few lines, but enlarges with abundant detail on the sect of the Essenes, which he calls the most perfect of all. Also he practised divination, which would have been viewed as an abomination by the Pharisees. I cannot do better than here transcribe Josephus's account of the region where the " Monastery of Our Lord " is situate. " Jericho sits on a plain dominated by a lofty mountain, sterile and naked, and so extensive that it stretches north- wards to Scythopolis and southwards to Sodom. Owing to this sterility no one dwells upon it. "Near Jericho is a large fountain, whose abundant waters fertilize the fields around. Its spring is nigh that ancient city which Jesus, the son of Nave, that brave Hebrew chief, gained by victory. Folks say that the waters of this fountain were of old so dangerous that they rotted earth's fruits, and made pregnant women bring forth before their time. More- over, the waters spread their poison wherever it could harm. But since that time, the prophet Elisha, that worthy successor of Elias, has made the waters good to drink, and as pure, healthy, and as fecundating as they were formerly nocuous. All this came about thus. That illustrious man having been THE MYSTERIES. 12 g humanely received by the dwellers in Jericho, wished to mark his sense of gratitude by conferring a favour whose effects should never be seen to cease either by them or by the neighbourhood. Sinking to the bottom of the fountain a jug filled with salt, he lifted his eyes and his hands to heaven, and made oblations on the bank. He then prayed God to sweeten the many streams that, proceeding from this spring, watered the surrounding country ; to temper the air to make it more genial ; to give plenty to the earth, and abundant children to those who cultivated it, the waters never ceasing to be propitious as long as man was just. This earnest prayer had power to change the nature of the fountain, and to make it as fecundating as it was once sterile. The virtue of these waters is so great that a few drops thrown on the soil will render it fertile ; and spots where the waters have long remained bring forth no more than the spots where it rapidly passes, as if they wished to punish those who arrest them in mistrust of their miraculous effects. In all this region is no spring with so long a course. "The ground it waters is seventy stadia in length and twenty in breadth. Many gardens abound there with palm- trees of many names and natures. Some, if you press them, give forth a honey like ordinary honey, which is here very abundant. Here, too, flourish the cypress and the Indian plum, and that tree which gives forth a balm that the juice of no other fruit can rival. Thus it may be said, as it seems to me, that a country where so many rare products so richly flourish has something divine in it ; and I doubt whether in any other part of the globe is to be found its equal, so rapid is the growth of all that is sown and planted. This is to be attri- buted to the balmy air and the fecundating attributes of the water. The one opens the flowers and leaves, the other strengthens the roots by forming plentiful sap in the heats of summer, which are so great that without the cooling moisture nothing could grow. But however great the heat may be, each morning there comes a light breeze, which cools the water which folks draw before sunrise. During the winter the climate is warm, and a single garment of cloth is enough K I30 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. when snow is falling in other parts of Judea. This region is one hundred and fifty stadia (about fourteen miles) from Jeru- salem, and sixty (about seven miles) from the Jordan. The country between it and Jerusalem is a stony wilderness ; and although that which stretches from the Jordan to the Dead Sea is not so mountainous, it is not less sterile and unculti- vated. I think I have detailed all the favours granted by nature to the environs of Jericho." This passage lets us into some of the secrets of the great spiritual movement that changed the world. The Essene mystics had selected the only spot in Pales- tine that was warm enough for the Indian yoga or mystic dreaming under trees. One might almost say that this region had been prepared by nature for its work. It was protected by ranges of arid honey-combed hills, and by the mephitic air of the shores of the Dead Sea, To the dominant party in Jerusalem nature thus opposed Death, Famine, and Fever, three vigilant sentries. It is to be observed, too, that the want of water in the caverns and mountains was another prominent safeguard. It was impossible to remain long in the wilderness without knowing the whereabouts of the "cisterns," the rude reser- voirs of rain-water. Hazazon Tamar, or the " City of Palms " (Engedi), was, according to Pliny, the head-quarters of the Essenes, He flourished A.D. 23-79. This is what he says of the Essenes : " On the western shore (of the Dead Sea), but distant from the sea far enough to escape its noxious breezes, dwelt the Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvellous beyond all others in the whole world, without any women, with sexual intercourse entirely given up, without money ; and the associates of palm trees. Daily is the throng of those that crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in numbers, driven through weariness of existence and the surges of ill fortune in their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands of ages, incredible to relate, their society, in which no one is born, lives on peren- nial" ("Hist. Nat." V. 17). "Jesus Bouddha" is a powerful little work tracing out the THE MYSTERIES. 131 connection between Christianity and Buddhism, but from a point of view very hostile to both. The author urges with plausibility that John the Baptist was the head of this school of prophets on the Quarantania. There he was close to the Jordan, which was of so much importance in the religion of the Nazarites. The author argues that it would have been quite impossible for Christ to be baptized of John without the preliminary instruction prescribed to the novice. In point of fact, the " Gospel of the First Infancy " states positively that " He gave himself to the study of the law until he arrived at the end of his thirtieth year." ^ ^ " First Infancy," chap. xxii. 2. 132 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XII. The "Signs of an Apostle" — Conflicting views of Catholics and Pro- testants about Miraculous Gifts — Magic Rites of the Kabbalah — The " Twelve great Disciples " of Buddhism — " Go ye into all the world." The "Signs of an Apostle." It is recorded in the " Lalita Vistara," that when Buddha had completely overcome the wicked one, the bright spirits came round him as he sat under the tree of knowledge, and proposed to offer him flowers, in the character of Purusha (the God-Man). But an objection was raised that he had not yet attested his great mission by miraculous " signs." ^ In consequence, Buddha rose aloft into the air, and miracu- lously checked the flow of the river near him, and broke up the roadway. "Tis thus," he said, "that I will now check the flow of grief in the world." As Buddha's life is an en- sample and text book, all this meant that the monk, before he came to be a perfect Arahat, had to pass an examination in miraculous gifts at the hands of his brother-monks ; and in Buddhist histories these examinations are not uncommon. Dr. Ginsburg, in his work " The Essenes," maintains that similar tests were required of the early Christians. " Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds " (2 Cor. xii. 12). "And these signs shall follow them that believe : In My name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any ^ Foucaux, p. 336. SIGNS AND WONDERS. 133 deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark xvi. 17, 18). " And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds" (Acts xix. 18). " How is it that every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation ? If there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that you are mad?" (i Cor. xiv. 23). We here get a great point of debate between Catholics and Protestants. All sects have Bibles distinct from their avowed testaments and articles of religion ; and the modern gospel of Protestants is, I think. Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible." In that, under the heading " Magic," it is laid down authoritatively, that man cannot gain what are called super- natural powers by any known natural processes. It is held that the wonders recorded in Gentile schools of magic were all illusory. A miracle is an experience that goes counter to a general law ; and such have been confined to the Hebrew race to " prove the truth " of Mosaism and Christianity, the writer failing to trace, with Dr. Edersheim, a wholesale antago- nism between the two. It is held, that a vague thing called " miraculous gifts," was given to the first Christians, not earned by them. It was not the reward of fastings and ascetic practices, but was gained at once by the touch of an " Apostle," plainly with the providential design of showing, that with the death of these, such " gifts " were to cease. All signs and won- ders since that have been unnecessary as well as unauthentic. As opposed to this, the Catholics maintain that the visions and so-called miraculous powers of the mystic, or as he was called everywhere at the date of Christ, the ascetic, are due to certain processes which are still available. They appeal to the history and experience of the Jews. They also appeal to the history and experience of the Gentiles, who " had their schools of mysticism which found its highest expressions amonest the Brahmins and Buddhists." ^ If the miracles of the Old Testament were due to a special gift, and all training was considered illusory, the question arises — Why did Elijah 1 Migne, " Dictionnaire d'Ascdticisme," vol. ii. p. 15 f4- 134 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. establish a school of the prophets at Mount Carmel, and Elisha another near Jericho ? In I Kings xviii. we read of a hundred prophets living in a cave. In the next chapter, we see Elias, with his long hair and leathern girdle, sitting under a juniper tree. In the fourth chapter of Judges, we see Deborah judging Israel from under a palm tree. Another prophet (i Kings xx.) appears "dis- guised with ashes." St. Paul tells us that the old prophets in sheepskins and goatskins took refuge in mountains, and deserts, and caves. They were destitute, afflicted, tormented. They had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings and bonds. They were stoned, sawn asunder, or slain with a sword. The Indian missionaries get often a truer idea of an Asiatic people like the Jews, than those whose experience is confined to the West. Mr. Ward has recorded, that in India, Elias can still be seen sitting under his tree, and the prophet disguised with ashes. Another difficulty is in the way of the Protestant theory that miraculous gifts were confined to the Hebrews, and that all training in the schools of the prophets was considered illusory. Many of the most conspicuous performers of miracles in the Old Testament were educated in Gentile schools of the prophets. Moses was trained in the schools of Magic, in Egypt. Joseph presided over those schools. Daniel was Rab Mag, or head of the Magicians of Babylon. The Witch of Endor, who recalled Samuel from the grave, was a Gentile, and so was Balaam. The processes of the ascetic in Catholic mysticism are the same as in all other mysticisms. They have — 1. The " Contemplation Cherubique." 2. The Mystical Union. 3. The " Oraison passive." The word " union " is the same word as the Indian word yoga. Contemplation is defined to be " the elevation of the soul to God by a simple intuition full of admiration and love."^ The "oraison " is half prayer half mystic dreaminess, its effect being to dull the animal activity. ^ Migne, " Dictionnairc de Mysticisme." SIGNS AND WONDERS. 135 Here are some of the spiritual gifts that result from these processes — 1. Mystical seeing. 2. Mystical hearing. 3. Mystical smelling. 4. Discerning of spirits, the clairvoyance of St. Paul. 5. Flight through the air. 6. Mystical preaching. 7. Mystical healing by the laying on of hands, a power- conspicuously developed by the celebrated Cure d'Ars. 8. Communication with the spirits of the dead, as when St. Martin was enabled to carry on long conversations with " Thiele and Agnes and Mary." All these topics are treated under their various heads in Migne's " Dictionnaire de Mys- ticisme." 9. Resurrection of the dead. These " gifts " are very like those claimed by the Essenes,: as already detailed. What that sect meant by raising the dead it is not easy to settle. It could scarcely have been conceived that the dead man could permanently revive after decomposition has ac- tually set in. A profound student of mysticism, Francis Barrett, who lived at the beginning of the century, wrote a work entitled "The Cabala," which may help us here. He says that the Kabbalists held that there were " two kinds of necromancy." The first consisted in " raising the carcasses."^ This, it was conceived, could only be effected by the effusion of blood, a fact that lets in some light on the bloody rites of the old creeds. The second process was called Sciomancy, " in which the calling up of the shadow only suffices." ^ The learned gentleman gives the Kabbalistic rites by which " the seven governors of the whole world according to the seven planets " are to be invoked, and other beings " which Origen called the invisible powers." ^ As in Buddhism, these rites seem nearly identical with the sacramental rites or mysteries. " It is necessary that the invocant religiously dispose 1 " The Cabala, or Ceremonial Magic." p. 69. 2 Ibid., p. 43- 136 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. hirtiself for the space of many days to such a mystery, and to conceive himself during the time chaste, abstinent, and to abstract himself as much as he can from all manner of foreign and secular business. Likewise he shall observe fasting, as much as shall seem convenient to him." ^ The " Kabbalah " enjoins a fast of forty days. " Now, concerning the place, it must be chosen, clean, pure, close, quiet, free from all manner of noise, and not subject to any stranger's sight. This place must first of all be exorcised and consecrated ; and let there be a table or altar placed therein, covered with a clean white linen cloth, and set towards the east ; and on each side thereof place two consecrated wax lights burning, the flame thereof ought not to go out all these days. In the middle of the altar let there be placed lamens [slips of paper with the ten great names of God] covered with fine linen, which is not to be opened until the end of the days of consecration. You shall also have in readiness a precious perfume, and a pure anointing oil, and let them both be kept consecrated. Then set a censer on the head of the altar, wherein you shall kindle the holy fire, and make a precious perfume every day that you pray. " Now for your habit, you shall have a long garment of white linen, close before and behind, which may come down quite over the feet, and gird yourself about the loins with a girdle. You shall likewise have a veil made of pure white linen, on which must be wrote in a gilt lamen the name Tetragrammaton ; all which things are to be consecrated and sanctified in order. But you must not go into this holy place till it be first washed and covered with a cloth new and clean, and then you may enter, but with your feet naked and bare ; and when you enter therein you shall sprinkle with holy water, then make a perfume upon the altar ; and then on thy knees pray before the altar as we have directed. " Now when the time is expired, on the last day, you shall fast more strictly ; and fasting on the day following, at the rising of the sun, enter the holy place, using the cere- monies before spoken of, first by sprinkling thyself, then, 1 " Ceremonial Magic." p. 92 SIGNS AND WONDERS. 137 making a perfume, you shall sign the cross with holy oil in the forehead, and anoint your eyes, using prayer in all these consecrations. Then, open the lamen ^ and pray before the altar upon your knees ; and then an invocation may be made as follows : — "An Invocation of the Good Spirits. " In the name of the blessed and Holy Trinity, I do desire thee, strong and mighty angels (here name the spirits you would have appear), that if it be the divine will of him who is called Tetragrammaton, etc., the holy God, the Father, that thou take upon thee some shape as best becometh thy celestial nature, and appear to us visibly here in this place, and answer our demands, in as far as we shall not transgress the bounds of the divine mercy and goodness, by requesting unlawful knowledge ; but thou wilt graciously shew us what things are most profitable for us to know and do to the glory and honour of his divine Majesty, who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen. " Lord, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ; make clean our hearts within us, and take not Thy holy spirit from us. O Lord, by Thy name we have called them, suffer them to administer unto us. " And that all things may work together for Thy honour and glory, to whom with Thee, the Son and Blessed Spirit, be ascribed all might, majesty, and dominion, world without end Amen." This is how a Buddhist acquires magical powers. The novice must select an able teacher. He must be shaved, washed, cleaned. Of particular importance is the choice of the place of initiation. It must be without distinc- tions, free from the terrors of wild beasts, and haunted by the spirits of the past Buddhas. The place must be well swept and otherwise cleaned ; and fresh earth must be thrown upon it in order to make its surface even and smooth. A magical circle of the five sacred 1 The lamen is the " book" of the Apocalypse. 138 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. colours must be drawn in order to overcome evil spirits, who will do all they can to mar the efforts of the devotee. Within the circle an altar is erected, upon which various vessels are ranged, filled with grain and perfumed water. The cere- monies consist in the reciting of incantations and the presenta- tion of food offerings to the good spirits. The incantations must be recited slowly, without raising or lowering the voice. They must be repeated something like a hundred thousand times a day. A rosary with 108 beads helps the counting. A vajra (toy thunderbolt) all this time must be held tightly in the hand. The spirits prayed to are Vajrapani, the holder of Indra's thunderbolt. Sweet dreams and sweet supernatural scents prelude the advent of the supernatural powers. In the rite called Dubed the novice has to fix his gaze on water in a vessel tricked out with knots of the five sacred colours. The modern mesmerist gains power over a sensitive in a some- what similar manner. Vajra means "diamond" as well as " thunderbolt," and this second idea has been worked into the first. The head of the thunderbolt is shaped like a diamond. It is stated in one passage of the " Lalita Vistara," that Buddha indulged " in that ecstatic meditation whose essence is the diamond."^ The Buddhists call the spirit body the " diamond body." ^ The Twelve Disciples. Buddha, like Christ, had twelve " great disciples." " Only in my religion," he said solemnly a little before he died, "can be found the twelve great disciples who practise the highest virtues and excite the world to free itself from its torments,"^ These twelve great disciples are the Buddhas who figure round the great statue of Buddha on Buddhist altars. He had sixty minor disciples, and Christ seventy. In the view of Mosheim " Christ appointed seventy, just equal in number to the senators composing the Sanhedrim, to show ^ See p. 206. 2 For details of initiation, see Subahu Pariprichcha, Schlagintweit, " Buddhism in Tibet," p. 242. ^ Bigandet, p. 301. SIGNS AND WONDERS. 139 that the authority of the regular Sanhedrim was at an end, and that He was Supreme Lord and Pontiff of the whole Hebrew race." ^ The word "apostle" designated the shoeless wandering missionary of Christianity ; but it was also used to describe the stationary councillors round the head of the Church. The twelve apostles, according to Renan, were not missionaries, but remained at Jerusalem. After the taking of that city, even the orthodox Jews used the word " apostle " to designate the council round their patriarch.^ The Essene Sanhedrim abrogated to itself the power of inflicting death (to the blasphemer) and excommunication, a punishment which, according to Josephus, was almost its equivalent. That Christ had His Sanhedrim at an early date is manifest from more than one passage in the New Testament — "And if he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church [assembly] : but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be as a heathen man and a publican" (Matt, xviii. 17). " Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints.?" (i Cor. vi. i). If Christ thus took over the Essene Sanhedrim and set up a government with the avowed purpose of superseding that of the dominant Jews, it is difficult to see how He can be held, when speaking of "every jot and tittle of the law," to have alluded to the law as interpreted by the historical Sanhedrim. "Go Ye into all the World." Professor Rhys Davids has pointed out the fact that Buddha's great object was to found a "kingdom of righteous- ness " ^ (dharma chakra) on earth. From Benares, in the first year of his ministry, he sent forth his sixty disciples on the work of propagandism — " Depart each man in a different direction, no two on the 1 Mosheim, vol. i. p. 33. 2 Lightfoot, " Epistle to the Galatians," p. 93. 3 " Birth Stories," p. 69. 140 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. same road. Let each preach dharma to all men without exception " ^ (see Plate V.). Let us note what commands Christ gave to His disciples — " Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not : but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves : for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy ; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it : but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harm- less as doves. But beware of men : for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their syna- gogues ; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the GentileS) But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak : for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. But it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child : and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake : but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another : for verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be 1 Bigandet, p. 126. Plate V. '■ "S. ■^^ m ,\ BUDDHA PREACHING. From Aviarnvai!. [Pa^e 140. SIGNS AND WONDERS. I4I come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household ? Fear them not therefore : for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light : and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever there- fore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" (Matt. x. 5-35). The Essenism of this passage is very remarkable, Jesus using at times the very words of John. His disciples are to be without money or two coats or shoes, like the barefooted Essenes. Also He says not a word about His divinity as in the Gospel of St. John, but tells His disciples to deliver the same gospel as John and the Book of Adam, the gospel of the kingdom of light. Another point is remarkable. No Christian disciple had yet begun to preach, and yet what do we find } A vast secret organization in every city. It is composed of those who " are worthy" (the word used by Josephus for Essene initiates, see ante, p. 107), and they are plainly bound to succour the brethren at the risk of their lives. " Peace be with you ! " was the password, says the author of " Jesus Bouddha." It is remarkable that this mystic greeting is also in the " Book 142 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. of Adam." ^ And \vc find likewise that a vast organization of persecution is already afoot, with its councils, and scourg- ings, and stonings, and martyrdom. I think this is as strong a fact as we can have. The brethren were infringing the Jewish law as interpreted by the dominant party. Thauma- turgic healing and exorcisms were called witchcraft, raising the dead necromancy, speaking with the afflatus of the spirit possession. An orthodox Jew, instead of succouring such, was bound by his law to help the recognized authorities to bring them to justice. And yet it is announced that the crime of Sodom and Gomorrha was as nothing to such an act. Plainly those that were "worthy" were not purblind Jews, but initiated children of light, who had taken fearful vows to obey the Grand Master. And here I must point out that, until I had made a study of Buddhism, I was quite unable to piece together the some- what contradictory accounts that have come down to us of the Essenes and their monasteries. Josephus describes them as congregated herdsmen and diggers. Philo paints them as communities of ascetics engaged in what he calls the "con- templation of the Divine Essence." Pliny shows them to us as a large section of the Jews, recruited entirely by propa- gandism. Then, too, although Josephus tells us they " shunned cities," it is plain, from the numbers that could be ferreted out by the secret police at Jerusalem in the early days of St. Paul, that many after their initiation went back to civil life, like Philo and Josephus. This probably was the class that, according to the latter, might have wives and children. But my study of Buddhism threw light upon this subject. When that religion was chased from India, the acharya of the great Buddhist convent at Nalanda, the "high priest of all the world," as he is called in the Mahawanso, took refuge in Tibet. As the Grand Lama he is still acknowledged to be the head of the Buddhist Church by the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Tartars. This gives to the Buddhism of Tibet an exceptional value. ^ Page 126. SIGATS AND WONDERS. 1 43 According to the Abbe Hue/ the Buddhist lamas in those regions may be divided into four classes — • 1. Those dwelling in the Lama Serais, and serving the temples. 2. Inferior lamas told off to attend to the herds, etc., belonging to the Lama Serais. 3. Lamas who have undergone the initiation, but have found that they have no vocation, and have returned to civil life. 4. The wandering lamas, whose tent, as they prettily term it, is the stariy tent of Buddha. These men, each with no luggage besides a stout staff, wander all over Tartary, Mongolia, Turkestan. They plunge into deserts, "sleep under a rock, or on the icy peak of a mountain," obeying no impulse except a fervid passion for a fresh start each morning. Sometimes a Tartar gives them a cup of tea, stirred up with a few pinches of flour. Some- times they sleep for one night in a corner of a Tartar tent. These men are of the pattern of the formidable Parivrajakas, that first preached dharma to humanity ; and they account for the marvellous spread of Buddhism. Also, I think, they throw a side-light on the shoeless " apostles " sent forth by Christ. 1 " Voyage dans la Tartaric, le Thibet, et la Chine," vol. i. p. 189. 144 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XIII. Essenism in the Bible — Continence exacted with Communism, Vege- tarianism, and Water-drinking— " Follow Me" — The Voice in the Sky— The King of Remedies— The Buddhist "Sermon on the Mount" — The Buddhist Beatitudes— The New Commandment. I WILL write down a few more texts that show Essenism in the New Testament. A Religious Community established of those who HAVE OBTAINED THE GNOSIS, OR KNOWLEDGE OF THE Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. " It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. xiii. ii). "The kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matt. xii. 28). "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke xvii. 21). Baptism preceded by Confession of Sins, the Initiation into this Society. "And were baptised of him [John] in Jordan, confessing their sins " (Matt. iii. 6). " And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water ; and lo ! the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending Hke a dove and hghting upon Him" (Matt. iii. 16). " When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus ; and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied " (Acts xix. 5, 6). essenism in the bible. 1 45 New Name on Conversion. " Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone" (John i. 42). " Lebaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus " (Matt. x. 3). Fasting a Necessary Initiation. " Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. xvii. 21). "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face" (Matt. vi. 17). Community of Goods. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common " (Acts ii. 44). " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come and follow Me" (Matt. xix. 21). " For some of them thought that, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said to him, Buy those things we have need of against the feast " (John xiii. 29). Oaths prohibited as in Essenism. " Swear not at all " (Matt. v. 34). A Rigid Continence exacted. " All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. . . . There be eunuchs which have made them- selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matt, xix. 11, 12). "And I looked, and lo ! a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads. . . . These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins " (Rev. xiv. i, 4). Wine and Flesh-meat forbidden. On the subject of flesh-meat and wine, I will now cite some verses of a remarkable chapter (Rom. xiv.). St. Paul L 146 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. had not yet visited the eternal city, but some earlier Christian missionaries had. Thus two parties had sprung up amongst the converts, a party opposed to the consumption of flesh- meat and wine, and a second party, St. Paul's own converts. The second party was plainly the smaller party, as it is alluded to as a "remnant according to the election of grace." ^ " The Church of Rome," says Renan, alluding to the earlier missionaries, "was a Jewish Christian foundation, in direct connection with the Church of Jerusalem."^ In a word, it was the chief stronghold outside the Jewish capital of the Petrine party, and the usual controversy on the subject of "works" and "grace" had apparently arisen in the Roman capital between the Pauline and the Petrine party. The former had plainly appealed to their leader upon the points under discussion. " I say then. Hath God cast away His people ? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias ? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars ; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him ? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works : otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace : otherwise work is no more work." This passage shows that by deeds of the Law St. Paul meant the Law as interpreted by Peter ; for the whole con- troversy in Rome, as we shall see, rolled upon the question whether meat or herbs only should be consumed, and water drunk or wine. Now I am willing to stake the whole case of the Essenism of early Christianity on St. Paul's answer. That is the crucial 1 Rom. xi. 5. 2 " Confdrences d'Angleterre," p. 65. ESSENISM IN THE BIBLE. 1 47 point. In the view of Bishop Lightfoot, Christianity was a great anti-mystical and anti-ascetic movement, which had substituted wine for water in the daily sacramental dinner of the Nazarenes. Is it not perfectly plain that if St. Paul had been aware of this fact, his reply would have been quite triumphant? He would have pointed to the solemn injunc- tions of the Master, and condemned the innovating party in no measured terms. Instead of this, what do we find ? He orders his disciples at Rome to drink nothing but water. Furthermore, he orders them to eat nothing but " herbs," no animal food. He ought, of course, to have been aware, as pointed out by Bishop Lightfoot, that Christ at His model supper ate lamb. But it seems that St. Paul was not aware of this fact. " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things : another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not ; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth : for God hath received him. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks ; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. Let us not therefore judge one another any more : but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself : but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and 148 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure ; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith : for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." It is to be observed, too, that St. Paul advises Bishop Timothy to " use a little wine for his stomach's sake " (i Tim. v.). This is most important. A recently recovered work, the " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," has put beyond question the fact that the sacramentum or mysterion of the early Church was identical with the daily dinner of the brethren as with the Essenes and Therapeuts. But Bishop Timothy was plainly accustomed to celebrate it with water. Is not this a complete proof that he knew nothing of Christ's command, to use the " fruit of the vine " in the sacramentum ? Consider also the reason that St. Paul gives for the change. Had he been aware of what is now reported to have occurred at the last supper, would he have merely urged a change to wine on the utilitarian grounds here urged 1 " For thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities ! " This puts us in a better position to consider the controversy which raged in the second century, when Tatian protested against the introduction of wine at the altar as being part and parcel of a great scheme to destroy the spirituality of the Christian movement. " Ye gave the Nazarite wine to drink, and commanded the prophets saying, Prophesy not ! " St. Jerome for this has branded him as an innovator, and attributed the Encratites and other water-drinking communi- ties then confessedly existing in the Church to his teaching. But this charge will not bear a moment's scrutiny. The four- teenth chapter of Romans shows that as early as the visit of Paul to Rome water was used in the Roman Church. ESSENISM IN THE BIBLE. 1 49 This brings us to the passages describing the institution of the sacrament St Paul, who is first in the field, confesses that he received the account he gives of it " of the Lord," that is, in visions, and not historically. He says not a single word of the cup containing wine. On the contrary, in the previous chapter, in attenapting to derive the Christian rites from Moses, he says distinctly that the followers of Moses and Christ had the " same spiritual drink," namely, the " Rock," which is Christ, ^ that is, of course, water. This account, confessedly derived from the visions of St. Paul, is copied in the synoptic gospels, with this additional verse — " Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God." It is to be remarked, however, that the passage is so clumsily put in in St. Luke, that a second account of Christ's words when delivering the cup has been left, in which there is not a word about the " fruit of the vine." It is announced also that the disciples were heralded into the guest chamber by a man bearing a pitcher of luater. Another strong fact may be mentioned. Tatian composed a harmony of the four Gospels ; and Tatian maintained that the use of wine was an innovation. It is evident, therefore, that in the four gospels, as known to him, the passages about the " wine-bibber " and the " fruit of the vine " were not to be found ; or he would not have gone to the trouble of harmo- nizing gospels which disproved his main thesis, but would have taken his stand on the gospels of the gnostics. Tatian's " Harmony " was afterwards pronounced to contain added heretical matter, and was destroyed. This is silly ; for the composition of a diatesseron or harmony is the one literary feat where the addition of spurious matter is impossible. A " harmony " implies a scrupulous respect for the text. The charge confesses change, but proves that that change must have been subsequent One more piece of important evidence, and then I ha\e ^ I Cor. X. 4. I 50 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. _ done. The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, as given by Dr. Neale and Dr. Littledale/ shows that warm water was the ingredient of the cup when it was composed. " Sir, fill the holy cup," says the deacon, plainly showing that at this moment it was empty. A piece of bread is then placed in it, and warm water. I will write down the passage — " After the priest has broken the holy bread into four portions, he exclaims, " ' The Lamb of God is broken and distributed. He that is broken and not divided in sunder, ever eaten and never consumed, but sanctifying the communicants.' "And the deacon, pointing with his orarion to the holy cup, saith, " ' Sir, fill the holy cup.' "And the priest, taking the upper portion (that is the LH.C), makes with it a cross above the holy cup, saying, " ' The fulness of the cup of faith, of the Holy Ghost,' and thus puts it into the holy cup. " Deacon, ' Amen.' " And taking the WARM WATER he saith to the priest, " * Sir, bless the warm water.' " ^ After this the warm water is poured into the cup ; and nowhere is any mention of wine. Had wine been used, it would have also been blessed. Then a priori what conceivable reason could have made Jesus change the main Essene rite? He and His followers were so pursued and persecuted, that he envied the secure crannies of the fox (jackal) and the birds of the air. Why order a daily consumption of wine under such circumstances, when even cisterns of water in the craggy wastes must have been hard enough to find ? The Nazarites, or Nazarenes, were characterized from the outside by a special mark — a vow to drink nothing but water. Why suddenly introduce a change which would place before each disciple the cruel dilemma of disobedience or perjury .-' On the other hand, the motives of Pope Victor and his succes- ^ Neale and Littledale, "Liturgies of the Greek Church," p. 120. 2 Ibid. ESSENISM IN THE BIBLE. I 5 I sors are patent enough. They were going to restore Pontifex Maximus and the Roman worship of Bacchus, calHng Bacchus " Christ." They were going to give to the victorious Christians the victory of terminology alone, but to the pagans the victory of ideas. " The Pope is the ghost of the deceased Roman empire," said Hobbes, " sitting crowned upon the grave thereof." " Follow Me ! " Buddha called his disciples with precisely the same words as Jesus. Almost his earliest converts were thirty profligate nobleman in the Kappasya jangal. He said to them, " Follow me ! " and they abandoned their lemans. He then converted three Hindu ascetics and all their followers. " He received them," says Dr. Rhys Davids, in his translation, " into the order with the formula. Follow me ! " ^ These words have received an extended meaning since those days. Nuns have their " vocation " and the disciples of Wesley their mystic " call." Zacchaeus under his fig tree, like the Catholic saint, St. John of the Cross, before his crucifix, calls aloud, " Seigneur, faites que je vois ! " and, lo, the Christ appears. " The Same came to Jesus by Night." Professor Rhys Davids points out that Yasas, a rich young man, came to Buddha by night, for fear of his rich relations. Buddha spoke to him of love, of virtue, of heaven (swarga), and of the way to salvation, and made him a convert.^ " The King of Remedies." Buddha, like Christ, is the Great Physician who heals all sicknesses, bodily and mental. In China, he is called the " Unsurpassable Doctor ; " in the " Lalita Vistara," the " King of Remedies." ^ He visits the sick man Su-ta, and heals his soul as well as his body.* At Vaisali, likewise, he performs a 1 "Birth Stories," p. 114. 2 See " Tibetan Life," by Rockhill, p. 38. 3 " Lalita Vistara," p. 99. ■* " Chinese Dhammapada," p. 47. 152 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. very miraculous act. This city was afflicted with a pestilence something like modern cholera. It was due to a number of corpses festering on the river's bank. An appeal is made to Buddha, and he comes and dispels the pestilence with a strong wind.^ A disciple has his feet hacked off by an unjust king, and Buddha cures even him.^ King Suddhodana is on the point of death. Buddha forms a sort of mesmeric chain round him, with the co-operation of four disciples, and arrests his malady.^ To all who have been in the East the gospel recitals of healings and the casting out of devils are very lifelike, the twanging of rude instruments, " the minstrels and the people making a noise." And sober travellers in Buddhist countries record many genuine cures. The Abbd Hue describes an old woman sick of a ""grievous fever in the Valley of the Black Waters. The only doctors known in those regions, he tells us, were in the Buddhist lamaseries ; and if the case is pro- nounced a grave one, or, in the language of the country, if a tchutgour, or devil, is in possession of the sick person, a strong array of Buddhist monks, with rude Tartar music, and scents and psalms, is despatched, with bell and book and candle. Eight lamas arrived, and thoroughly and instan- taneously cured the old woman, says the Abbe.'^ In the old volumes of travels of Ribeyro and Knox in Ceylon are many wonderful narratives. Grievous choleraic pains were removed whilst the patient, lying on his back, was touched by the Buddhist sramana, before a short hymn to Buddha had finished its echoes. The bites of venomous snakes were rendered harmless, not once but many times. A demoniacal possession called Lycanthropy, very prevalent in the island, was always cured.^ This brings me to a passage in the " Travels " of Abbe Hue, which seems to me to throw much light on the disputa- tion Avith the doctors as recorded in the lives of both Christ ' Bigandet, p. i86. ^ Burnouf, Introduction, etc., p. 156. 3 Bigandet, p. 192. * " Voyage dans la Tartaric," torn. i. chap. ii. ^ See "Ceremonies Religieuses," by Picart, vol. vii. pp. 143, et seq. ESSENISM IN THE BIBLE. 153 and Buddha. In Tibet, the novice, to strengthen his dialectics, is set up before a conclave of doctors learned in the four great branches of knowledge — namely, mysticism, medicine, liturgy, and prayers,— and is pelted with questions. He, on his side, is allowed to start all sorts of fantastic inquiries. " There is nothing so monstrous as these disquisitions," says the Abbe, " which suggest the discussions of the Middle Ages." ^ But a friend of mine tells me that young Jesuits have precisely the same method of training— logomachies, where such topics as the immaculate conception are very freely handled. All this seems of great importance in settling the question whether or not Christ was an Essene. Such training would be quite out of place in the Mosaism of the Bloody Altar. Its main idea was that without the shedding of the blood of certain animals on certain fixed days there was no remission of sins. It expressly forbid the casting out of devils, and unorthodox dialectics. The Sermon on the Mount. Buddha, like Christ, delivered a sermon on a mountain, which is held by the Buddhists to condense his teaching. ^ The heart of man, he said, was a burning fire, and so were all the objects in the three worlds, the objects that could be seen, felt, heard, or touched. This fire was the fire of lust, of anger, of ignorance. It was due to the shortcomings of a life exposed to rebirth, sickness, old age, mortal anxieties. Only the disciples of Buddha could escape the torments of this fiery furnace. Freed from lust and human passion, they had acquired the wisdom that leads to the Perfect Man. They were no longer bound by the sixteen laws, for they had passed into higher regions. This sermon was delivered on the Elephant's Head, a mountain near Buddha Gaya. This seems to throw much light on Christ's "jeonial fire." Our version translates it " eternal fire," and turns its meaning topsy-turvy. The Jews in Christ's day believed in the metempsychosis, and the word " aeon " was the Greek word for 1 "Voyage," vol. ii. p. Ii8. ^ Bigandet, p. 141, note. n 154 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. one rebirth. The sorrows and experiences of mortal life constitute the fire that purifies and gives us wisdom. The Beatitudes. The Buddhists.like the Christians, have got their Beatitudes. They are plainly arranged for chant and response in the temples. It is to be noted that the Christian Beatitudes were a portion of the early Christian ritual. '^ An Angel. " I Many angels and men Have held various things blessings. When they were yearning for the inner wisdom. Do thou declare to us the chief good. " Buddha. " 2 Not to serve the foolish, But to serve the spiritual ; To honour those worthy of honour, — This is the greatest blessing. " 3 To dwell in a spot that befits one's condition. To think of the effect of one's deeds, To guide the behaviour aright, — This is the greatest blessing. "4 Much insight and education. Self-control and pleasant speech. And whatever word be well spoken, — This is the greatest blessing. " 5 To support father and mother. To cherish wife and child, To follow a peaceful callings — This is the greatest blessing. " 6 To hest07u alms and live righteously^ To give help to kindred, Deeds which cannot be blamed, These are the greatest blessing. " 7 To abhor and cease from sin, Abstinence from strong drink, Not to be weary in well-doing. These are the greatest blessing. ESSENISM IN THE BIBLE. 1 55 " 8 Reverence and lowliness^ Contentment and gratitude, The hearing of the Law at due seasons, — This is the greatest blessing. " 9 To be long suffering and meek^ To associate with the tranquil, Religious talk at due seasons, — This is the greatest blessing. "10 Self-restraint 2indi ptcrity, The knowledge of the noble truths. The attainment of Nirvana, This is the greatest blessing. "11 In the midst of the eight world miseries, Like the man of pure life, Be calm and unconcerned, — This is the greatest blessing. " 12 Listener, if you keep this law, The law of the spiritual world. You will know its ineffable joy, — This is the greatest blessing." * "A New Commandment give I unto you, that ye SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER." "By love alone can we conquer wrath. By good alone can we conquer evil. The whole world dreads violence. All men tremble in the presence of death. Do to others that which ye would have them do to you. Kill not. Cause no death." 2 " Say no harsh words to thy neighbour. He will reply to thee in the same tone." " I am injured. I am provoked. I have been beaten and plundered. They who speak thus will never cease to hate." " Religion is nothing but the faculty of love." ^ 1 "Khuddaka Patha." See Rhys Davids, " Buddhism," p. 127, and Bigandet's translation, p. 118, note. '^ Sutra of Forty-two Sections, v. 129. M. Leon Feer, in his translation, gives the very words of Luke vi. 31. ^ Bigandet, p. 223. 156 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Let goodwill without measure impartial, unmixed, with- out enmity, prevail throughout the world, above, beneath around." ^ "Whosoever shall Smite Thee on thy Right Cheek, turn to him the other also." A merchant from Sunaparanta having joined Buddha's society, was desirous of preaching to his relations, and is said to have asked the permission of the master so to do. "The people of Sunaparanta," said Buddha, "are exceed- ingly violent, if they revile you, what will you do ? " " I will make no reply," said the mendicant. " And if they strike you .-* " " I will not strike in return," said the mendicant. " And if they try to kill you ? " " Death," said the missionary, " is no evil in itself. Many even desire it, to escape from the vanities of life." ^ "And if Thine Eye offend thee, pluck it out, and Cast it from Thee." De Carne (p. 113) relates that the Buddhists of Laos are accustomed to offer up parts of their bodies to Buddha. Whilst he was in their parts, a man cut off his forefinger and offered it up. 1 " Khuddaka Patha," p. 16. ^ Bigandet, p. 216. ( 157 ) CHAPTER XIV. "Glad Tidings "—Faith— The Sower— The Armour of Light— " How hardly shall they that have riches instruct themselves in the way "— Names of Buddha— The Metempsychosis in Judaism and Chris- tianity. "Glad Tidings of Great Joy." Oddly enough the Buddhist gospel is also called "glad tidings," (subha shita). A worthy king named Subhashita- gaveshi, desiring to learn this gospel, interrogated the god Indra in the guise of a demon. " Leap, O king, into a fiery lake, heated day and night for seven days, and then I will tell thee." The good king abdicated in favour of his son, and flung himself into the fiery lake. Forthwith it became pure cold water. Then Indra, appearing in his full majesty, recited the following stanza — " Walk in the path of duty. Do good to thy neighbour]; Work no evil unto him. He who confers a benefit on a man Is lodged comfortably both here and in the next world." ^ Faith. " Ananda, have faith. Tathagata enjoins it. All that thou hast to do Tathagata has already accomplished.' " Friends, faith is the first gate of the Law. " All who have faith in me obtain a mighty joy." * " Ananda, turn thy soul to faith. This is my command." ^ 1 R. L. Mitra, " Northern Buddhist Literature," p. 29. 2 "Lalita Vistara,"p. 95- ^ ibid., p. 39- 4 Ibid., p. 188. ^ Ibid., p. 96. " 2 " 3 158 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Ananda, have faith, and I will conduct thee to the saints, and say, ' These are my friends ! ' Thus, if a man with a beloved son should die, the friends of the father would succour the son. In this way, Ananda, those who have faith in me I love and cherish ; for they are my friends, and come to seek in me a refuge." ^ In point of fact, as Colcbrooke shows, discussions on the " efficacy " of faith and works, on " grace " and free-will are especially Indian.^ They would be much out of place in a religion of State ceremonial like the Lower Judaism. The Sower. It is recorded that Buddha once stood beside the plough- man Kasibharadvaja, who reproved him for his idleness. Buddha answered thus — " I, too, plough and sow, and from my ploughing and sow- ing I reap immortal fruit. My field is religion. The weeds I pluck up are the passions of cleaving to existence. My plough is wisdom, my seed purity." ^ On another occasion he described almsgiving as being like " good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the tyrannical yoke of passions are like a seed deposited in a bad soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were, the growth of merits." * " Not that which goeth into the Mouth defileth A Man." In the " Sutta Nipata," chap. ii. is a discourse on the food that defiles a man (Amagandha). Therein it is explained at some length that the food that is eaten cannot defile a man, but, " destroying living beings, killing, cutting, binding, steal- ing, falsehood, adultery, evil thoughts, murder, — this defiles a man, not the eating of flesh." 1 " Lalita Vistara," p. 96. 2 " Essays," vol. i. p. 376. 3 Hardy, " Manual," p. 215. * Bigandet, p. 211. glad tidings. 159 "Where your Treasure is." " A man," says Buddha, " buries a treasure in a deep pit, which, lying concealed therein day after day, profits him nothing ; but there is a treasure of charity, piety, temperance, soberness, a treasure, secure, impregnable, that cannot pass away, a treasure that no thief can steal. Let the wise man practise virtue ; this is a treasure that follows him after death." ^ Buddha's Third Commandment. " Commit no adultery." Commentary by Buddha : " This law is broken by even looking at the wife of another with a lustful mind." ^ The House on the Sand. " It [the seen world] is like a city of sand. Its foundations cannot endure." ^ The Armour of Light. Buddha called the Bodhi, or Gnosis, " the great armour that makes perfect the saint." * "Thou canst not Tell Whence it cometh nor Whither it goeth." "The men of wisdom have seen that speech is like an echo. It is like a note on the lute. The wise man asks, Whence has it come ? Whither has it gone t " ^ Blind Guides. " Who is not freed, cannot free others. The blind cannot guide in the way." ^ The Way. The " Way " that touches not earth. The "Way " of the one great conqueror of the three thou- sand great worlds.'^ 1 " Khuddaka Patha," p. 13. 2 See " Buddhaghosa's Parables," by Max Mliller and Rogers, p. 153- 3 " Lalita Vistara," p. 172. * Ibid., p. 264. 5 Ibid., p. 175. ^ Ibid., p. 179. ^ Ibid., p. 262. l6o BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " The way of freedom." " The way of God " (Swayambhu). " The way which leads to the Gnosis. " 1 "And now also the Axe is laid to the Root of THE Trees." ^ " Having collected together a large multitude of trees, dowered with virtue, austerity, patience, and brave hearts, and sheafed with divine meditation. Mounted in the ship whose essence is the adamant, I will pass myself and transport countless beings across the flood." ^ " Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My Word will not pass away." " Though the heavens were to fall to the earth, And the great world be swallowed up and pass away ; Though Mount Sumeru were to crack to pieces, And the great ocean be dried up : Yet, Ananda, be assured, The words of the Buddha are true."^ "For They say and do not" (Matt, xxiii. 3). " As a bright but scentless flower, is the talk of the man that speaks but does not act " (" Dhammapada "). "Neither doth a Corrupt Tree bring forth Good Fruit" (Luke vi. 43). " The fool is his own enemy, doing the deed that produces bitter fruit " (" Dhammapada "). " Provide Yourselves Bags that wax not Old, a Treasure in the Heavens that fadeth not" (Luke xii. 33). " The unchaste, that seek not the divine treasure in youth, lament the past, and lie like broken bows " (" Dhammapada "). 1 " Lalita Vistara," p. 262. 2 jbid., p. 20.6. 3 Beal, "Romantic History," p. 11. GLAD TIDINGS. l6l "I Say unto All, Watch" (Mark xii. 37). "Watch thine own self. Of the three watches of the night, the wise man watches at least through one " (" Dham- mapada"). "Ye make Clean the Outside of the Cup and the Platter, but Within They are full of Extor- tion AND Excess" (Matt, xxxiii. 25). " Why this goat-skin (O Brahmin) and thy matted hair. Without is varnish, but within is filth " (" Dhammapada "). " Not matted hair, nor birth, nor gold, make the Brahmin, but truth and justice. He who has burst the cord and the strap, who is awakened, . . , who, being innocent, patiently endures abuse, blows, and chains, — the awakened man, the divine singer, he who overcometh, him I call the Brahmin " (" Dhammapada "). " And He stretched forth His Hand towards His Disciples, and said. Behold My Mother and MY Brethren." " Root up the love of self like a lotus in autumn. A father, children, kinsmen avail not in the domains of Death. As a sleeping village swept off by the torrent is the fate of him who trusts in his flocks and family "("Dhammapada "). " The cares and fears that come from children, and wives, and riches, and houses are like the chains and terrors of prison. From one is escape, not from the former " (Sutra, in Forty-two Sections). " How HARDLY SHALL THEY THAT HAVE RiCHES," ETC. " How hardly shall the rich man instruct himself in the Way. Who shall have riches and power, and not become their slave } " " Beauty and riches are like a sharp blade smeared with honey. The child sucks, and is wounded " (Sutra, in Forty- two Sections). M 1 62 buddhism in christendom. "All Liars have Their Part in the Lake that BURNETH WITH FiRE." "Who says what is not true goes to hell" (" Dhamma- pada"). "For now we see through a Glass darkly" (i Cor. xiii. 12). Buddha was once asked, "What are the signs of the divine Gnosis (Bodhi) ? " He answered that it was like a glass cleaned and polished. When the disciple has entered the Way and conquered self, the mirror begins to manifest itself in all its clearness " (Sutra, in Forty-two Sections). Names of Buddha. "The Lord," "The Lord Buddha (Buddhanath)," "The Lord of the Universe (Jagannatha)," ^ " Saviour," ^ "The Adored of Men and Gods," " The Omniscient," " The God above Gods," " The King of Remedies," ^ " The Artificer of Happiness," 4 "The God-man (Purusha)," ^ "The Father of Heaven (Lokabandhu)," ^ " The Father." ^ In the "Lalita Vistara" the Buddhas of the past come down in glorious forms, and thus address him : " Light of the world, this vow was made by thee: 'To the worlds subject to old age and death I will be a refuge ! ' " ^ Here is another passage : " Good shepherd, full of wisdom, deign to guide those who have fallen over the great precipice." ^ The One Thing Needful. Certain subtle questions were proposed to Buddha, such as : What will best conquer the evil passions of man ? Wliat is the most savoury gift for the alms-bowl of the mendicant .'' Where is true happiness to be found ? Budhha replied to them all with one word, Dhaniia "^^ (the heavenly life). 1 " Lalita Vistara," p. 126. 2 Hjij.^ p. 128. ^ Ibid., p. 6. ■• Ibid., p. 97. ^ Ibid., p. 335. *^ Ibid., 367. ^ Ibid., p. 351. ^ Ibid., p. 163. '•' Ibid., p. 372. ^" Bigandet, p. 225. glad tidings. 1 63 "Who did Sin, this Man or his Parents, that he WAS BORN Blind ? " (John ix. 3). Professor Kellogg in his work entitled " The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," condemns Buddhism in almost all its tenets. But he is especially emphatic in the matter of the metempsychosis. The poor and hopeless Buddhist has to begin again and again " the weary round of birth and death," ^ whilst the righteous Christians go at once into life eternal.^ Now it seems to me that this is an example of the danger of contrasting two historical characters when we have a strong sympathy for the one and a strong prejudice against the other. Professor Kellogg has conjured up a Jesus with nine- teenth century ideas, and a Buddha who is made responsible for all the fancies that were in the world 500 B.C. Professor Kellogg is a professor of an American University, and as such must know that the doctrine of the gilgal (the Jewish name for the metempsychosis) was as universal in Palestine A.D. 30 as it was in Rajagriha 500 B.C. An able writer in the Church Quarterly Review of October, 1885, maintains that the Jews brought it from Babylon.^ Dr. Ginsburg, in his work on the " Kabbalah," shows that the doctrine continued to be held by Jews as late as the ninth century of our era. He shows, too, that St. Jerome has recorded that it was "propounded amongst the early Christians as an esoteric and traditional doctrine."^ The author of the article in the Church Quarterly Revieiv, in proof of its existence, adduces the question put by the disciples of Christ in reference to the man that was born blind. And if it was considered that a man could be born blind as a punishment for sin, that sin must have been plainly committed before his birth. Oddly enough, in the "White Lotus of Dharma" there is an account of the healing of a blind man, " Because of the sinful conduct of the man [in a former birth] this malady has arisen." ^ ^ Page 250. - Page 24S. 3 Article, "Esoteric Buddhism." ■* The " Kabbalah," p. 43. ^ Chap. V. 1 64 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. But a still more striking instance is given in the case of the man sick with the palsy (Luke v. i8). The Jews believed, with modern Orientals, that grave diseases like paralysis were due, not to physical causes in this life, but to moral causes in previous lives. And if the account of the cure of the paralytic is to be considered historical, it is quite clear that this was Christ's idea when He cured the man, for He dis- tinctly announced that the cure was effected not by any physical processes, but by annulling the " sins " which were the cause of his malady. Traces of the metempsychosis idea still exist in Catholic Christianity. The doctrine of original sin is said by some writers to be a modification of it. Certainly the fancy that the works of supererogation of their saints can be transferred to others is the Buddhist idea of good karma, which is trans- ferable in a similar manner.^ "If the Blind lead the Blind, both shall fall INTO THE Ditch" (Matt. xv. 14). "As when a string of blind men are clinging one to the other, neither can the foremost see, nor the middle one see, nor the hindmost see. Just so, methinks, Vasittha is the talk of the Brahmins versed in the Three Vedas " (Buddha in the "Tevigga Sutta," i. 15). "This is a Hard Saying." I have recently come across two passages in two widely different works which read rather curiously together. The first is from a work recently quoted, " The Light of Asia and the Light of the World." In it Professor Kellogg condemns Buddha's teaching as "one of the most uncom- promising and unmitigated systems of pessimism that human intellect, in the deep gloom of its ignorance of Him who is the Light and Life of men, has ever elaborated." ^ In proof of this he cites certain passages from Buddhist books. These are the most noteworthy — ^ See Stone, " Christianity before Christ," p. 209. ^ Page 266. GLAD TIDINGS. 1 65 " All created things are grief and pain. He who knows this becomes passive in pain." " So long as the love of man towards woman, even the smallest, is not destroyed, so long is his mind in bondage." ^ Turning to the author of " Jesus Bouddha," we find that he brings precisely the same accusations against the " abomi- nable theories " of Christ. He cites Luke xiv. 26. " If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." He adduces also — " Let the dead bury their dead." " Think not that I have come to send peace on earth : I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in- law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household " (Matt. X. 34-36). " And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child : and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death" (ver. 21). " So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke xiv. 33). The author says that all this is pure nihilism and Essene communism. "The most sacred family ties are to be re- nounced, and man to lose his individuality and become a unit in a vast scheme to overturn the institutions of his country. "Qu' importeau fanatisme la ruine de la societe humaine."^ Now I believe that these two writers would judge that they were as far apart as Calvinist and Positivist can possibly be, but they have one prominent feature in common, a total paralysis of the sympathetic insight which allows a mind to wander to a remote past. Whether Christ or Buddha, if they were alive now, would seek to make use of modern monastic institutions to spiritualize the world is a question that most of us would probably answer in the negative. When Christ 1 Page 227. 2 " j^sus Bouddha," pp. 244, et seg. 1 66 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. came, Csesar had recently constructed fine roads all over Europe, and along these marched well-drilled armies of soldiers and priests, bringing slavery to the nations. Atheism was high priest, and mockery the thurifcr. Religion consisted of puerile ceremonial, and orgies whose records have to be concealed in the crypts of modern museums. The greed of priests pandered to lasciviousness, drunkenness, gluttony. This religion, as Gibbon says, was tolerant, but only as long as it was no religion at all. As long as a man sacrificed to the statue of Antinous or Commodus he might hold in secret loftier views. But if he expressed them he ran the risk of meeting the fate of Socrates or St. Paul. Now it seems to me that, judged by the canons of the lowest expediency, the work of Christ was almost worthy of divinity. It was, in a word, to use the great weapon of materialism against itself. Materialism had woven a huge network of roads to bind tightly together the thrall of the civilized world ; and along these roads was to march a new army, shoeless, penniless, wifeless, homeless, like the "wan- derers " of Buddha. It was not until I had made a study of Buddhism that I understood the full force of the early Chris- tian movement. Even from the materialistic point of view, it was necessary that the hungry, hunted " apostle " who over- turned Csesar should be wifeless, childless, without ties, or he could not have done his work. Neither could he have done it without some new and potent inner force. Jllius with Christ, as with Buddha, the first step towards emancipating society was to spiritualize the individual. With the Nazarites were no half measures. There were two cities. In the first city might be found ease and comfort, and material schemes and dreams. Its denizens married and were given in marriage. They lived in rich houses, and aspired to robes of dignity. The other city was tenanted by beggars. Its robes of dignity were rags ; its guerdon was hunger and thirst ; stripes and death were its day-dreams. But until a man could thoroughly understand that there was no possible connection between these two cities, he could not be a son of the mystic Sophia. ( i67 ) CHAPTER XV. Feeding the Multitudes — Similarity to Buddhist Festivals — Feet-washing — Walking on the Water — Parables — Dress. The Great Banquet of Buddha. In the " Lalita Vistara," it is announced that those who have faith will become sons of Buddha, and partake of the " food of the kingdom." ^ Four things draw disciples to his banquet — gifts, soft words, production of benefits, conformity of benefits.^ The banquet of Buddha is the great festival of contrition (Nyungue). This festival throws much light on the accounts that we have of the multitudes collected by Christ and John the Baptist. The yearly festivals of the Buddhists, even as late as the date of Hwen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, were taken advantage of for the purpose of proselytizing. Religious debates were encouraged ; as also at the old festivals of the India of the Brahmins. At the great feast of Nyungue, in Tibet, the first day is passed in prayers and in the reading of passages of scripture, to which the laity as well as the lamas are invited. They must wear clean garments well washed, and each bring his rosary and his cup. The second day is called Chorva (the Preparation), and all prostrate them- selves to the supreme " Lotus Holder " at sunrise, as the healers fell down before the Sun of Righteousness. Then the chief Lama solemnly urges all to confess their sins and amend their vicious lives. The day is also chiefly passed in prayer; tea, and a rude vegetable dinner being served out at 1 " Lalita Vistara," p. 97. 2 ibjd,^ p 51, 1 68 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. two o'clock. The third day is called " the Reality," and is a complete fast-day of twenty-four hours. These Buddhist festivals, with their lamps and night service and mighty crowds, enable us to picture to ourselves the prayers and preachings and illuminated boats on the Lake Mareotis, They explain how it was that such vast multitudes crop up so suddenly in starved-out, desolate regions. "Jesus called his disciples unto Him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to cat : And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way : for divers of them came from far. And His disciples answered Him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness ? And He asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said. Seven. And He commanded the people to sit down on the ground : and He took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to His disciples to set before them ; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small fishes : and He blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled : and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand : and He sent them away" (Mark viii. 1-9). The fourth gospel, in recording the same transaction, adds an important detail — "After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh " (John vi. 1-4). Plainly the two passages record the Essene feast of the Passover. We saw from Philo's letter to Hephaestion that the Therapeuts celebrated their own great festivals instead of repairing to Jerusalem. We see, from the account in St. John's Gospel, that the Passover was close at hand just before the great multitude came to Christ, — four thousand souls, the exact MIRACLES. 169 number of the Essenes, according to Josephus. We see that the fast lasted three days. " Listen to my words, O chosen ones. Observe the great Fast— that Fast that contemns the food and drink of this mortal world." ^ A friend of mine, Major Keith, the designer of the fine stone gateway so much admired in the recent Indian and Colonial Exhibition, having done a kindness to the Jains in India, was allowed to witness one of their great feasts. The Jains are a sect of schismatic Buddhists, who were on that account spared when the rest of the Buddhists were turned out of India. The privilege of seeing their great festival was never before granted to an Englishman. After their fast they were fed, when they had sat down upon the grass by hundreds and by fifties. The passage of scripture (Mark vi. 40) came forcibly into Major Keith's mind. A Buddha multiplying Food. King Sudarsana was a model king. In his dominions was no killing or whipping as punishment ; no soldiers' weapons to torture or destroy. His city, Jambun'ada, was built of crystal and cornelian, and silver and yellow gold. A Buddha ^ visited it one day. Now in that city was a man who was the next day to be married, and he much wished the Buddha to come to the feast. Buddha passing by, read his silent wish, and consented to come. The bridegroom was overjoyed, and scattered many flowers over his house and sprinkled it with perfumes. The next day, Buddha, with his alms-bowl in his hand and with a retinue of many followers, arrived ; and when they had taken their seats in due order, the host distributed every kind of exquisite food, saying, " Eat, my lord, and all the congre- gation, according to your desire ! " But now a marvel presented itself to the astonished mind of the host. Although all these holy men ate very heartily, the meats and the drinks remained positively quite un- diminished ; whereupon he argued in his mind, "If I could 1 " Book of Adam," p. 35. ^ Not Sakya Muni. I70 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. only invite all my kinsmen to come, the banquet would be sufficient for them likewise." And now another marvel was presented. Buddha read the good man's thought, and all the relatives, without invitation, streamed in at the door. They, also, fed heartily on the miraculous food. It is almost needless to add that the Chinese book " Fu-pen-hing-tsi-king" (as translated by the invaluable Mr. Beal) announces that all these guests, having heard a few apposite remarks on Dharma from the lips of the Tathagata, to the satisfaction of everybody (excepting, perhaps, the poor bride), donned the yellow robes. " If I THEN, YOUR LORD AND MASTER, HAVE WASHED Your Feet," Christ gave an example of the great truth, that to perform menial acts, is more godlike than to receive them. Just before the last supper (John xiii. 5), He took a towel and washed the feet of all His disciples. It is recorded in the " Chinese Dhammapada," that in a monastery near Peshawur, there was an old monk with a disease so loathsome that none of his brother-monks could come near him. Everything was poisoned with the smell and virus of his disorder. Buddha came to the monastery, and hearing how matters stood, went in and carefully washed the body of this poor old monk, and attended to his disorders. " The purpose of Tathagata, in coming to the world," he said, " is to befriend the poor, the helpless, the unprotected ; to nourish those in bodily affliction, to help the orphan and the aged." 1 Peter walking on the Water. The incident of Peter walking on the water (Matt. xiv. 28) has its counterpart in the " Chinese Dhammapada." " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt } " said Christ, when His apostle, for want of faith, was sinking. Buddha was once preaching on the banks of a broad and 1 Beal, " Chinese Dhammapada," p. 94. MIRACLES. 171 deep river near Sravasti. The people there were unbelievers. Suddenly, to their astonishment, a man was seen crossing the river by walking on the surface of the water. " What means this portent.?" they said to the man. He gave answer, that being unable to procure a boat, and wishing to hear the preaching of Buddha, he had boldly walked over " because he believed." Buddha took advantage of the miracle : " Faith can cross the flood. Wisdom lands us on the other shore." The un- believers were promptly converted.^ There is another Buddhist legend that may be of interest here. Purna, a disciple of Buddha, had a brother once in imminent danger of shipwreck in a "black storm." "The spirits that were faithful to Purna, the Arya," apprised him of this. At once he performed the miracle of transporting him- self to the deck of the ship. " Immediately the black tempest ceased, as if Sumern had arrested it," ^ The penitent thief, too, is to be heard of in Buddhism. Buddha confronts a cruel bandit in his mountain retreat and converts him. All great movements, said St. Simon, must begin by working on the emotion of the masses. In the "Chinese Dhammapada," there is a pretty story of a very beautiful Magdalen who had heard of Buddha, and who started off to hear him preach. On the way, however, she saw her beautiful face in a fountain near which she stopped to drink, and she was unable to carry out her good resolution. As she was returning, she was overtaken by a courtesan still more beautiful than herself, and they journeyed together. Resting for a while at another fountain, the beautiful stranger was overcome with sleep, and placed her head on her fellow- traveller's lap. Suddenly the beautiful face became livid as a corpse, loathsome, a prey to hateful insects. The stranger was the great Buddha himself, who had put on this appear- ance to redeem poor Pundari.^ " There is a loveliness that is like a beautiful jar full of filth, a beauty that belongs to eyes, 1 Beal, " Chinese Dhammapada," p. 50. 2 Burnouf, Introduction, etc., p. 229. 3 Beal, " Chinese Dhammapada," p. 35. 172 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. nose, mouth, body. It is this womanly beauty that causes sorrow, divides families, kills children." These words, uttered by the great teacher on another occasion, were perhaps re- tailed a second time for the Buddhist Magna Civitatis Pecca- trix.^ Parables. Buddha, like Christ, taught in parables. I give three or four which have been considered more or less like certain parables in the New Testament. For a collection of very beautiful ones, I beg to refer the reader to the " Popular Life of Buddha." "Thou Fool, thls Night will Thy Soul be REQUIRED OF THEE ! " Angati, a king in Miyala (Tirhut), had a daughter, Rucha. At first he lived piously, but one day he heard some false teachers who declared that there is no future world, and that man, after death, is resolved into water and the other ele- ments. After this he thought it was better to enjoy the present moment, and he became cruel. One day Rucha went to the king and requested him to give her one thousand masurans, as the next day was a festival and she wished to make an offering. The king re- plied that there was no future world, no reward for merit ; religious rites were useless, and it was better to enjoy herself in the present world. Now Rucha possessed the inner vision, and was able to trace back her life through fourteen previous existences. She told the king that she had once been a nobleman, but an adulterer, and as a punishment she was now only a woman. As a further punishment, she had been a monkey, a bullock, a goat, and had been once born into the Rowra hell. The king, unwilling to be taught by a woman, continued to be a sceptic. Rucha then, by the power of the Satcha Kirya (incantation), summoned a spirit to her aid, and Buddha him- self, in the form of an ascetic, arrived at the city. The king ^ Beal, " Chinese Dhammapada." p. 48. PARABLES. 173 asked him from whence he came. The ascetic replied that he came from the other world. The king in answer, laugh- ingly said — " If you have come from the other world, lend me one hundred masurans, and when I go to that world I will give you a thousand." Buddha answered gravely — " When any one lends money, it must be to the rich. If he bestow money on the poor, it is a gift, for the poor cannot repay. I cannot lend you, therefore, one hundred masiarans for you are poor and destitute." "You utter an untruth," said the king, angrily. "Does not this rich city belong 'to me?" The Buddha replied — "In a short time, O king, you will die. Can you take your wealth v/ith you to hell 1 There you will be in un- speakable misery, without raiment, without food. How, then, can you pay me my debt .'' " At this moment, on the face of Buddha was a strange light which dazzled the king. The Prodigal Son.^ A certain man had a son who went away into a far country. There he became miserably poor. The father, however, grew rich, and accumulated much gold and treasure, and many storehouses and elephants. But he tenderly loved his lost son, and secretly lamented that he had no one to whom to leave his palaces and suvernas at his death. After many years, the poor man, in search of food and clothing, happened to come to the country where his father had great possessions. And when he was afar off his father saw him, and reflected thus in his mind : " If I at once ac- knowledge my son and give to him my gold and my treasures, I shall do him a great injury. He is ignorant and undis- ciplined ; he is poor and brutalized. With one of such miserable inclinations 'twere better to educate the mind little by little. I will make him one of my hired servants." 1 This is the title adopted in the translation of M. Foucaux. 174 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Then the son, famished and in rags, arrived at the door of his father's house, and seeing a great throne upraised and many followers doing homage to him who sat upon it, was ffwed by the pomp and the wealth around. Instantly he fled once more to the highway. "This," he thought, "is the house of the poor man. If I stay at the palace of the king perhaps I shall be thrown into prison." Then the father sent messengers after his son ; who was caught and brought back in spite of his cries and lamenta- tions. When he reached his father's house, he fell down faint- ing with fear, not recognizing his father, and believing that he was about to suffer some cruel punishment. The father ordered his servants to deal tenderly with the poor man, and sent two labourers of his own rank of life to engage him as a servant on the estate. They gave him a broom and a basket, and engaged him to clean up the dung-heap at a double wage. From the window of his palace the rich man watched his son at his work ; and disguising himself one day as a poor man, and covering his limbs with dust and dirt, he approached his son, and said, " Stay here, good man, and I will provide you with food and clothing. You are honest, you are industrious. Look upon me as your father." After many years, the father felt his end approaching, and he summoned his son and the officers of the king, and announced to them the secret that he had so long kept. The poor man was really his son, who in early days had wandered away from him ; and now that he was conscious of his former debased condition, and was able to appreciate and retain vast wealth, he was determined to hand over to him his entire treasure. The poor man was astonished at this sudden change of fortune, and overjoyed at meeting his father once more. The parables of Buddha are reported in the " Lotus of the Perfect Law " to be veiled from the ignorant by means of an enigmatic form of language.^ The rich man of this parable, with his throne adorned by flowers and garlands of jewels, is announced to be Tathagata, who dearly loves all his children, and has prepared for them vast spiritual treasures. But each 1 " Lotus," p. 45. PARABLES. 175 son of Tathagata has miserable inclinations. He prefers the dung-heap to the pearl mani. To teach such a man Tathagata is obliged to employ inferior agents, the monk and the ascetic, and to wean him by degrees from the lower objects of desire. When he speaks himself, he is forced to veil much of his thought, as it would not be understood. His sons feel no joy on hearing spiritual things. Little by little must their minds be trained and disciplined for higher truths. The Man who was born Blind. Once upon a time there was a man born blind, and he said, " I cannot believe in a world of appearances. Colours bright or sombre exist not. There is no sun, no moon, no stars. None have witnessed such things ! " His friends remonstrated with him, but all in vain. He still repeated the same words. In those days there was a holy man cunning in roots and herbs, one who had acquired supernatural gifts by a life of purity and abstinence. This man perceived by his spiritual insight that away amongst the clouds on the steeps of the lofty Himalayas were four simples that had power to cure the man who was born blind. He fetched these simples, and, mashing them together with his teeth, he applied them. Im- mediately the man who was born blind was cured of his infirmity. He saw colours and appearances. He saw the bright sun in the hea.vens. He was overjoyed, and pro- nounced that no one now had any advantage over him in the matter of eyesight. Then certain holy men came to the man who had been born blind, and said to him, " You are vain and arrogant, and nearly as blind as you were before. You see the outside of things but not the inside. One whose supernatural senses are quickened sees the lapis-lazuli fields of the Buddhas and hears conch-shells sounded at a distance of five yoganas. Go off to a desert, a forest, a cavern in the mountains, and conquer this thirst for earthly things." The man who was iy6 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. born blind did as these holy men enjoined, and by-and-by acquired the supernatural gifts. The interpretation of this parable is, that the man who is born blind is one afflicted with the blindness of spiritual ignorance. Tathagata is the great physician who loves him as a father loves a son. The four simples are the four holy truths. The holy men who accosted him are the great rishis, who teach the spiritual life in caves and in deserts, and wean mankind from the love of lower things. The Woman at the Well. Ananda, the loved disciple of Buddha, was once thirsty, havincr travelled far. At a well he encountered a girl named Matanga, and asked her to give him some water to drink. But she, being a woman of low caste, was afraid of contami- nating a holy Brahmin, and refused humbly. " I ask not for caste, but for water," said Ananda. His condescension won the heart of the girl Matanga. It happened that she had a mother cunning in love philtres and weird arts, and when this woman heard how much her daughter was in love, she threw her magic spells round the disciple, and brought him to her cave. Helpless, he prayed to Buddha, who forthwith appeared and cast out the wicked demons. But the girl Matanga w^as still in wretched plight. At last she determined to appeal to Buddha himself. The great physician, reading the poor girl's thought, questioned her gently — " Supposing that you marry my disciple, can you follow him everywhere ? " " Everywhere ! " said the girl. " Could you wear his clothes, sleep under the same roof ? " said Buddha, alluding to the nakedness and beggary of the "houseless one." By slow degrees the girl began to take in his meaning and at last took refuge in the Divine Triad.^ I give three new parables of great beauty. 1 Burnouf, Introduction, etc., p. 183. PARABLES. "The King and the Pig. " There was a king renowned in Indian story ; With bow and brand He spread abroad the record of his glory In every land. " Grey warriors said, ' O ne'er was such a leader, Wary and bold ! ' He had a palace built of scented cedar Fretted with gold. " One hundred courts with trees and plashing fountains And marble screens. Rare flowers, like those of the Kailasa mountains, A thousand queens. " He died, and from this world of adulations Was borne alone, What time court poets sang their base laudations To Buddha's throne. " Said Buddha, ' What of this man is recorded ? ' An angel read : It was a tale of woe, blood-stained and sordid, A wail of the dead. " ' O'er many a city once the home of freeman The ivy twines ; Each daughter and each wife was made a leman; Men slaved in mines 177 (( ( To spread the royal dress with many a jewel, So thick they stood ; Each diamond was a tear, congealed and cruel, Each ruby blood. " ' A million slaves reared up a pompous building — Ten thousand died — Of marble lace-work, flecked with gems and gilding— The Fane of Pride. " ' Vast crowds were butchered for his entertainment In war and shows ; They march in legions to his huge arraignment, Vassals and foes. " * Fetch him the Mirror ! ' On its surface speckless He gazed with dread. And saw a false old man, malformed and feckless, With brainless head. N 1/8 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " O, who shall gaze upon that vision awful, The naked truth Limned by himself, limned by his deeds unlawful In age and youth ! " Said Buddha, ' Is there nothing true nor loyal In any page? ' ' Once,' said the angel, ' in a province royal A plague did rage, " ' And in the sun a dying pig was craning To reach the shade. The king said, " Watch those eyes of mute complaining, And give it aid ! " " ' But o'er the courtiers was a deep dejection ; 'Twas Death's grim feast. The king sprang down, and, heedless of infection. Moved the poor beast.' " " Said Buddha then majestic in his kindness, ' He is forgiven ! That deed wipes out the record of his blindness. And wins him heaven ! ' " Victor Hugo has made the king a Mussulman, but if one of the faithful had touched an unclean pig, such an act would have counterbalanced, not a life of evil deeds, but a life of good deeds. Forgiveness. " Once to a mighty king in ancient Ind Were born two sons ; Kshemankara, the first, Was brave and just and truthful, dear to all. One day the daughter of a king, concealed Behind the purdah, chanced to hear his voice ; She said, ' He is my husband — he or none.' Papankara, his brother, hated him, Papankara, whom jackals, kites, and swine Greeted with evil noises at his birth. The king one day spake to his elder boy : ' A sweet princess would wed thee, and her sire Has urged this union. Marry her my son ! ' Kshemankara replied, ' An idle prince Brings little luck or joy to any one ; Give me a ship, and let me sail abroad And see far countries, bringing back their wealth, PARABLES. 1 ;79 Rare stones and silks and produce to my bride.' The king consented ; and a goodly prow, With bamboo masts and sails of shining stuffs, Crept through lethargic seas and anchored now By islands of rich gums and cinnamon, And now near purple mountains velvety What time the sun behind a screen of mist Steeps sea and sky in floods of liquid gold. There did Kshemankara collect his gems, Moving his brother's gall. He too had come. But lo ! a mighty change is o'er the sea : A dread tuffan is whistling through the shrouds, The waves are giant, and the bellowing cloud Chases the blood from the young brother's cheek. They neared not safety, but an island grim. The elder brother said : ' Cling to my waist ! ' And with wet bales and spars of sandal wood The pair were promptly tossing in the foam. At length they landed ; and the vast fatigue Of swimming made the elder brother sleep. The younger chose two thorns, and drove them through His brother's eyes ; and taking from his waist A girdle filled with peails, announced his death. Ten months have passed. To-day a fair princess Must choose a husband — 'tis her sire's decree And in bright tents are many sons of kings, The king Papankara, whose sire is dead, To win a smile from her who smiles no more. Drums sound, the trumpets blare, and once or twice Was heard a low voice singing to a lute. Up sprang the princess : ' 'Tis my husband's voice.' The angry king said, ' Fetch that singer here ! ' He was a beggar grimed and blind. Again The princess said, ' That is my husband there ! ' The suitors loudly laughed, but in their midst The princess stood and raised her hands to heaven : ' Spirits invisible that watch our acts, That I have loved the Prince Kshemankara, And clung to him through love and through despair, Give evidence by a portentous act, Restore the vision to one wounded eye ! ' And lo, the beggar saw, and fear seized all. Then said Papankara, ' A kingly bride Requires a kingly spouse. The Shasters rule That such must have two eyes, in limbs be perfect ; This cannot be the prince. I saw him die.' The beggar then raised up his hands to heaven : l8o BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. *A kingly ruler first must rule himself, If in the presence of a mighty wrong I nourish hate to none ; if schooled by care And thirst and hunger, trusty councillors, I have been trained to rule the sad and hungry ; Spirits invisible complete your task, Restore my other eye ! ' At once he saw. Thus was Papankara hurled from his throne, And at the jousts the princess chose her spouse." Alchemy. " A vain young Brahmin once was told Of holy spells that made red gold ; This fancy vexed him day and night, His life was gross, his heart was light. Said one, ' In Uravilva's wood There dwells the Buddha, calm and good. He knows all secrets. Ask his aid ! ' The Brahmin sought the holy shade Said Buddha, ' What you wish, my son, May most undoubtedly be done. But gold is crime ! It whets the knife ; Designs the drops that poison life. It parents lust, and hate, and ire ; For gold the son will kill the sire. For gold the maiden sell her shame, Kings spread wide lands with sword and flame ; The sons of Dharma never tell Their mantras and their potent spell Except to those whose lives are pure, To those who've conquered earthly lure, Who know in fact the gold's true worth. The tawdriest tinsel upon earth.' The Brahmin said, ' My life is pure, I've conquered every earthly lure ; Who, like a Brahmin, knows the right ! ' His life was gross, his heart was light. One night the couple when the moon Hides for two weeks her light in June (The only fortnight in the year When man can make red gold appear), Sought out a cavern, where a rill Dashed down a chasm in the hill ; The mantras now were promptly told, And Buddha spread the ground with gold, Six thousand pieces the amount, A robber saw the Brahmin count. PARABLES. Then Buddha hurled it in the foam, Repeating as he journeyed home His solemn caution : ' Son, beware ! Use not this knowledge, have a care ! ' But as they trudged, at break of day. Five hundred robbers barred the way ! ' O holy masters, we are told,' They said, ' that you have countless gold.' Said Buddha, ' Gold sheds human blood, And so we flung it in the flood.' The chieftain said, ' Such words are vam And one as hostage must remain— The younger one. So promptly hie And fetch the gold, or he must die, Within a week he will be slain ! ' ' Within a week I come again,' Said Buddha, ' Fear not, Brahmin youth, A Buddha's tongue is simple truth.' Grim terror pales the young man's brow, Will the great Buddha keep his vow ? Five days have passed away too soon, To-night will end the weeks in June When spells can work ; and if he wait, To-morrow will be all too late. ' O take me to the rocky dell, To-night I'll work a mystic spell.' The gold was made. Quick spread its fame, A rival band of robbers came ; ' Divide or fight ! ' they loudly cried. When the broad pieces they espied. ^ ' He made this gold,' the first clan said, ' We give him up to you instead.' O pity now the Brahmin's fate. He thinks of Buddha's word too late. Though all unfit the time of year. The greedy robbers will not hear. They cut his throat ; and then assail Their rivals for their lying tale. Swords flash and fall on sounding crest. On cloven targe, and stricken breast, Sharp cries of anguish over all Outroar the angry waterfall, Whose snowy stream is soon a flood Of dying men and human blood. Borne off to Yama's realm of death ; Two robbers soon alone draw breath. Exhausted with three days of fast, l8l 1 82 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. They watch the gold. Says one at last, " You guard the cave ; but we must eat. I'll to the town for drink and meat." One hied him to a leech's stock, One nursed a dagger by a rock ; Each muttered, " Soon 'tis all mine own ! " One perished, stabbed without a groan ; The other seized his drink and meat And soon was writhing at his feet. Dress. Of the close resemblance between the dress of Buddhist monks and Romish priests we have the best possible evidence, that of the Roman Catholic priests in many lands from the earliest times. Father Grueber, who visited Tibet in 1661, has recorded that the dress of the lamas corresponded with that handed down to us in ancient paintings as the dress of the apostles.^ Now let us listen to the Abbe Hue — " If the person of the grand lama struck us little, I cannot say the same of his dress, which in every detail was that of our own bishops. He wore on his head a yellow mitre. In his right hand was a staff in the form of the crosier. His shoulders were covered with a cloak of violet silk, fastened across the chest with a hook, and resembling our cope. Later on we will point out many similarities between Catholic and Lamanesque rites." ^ This lama was not the Delai lama. In the " Life of Gabriel Durand " occurs an extract of a letter from Father Ephrem, written in 1883 — " There (in the Bell Pagoda, Pekin) we saw a Chinese priest dressed almost pin for pin like a Benedictine monk."^ I copy two Japanese monks from Sicbold's " Nippon." (See Plate VI.) " Much of the costume of the Buddhist priests," says Balfour's " Indian Cyclopaedia," "and of the ritual, has a simi- larity to those of Christians of the Romish and Greek forms ; ^ Cited by Prinsep, "Tibet, Tartary," etc. p. 14. ^ "Voyage dans la Tartaric," etc. vol. ii. ^ "Gabriel Durand," vol. i. p. 493. > Id H < -1 Ph ^ ^ a to PARABLES, 183 and De Guignes, De Gama, Clavijo, Anthony Jenkinson, all notice statements regarding the Greek Church, the Chinese, and the Burmans, indicative of the belief in the identity of the form of worship." Sir Rutherford Alcock bears similar testimony to this identity of costume " amongst the priests, acolytes, and choristers." The missionaries of St. Francis Xavier were struck with it. " Two systems and ceremonials of worship presenting such marvellous identity in small particulars, and in larger cha- racteristics, could not possibly have been born of chance and wholly independent the one of the other." ^ In point of fact, the Abbe Hue tells us that the Buddhist priests of Tibet have the dalmatic and the cope exactly like the Roman Catholics. These two garments have played a conspicuous part in all the mystic societies of the West. The dalmatic is the close- fitting white garment which envelopes the person from the neck to the heels. The cope, called 3\so pluvial, in French ; peviale, in Italian, is the rain cloak. Both were worn by Buddha. (See Plate V. p. 140.) According to Philo, the Therapeuts of Alexandria had two garments, " a thick cloak of some shaggy felt for winter, and a sleeveless vest, or fine linen garment, for summer." " Put on your stoles and white garments, O peacemakers, symbols of the Water of Life." This is from the " Book of Adam," and was addressed to the disciples of John the Baptist. Do we not learn also that their leader had a raiment of camel's hair. '* If any man sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also " (Matt. v. 40). This cloke may also be the garment "without seam" of Jesus that the four executioners cast lots for (John xix. 23). We know from history that the early dress of the Chris- tians, like that of the Essenes, was white. Many passages in the gospels support this statement. I quote one (Rev. iii. 17.) whose Essenism is very pronounced. " Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, 1 " Capital of the Tycoon," vol. ii. p. 310. 184 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and bhnd, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou inayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Here is another passage (Matt. x. 10) — " Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes." This seems to show that Christ's disciples went barefooted like early Christian and early Buddhist monks, and had only one " coat " (dalmatic) like the Essenes. In the Daily News of May 30th, 1885, appeared an account of a ceremony that takes place every Whit Monday, at Argenteuil, in France. A portion of the Saviour's robe is carried in procession in a golden casket in the presence of many of the most high-born Catholics of France and England. This fragment is made of camel's hair, is dark brown in colour, and of stuff very like that of a garment worn by modern Arabs. Pius IX. begged a little fragment of it, which shows that it is thought authentic. I mention this to show an early tradition of the Church. In the days of St. Antony, Christian monks still wore a garment of camel's hair. The Buddhist nuns have the black and the white veil, but these, as in Spain, are for protection against heat in summer, and cold in winter. They do not denote spiritual grades. The nun with the white veil I copied from Siebold's " Nippon;" ^ the nun with the black veil from a photograph. In the Greek Church the nuns have similar long sleeves to hide their hands. (See Plate VII.) 1 Siebold, "Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan." > < ( 185 ) CHAPTER XVI. Christianity and Buddhism at first propagated secretly— Descent into Hell— Transfiguration on a mount— Triumphal entry into the "City of the King"— The Buddhist "Last Supper"— Cup of Agony— Por- tents at the death of a Buddha— "They parted my garments" — Trinity in Unity. "See that Thou tell no Man" How was Buddhism spread by Buddha ? A vivacious critic, in a print called the Indian Antiquary, has charged me with "crass" ignorance and other unkind things, because I assert that Buddhism, in the first instance, made its progress as a secret society. The critic points triumphantly to the abundant chronicles of the Southern Buddhists, where every step of the reformer and his movement is set down. I wish I could agree with my critic, and accept these chronicles without critical sifting. According to them, Buddha first preached the law in a deer forest, about four miles to the north of the holy city of Benares. The spot is called Sarnath (Sarugganatha, the " Lord of Deer " ) to this day. Asoka built a splendid temple in this wilderness. The dome is ninety-three feet in diameter, and its imposing mass still dominates the plain. Pilgrims from China have visited it ; and pilgrims from all countries in the world go to it still. It is called Dhamek, a corruption for the Temple of Dharma. Now, the Cingalese historian, evidently writing long after this temple of Dharma had become famous, makes Buddha 1 86 BUDDHISM m CHRISTENDOM. put up in a fine temple and vihara in a "suburb of Benares"^ during the first rainy season after his conversion. Benares was already the most holy city of the Hindoos, and yet it is recorded that Buddha preached openly against the Brahmin religion, and made sixty-one converts. He then proceeded to the powerful Brahmin kingdom of JMagadha, and arrived at the capital, Rajagriha, attended by over a thousand followers. The king at once became a convert, with a large proportion of his subjects ; and handed over to Buddha the grove in which the celebrated Venuvana Monastery was afterwards situated. The Cingalese writer does not take the trouble to say a word about the building of it, being evidently under an impression that it was already there. Five months after Buddha had attained the Bodhi he \ started off to Kapilavastu, a distance of sixty leagues, to see his father. He was accompanied by twenty thousand yellow- robed shaven bhikshus ; and he marched along the high-roads of the various Brahmin kingdoms that were on his road without any molestation. At Kapilavastu, he found another fine vihara ready for him ; and the bulk of the nation and the king became converts to his religion. He returned shortly to Rajagriha to find a convenient merchant ready at once to hand over to him the rich vihara, or monastery, of Jetavana at Sravasti (Sahet Mahet). Buddha went at once to the spot ; and this time the chronicler allows a vihara to be built, a new one, he again fancying apparently that one was there. There was " a pleasant room for the sage," separate apartments for " eighty elders," and " other residences with single and double walls, and long halls and open roofs ornamented with ducks and quails ; and ponds also he made, and terraces to walk on by day and by night." ^ When Buddha arrived at Sravasti, this convent was dedicated to him by the merchant, who went through a formula well known in the ancient inscriptions of Ceylon, He poured water out of a bowl, and made over the land to the monks. Then a gorgeous festival took place, which lasted nine months. Exactly five hundred and forty millions of 1 "Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 91. ^ Ibid., p. 130. SECRECY. 187 gold pieces were expended on this feast and on the convent ; so that we may presume, I suppose, that most of the inhabi- tants of the powerful Brahmin kingdom of Sravasti had become converts. Thus, in less than a year, Buddha had practically converted the Brahmin kingdoms that stretch from Sravasti (Sahet Mahet) to Gaya. In a word, his creed had already won what is called the Holy Land of the Buddhists. Is all this true ? Even by lopping off Eastern exaggera- tions and accretions, can we reduce it in any way to a plausible story .-* I say that the task is impossible. If in the holiest city of the Hindoos Buddha had proclaimed that there was no God, and in a complete and categorical manner had announced that man had no soul nor anything of any sort that existed after death, the cruel laws of the Brahmins against heresy would have been put in force against him. Dr. Rhys Davids con- tends that it is proved by the Upanishads that "absolute freedom of thought" existed in ancient India.^ But the Upanishads were secret— he forgets that. They were whis- pered to pupils who had passed through a severe probation. Macjasthenes, the Greek ambassador to Patna, bears witness to this.2 Bishop Bigandet accounts for the rise of Buddhism, by supposing that it was at once adopted as the official religion in Maeadha. Then there are theories abroad that some of the kingdoms of India were Turanian, and their creeds were Jinism, or some non-Brahminic religion. And it is affirmed that some of these monarchs befriended Buddha. In the way of all these theories stand the Asoka stones. They distinctly record that the Brahminism of the animal sacrifice was the official creed all over India until Asoka superseded it. It is to be remembered that Patna was his capital, which is in the very heart of the Holy Land of the Buddhists ; so the king could no more make a mistake about the official creed of the neidibourine Magadha than the Archbishop of Canterbury 1 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 26. 2 Cory, " Ancient Fragments," p. 225. 1 88 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. be wrong about the official creed of Sussex. The Althakatha in tracing his history also confesses that the official religion was Brahmin up to the king's conversion.^ The question of the great missionary success of early Buddhism is no doubt a difficult one. The enormous area conquered by it at the date when Asoka made it an official creed seems to indicate a victory already won. Asoka was a politician. He had swum to the throne in the blood of many slaughtered brothers. He seems scarcely the man to have offi:3nded the powerful Brahmin priesthoods of every kingdom in India, except under the pressure of a more potent force. If the formidable " Sons of Dharma " had silently undermined these kingdoms, and a vast organization able to make and unmake kings, united, secret, terribly in earnest, had revealed themselves to him, his proceedings are intelligible, not otherwise. The vast empires of the palmy days of Indian Buddhism were found unattainable by the most gory Mogul. In this matter we are not quite without historical data. China was officially converted A.D. 6i, by the apparition of a "golden man," "a spirit named Foe." The Emperor Mingti on perceiving this " golden man " at once made his religion the official creed. But in the notes of Klaproth and De R^musat to their translation of the " Pilgrimage of Fa Hian," '-^ it is made quite clear that Buddhism came to China nearly two hundred years earlier. Lassen believes that it reached Babylon 250 B.C. Buddha's name is mentioned with praise in the " Zend Avesta," " Go ye into all the world and preach Dharma ! " said Buddha. It seems to me that the biographies of Jesus and Buddha throw constant light the one on the other. We know the fearful oaths of secrecy enjoined on Christians in the Clemen- tine " Homilies ;" and we remember the many earnest injunc- tions of Christ in the direction of a similar caution. When I was a little boy I could never understand this excess of caution as applied to the parables. Why was it so necessary to keep secret the fact that the seed in the parable of the 1 Jotirn. Ben. As. Soc, vol. vi. p. 73i- ^ P^S^ 40, ^^ ^^9- SECRECY. 189 sower signified the Word of God ? But if by " Word of God," Christ meant that Word as interpreted by the Jewish mystics, such caution was of course necessary, for hearer and utterer ran great danger of being stoned. Christianity for many years after its founder's death was a secret society, and the catechumens were rigidly excluded from its mystic rites. The author of " Jesus Bouddha " holds that Christ's speech about the kingdom of heaven coming " not with observation " {sans eclat), and the Son of man appearing in the lifetime of the living generation, was an allusion to the speedy success of his secret propagandism.^ The " Son of man " was a move- ment rather than an individual. This interpretation has the advantage that the prophecy then would not have been falsified by the event. The higher modern mystics, like Swedenborg, have maintained that the avatara of God is the truth uttered and not the utterer. " He descended into Hell." Buddha, like Christ, preached to the spirits in prison. It is recorded that on one occasion when visiting Sravasti he remembered that the Buddhas of the past had gone to the heavens of the Devas, each to preach to his mother. In consequence he repaired to Mount Meru, which is the nearest point on earth to the heavens of the Devas, and then soared away to the heaven Tawadeintha. There he preached to his mother and to millions of spirits for three months.^ The heavens of the Devas are six in number and are tenanted by mortals still subject to rebirths, but who are receiving rewards (temporary) for past good deeds. Those whose deeds require punishment (also temporary) are conducted into the bowels of the earth to the hell Avichi (the Rayless Place). It is needless to say that Buddha converted his mother, and that she represents the physical universe with the whole of its breathing inhabitants. The avatara of the Buddha makes happy every suffering mortal. The Chinese hold that every thousand years Buddha, in the form of a beautiful 1 Page 252. ^ Bigandet, p. 203. 190 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. young man, goes down to the hell Avichi and clears that region of suffering. Turning to the Gospel of Nicodemus, chap, xiii., we read that at the time of Christ's crucifixion, in " the depth of hell," in " the blackness of darkness, on a sudden there appeared the colour of the sun like gold, and a purple-coloured light enlightening the place." At this all the Jewish patriarchs and prophets rejoiced, and Isaiah announced that this was the light of the Son of God. " The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalem beyond Jordan, a people who walked in darkness saw a great light, and to them who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death light is arisen. And now," added the old Hebrew prophet, " He is come and hath enlightened us who sate in death." " Then all the saints who were in the depth of hell rejoiced the more." These occurrences alarmed Satan ; when suddenly there was a voice as of thunder pronouncing these words — " Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in ! " Then the Prince of Hell, a distinct being from Satan, called out, " Shut the brass gates of cruelty ! " But the patriarchs remonstrated, and David called to mind his prophecy — " He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder." Then Isaiah spoke again — " Did not I rightly prophecy to you when I was alive on earth ? " "The dead men shall live and they shall rise again who are in their graves, and they shall rejoice who are on earth." " Then the mighty Lord appeared in the form of a man and lit up those places which had been before in dark- ness." And " trampling upon Death, he seized the Prince of Hell, and deprived him of all his power." It is also recorded that he dismissed " all the captives, and released all who were bound and all who were wont formerly SECRECY. 191 to groan under the weight of their torments" (chap, xviii. V. 4). The Buddhist universalism of this legend gives it, I think, an early date. Peter evidently alludes to it when he records that Christ "went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (i Pet. iii. 19). Transfiguration on a Mount. Buddha, like Christ, when he went up the steeps of Mount •Meru, was ministered to by his two chief disciples. Sariputra brought him food, whilst a double of the Great Teacher, per- haps his "diamond" or spirit body, was preaching to the spirits in prison. Maudgalyayana was at hand, too, and was commissioned to tell the rest of the disciples that on a certain day the Lord would descend to earth near a town called Sam- kasya, which was situated some thirty yogunas from Sravasti. A splendid staircase of diamonds and emeralds was constructed by the spirits, and along this Buddha came ; but at a certain point he paused, and an astounding miracle was patent to the vast multitudes who had assembled to greet his triumphal return. The six glories of the Buddha shone out with dazzling radiance on his head, and the splendid domes and temples of the spirit cities were revealed. Men could see spirits and spirits could see men. Sweet strains were in the air from heavenly harps. And Indra the king of heaven and Brahma were by the side of Buddha, with an innumerable army of angelic beings. The light of all this glory illumined even the hell Avichi. A splendid canopy temple was after- wards erected on the spot where the King of Glory had alip-hted.i Did not Peter wish to erect a " tabernacle " on the spot where Christ was transfigured } Another point is noteworthy. Sariputra and Maudgalya- yana incurred, like the Sons of Thunder, the jealousy of the other disciples by a similar request. They petitioned Buddha that the one should sit on his right hand and the other on his left.^ The coincidence goes further. Sariputra was also called Upatishya (the "beloved disciple"). 1 Compare Bigandet, p. 208, and Rockhill, p. 81. 2 Bigandet, p. 15 3- 192 buddhism in christendom. The Triumphal Entry into the City of the King. Bishop Bigandet points out that there is a " Precurseur de Bouddha " as well as a forerunner of Christ. When Buddha proceeds from the Desert of Uravilva to make his solemn entry into Rajagriha, the Jerusalem of the Buddhists, a radiant young man, who was in reality Indra, appeared and cried out — " Behold the great Buddha advances with a thousand dis- ciples ! " And when he was questioned about himself he said, " Sons of men, I am his humble servant. He alone merits the worship of men and spirits." Dr. Rhys Davids also gives us an account of Buddha doing something the same sort of office to the great Buddha Dipafi- kara. In a previous existence he was the Brahmin Sumedha. " If you clear a path for the Buddha, assign to me a place. " I will also clear the road, the way, the path of his coming. " Then they gave me a piece of ground to clear a pathway. " Then repeating within me A Buddha, a Buddha ! I cleared the road." By-and-by the Buddha arrived, attended by a vast multi- tude of mortals and heavenly quiristers. Vast quantities of flowers were cast in his pathway, and Sumedha, who had on an antelope's skin, flung it in the mire with the grace of Sir Walter Raleigh.^ In the Gospel of Nicodemus, a herald goes before Christ into Pilate's presence, and throws his garment down for the Saviour to walk over. Rajagriha means " the city of the king," and Buddha's solemn entry with a crowd of disciples, with banners and music and incense, his footsteps passing along a pathway of flowers, is only another version of the same story that was told in our last section, and which is told every Sunday in the Christian mass and the Buddhist temple — the passage of a human soul from the " wilderness " into the city of light, the city of the great king. The forerunner of the religion of Buddha was the religion of Indra ; and the teaching of John the Baptist preceded the teaching of Christ. Whether either entry is pure history may be doubted. 1 " Birth Stories," p. 12. SECRECY. 193 The ingenious author of " Rabbi Ben Joshua " holds that that of Jesus was genuine, and rendered feasible by a popular move- ment, which awed for a moment the dominant party. He holds, too, that Christ and his followers really broke into the temple and overturned the stalls of the traffickers in doves. But he says that this proves him an Essene, for the doves were a necessity to the Jewish ritual. I see great difficulties in the way of this interpretation. In the first place, the followers of Christ would have had to deal not with the dominant Jews, but the Roman soldiers, who would have made short work of an unarmed multitude. In the second place, the dominant party, who three times a day called on God to send his curse on the Nazarenes, would have been only too glad to set the Roman soldiers at their secret enemies, and get rid of them at one fell swoop. And nothing could have been more opposed to the genius and policy of Christ than such a deed of violence. The overturning of the money-changers is a beautiful trope, like the crown of thorns and the rending of the veil of the temple. The Last Supper. Buddha, like Christ, sate down with his chief disciples to a repast which he knew was to be his last. It is recorded that a young pig was set before him, and knowing that this would cause his death, he forbade his disciples to touch it, and had the remainder buried after he had partaken of it. He announced that this feast and the rice milk of Sujata were the two great feasts of his life. The one had given him the Bodhi or Gnosis, and the other emancipation from the flesh altogether.^ Much of this, of course, is inserted in his life to connect it with the two great festivals of the year : the Harvest Festival or the Feast of Lanterns, and the Feast of the New Year, which begins with the Feast of the Dead. The pig is, I suspect, astronomical, like perhaps the boar's head at a similar epoch in England. The Abbe Hue was astonished to find the Tibetans sit up solemnly to see the ^ Bigandet, pp. 280, 281. O 194 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. old year out and the new year in. New year's cakes and sweets and pantomimes abounded. Visits, as in France, were made.^ " My Soul is exceedingly Sorrowful, even unto Death." There is a passage in the life of Christ and another in the life of Buddha that are puzzling. Perhaps, compared to- gether, they throw some light the one on the other. What was the "cup" that Christ had to drink in the garden of Gethsemane, and what was the " garden t " Turning to Buddha, it is recorded that shortly before his death he and his disciples were invited by the courtesan Amrapali to a feast in her beautiful garden. Almost imme- diately after the feast Buddha sickened. " The sharp pains of a dire illness," he said, " have come upon me, even to death." And when Ananda, his attendant monk, tried to comfort him, he added : " My body is as stiff as if I had taken poison ! " Shortly afterwards, the Tathagata repaired to the " village of the earth" and partook of his last supper, a treacherous disciple changing his dish. Great pains soon seized him, and a dire thirst. Ananda was by him on the banks of a little river called the Haranyavati, and the afflicted old man desired his disciple to fetch him a sip of water. Carts were passing, and the water was foul. The southern version says that by a miracle Buddha clarified it ; but in Mr. Rockhill's version, A the disciples, after Buddha's death, bitterly upbraided Ananda for giving the blessed one a foul cup of water. They were angry, too, that he allowed courtesans to anoint Buddha's dead body with their tears.^ Mysticism has an infinite number of symbols, but only one truth ; and that is that there is a spiritual state and a material state. The latter is frequently symbolized as a garden, an impure woman, and so on. Each symbol is balanced by its opposite, * " Voyages," vol. ii. p. 374. 2 "Rockhill," pp. 130, 131, 133, 153. SECRECY. 195 for the two are only aspects of one truth. There is the garden of Gethsemane and the garden of Paradise ; the "cup" of life and the "cup" of death; the "bread of life" that John the Baptist administers to the perfected novice ; and the bread that the Judas, the treacherous disciple, " dips into." And it is significant that Amrapali is not painted as a penitent Magdalene, for she represents the earth-life that the Buddha was leaving. It is quaintly announced that she was the most perfect woman in the world, and for this reason was forbidden by the king to become a wife, a fact which relegates her to the groves of the Brahmin Black Durga and her festival of the dead. Christianity has cast out the seven devils of Mary of Magdala, the City of the Tower. But, for all that, her outlines still appear sharply limned, and her identity is unmistakable. She anoints Christ's body for the burial, and the unguent is human tears. She stays by Him at the foot of the cross when His disciples desert Him, and when for the hyssop of the Essene Sacramentum He is offered the hyssop which is presented on the point of a spear. Finally, in the sepulchre she is the first to greet Him, for, like Amrapali, her name is Death. Portents at the Death of a Buddha. In Mr. Rockhill's " Life of the Buddha " it is announced that portents and miracles always take place at the moment of a Buddha's death. These occur when Ananda, who was a Buddha ^ after Sakya Muni's death, and Mahakasyapa pass away.2 When the great Tathagata expired, a great earth- quake terrified the inhabitants of the world, and the " drum of the gods " roared through the vault of heaven, whilst the angels in the sky covered their faces with their hands and rained down salt tears. The disciples were beside themselves with grief, and rolled with pain on the ground. Ananda and a companion disciple saw numerous denizens of the other world in the city of Kusinagara, and by the river Yigdan. 1 Page 165. 2 Pages 162, 167. 196 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Kasyapa encountered a man carrying a mandarava flower, and he knew at once that the great teacher was at rest, for the mandarava flower blooms only in heaven.^ "They parted My Garments amongst Them!" The Abbe Hue tells us that the old garments of the Bokte, or incarnation of Buddha, arc cut into little strips and prized immensely.^ "He rose Again from the Dead." In the Chinese version, Buddha appeared after death : " After his remains had been put in a golden coffin, which then grew so heavy that no one could lift it. . . . Suddenly his long-deceased mother, Maya, appeared from above bewail- ing her lost son, when the coffin lifted itself up, the lid sprang open, and Sakya Muni appeared with folded hands saluting his mother." ^ This confirms what I said about Maya Devi representing humanity as with the Hindoos. So clumsy an expedient as bringing her down from heaven to see her son who, according to early Buddhist ideas had joined her there, would not other- wise have been thoujjht of *&' Trinity in Unity. Professor Kellogg finds fault with all who draw a parallel between the Buddhist and Christian trinities. The Buddhist trinity is Buddha, Dharma, Sangha (Buddha, the law, and the order of the monks),^ which is, of course, very diffi2rent from the Three Persons of the Christian Trinity. I will write down a very curious passage from the earliest history of the Christian Church, that of Hegesippus — " In every city that prevails which the Law, the Lord, and the prophets enjoin." As a monastery was called a school of the prophets in 1 Foucaux, p. 419. - "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 278. ^ Eitel, " Three Lectures on Buddhism," p. 57. * Page 184. SECRECY. 197 Palestine— and in the newly discovered "Teaching of the Apostles" the early Christian missionary is called a "Pro- phet"— is it possible to get a more literal translation of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha than this ? But Professor Kellogg has not read every volume of the long list of Buddhist books that he gives in his preface with very great attention, or he would have known that Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha on earth have their prototypes in the sky ; and that these divine beings were at any rate thought so like the three persons of the Christian Trinity by early missionaries and travellers in China and elsewhere that they pronounced that this "trinity in unity" was evidently derived from St. Thomas.^ Father Tachard makes a similar an- nouncement. The Buddhist triad in his view " renferment presque I'idee de la Trinite, car ces trois paroles signifient Dieu, le verbe de Dieu, et I'imitateurde Dieu."^ This triad figures in the rituals of both northern and southern Buddhism. Buddha. " He is the creator of all the Buddhas. He is the creator of Prajna, and of the world, himself unmade." " He is the form of all things, yet formless." " Adi Buddha is without beginning. He is perfect and pure within the essence of wisdom and absolute truth. He knows all the past. His words are ever the same. He is without second. He is omnipresent." ^ The next citation is from the ritual of Ceylon. " We believe in the blessed one, the holy one, the author of all truth, who has fully accomplished the eight kinds of supernatural knowledge, . . . who came the good journey which led to the Buddhahood, who knows the universe, the unrivalled who has made subject to him all mortal beings whether in heaven or on earth, the teacher of gods and men, ^ Picart, citing Purchas, " Ceremon ies," etc. vol. vii. p. 203. 2 Ibid., p. 59. ^ These are cited by Mr, Hodgson from the " Nama Sangiti." 198 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the blessed Buddha. Through life till I reach Nirvana will I put my trust in Buddha." ^ This latter passage is from Ceylon, where every day the following sentences are ejaculated in the temples : — " I bow my head to the ground and worship the sacred dust of his holy feet. " If in aught I have sinned against Buddha, " May Buddha forgive me my sin ! " " I bow my head to the ground and worship Dharma. " If in aught I have sinned against Dharma, " May Dharma forgive me my sin ! " " I bow my head to the ground and worship Sangha. " If in aught I have sinned against Sangha, " May Saiigha forgive me my sin ! " '^ Dharma or Prajn^ (Wisdom). " I salute that Dharma who is the wisdom of the unseen world (Prajna Paramita), pointing out the way of perfect tran- quility to mortals, leading them to the paths of perfect wisdom, who by the testimony of the sages produced all things." ^ " Whatsoever spirits are present either belonging to the earth or living in the air, let us worship Tathagata Dharma, revered by gods and men, may then be salvation." ^ Sangha. Saiigha, the third person of this trinity, sprang from the union of Sophia the mother and Buddha (Spirit). The relations between the transcendental Buddha and the mortal Buddha I have already shown to be the same as those between En Soph of the " Kabbalah " and the Heavenly Man. Philo's God the Father and the Logos his son is based on the same idea. Our Holy Spirit was at first a woman, Sophia, the mother. The great cathedral in the first capital of Christendom is 1 " Buddhist Credo in Ceylon," Dickson. -' " Patimokklia," p. 5. ^ Hodgson, p. 142. •* " Sutta Nipata," p. 39, Fausbol. SECRECY. 199 named after her. God made the world by means of the Word and Sophia/ says Irenaius, with whom she is also a woman. I will draw attention here to a singularly neglected portion of the Jewish scriptures, the Apocrypha. I say singularly neglected, as it formed part of the scriptures known to Christ and the higher Judaism, and was most of it composed at Alexandria. The Buddhist inner teaching was set forth in compositions entitled Prajna Paramita (the wisdom of the other bank). The higher Judaism also had its book of Wisdom. I will make an extract. " O God of my fathers and Lord of Mercy, who hast made all things with the Word. " And ordained man through thy Wisdom that he should have dominion over the creatures that Thou hast made. " Give me Wisdom that sitteth by Thy throne, and reject me not from among Thy children. . . . " Wisdom was with Thee which knoweth Thy works, and was present when Thou madest the world. . . . " O send her out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of Thy glory, that being present she may labour with me. " For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things. " And Thy counsel who hath known, except Thou give wisdom and send the Holy Spirit from above." In this passage we see Sophia personified as the Holy Spirit. She was in existence before God created the world. This He did by the aid of the Logos, as in the fourth gospel. Immediately following the passage quoted it is narrated what Sophia did for the seven great prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. These are supposed by some to be the seven messengers of the Apocalypse. Here are a few more verses about Sophia — " She is the breath of the power of God. " She is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God. 1 " Haer.," iv. 20. 200 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. » 2 " Being one she can do all things, and remaining in herself she maketh all things new." ^ " She is privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God She appears constantly in the catacombs. The figure, known as the Orante, is a representation of her, not pray- ing, but supporting the Kos- mos ; as in India, it is simi- larly supported by Krishna, or Hanuman. A female, with arms in a similar attitude, is seen constantly in the old Buddhist bas-reliefs. We see her here standing on the kos- mical lily or lotus (Fig. 15). She is the "Bride" of the Apocalypse. In the Indian religion it was feigned that the ecliptic, or circle of the year, was a great serpent with his tail in his mouth — Ananta, the Endless. This serpent was supposed y[„_ 15. to be cut in half, and to become two serpents which represented Summer, or the period of life, and Winter, or the period of death. These two serpents, as Ketu and Rahu, also represented good and evil with the Buddhists and Brahmins. The word " union " is the keystone of all ancient myste- ries. With the Brahmins this was yoga. With the Buddhists it was sangha. In early Christianity it was the mystic "marriage." Buddha (heaven, spirit, the universal father) was allied to Dharma (earth, matter, the universal mother), and from the union was born the mystic child. The favourite way of representing these two mystic ser- pents was as twined round the "Rod of Hermes" (Fig. 2, 1 Chap. vii. v. 25, ci seq. 1 Chap. viii. v. 4. Plate VIII. Fig. 1. Burmah. Tibet. TKIRATNA OUTLINE. {Page zoo. Plate IX. Fig. 2. Fig- 3- Serapis i-'ig. i. Januilgiii. F»g- 4- Fig. 5 Father, Mother, and Marttanda. Serapis Shell and Marttanda. THE GNOSTIC TRIAD. [Page 201. SECRECY. 201 Plate VIII., from the early Buddhist tope of Sanchi). In an ornamental form (Figs. 3 and 4) this became the Trisul or Triratna outline, the most holy symbol of Buddhism, Buddha's head (Fig. 5) has, I think, its very long ears to make up the same outline. Fig. 6 is a magic tortoise from Tibet, and here we have the same outline in another form. In Buddhism it is everywhere. Fig. i, a head of Christ from the catacombs, whether by accident or design, makes up the same symbol of the mystic " union." In Greece it was feigned that Jupiter and Rhea, disguised as serpents, had produced this symbol. This was the explanation of the Rod of Hermes. The two serpents in Alexandrian Gnosticism were the legs of the mystic I. A. w. Compare Fig. 2, Plate IX., with Fig. i, from the Buddhist tope of Jamalgiri. In Figs. 4 and 5 we see Buddha's symbol of the elephant as one limb of the triad, a strong proof that Buddhism was in Alexandria. Fig. 3 is Serapis, whose head is said to have suggested the conven- tional Christ. According to Gibbon, Christianity and Serapis worship in Alexandria were at one time scarcely dis- tinguishable. 2'02 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XVII. Ritual — Saint Worship— Cosmology— Progress of Buddhism — Indul- gences— Dispensations — Councils to put down Heresy — Close simi- larities in the Election of the Grand Lama and the Pope. Ritual. In my work, " Buddha and Early Buddhism," occurred the following passage : — " The French missionary Hue, in his celebrated travels in Tibet, was much struck with the similarity that exists between Buddhist and Roman Catholic rites and customs. " The crozier, the mitre, the dalmatic, the cope or pluvial, which the grand lamas, wear on a journey, or when they perform some ceremony outside the temple, the service with a double choir, psalmody, exoixisms, the censer swinging on five chains, and contrived to be opened or shut at will, bene- diction by the lamas with the right hand extended over the heads of the faithful, the chaplet, sacerdotal celibacy, lenten retirements from the world, the worship of saints, fasts, pro- cessions, litanies, holy water — these are the points of contact between the Buddhists and ourselves." The good Abbe has by no means exhausted the list, and might have added " con- fessions, tonsure, relic worship, the use of flowers, lights, and images before shrines and altars, the sign of the cross, the Trinity in unity, the worship of the queen of heaven, the use of religious books in a tongue unknown to the bulk of the worshippers, the aureole or nimbus, the crown of saints and Buddhas, wings to angels, penance, flagellations, the flabellum or fan, popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, presbyters, deacons, the various architectural details of the Christian RITUAL. 203 temple," etc.^ To this list Balfour's " Cyclopsedia of India " adds "amulets, medicines, illuminated missals;" and Mr. Thomson ("Illustrations of China," vol. ii. p. 18), " baptism, the mass, requiems." Mr. Pfoundes, a gentleman who has resided for eight years in a Buddhist monastery, tells me that when the monks enter the temple for the first time of a morning, they make the precise gesture which Catholics call the sign of the cross. They mean by this to invoke the four cardinal points as a symbol of God. Listen, also, to Father Disderi, who visited Tibet in the year 17 14 — " The lamas have a tonsure like our priests, and are bound over to perpetual celibacy. They study their scriptures in a language and characters that differ from the ordinary characters ; they recite prayers in choir ; they serve the temple, present the offerings, and keep the lamps perpetually alight ; they offer to God corn, and barley, and paste, and water in little vases, which are extremely clean. Food thus offered is considered consecrated, and they eat it. The lamas have local superiors, and a superior general." ^ The lamas told the father that their holy books were very like his.^ When he asked them whether Buddha was God or man, they replied god and man. He furthermore describes the high altar of a temple covered with a cloth and contain- ing a little tabernacle, where Buddha was said to reside. Cross-examined by the father, the lamas said that he lived in heaven as well.^ The Catholics use a " tabernacle " for the sacred elements ; and whilst they are there, a lamp is perpetually burning, which, like a similar Buddhist light, represents God's presence. " Adi Buddha is light," say the Buddhists. Father Grueber, who, with another priest named Dorville, passed from Pekin through Tibet to Patna in the year 1661, published an interesting narrative of his journey, with ex- 1 " Buddha and Early Buddhism," p. 180. 2 " Lettres Edifiantes," vol. iii. p. 534. 3 Ibid., p. 534. * Ibid., p. 533- 204 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. ccllent illustrations. Henry Prinsep thus sums up the points that chiefly attracted the father — " Father Grueber was much struck with the extraordinary similarity he found, as well in the doctrine as in the rituals of the Buddhists of Lha Sa, to those of his own Romish faith. He noticed, first, that the dress of the lamas corresponded with that handed down to us in ancient paintings as the dress of the apostles ; second, that the discipline of the monasteries, and of the different orders of lamas or priests, bore the same resemblance to that of the Romish Church ; third, that the notion of an incarnation was common to both, so also the belief in paradise and purgatory ; fourth, he remarked that they made suffrages, alms, prayers, and sacrifices, for the dead, like the Roman Catholics ; fifth, that they had convents filled with monks and friars to the number of thirty thousand near Lha Sa, who all made the three vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, like Roman monks, besides other vows ; and sixth, that they had confessors licensed by the superior lamas or bishops, and so empowered to receive con- fessions, impose penances, and give absolution. Besides all this, there was found the practice of using holy water, of singing service in alternation, of praying for the dead, and of perfect similarity in the costumes of the great and superior lamas to those of the different orders of the Romish hierarchy. These early missionaries further were led to conclude from what they saw and heard that the ancient books of the lamas contained traces of the Christian religion which must, they thought, have been preached in Tibet in the time of the apostles." 1 The Abbe Prouv^ze, in his biography of the French missionary, Gabriel Durand, says that the points of similarity between Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity are far too minute to do away with the ideas of plagiarism. " The government of Tibet is borrowed from the ecclesiastical government of the States of the Church." ^ The Delai lama is like the pope, and his election very similar. " The gospel has already passed into the hands of the Tartars, with the ^ Prinsep, "Tibet, Tartary," etc. p. 14. - Vol. ii. p. 365. Plate X. THE BUDDHIST VIRGIN AND CHILD. IPage 205. RITUAL. 205 Christian hierarchy and celibacy." St. Hyacinth of Poland and St. Oderic of Frioul, who visited Tibet in the fourteenth century, may have effected this propagandism.^ " The cross,' pursues the Abbe, alluding perhaps to the Buddhist Swastika, " has remained enshrined amongst the arid rocks of Tibet as a sign of salvation."^ But greater proofs of Christian pro- pagandism are in reserve. The Abbe points out that the Chinese know all about the Virgin Mother. A " missionary of Kiang Si " reports that he has seen statues of her holding an infant child in her arms, and treading down the serpent with her feet. By this statue stood a solemn man surrounded by ten smaller statues. These, he thinks, were St. Joseph and the shepherds, though I fear that they were the disciples and Buddha. Other statues of Kwan ,Yin have each a descending dove on the head and a child in her arms. They bear for inscription, " The Mother who delivers the world." This mother is declared to be ever virgin. The Abbe Prouveze is aware, however, that Kwan Yin is much earlier historically than the Virgin Mary, for he starts a second theory that the idea was plagiarized from an old Testament in the synagogue that the Jews had in China two hundred years before Christ.^ Here is a passage from the life of Gabriel Durand — " There [in the pagoda of the Bell Pekin] we saw a Buddhist priest dressed almost exactly like a Benedictine, a kind of arch of alliance, shewbread (pains de proposition) on the altar, vases like our holy water, and censers." ^ Let us now consider the Buddhist ritual a little more closely, selecting a liturgy given to us by Professor Beal — " The form of this office is a very curious one. It bears a singular likeness in its outline to the common type of the Eastern Christian liturgies. That is to say, there is a ' Pro- anaphoral ' and an ' Anaphoral ' portion ; there is a prayer of entrance (ri^c ii(yo^ov), a prayer of incense {rov Ov/xia/xarog), an ascription of praise to the threefold object of worship (Tpiaayiov), SL prayer of oblation (rf/c TrpoaOeaecog), the Lections, the recitation of the Dharani (juvaripiov), the Embolismus or ^ Vol. ii. p. 363. 2 Yq1_ jj p_ 263. 3 Vol. i. p. 422. * " Gabriel Durand," vol. i. p. 493. 206 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. prayer against temptation, followed by a Confession and a Dismissal." ^ This similarity is so close, that the Professor believes it to be a Christian liturgy imported by the Nestorians at an early date. In the pathway of this theory there are, however, con- siderable difficulties. In every other Buddhist country visited by early Christian missionaries were found traces of a similar propagandism. The services were all alike — incense, flowers, oblations, praise of the Trinity, confessions, hymns. This active " Nestorian," if he converted one Buddhist country, must have converted all, presenting thus a striking contrast to modern preachers who, even in Buddhist countries that have been one hundred years under Christian sway, make no impression at all. Besides this, the Nestorians were Unitarians. In the central "mystery" the Buddhists use water and not wine, and condemn the Christian bloody atonement symbolized by the latter. How is it that this mysterious teacher, if he could effect so much, stopped short where he did } Another point suggests itself. Ritual has one indelible record — the temple. The tope in the plain and the rock temple in the bowels of the mountain are exactly fitted for the Buddhist rites ; and the dates of these are long before the birth of Christ. Mr. James Fergusson was of opinion that the various details of the early Christian Church, nave, aisles, columns, semi-domed apse, cruciform ground plan, were borrowed en bloc from the Buddhists.^ He adduces the rock-cut cave temple of Karli, in the west of India, whose date he fixes at ']Z B.C. "The building resembles to a great extent an early Chris- tian church in its arrangements, consisting of a nave and side aisles, terminating in an apse or semi-dome, round which the aisle is carried. . . . As a scale for comparison, it may be mentioned that its arrangements and dimensions are very ^ Beal, " Catena of Buddhist Scriptures," p. 397. 2 "Indian and Eastern Architecture," p. 117. "Rude Stone Monu- ments," p. 603, etc. w RITUAL. 207 similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral, and of the Abbaye aux Hommes, at Caen, omitting the outer aisles in the latter buildings. Immediately under the semi-dome of the apse, and nearly where the altar stands in Christian churches, is placed the Dagopa." ^ The Dagopa is the Baldechino or canopy containing, as Mr. Fergusson points out, in both religions the relics of a saint. Here we have already, many years before Christ's birth, an apparatus plainly adapted for early Christian rites. These were divided into two sections. There was a " mass of the catechumens," which took place in the body of the cathedral. Then these were expelled, and what is called the " Liturgia Mystica " was used. This was the Oblation of Bread, as Ter- tullian calls it ; the Bloodless Sacrifice, as it is termed in the Liturgy of St. James, which is considered by scholars the earliest Christian ritual. The Bema was now approached by the chanting choristers. This represented heaven ; and the marriage of the bread and wine, the birth of the mystic Christ, the word made flesh. Into what the Buddhists call the "main court of the temple," which represents earth and earth life, the first pro- cession of chanting monks comes. This is called the " Lesser Entrance." The second entrance, after the expulsion of the catechumens, is called the " Greater Entrance," when the Buddhist monks march slowly and reverently to the sanctuary, and march round it three times. " I will compass thine altar," said the Psalmist (Ps. xxvi. 6). I give the Buddhist high altar with its lower altar in front, like that of the Catholics, with its lamp perpetually burning like theirs, its artificial flowers, thurifers, and tall candlesticks with wax candles made out of a vegetable wax. Votive tablets like doll's tombstones crowd it with offerings to the dead. In the Middle Ages, Catholic churches were similarly choked. In front of Buddha is the Sambo, a three-sided box, hollow behind. Always in front of it is represented the cross, made up of four circles, the four stages of spiritual growth. " I regard the sacred altar as a royal gem, on which the 1 " Indian and Eastern Architecture," p. 117. 208 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. shadow (spirit) of S'akya Tathagata appears" (See Plate XIII., p. 210).^ This is from the Chinese ritual, and the accompanying bas-relief from Amaravati reminds one of the Armenian collect which describes Christ with His saints as also descending in the chariot of the four fiery faces.^ Saint-Worship. I now come to a very important point, saint-worship. The Jews, as we know, believed that soul and body were inseparable, that both went to sheol (the cave) ; and later on came the idea of a universal resurrection of the dead, and a universal judgment, ideas that have been transferred to Christian creeds. I will first of all cite a passage from the Persian scripture, the Boundehesch — "After that the angel Sosiosch will raise the dead, as promised, by the power of Ormuzd. This resurrection will be certainly seen. Veins will be restored to the body ; and this resurrection once made will not be repeated." This resur- rection is called in a previous passage, " the resurrection of the dead, and the re-establishment of the body." ^ After this resurrection of the body will come, as we learn from the same scripture, a last judgment. "Then will appear on earth the assemblage of all the beings of the world with man. In this gathering each will see the good and the evil that he has done. . . . Then the just will be separated from the darvands. The just will go to Gorotman. The darvands will be precipitated into the Douzakh. . . . The father will be separated from the mother, the sister from the brother." * We see from this where the Lower Judaism got its ideas about a resurrection of the material body, and the last judgment. But on the top of this has been superposed a second idea, which contradicts and stultifies the first in every particular — saint-worship. 1 Beal, " Catena of Buddhist Scriptures," p. 243. 2 Sec ante, p. 13. 2 " Boundehesch," chap. xxxi. ^ Ibid., ch. xxxi. < I RITUAL. 209 In 2 Maccabees xv. 15, the dead prophet Jeremiah revisits earth. He appears to Judas Maccabeus holding a sword. " Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with the which thou shalt wound the adversaries." White-robed saints and their heaven figure conspicuously in the earliest scripture written by a personal follower of Christ, the Apocalypse. Plainly, too, Christ knew nothing of the idea that the soul after death dwelt in a torpid state with the worms and decomposing matter of its body in the sepulchre, as proved by the promise to the penitent thief, the story of Lazarus and Dives, the appearance of Moses and Elias. Also He promised to go and prepare places for His disciples in the " many mansions " of heaven ; and adjudicated in the squabble of His disciples for the privilege of sitting on His right or left hand. Had He held^the popular Jewish views, He would have had to explain that the figures seen on the transfiguration mount could not possibly be Moses and Elias, for these will remain unconscious until the sound of the great trumpet. Saint-worship emerges conspicuously in the earliest Chris- tian monuments. In the Catacombs each chapel was the shrine of a saint, and each altar the lid of a sarcophagus. Immense exertions were made at a martyrdom to save the dead body, or at least a few bones, or a sponge dipped in blood. The Council of Carthage, cited by Cardinal Wiseman, decreed that all altars should be " overturned by the bishop of the place which are erected about the fields and roads as in memory of martyrs, in which is not a body nor any relics." ^ " God dwells in the bones of the martyrs," says St. Ephrem ; " and by His power and presence miracles are wrought." He further asserted that when St. Ignatius " laid down his life, he returned again crowned." ^ On the grave of the martyr Sabbatius in the catacombs is this inscription : " Sabbatius, sweet soul, pray and entreat for thy brethren and comrades." ^ This saint-worship, tomb-worship, corpse-worship was con- ^ Can. XIV., Cone. Gen., torn. ii. p. 1272. ^ Ibid., torn. v. p. 340. ^ Wiseman's "Lectures of the Catholic Church," ii. 105. P '210 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. spicuous in early Buddliism. Its first temple was the tumulus containing a relic of Buddha, or the charred ashes of the body of Sariputra, Ananda, or other of the saints. Conspicuous saints had each his tumulus, or tope, in many cities, and his saint's day, when the devout offered him flowers and food. The Great Vehicle, or school of nihilism shook this saint- worship, but only superficially. When the P. Morales visited Manilla, he was told that the saints had enormous power, that they " were seated to the right and left of God." ^ We have seen that many hold that all that is like Chris- tianity in Buddhism was derived from Christian sources. I think that this question of the status of saints is therefore very important. For we see at the very source of Christianity two internecine eschatologies struggling together, the Jewish and Buddhist. Illogically the church eventually adopted both. Now, if Buddhism had been derived from Christianity, we should have seen similar contradictions. The Buddhist monks would have announced that the good man after death is at one and the same time — 1. Unconscious in the tomb awaiting the sound of a trumpet. 2. Conscious in the sky at the right hand of God. The earliest Christian liturgies were called " Laudes." The earliest Buddhist liturgy was called " Sapta Buddha Stotra " (the Praise of the Seven Buddhas). Oddly enough, in the Catholic " Litany of all the Saints," seven principal beings are addressed — the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Three Persons of the Trinity, and the Virgin. Plainly these last have been substituted for the other four angels of Kabbalistic worship. After these seven there is a general invocation to " angels, holy angels, and happy spirits," and to the minor saints, as in Buddhism. Purgatory. I have asked Catholics how it is that saints can be residing in heaven before they can possibly have been judged and pronounced saints. They say that it is a miracle. This, to ^ Picart, " Ceremonies," etc. vol. vii. p. 216. Plate XIII. Bl'DDHA APPEARING AT THE ALTAR DURING WORSHIP. [Page 2IO. From Aiiiaravatl. RITUAL. 211 my mind, fails not only to explain, but to appreciate the difficulty. Besides, it is not only the question of saints that stultifies the Apostles' Creed. Much, indeed most, of the mechanism of the Catholic Church is designed to extricate the souls of laymen from purgatory as soon as possible after death. It is the same in Buddhism, but in that Creed we know how the doctrine was built up. In early Vedic days folks believed in an eternal heaven but no hell. By-and-by the notion of a place of expiation was added. Then the priests of India or Egypt invented the doctrine of the metem- psychosis to account for their caste privileges. It was taught that the Karma, or causation of good or evil actions, ushered a man into a new birth as a parrot or a princess, a jackdaw or a banker, according to its quality. But an early creed is not easily superseded in the mind of a people, and it was found necessary to tack on the Vedic hell and heaven as tem- porary places of reward and expiation as well ; men not inquiring too nicely why, if the causation of a bandit's crimes plunged him into the hell Avichi for three centuries, it should be at all necessary after that to bring him back to earth as a pilfering jackal. These Buddhist contradictions are of value to our inquiry. Given the gross absurdity of an unintelli- gent causation sentencing people to be boiled in hot oil, the Buddhist system has its logic. Not so that of the Catholics. My grandfather died three weeks ago. He is in purgatory, I am told, but masses for his soul may much shorten the period of his stay there. Who sent him to purgatory ? Not Christ, for He has not yet come to judge the quick and the dead. Not Karma, for the Catholic Church ignores Buddhism. In point of fact we again see two conflicting eschatologies, the Jewish and the Buddhist ; and their union brings about many necessary contradictions. Cosmology. In Vedic days, the Indians had seven heavens, as Cole- brooke teaches. The highest was the unchangeable Heaven of Brahma.^ The Buddhists took over these seven heavens, 1 Colebrooke, " Essays," vol. i. pp. 129, 130. 212 BUDDHISM m CHRISTENDOM. including the heaven of Brahma, where spirits enfranchised from returns to earth, for ever dwell. In the " Testimony of the Twelve Patriarchs," a Christian work of a very early date, we get the seven Jewish heavens — r. A heaven of sadness, owing to its proximity to man. 2. Full of fires and scourges, and ice and snow. Scourges and fire in paradise is very Jewish. 3. Celestial cohorts, destined to triumph over the spirit of evil. 4. Heaven of the saints enthroned in glory. 5. Heaven of the angels, offering a reasonable, not a bloody, sacrifice, and interceding with God. 6. Heaven of the high angels. They carry the messages of the angels of the Face of God. 7. The Most High, surrounded by "powers," "thrones," etc. In this heaven is the great throne and the heavenly temple. Here, again, we get Buddhist derivation. To a Jew, who believed that the soul remained wedded to the disintegrating chemicals, which he miscalled the body, until a universal judgment, of what use would be heaven number four, the heaven of the saints? Plainly there could be no saints until after this universal judgment had settled who were the saints. In point of fact, in Christian cosmology, these saints promptly usurped the functions of the earlier mythological beings. The earth was supposed by early Christians to be a large, flat, rectangle, twice as long as it was broad. In the centre of the earth was hell, with its circles of fire, sulphur, ice, dung, vipers, red-hot iron for heretics, and so on. Moses, talking of the tabernacle, which he says is the image of the earth, says that its length was two cubits, and its breadth one. That gives us the proportions, says Flammarion ; who gives also the map of the world by Cosmas in the sixth century. A guardian is depicted at each side of the paral- lelogram.^ These in Buddhism are the four Maharajas, in Christian cosmology, they soon became Matthew, Mark, ^ " Histoire du Ciel,'' p. 301. RITUAL. 213 Luke, and John. Around the rim of heaven, figured as a mountain, the holy Zion, were the twelve apostles, figuring as the twelve aeons, a Greek term for the Buddhas who stand at the twelve points of space. St. Peter became Janus, the celestial door-keeper, with his key and beard. St. Anthony presided over the Palilia, the feast of the cattle, the Indian Pongal. By-and-by, there was a saint for every infirmity of the body, as in Pagan Rome there had been a god for every disease ; St. Petronella, for gout and ague ; St. Romanus, for those that were possessed ; St. Valentine, for the falling sickness.^ The heaven of Indra, as described in the Buddhist writ- ings, is very like the heaven of St. John. There is a "high mountain," and a city " four square," with gates of gold and silver, adorned with precious stones. Seven moats surround the city, and beyond the last range is a row of marble pillars, studded with jewels. The great throne of the God stands in the centre of a great hall, surmounted with a white canopy. Trees that bear constant fruits are there, and the gem lake, with the peaches of immortality. Round the throne are seated subordinate heavenly ministers, who record men's actions in a " golden book." ^ The Sign of the Cross. In the account of the " Churning of the Ocean," in the Mahabharata, the Indian signs of the zodiac are covertly detailed. The fish figures as Chakra, the terrible projectile of Vishnu, as of Thor. In all the epics it is being constantly alluded to as one of the treasures of the Sun-God, like the horse, the boar, the kaustabha gem, etc., which are all zodiacal. In early coins this cross (the T """"^ Swastika) is formed by two serpents, the great \ Father and Mother. A similar idea is expressed \ in passages of the Mahabharata. ^ Fig. 16. " Beneath the trenchant Chakra he saw guard- ing the Amrita two immense and terrible serpents, strong, ^ See Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," part ii. sect. i. ^ Upham, " History of Buddhism," pp. 56, 57. 214 BUDDHISM LV CHRISTENDOM. vcnom-thrcatcning, with fiery eyes and throats, and tongues of forked lightning." ^ Here is another passage — " Here dwell two serpents, the terror of enemies, Arvouda and S'akravapi. Here are the sublime palaces of Swastika and Maninaga (jewel snake)." ^ Bentley^ puts forward a plausible explanation of it, and that is that it was " feigned that a dragon was cut in two by the ecliptic," and that Rahu was the ascending node, and Ketu the descending node. This would give the two ser- pents the positive and negative principles. In India, when the fish are used, they always cross each other. In Japan, the constellation that has this sign )( (our symbol for the fish), is called Tsing (beams in the form of a cross).^ It is oddly enough, the only cross in the cata- combs, and it was the only symbol on the drapery on the high altar in the first Japanese temple at Knightsbridge. It is the sole symbol that figures in the text of Asoka's inscriptions. It is called the " Seal of the Heart of Buddha." This gives a new meaning to such words as " Take up thy cross," pronounced before Christ's hearers knew any- thing about the crucifixion. It is the symbol of the four stages of the soul's progress. In the catacombs, the fish likewise make the form of a cross. The early Christians were called " The Fish," and the Christ monogram seems to have been built up gradually from the symbol which was the "seal," alike of Christ and Buddha (Rev. vii. 3). Fig. 17. X Fig. 18. 1 Mahab. Adi Parva, v. 1500, 1501. 2 Ibid., Sabha Parva, p. 806. 3 " Hindu Astronomy," p. 24. " Flammarion," p. 156. * Balfour, " Indian Cyclopaedia." RITUAL, 2 1 5 All these crosses are early forms. I take them from Smith's " Christian Antiquities." To the two serpents symbolizing the great Father and Mother, the jod or rod of Christ was added, the whole making the Alexandrine "I A w " Oddly enough, the Swastika cross, the Indian fish, has dominated the year all through the epoch ^^^- '9- of Buddhism and Christianity, A.D. 2000, it will be succeeded by the Man with the Vase of Ichor. Buddha's Movement. We shall perhaps make matters more intelligible if we take up the story of Buddha's movement from the date of his death. The creed, as I have shown, struggled on in obscurity and probably in secrecy until the advent of a powerful monarch 250 B.C. King Asoka ruled India — on this point we have the evidence of his inscriptions and incised stones — from Peshawur to Cape Comorin, and from Girnar in the Gulf of Cutch on the east coast of Hindustan to Ganjam on the west coast. When he made Buddhism the official creed of India he was met with a difficulty. The teaching of Buddha was simply the awakening of the spiritual life of the individual. " Who speaks and acts with the inner quickening has joy for his shadow ! " This was his motto. For the vulgar something more was required ; and the king was obliged to graft on to it some of the outside worship of Brahminism, for the people required some cultus that they could venerate and understand. That cultus consisted in a sort of saint-worship. The dead rishi or saint of the past had his ashes casketed in a little stone chamber in the centre of a huge mound like Avebury, or the Maes Howe in Orkney. Round this, tanks and groves and tall columns were erected, to which pilgrims resorted in shoals to see the ashes of the saint coruscate with magic light, and to be healed of bodily and spiritual infirmities. India had an arch Brahmin, the high priest of the creed, and Asoka changed him into a Buddhist monk, called in the Mahawanso the " high priest of 2l6 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. all the world." In process of time this pontiff dwelt in the great monastery of Nalanda, not far from Buddha Gaya. He was the Acharya of Buddhism, the "teacher" par excellence. Hwen Thsang has left us a description of his pomp, and the splendour of his great monastery on the hills, the tanks, the gardens, the jade and the gold. He describes the architecture as like that of the Chinese ; red pillars and roofs that scale the sky. Ten thousand monks were dwelling in the court of the great Acharya. These days of the ascendancy of early Buddhism continued until A.D. lo, when another great Indian emperor arose who defiled Buddhism with the teachings of a bad school of Brah- minism, the religion of the followers of Siva. This brings us to the two great schools of Buddhism — 1. The earliest school, the Buddhism of Buddha, taught ' that after Nirvana, or man's emancipation from re-births, the consciousness of the individual survived, and that he dwelt for ever in happiness in the Brahma heavens. 2. The second, or innovating school, taught that after Nir- vana the consciousness of the individual ceased. The god of the first school was Buddha, which can have no other meaning than " intelligent." The god of the innovating school was Sunya (unintelligent causation). Some readers will judge that this statement differs con- siderably from the teaching of St. Hilaire, Oldenberg, and Rhys Davids. In point of fact, when I first brought it forward in my " Popular Life of Buddha," ^ one or two critics, notably one in the AthencBinn, found fault with me for venturing to differ with so great a Pali scholar as Professor Rhys Davids ; the critic himself having unconsciously ventured to differ quite as widely. He was plainly under the impression that without a vast and accurate knowledge of Pali roots no decision could be come to in Buddhist eschatology. In point of fact the question is a piece of history as pure and easy of solution as the question whether the religion of Leo X. preceded or followed that of Luther. In the seventh century, A.D., a Chinese monk named Hwen Thsang visited India, .* Vol. i. pp. 150, 151. RITUAL. 217 and he was appointed president of a great convocation expressly summoned by King Siladitya, to put down the Buddhism of the Little Vehicle altogether. No better wit- ness can be conceived. He has recorded the following facts : — 1. The council of King Kaniska (summoned about A.D. 10) was the first occasion on which the innovating Buddhism of the Great Vehicle was introduced.-^ 2. This was done in spite of such strong opposition on the point of the Acharya of the great monastery of Nalanda (the high priest of Buddhism), that the king was afraid to hold his convocation in the Buddhist Holy Land as he had at first intended.^ 3. That the official representatives of genuine Buddhism at Nalanda asserted in the most positive terms that the in- novating Buddhism did not come from Buddha at all, but from a sect of the followers of the Brahman god Siva (the Kapalikas).^ 4. On the nature of the innovating teachers the Chinese traveller is equally explicit. They were what is called in India Sunyavadis. As early as the Brahmin Gautama, who compiled a code of laws centuries before the Code of Manu, these philosophers existed. This is what he says of them — " The Sunyavadis affirm that from nonentity all things arose, for that everything sprung to birth from a state in which it did not previously exist : that entity absolutely im- plies nonentity, and that there must be some power in non- entity from which entity can spring. The sprout does not arise from a sprout, but in the absence or non-existence of a sprout. . . . The Sunyavadi admits the necessity of using the terms " maker," etc., but maintains that they are mere words of course, and are often used when the things spoken of are in a state of non-existence, as when men say, ' A son will be born.' " ^ ^ Hwen Thsang, " Mdmoires," vol. i. p. 173, et seq. 2 Ibid., p. 174. ^ Ibid., p. 220. * Sutras of Gautama, cited by Ward, " The Hindoos " vol. i. p. 420. 2l8 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. In an Indian drama called the " Prabodha Chandra Udaya," there is a sketch of one of these atheistic priests of Siva. In a dispute with a Buddhist he is made to say — " With goodly necklace decked of bones of men, Haunting the tombs, from cups of human skulls Eating and quaffing, ever I behold, With eyes that meditation's salve hath cleared, The world of diverse jarring elements Composed, but still all one with the Supreme. " The Buddhist. This man professes the rule of a Kapalika. I will ask him what it is {goijig to hitit). O ho, you with the bone and skull neck- lace ! what are your hopes of happiness and salvation ? " The Adept. Wretch of a Buddhist ! Well, hear what is our religion : — With flesh of men, with brain and fat well smeared. We make our grim burnt offering — break our fast From cups of holy Brahmin's skull, and ever With gurgling drops of blood that plenteous stream From hard throats quickly cut ; by us is worshipped With human offerings meet the dread Bhairava. I call at will the best of gods, great Hari, And Hara's self and Brahma. I restrain With my sole voice the course of stars that wander In heaven's bright vault ; the earth, with all its load Of mountains, fields, and cities, I at will Reduce once more to water ; and, behold, I drink it up ! "^ The mock Mahatmas that the notorious Madame Blavatsky professed to be in communication with were credited with similar pretensions. They affirmed that there was no God, and that the divine powers usually credited to him were in their hands. Has she not helped us to the secret of the atheism of the Kapalika .^ Greed steps forward to secure the homage and the oblations that man's nature pays to God. The main position of writers like Dr. Oldcnberg is that the atheistic literature of Ceylon represents the earliest Buddhism, the Buddhism of the Little Vehicle. Hwen Thsang contradicts this in toto. " In Ceylon," he says, " arc about ten thousand monks who * Journ. Ben. As. Soc, vol. vi. p. 15. RITUAL. 219 follow the doctrines of the Great Vehicle." ^ He says, more- over, the controversy raged fiercely for a long time before the Great Vehicle was successful over the Little Vehicle. He tells as that one of the chief apostles of the Great Vehicle was Deva Bodhisatwa, a Cingalese monk.^ At Kanchipura the Chinese pilgrim came across three hundred monks that had just fled across the water from Ceylon, to escape the anarchy and famine consequent on the death of the king there.^ Hwen Thsang was a sort of Lord High Inquisitor at the Convoca- tion of Kanouj, that suppressed the Little Vehicle a short time afterwards. If a vessel containing three hundred mixed Christians from the Low Countries had been wrecked on the coast of Spain in the reign of Philip II., we may fairly pre- sume that any of them released after due inquiry by the Holy Office might be considered Catholic, and not Protestant. Although more wild theories are abroad concerning Buddhism than any other old creed, it has oddly enough the most trustworthy archives of all. Within two hundred and fifty years of the death of the founder, Asoka carved his credo on the rocks — " Confess and believe in God, who is the worthy object of obedience. For equal to this belief I declare unto you ye shall not find such a means of propitiating Heaven " — First Dhauli Edict (Prinsep). " Among whomsoever the name of God resteth, this verily is religion " — Edict, No. VII. (Prinsep). " I have appointed religious observances that mankind having listened thereto shall be brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to God " — (Ibid.). No cavilling can explain away the word Isana. To the Brahmin of Asoka's time it meant the Supreme, And on the subject of eternal hfe of the individual the king is equally explicit. " I pray with every variety of prayer for those who differ with me in creed, that they, following after my example, may ^ Hwen Thsang, " Histoire," p. 192. 2 "M^moires," vol. i. pp. 218, 277. 3 Hwen Thsang, " Histoire," p. 192. 220 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. with me attain unto eternal salvation " — Delhi Pillar, Edict VI. (Prinsep). " May they, my loving subjects, obtain happiness in this world and in the next " — (Burnouf.) I have gone fully into this question in my " Popular Life of Buddha," ^ but I have come across a fresh piece of evidence. The whole question of the nature of early Buddhism is quite set at rest by a work called the " Satasahasrika " (the Hundred Thousand Verses) also the " Raksha Bhagavati." It is in the collection of Nepalese scriptures ; and an abstract of it has been given to us by the invaluable scholar, Doctor Rajendra Lala Mitra. " It is pre-eminently," says the Doctor, " a work of the Mahayana class, and its main topic is the doctrine of Sunyavada, or the evolution of the universe from vacuity or nihility." ^ The work is alleged to have been delivered by Buddha in person on the hill Gridhakuta (Vulture's Peak). It was attested by many miracles, lambent flames, in which were seen many gold lotuses and other portents. The disciples of the earlier Buddhism, the " Little Vehicle " (Hinayana), are specially attacked in this treatise, and " refuted repeatedly," says the Doctor. "The terminology," says the same authority, " is borrowed from the Hindu philosophy." This quite confirms what the earlier Buddhists said of the innovating Buddhism, according to the testimony of Hwen Thsang, that it was borrowed from the Sunyavadis of Brahminism. The Buddhists of the Little Vehicle, according to the same authority, composed a neat sarcasm upon their opponents, who had somewhat arrogantly called themselves the Buddhists of the "Great Vehicle." They called this vehicle, Sunya Pushpa (the vehicle that drives to nowhere).^ This lets in a flood of light on the perplexities and con- tradictions of modern Buddhism. Plump in the way of the reckless charioteers of Sunya Pushpa were two formidable 1 Page 275, et seq. 2 "Napalese Buddhist Literature," p. 178. 2 Hwen Thsang, " Mdmoires," p. 220. See also " Popular Life of Buddha," chap. xi. p. 171. Plate XIV. Nirvanapura. i Four Heavens. Triumphant Heavens — Five Formless Spirits— Eight Heavens. Brahmaloka— Three Heavens. Tusita. Devaloka — Six Heavens. r THE HEAVENS AS CONCEIVED BV THE BUDDHISTS OF CEYLON. [Page 221. RITUAL. 221 obstacles. The temples of Buddhism, whether carved in fine Indian woodwork, as at the date of Hwen Thsang, or built of solid masonry like the old tope whose outline I here give (Plate XIV.), represented the heavens to which the Buddhas and Jinas repaired after attaining emancipation from re-births. Secondly, on entering the temple, the spectator was confronted with a colossal figure of Sakya Muni in the centre of the high altar, and by this were smaller Buddhas that had got to mean his Great Disciples. These were fed every day with oblations ; and Buddha was prayed to for spiritual and temporal blessings, and asked to forgive the sins of his humble votaries. How did the travestied followers of Siva, the Sunyavadis, get over all this } They tried to substitute the Buddha and the saints of the future for the Buddha and the saints of the past. The eternal heavens got to be tenanted by saints about to be born on earth for the last time, although the life of Buddha had taught everybody that Tusita, the sixth heaven of the Devaloka, was the highest region that these saints could reach. And on the altar they tried to set up the Great Buddha of the Future, Maitreya. He was to be asked to forgive sins, although he had yet to receive pap from his nurse. He was to be prayed to for spiritual light, although he had yet to learn his catechism. The fancy seems at first the dream of a madman, but a moment's reflection shows that it was the best of many bad roads. Also the plan has been most brilliantly successful. The Sunyavadis defiled all the Buddhist scriptures, and deceived millions upon millions of Buddhists in many lands. They have also hoodwinked our Pali professors, and through Schopenhauer, Parsvika, the leading teacher, is be- coming the instructor of all Europe. In the matter of the Buddhist temple and its rites the new school were only partially successful. Buddha and his great disciples still figure on the altar, even in Ceylon, the hotbed of the innovating school of Buddhism that dethroned God and demolished heaven. But he is worshipped as a non-God. Flowers are flung daily to this non-God. Morning and evening meals are proffered to him. Daily the non-God is asked to forgive sins. We need not pursue these absurdities any further. 222 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Unfortunately, too, the marriage of Church and State, as in Christendom later on, killed the life of the movement. It seems a law that all great spiritual movements shall promptly crystallize into formalism. The starving and naked wanderer, with no thought save of heaven, was a mighty force for changing the creeds of the world. Christ likened His followers to a leaven with which He proposed to leaven the mass of humanity. But when victory is in sight, and in place of martyrdom the mystic is rewarded with prosperity and praise, then greed and self- interest are attracted to his ranks ; and the hungry Therapeuts become a fat abbey of lazy priests. To Asoka and to Con- stantine the same problem presented itself. Given an army of idle ascetics, how are they to be lodged and fed ? The answer, unfortunately, was the same in both cases. From the terrors and greed of the ignorant laity. And the processes by which these were stimulated — relics, pilgrimages, indulgences, dispensations, saint intercessions, the burning of candles to obtain supernal aid, the fears of purgatory, and the promised joys of a material heaven — are too like in both creeds to be the result of mere chance. The Buddhist had taken over from the Brahman the doctrine of Karma and the metempsychosis. This is without doubt a priestly invention. It was proclaimed that the Buddhist Sramana, having become as nearly as possible one with the divine Ruler of the Sky, had necessarily considerable influence both in this world and in the next. Karma, or the causation of deeds done in the body, carries a soul after death to regions of joy or pain, according to its merits. The lustful man may become a goat, the cruel man a tiger or a jackal. But if there is a Karma powerful for evil, there is also a Karma most potent in the opposite direction, and that is the Karma that results from a pure life and from ascetic practices. This is the mystical force that the priest of Buddha is able to set in motion. My avaricious father is a jackal. My daughter is in the hell Avichi. She is being gnawed by the lovers she deceived, who now assume the form of dogs. But the priests of Buddha can nullify these evil RITUAL. 223 results. One hundred prayers before this statue, will release your father. It represents Sariputra, the beloved disciple of Buddha. The saints of the past remain for ever on the right hand and on the left hand of the King of Heaven. They have power to perpetually intercede. Build a temple. Feed fifty priests daily. These offerings to us are in reality offer- ings to Tathagata. For your evil deeds you will be born slaves, women, rats, and partridges ; but we have the power to convert you into rich merchants and princes shining with emeralds.^ Indulgences. Dispensations. Father Froes, who visited Japan in 1574, announces that dispensations and indulgences, " much after the usages of the Catholic Church," were sold by the Buddhist monks there. The efficacy of pilgrimages was much insisted on ; and one old lady had made so many of the latter, and bought so many indulgences, that she was able to make up a dress of them. The monks told her that if she were buried in this precious paper suit, she would go direct to Amitabha, the supreme Buddha, and live for ever with the saints.^ The Jesuit Father d'Entrecolles bears similar testimony. He describes a nun in China, " a devotee of Buddha much given to prayer (a longues prieres). She was inscribed in the muster-roll of a famous temple, to which pilgrims came from great distances. These pilgrims, on reaching the foot of the mountain, kneel and prostrate themselves at every step during the ascent. Those who cannot make the pilgrimages, get their friends to buy for them a sheet of paper printed and marked all over by the Buddhist priests. In the centre is a figure of Buddha, surrounded by many small circles. The devotees, male and female, pronounce one thousand times this prayer, Namo- Omito-Fo (Praise be to Amitabha Buddha ! ) which they have received from India, and which they do not understand. They then kneel one hundred times. They are then allowed to mark one of the many small circles with a red mark. The 1 Consult Picart, vol. vii. pp. 145, 149, 216, 226, 232. 2 Frees " Epist. Japonican," lib. iv. 224 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Buddhist priests are invited to come and authenticate these red marks, after uttering certain prayers. The paper, sealed carefully up by the priests, is called Lou-in, and is carried after death in a casket, during the funeral rites. It costs many taels, but it is a certain passport to the next world." ^ Confession. Confession in the early Church was public, as in Buddhism. The dangerous innovation of auricular confession was due to Leo the First.^ Footprints. The footprints of Christ are shown in Palestine, and the footprints of Buddha in India. The traces of the feet of the former at the spot of the Ascension were long famous.^ The Cowl. The cowl is common to the monks of Buddhism and Christendom. Gibbon, in his thirty-seventh chapter, says of the latter, " They wrapped their heads in a cowl to escape the sight of profane objects." Presentation of Candles to the Images of Buddha. Picart, in his account of the Buddhism of Siam, drawn chiefly from the Fathers La Loubere and Tachard, announces that the laity there make offerings of candles to the idols of Buddha. All offerings must be made through the instrumen- tality of the talapoins, or monks.^ Prayer as a Charm rather than a Pleading. In the Buddhist and Christian rituals are many beautiful prayers. But it is plain that a repetition many hundreds of times of a mantra or paternoster on a rosary is not purely 1 " Lettres Edifiantes," xiii. 2 Rev. G. Waddington, " History of the Church," chap. ix. p. 126. 3 "Jortin," vol. iii. pp. 87, 88. * Vol. vii. p. 65. See also p. 140. RITUAL. 225 praying. It seems to me unmeaning without the Buddhist doctrine of Karma to explain it, namely, that by it a stored- up merit or magic is accumulated. And this seems practically the Catholic conception as well as the Buddhist. Funerals. The Buddhist funeral is partly the merry-making of an Irish wake, partly the solemn ceremonials of Catholic Europe. Comedians are hired whose farces have no reference to death. Fireworks sputter, and food is lavished on all. But Catholic missionaries have been struck on these occasions with the close similarity of the Buddhist and the Catholic rites. A chapelle ardente is erected ; and candles burn incessantly before it, and incense smokes. Each night a choir of tala- poins comes into the mortuary chamber and chants in Pali the sacred hymns, much after the fashion of Italy and Spain.^ The Epoch of Buddha. The Buddhist chronology dates from the epoch of Buddha, as the Christian from the epoch of Christ. The Nirvana commences the Buddhist epoch. Festivals. The earliest Christian festivals were simply the Jewish ones.^ The Feast of the Nativity was not celebrated until the fourth century," says Riddle.^ The three great Jewish festivals — the sowing, reaping, and Pentecost — were the same as the Buddhist. Of course, the Pass- over or Easter originally began the year. On "the fourteenth day of the first month " (Numb. ix. 5) it was celebrated. Many of the Easter rites still exhibit this derivation, witness the taper-light- "' ' ing, a symbol of the birth of the new sun-god. The Easter 2 1 See La Loubdre, "Description," etc. vol. i. p. 371. " Riddle, " Christian Antiquities," p. 607. ^ jj^j^j^ p. 61 8. Q 226 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. cgo-s were unintelHgible to me until I came across the Buddhist mystical egg. The legend is that at the beginning of each dispensation or mystical year, the angel with the diamond spear strikes this egg, left like Brahma's Qgg behind by the dead race, and at once the yolk and the white divide as exhibited. One part represents the unrevealed Buddha, the other the conceivable Buddha, the eternal dualism of all mystics. Councils. More important are the ecumenical councils introduced into the early Christian Church to suppress heresy. Where did they come from .? Such an idea is foreign to the genius alike of the dominant Roman and Jewish religions. Both were religions of outside ceremonial, and as long as this was complied with, their priests were satisfied. They did not pursue their scrutiny into the recesses of the worshipper's brain to see if his metaphysics kept proper pace with orthodox changes and fashions. In the records of Buddhism five principal ecumenical councils are noticed. The first took place at Rajagriha, three months after Buddha's death. The second, a rather mythical convocation, is said to have taken place at Vaisali, one hundred years after the first. The third was summoned by King Asoka. The fourth took place, as I have mentioned, under the patronage of King Kaniska (A.D. io), and introduced the doctrine that man, after his emancipation from re-birth, becomes unconscious. The fifth, under King Siladitya, tried to suppress early Buddhism alto- gether. These two last convocations established the pernicious originality that a creed is more commodiously turned topsy- turvy from within than from without. Men are the slaves less of ideas than words, especially such words as " ortho- doxy" and "heresy. Irenaeus and Pope Victor profited by this lesson, A heretic in Christianity, as in Buddhism, got to mean a man born two or three hundred years too soon to adopt orthodox innovations. RITUAL. 227 Hierarchy. We have seen that more than one Catholic writer has drawn attention to the similarity between the Buddhist and Christian hierarchy. Bishop Bigandet has pointed out that in independent Buddhist countries like Burmah, there is a Superior-General, and under him Provincials. Then come the abbots, or heads of monasteries, and so on, " a distinct hierarchy, well marked with constitutions and rules." ^ The Pope. Father Grueber, on visiting Lha Sa, the capital of Tibet, A.D. 1 66 1, was very much shocked to find that the devil had struck at Christianity in its most vital part. He had invented a mock potentate, to whom were offered honours that are due alone to the vicar of Christ.^ The faithful were required to fall flat before the grand lama of Tibet, to knock their heads upon the ground, and to crawl forward and kiss his feet.^ Like the pope, he was the acknowledged head of the Buddhist Church all over the world. We have seen that at the great monastery of Nalanda, when Hwen Thsang visited it, there was a sovereign pontiff of Buddhism. That monastery was destroyed by the Brahmins in the eighth centur}^, and the Buddhists were driven out of India. The grand lama is, as it seems to me, this great pontiff, driven to take refuge amongst the mountains of Tibet. China and Japan and Tibet acknowledge him as the head of Buddhism ; and the other day, when Lord Dufiferin was reluctant to nominate the Tsaia-dau or "archbishop" of Burmah, China threatened to put in her right. The Pontiff of Nalanda was so sacred, that none dare pronounce his name. He was called the Acharya, and the pontiff in Tibet has a similar name, the " Master of Doctrine." ^ Mons. de Remusat tells us that in a Japanese encyclopedia it is announced that Buddha, from the earliest days, was accustomed to come ^ " Vie de Gaudama," p. 477. 2 See "Histoire des Voyages," vol. ix. p. 130. 3 Ibid. * De Remusat, " Origine de I'Hierarchie Lamaique," p. 27. 228 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. back to earth as a " teacher of kings." ^ This is confirmed by Mr. Rockhill's "Life of the Buddha," where Ananda. Buddha's favourite disciple, and Upagupta, had the title of " Buddha " given to them,^ when each became in succession the head of the Church. Also, when Hwen Thsang visited the Acharya at Nalanda, he was obliged to perform the same prostrations, crawlings, head knockings against the ground, etc., that shocked Father Grueber in Tibet.^ And when we come to consider the method by which a grand lama and a pope is each elected, the points of simi- larity increase. When the grand lama dies, all the faithful devote themselves to prayer and meditation. Prayer barrels revolve, and search is made for the infant in whom the soul of Buddha is once more to be born. The list of candidates is finally narrowed to three. Then, as we learn from the Abbe Hue, the whole body of cardinals (chutuktus) is assembled. They are shut up in a temple of Buddha-La, and pass six days in retreat, in prayer, in fasting. The seventh day, the names of the three candidates are written on gold plates and placed in an urn. The senior chutuktu draws the lot, and the child whose name is drawn is immediately proclaimed Delai Lama, and carried in state through the town.^ All this reminds one of the election of a pope, on which occasion cardinals of the Church erect a little lath and plank monastery in the splendid Loggia of the Vatican, and masquerade as humble Therapeut monks in pink satin. Each humble monk has two servants, one civil, one religious. They fetch him his food, like the Sramanero of a Buddhist convent. The food when brought is inspected by certain prelates to see that the ortolans contain no missive from the French ambas- sador, and that Austria has not sought to bias the election by a surreptitious note inserted in the Johannisberger or Chateau Yquem. Three times a day the silken monks are summoned to the Sistine Chapel to pray for divine guidance in their choice. The special mass on these occasions is called the 1 De Remusat, " Origine de I'Hierarchie Lamaique," pp. 24, 25. 2 Ibid., pp. 164, 165. ^ Hwen Thsang, vol. i. p. 144. ■* Hue, "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 244. RITUAL. 229 " Mass of the Holy Ghost." The special costume for each cardinal during these celebrations is a cope of crimson silk made exactly like a monk's cloak. Voting papers with fan- tastic scrolls are given to each, and an urn is sent round to any cardinal who has been pronounced too sick to be walled up in his little lath and plank cell. When the pope is elected, guns roar out and silver trumpets sound, and his holiness passes along in solemn procession, like the lama in his vimana, with umbrellas and smoking incense and waving fans He is placed on the great altar of St. Peter's, and worshipped like the lama of Tibet.^ The grand lama is chosen by lot, chance, the Holy Spirit ; the pope by chicane. Plainly the elaborate apparatus at the Vatican is not in harmony with its pitiful work. It is a copy, reproduction, the histrionics of something else. What? Matthias was chosen by lot by the Church at Jerusalem, and John the Baptist, Christ, and St. James, each ruled the whole of mystical Israel, the Church of the West. If Palestine at the date of Christ, and as I believe for one hundred and fifty years before and after, was in close communication with the Acharya of Nalanda, this and the thousand other points of close contact between Buddhism and Christianity may be accounted for. I know no other manner. 1 Picart, " Cerem.," vol. i. p. 34. BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XVIII. How DID Buddhism Reach the West? We now come to the question, How did Buddhism reach the West? And here Professor Kellogg is triumphant. He cites Professor Kuenen, who it appears has announced that he can " safely affirm " that Buddhism had no influence at all on the origin of Christianity.^ He cites Bishop Lightfoot, who has stated that there is " no notice in either heathen or Christian writers which points to the presence of a Buddhist within the limits of the Roman empire till long after the Essenes had ceased to exist." He cites Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, who has committed himself to the somewhat extreme statement that from the date of the preaching of Buddha until the advent of Christianity "no channel of communication " existed between Buddhist countries and the West.^ But he ignores Deans Mansel and Milman, and is silent about Colebrooke, and Lassen, and Prinsep. Also he has not a word to say about the testimony of Asoka, and the flood of light let in upon the intercourse between India and the West by recent Orientalists. By the early Phoenicians the commerce of the East was carried across Arabia from the port of Gerrha in the Persian Gulf It was then shipped on the Red Sea and carried up the /Elanitic Gulf on its road to Tyre. That some of the commodities must have come from India is proved from the fact cited by Herodotus, that cassia and cinnamon were amongst them, which articles could not be found nearer than 1 "Light of Asia, etc.," p. 251, 2 Nineteenth Century^ Dec, 1S80, p. 979. GNOSTICISM. 231 Ceylon or the Malabar coast.^ To reach Tyre, these goods had to pass close to the haunts of the Essenes near the Dead Sea. " The Phcenicians," says Mr. Cust, the Hon. Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, "were in contact with India at least as early as the time of Solomon. . . . Then, as now, India had intercourse with the Western world through two channels, by land and by sea." Mr. Cust proceeds to show that, from the tenth to the third century B.C., Yemen was the great central mart in which Indian products were exchanged for merchandize of the West. For a prolonged period this lucrative traffic was in the hands of the Sabeans. and was the main source of their proverbial opulence. The trade between Egypt and Yemen began as early as 2300 B.C. ; that between Yemen and India was established not later than 1000 B.C. Even in the time of the Ptolemies the Indian trade was not direct, but passed through the hands of the Sabeans, who possessed extensive commerce and large vessels. Their ports were frequented by trading vessels from all parts : from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the coast of Africa, and especially from the mouth of the Indus. From the Periplus we learn that Aden was a great entrepot of this commerce, while at the beginning of the second century B.C. the island of Socotra was the centre of exchange for Indian products. Mr. Cust argues that the Indians got their alphabet from the hieratic form of the Egyptian hieroglyphics.^ But Alexander's expedition gave a great spur to the inter- course between India and the West. Bactria and Persia were in the hands of the Seleucidan dynasty, until Persia revolted. This brought Antiochus the Great into the field to restore the authority of the Greeks. According to Polybius, he led his army into India and renewed his alliance with Sophaga- senes, king of that country. As the Asoka edicts were incised on rocks some six years after Antiochus came to the throne, Prinsep and Wilford believe this to be an allusion to him.'^ 1 Bunbury, " Hist. Ancient Geography," vol. i, p. 219. 2 Journ. Royal As. Soc, July, 1884. " Origin of Indian Alphabet." 3 Prinsep, Joiirti. Ben. As. Soc, vol. vii. p. 162. 232 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Meanwhile the building of Alexandria had given a powerful fillip to the intercourse with India by sea. Alexander had designed it to be the capital of his vast empire, and the bridge between India and the West. This project was ably carried out after his death by his lieutenant, the first Ptolemy. Under his wise government, and that of his successor, Alex- andria soon became the first commercial city in the world. Of more importance even was his large tolerance of creeds, whether Egyptian, or Grecian, or Jewish. In the year 209 B.C., Ptolemy Evergetes was on the throne. He conquered Abyssinia and a greater part of Asia, including Syria, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Persis, Media. His conquests extended to Bactria, and he had a large fleet on the Red Sea. This placed him in contact with India from two different directions. He married the daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene. Macedonia was ruled by Antigone at this particular date. This brings us to the celebrated rock inscriptions of King Asoka, surnamed Devanampiyo, the beloved of the devas or spirits. They have set at rest for ever the question whether Buddhism was propagated westwards. On the Girnar Rock, in Gujerat, the name of Antiochus the Great occurs four times. This is one passage — " And moreover within the dominions of Antiochus, the Greek king, of which Antiochus's generals are the rulers, everywhere Piyadasi's (Asoka's) double system of medical aid is established, both medical aid for men and medical aid for animals, together with medicaments of all sorts, w^hich are suitable for men and suitable for animals." ^ This is the second inscription : — " And the Greek king besides, by whom the four Greek kings Ptolemaios, and Gengakenos, and Magas . . . (have been induced to permit) . . . " Both here and in foreign countries everywhere (the people) follow the doctrine of the religion of Dcviinampiya, wheresoever it reacheth." ^ Now, here we have, indelibly carved in the rocks, a pure piece of history. It shows that the Buddhist king Asoka ^ Prinsep, Joiirn. Beti. As. Soc, vol. vii. p. 159. - Ibid., p. 261. GNOSTICISM. 233 was closely associated with the Greeks, and that he sent missionaries to Egypt. It shows, furthermore, that at any rate he was under an impression that the Buddhist religion had been there established. One more piece of evidence I may notice here. In the " Mahawanso," or old history of Ceylon, it is announced that on the occasion of the building of the Buddhist tope of Ruanwelli, enormous numbers of Buddhist monks came from all parts, including thirty thousand " from the vicinity of A'lasadda, the capital of the Yona (Greek) country." In the same history is a statement that Asoka did send a missionary named Maharakkhita to Greece.^ A'lasadda is agreed by all Orientalists to be Alexandria. Bishop Lightfoot considers that the passage refers to Alex- andria ad Caucasum, a not very important town some twenty-five miles from Cabul. Koppen, on the other hand, and Helgenfeld, consider that "Alexandria, the capital of the Yona country," must be Alexandria in Egypt. The Buddhist history states that the monks — all Indian histories exaggerate numbers — came from " the vicinity " of Alex- andria. This word, I think, is important. It was in the vicinity of Alexandria that convents of monks, practising rites precisely like those of the Buddhists, existed in large numbers in the days of Philo. It is to be observed that it would be more easy to get to Ceylon from Alexandria in Egypt than from Alexandria ad Caucasum (Beghram). It may be mentioned here that the Saturday Review, in its onslaught on the " bold assertions " of Professor Kellogg, points out that Nagasena, a Buddhist, had a discussion with Menander in the capital of Syria.^ But even if no Buddhist came to the West, without doubt Buddhism did. For about this time there arose in Alexandria a teaching called " Gnosticism." This word is the exact I Greek equivalent of "Buddhism" (Sans., Bodhi), and it (simply means interior or spiritual knowledge. That the anti-mystical section of the early Christian Church was quite aware whence Gnosticism came is shown by the form of 1 " Mahawanso," p. 171. ^ Saturday Review, February 6, 1886. 234 BUDDHISM lAT CHRISTENDOM. adjudication prescribed for those who renounced it It ex- pressly mentions Bo'SSa and Sicuflmvo? (Sakya).^ Attempts have been made to put forward the date of the introduction of Gnosticism to the second century A.D., but an able article in the new "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"by Principal Tulloch, shows how futile these attempts have been. He says that at the date of Christ, Egypt and Syria were so saturated with it that it was " in the air." It is to be found " especially in the theology of the Alexandrian Jews." It is " represented in the writings of Philo and in the influence flowing from the Persian and Buddhist religions." It is in the Septuagint and the Book of Wisdom. He cites also a number of texts showing Gnosticism in the New Testament. In this he follows Herder, Mosheim, Hammond, and Brucker, who, as Mutter shows, "discover Gnosticism and the eastern philosophy on almost every page " of that sacred volume.^ According to Principal Tulloch, the Gnostics taught that the universe " does not proceed immediately from a Supreme Being." The god of the Gnostics, like En Soph of the " Kabbalah," is formless, inconceivable, inactive, and, being perfect, is incapable of imperfect work. This god is called by Basilides "The Unnameable," and by Valentinus "Buthos" (the Abyss). " From this transcendent source," says Principal Tulloch, " existence springs by emanation in a series of spiritual powers. It is only through these powers, or energies, that the infinite passes into life and activity, and becomes capable of representation." To this higher spiritual world is given the name of YlXiiptojua (Pleroma), and the divine powers com- posing it in their ever-expanding procession from the highest are called alCovi/3ov»?o-t9, So " " You speak as if I were the malefactor," said the queen, with persistent cruelty. "What fault have I done? The promises came from you, not me." Thus, through a painful night the poor king fretted in " chains of fraud." At times he flung himself at her feet, and tried senile blandishments and flatteries : " Save a poor old man, whose mind is getting unhinged. Sweet Kaikeyi of the gentle smile, take my life, my kingdom, my treasure, every- thing but Rama ! Spare me, save me ! " The poet records that once a king, having promised to save a fluttering dove that flew for protection to his bosom, engaged himself to give the pursuing hunter any other boon. 314 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Cut out your heart," said the hunter. The king complied. Our poor, loving, senile old dotard has much now in common with that afiflicted monarch. Morn came, but it brought no solace. The king's chario- teer, who was poet-laureate as well as coachman, woke him up with a madrigal. Outside were courtiers and citizens in gala dress. They were collected to see the consecration of Rama. The king sent for his son. Forth drove the charioteer to the palace of the prince. Rama, summoned, started after exchanging a bridegroom's farewell with Sita at the doorway. Strong demonstrations from the citizens greeted him in the streets. The populace idolized him. In his father's palace he found the king with Kaikeyi. The piteous condition of the former quite startled him. The poor old king could only just articulate the words, " Oh, Rama," and burst into a convulsion of sobs. Rama demanded of Kaikeyi the meaning of the king's grief She told him bluntly the history of the two promises and her choice — " My son Bharata is to be consecrated. And you will be banished to the forests for fourteen years." "If it makes my father any happier, I am ready to go," said the prince simply. Soon the terrible news that the prince was to be banished spread through the palace. Kausalya heard it. The brothers heard it. All were in consternation. A trial greater than the long banishment was the task of breaking the painful intelligence to poor Sita. Rama told her what had occurred. He exhorted her to bear his absence bravely, and comfort his mother. This was the answer of Princess Sita — " Brave prince in mortal life Men singly battle ; good and evil deeds Are theirs ; And each man reaps the harvest of his acts. His own and not another's. But woman clings to man. For she is weak ; His lot is her's, and whercsoe'er he goes, 111 briary paths or weary tanglements She follows gladly. j?Jma. 3 1 5 By my great love I swear that reft of thee, ; Protector, Master, Refuge, Patron Saint, E'en Brahma's heaven were dull. Fathers and mothers eke, Beloved sons and daughters, what are they ? A wedded spouse lives only in her lord. Blind malice plots and wounds, Laugh at her wiles, sweet prince, The shining towers of golden battlements, Halls hung with silks galore. Couches and odours sweet. These without thee were as a desert waste. In paths of banishment I hang around thy feet. Thy weary feet, dear spouse, And the rude home of tiger, snake, and pard, The thorns, the stony steep, the cataract That bellows with the water of the storm. And e'en the realms of anguish mortals feign, As the grim goal of earthly infamies — These by thy side were bliss — • Thou art my universe, Thou art the form benign. That speaks to me of heaven. That speaks to me of love. In wildernesses dank our holy men Clad in the bark of trees, Dream holy dreams of God, Thus will we live, and I will deck my spouse With chaplets plundered in the hidden dells." Rama remonstrates, and points out how little the silken days of her past life have fitted her for the terrible ordeal of the yogi in the forest. His other friends try to dissuade her. The spectacle of this old-world, brown-limbed, bold- hearted young woman, this high ideal of wifehood, at the date of the poem, is quite extraordinary. A crowd of citizens accompany the poor exiles as they are driven by the faithful poet-charioteer out of Ayodhya. Rama is the idol of the populace. Lakshmana has ob- tained leave to bear him company. The fond old king went out for a short distance with his son. He then watched him departing in a cloud of dust. Rama's mother tried to com- fort him in the palace. " Rama is gone," said the king. " Some men are happy, for they will one day see him return. 3l6 BUDDHISM IX CHRISTENDOM. Not SO his poor father. Touch me, Kausalya, I see you not." The eyesight of the afflicted monarch had departed with his son. The first halt of the exiles was on the banks of the Tamasa. Here was a thick wood, and Rama and Sita slept under a tree on a litter of leaves. Each wore the apron of bark tied with a cord round the waist. Rama escaped furtively next day from the banks of the Tamasa, for the citizens still hung on his track. He made his way to the Gomati (now the Goomtee) and by-and-by reached the Ganges at Sringavera in the district of Allahabad. The poet-charioteer was here dismissed with a loving message to the old king. He was enjoined to be kind to Kaikeyi and to forgive her. They then reached the hermitage of the holy saint Bharadwaja, at the junction of the Jumna and Ganges. At this very sacred spot is the modern Allahabad. By the advice of the sage they took up their quarters on the hill of Chitra Kuta, which is about two days' march from Alla- habad, and situate on the river Pisuni. The holy hill of Chitra Kuta is now to the followers of Rama what the Lion hill of Gaya is to Buddhists. " How many centuries have passed," says Professor Monier Williams, " since the two brothers began their memorable journey, and yet every step of it is known and traversed annually by thousands of pilgrims ! Strong, indeed, are the ties of religion when entwined with the legends of a country. Those who have followed the path of Rama from the Gogra to Ceylon stand out as marked men amongst their country- men. It is this that gives the Ramayana a strange interest ; the story still lives : whereas no one now in any part of the world puts faith in the legends of Homer." It is added that every cavern and rock round Chitra Kiitra is connected with the names of the exiles. The heights swarm with monkeys. The edible wild fruits arc called " Sita's fruits." ^ Valmiki, the author, lived here, and he has given his poems local colour. To cross the holy Yamuna (or Jumna) a raft was made by the brothers of logs and bamboos. Sita trembled at the 1 " Indian Epic Poetry," p. 68. RAMA. 317 sight of the gurgling current, and Rama held her in his strong embrace. Near the banks where they landed was a holy fig tree (Syama). " Having adored that sacred tree, Sita thus prayed to it with pious reverence, ' May my step-father live for a long time, lord of Kosala. May my husband live a long time, Bharata, and my other kinsmen. And may I see once more Kausalya living ! ' With these words uttered near the tree, Sita prayed to the holy fig-tree, which is never invoked in vain ; and having duly worshipped it by tripping round it from the right hand side, the three exiles went on their way." ^ The India of Prince Rama has very little altered in the India of to-day. Then, as now, perhaps folks already dwelt in tiny brick houses, with arabesques of vermilion and rich purple like those of Pompeii. Delicate wood carvings, like those that have recently astonished us at South Kensington, were no doubt abundant both in the bazaar and in the palace. Heavy hangings, with rich browns and pale yellows and sub- dued reds, showed that a bright sun can teach harmony of colour as well as M. Chevreuil or the great Veronese. White draperies and coloured turbans and rich arms and jewels flashed in the sunshine. Tiny little half-naked children were " nursed at the side " like the biblical Israelites. Isaiah de- scribes the women weeping for the god Tummuz. This is the lament of the women of Ayodya for the god Rama. It has echoed in India for perhaps three thousand years. " The Lament of the Women. " Weep, husbands weep, For what are homes and wives and riches now With Rama fled .? Afar the forests smile, The brake with dainty flowers, The lotus-covered mere, The trees that climb the mountain, hiding fruits And honey, Rama's food. Blessed rocks and thicket tangles ye that hold The gentle Lord of Worlds, The Owner of the Mountains, and the Prop, 1 " Ayodhya Kanda," cap. Iv. 3l8 BUDDHISM LY CHRISTENDOM. The Champion of the Right. Days follow weary days, Each brings its guerdon sad ; Our sons grow up within our rayless homes Our homes bereft of hope, ; And full of woman's tears. Fraud reigns, the wicked cjueen Yokes us like weary beasts ; Soon the blind king will die. O Rama, come again ! The shadow of his feet Worship ye men, ye women bow your heads, To Sita, blameless wife ! " The fugitives slept that night on the banks of the river, and sped the next morning through the forest. " See," said Rama to his wife, " the kinsuka with flowers that shine Hke flames of fire. See the pippala, and the cham- paka. We have reached Chitra Kuta, and can live on fruits. The bees hum around and offer us their honey. Cuckoos sing to the peacocks. Here, O woman of the dainty waist, is joy for man and brute ! " The brothers immediately set to work and constructed a rude hut for Sita. It was made of supple boughs broken down by the wild elephants and covered with leaves. This rude hut, the pansil, is very prominent in Buddhism. When the hut was completed, Rama sent Lakshmana to slaughter a stag with his bow. A rude altar was erected. R^ma bathed to purify himself The carcase of the stag was placed on the holy fire, and the proper incantations were recited. Ofierings were then made to the dead ancestors. In this way the new domicile received the protection of the unseen intelligences. Portions of the deer Avcrc then eaten by the two brothers ; and then the woman, Hindii fashion, contented herself with the broken victuals. Thus commenced their life in the green woods of Chitra Kuta. Round the rude huts the flowers clustered and the birds sang. Meanwhile the charioteer returned to the palace and announced that Rama had crossed the Ganges. The news was too much for the blind old king. " Touch me, queen," he said to Rama's mother, " touch me. RAMA. 319 and I shall know you are there. If this hand were the hand of Rama, perhaps it would heal a malady that nothing else can cure. In fourteen years you will see him return with the mystic earrings. Like an old torch, my life is burning low ! " That night he died, and his body was embalmed, to delay his cremation until Rama's return. On the death of the king, Bharata was summoned to reign in his place ; but instead of being pleased with the machina- tions of his mother, he stormed and raved. He refused to accept the crown, and started off with an army of four corps (infantry, horsemen, chariots, and elephants) to bring Rama back. They stayed one night at the hermitage of Bharadwaja, and that great adept, by the power of his magic, was able to regale them all with flesh meat and wine. The necessity of a rigid observance of a promise, no matter what the consequences, is perhaps the noblest teaching of this fine old-world song. Rama summoned to the throne, refuses proudly, " Have I not pawned my word," he answers, " to the dead king, to remain fourteen years in the forest } " A curious compromise is effected. Bharata consents to return as viceroy, taking with him Rama's two shoes. These are to govern until Rama's fourteen years of banishment are completed. The chhattra, or royal umbrella, is hoisted over them when Bharata returns. They are placed on a royal throne. Obeisances and royal honours are paid to them, and no public business is transacted without first consulting them. Analogous, as it seems to me, is the custom of the Buddhists to worship the two footprints of Buddha. From Chitra Kuta Rama repairs to the forest Dandaka, and there a mighty bird Jatayus, offspring of Garuda, promises to watch over Sita. The action of the drama is now quickened. In the forest Panchavati is a beautiful demon, named Surpa-nakha. She chanced to see the splendid figure of Rama in the green wood. His arms were long. His brow flashed with a heavenly shimmer. His eyes beamed like the lotus. His limbs were the limbs of Kandarpa, the Indian cupid. Instantly she plunged deeply in love with him. "Who art thou with the matted hair?" said the demon. 320 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Thou bearest a bow and a quiver. Why hast thou sought these woods ? " " I am Rama, the son of Dasaratha," said the prince. " I love thee," said the female demon. " My power is immense. It can transport thee to distant steep, to hidden flowery dell. Fly with me, and taste joys unknown to mortals." " I have a wife already," said Rama, " and must be true to her. Here is my brother Lakshmana. Love him." The female demon had power to change her shape at will. "Thy wife is misshapen and puny. In me you behold a worthier bride. I can thy wife destroy." Surpa-nakha is the sister of Ravana, and, baffled in her love, she makes an attack on Sita. Lakshmana, to punish her, cuts off her ears and nose. Two of her brothers also, who try to avenge her, are slaughtered by Rama and his brother. The enraged fiend hurries away to Lanka (Ceylon), to her terrible brother Ravana. She narrates the slaughter of the two brothers ; and judging that lust is as strong a motive power as revenge, she paints the charms of Sita in warm colours — " A wife Prince Rama owns, With large round eyes and cheek divinely fair, Pure as the moon her brow ; The locks that fall adown her neck Outshine the clustering locks of Indra's nymphs ; Her waist is supple, and her shapely arms Around a lover's neck Were guerdon richer far Than all the wealth that Indra can bestow ; Sita, her name. Away, Away, and seize the prize — Her beauty worthy thee. Lakshman hath marred my face, Our brothers in the earth, Dashan and Khara, lie. Their silent lips call mutely for revenge, My wit shall aid thy strength, A woman's wit, And we will spoil Prince Rama." The ferocious Ravana falls easily into the meshes of the RAMA. ^21 subtle fiend Surpa-nakha. He goes off with her to the Dandaka wood. This is the description of Ravana — He had " ten faces, twenty arms, copper-coloured eyes, a huge chest, and white teeth. His form was as a thick cloud, or a mountain, or the God of Death with open mouth. . . . His strength was so great that he could agitate the seas and split the tops of mountains. He was a breaker of all laws, and a ravisher of other men's wives. . . . Tall as a mountain- peak, he stopped with his arms the sun and moon in their course, and prevented their rising. The sun, when it passed over his residence, drew in its beams with terror." Professor Monier Williams thinks that this "wild hyper- bole" contrasts most unfavourably with Milton's description of Satan ; ^ but the Indian poet, having Rudra as the storm cloud and the many-armed scorpion to depict, was of neces- sity a little confused in his metaphor. The plot of the sister is that one of the crew of Ravana shall assume the form of the most beautiful antelope ever seen. This deer skips through the wood near Sita, and she thinks it so beautiful that she sends Rama off to secure it. Soon cries of help are heard in the distance. The fiends are counterfeiting Rama's voice. Sita sends off Lakshmana to his assistance ; and a holy men- dicant appears before her. This is Ravana disguised. He seizes her in his arms and places her in his chariot. Soon she is flying through the skies in the direction of Lanka. Gods and the saints of the past are astonished at this bold iniquity. Brahma himself calls out, " Sin is consummated ! " The faithful Jatayus, the vulture who had promised to guard Rama's wife, was witness of the queen's flight. He opposed the terrible Ravana with beak and talons, receiving shaft after shaft in his faithful breast. At last, after a terrible contest, he receives a death-blow. Libra is killed by Scorpio. Rama and Lakshmana are in woeful plight when they discover the loss of Sita. The dying Jatayus reveals the name of the ravisher. Rama is assisted in his quest by seven 1 " Indian Epic Poeti-y," p. 73. Y 322 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. adepts. These friendly spirits are able, by the power of their magic, to assume any shape, but they usually figure as apes. The ape is a very holy animal in India. The most active of these spirits is the famous Hanuman. Hanuman witnessed the flight of Sita, and was able to produce for Rama's inspec- tion some jewels and a garment that she had dropped in her flight. Sugriva, the king of the monkeys, forms an alliance with Rama, and promises to help him to recover Sita. In return, Rama slaughters some of that monarch's foes. An army is equipped, and Hanuman marches south to try and discover the whereabouts of Ravana. Meanwhile, Ravana has reached Lanka, and has shown Sita the wealth and splendour of his capital. Warmly he urges his suit, and promises to make her mistress of all his gold and jewels. Our missionaries are shocked when they hear some of the primitive language of these old Indian epics. But the lofty moral tone that pervades the treatment of this difficult topic, the rape of Sita, is quite noteworthy. Ravana uses cajoleries, threats, intimidations. Sita is dignified, simple, brave. She speaks as if Ravana's safety was the only press- ing point involved — " O giant king give ear, Free me and save thy soul ! Within thy breast a guilty hope abides To hold me in thine arms And seize a joy that ends in agony. Thus in his fevered dream The madman hopes to still His pangs with poison, Release the wife of Rama while you may, Not long his vengeance stays, Implacable as fate It traverses the hills and seas and plains That part the culprit and his punishment ; Soon shall his twanging bow, His arrows flecked with gold, His dart of glistening steel. Grim as dread Yama's mace, Disperse thine inky legions as the wind Pursues the racing cloudlets white with fear, Legions on legions press, Their serried ranks shine out, RAMA. 323 With gold and burnished brass, And axe, and sword, and bow, They hurl defiance to my lion spouse ; Thus shall it ever be, His shining bolts, through the complaining air Shall speed to mar thy panoply and show. In old wife lore the Indian fable runs. That dying men see phantom trees of gold, Look up, thy doom is near ! Not far the horrid regions red with lakes Of human gore, the brake with thorns of steel Prepared by Yama's justice for red hands, And breasts surcharged with lust. Thy threats and hopes are vain ! My death an easy feat ; a harder task To shirk my Rama's unrelenting bolt." Baulked in his passion, Ravana hands her over to certain furies. Brahma sends Indra to the rescue, and he gives her a vase of holy ichor. As the backbone of the great Indian epic is the invasion of the island of Ceylon by an army of monkeys, the dramatic interest suffers as the climax nears. The " Beautiful Book," par excellence in the view of the Hindus, is full of the marches and countermarches of these unusual warriors. Professor Monier Williams laughs at this idea, failing to see that the pure totemism of the epic traverses his modernizing theories. The Aryan cave man, face to face with many difficult problems of nature, had to guess what was the function of the scorpion and the cobra that still infest the cave temples. These creatures, with bewildering capriciousness, could inflict death and horrible tortures. What wonder that animals got to be worshipped superstitiously, and that they crept into the Indian zodiac as an aspect of God 1 It must be remembered that an ancient religious story had to be presented to the people dramatically, hence the value of monkeys' heads, dragons' heads, etc. Scenes from the Ramayana enacted on the old Thespian car are still prominent at the great festival of Durga. The demon crew, too, are an army of grotesques. Some are excessively fat, some comically thin. Some have heads of elephants, some heads of donkeys. Humpbacks and very crooked thighs are the rule rather than the exception. 324 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Some have three legs, like pre-historic Manxmen. The teeth of some of them would puzzle the limited instruments of modern dentistry, if extraction were necessary. The giants and dwarfs of modern fairs date perhaps from the early Bactrian invasion of India, and the pig-faced lady has probably as illustrious a pedigree. Besides this, anthropology in the mysteries of modern savages is getting valuable hints as to how the earlier mysteries developed. These savages wear hideous masks of white beads and red paint. They personate pale death and monsters with heads of birds and beasts. They smear the novice with filth ; and their floggings and torture quite transgress the regions of pure mime and pantomime. They have, as Mr. Lang has shown, the bull-roarer, the pofx^oq of the mysteries of Eleusis. This is a flat oblong piece of wood which whirled round with a string produces a hideous sound. Death is the penalty of showing this to a woman. This means that it was seriously schemed in early days that the hideous noises in the mystic groves, the dread figures with masks and beads should be believed to belong to the super- natural. Ravana means " the noisy one," and Rudra " the roarer." When Rama and his allies find themselves arrested by the sea in the vicinity of the now-celebrated Adam's Bridge, the exceptional accomplishments of Hanuman are brought into requisition. He can swim, he can fly, he can swell his form to gigantic proportions or make it as small as the body of a cat. He passes the straits by swimming, and raises up the mountain Mainaka in the very middle of them. Certainly it is there to this day, so the story must be true. He has a tremendous encounter with the queen of all the Nagas or mighty submarine monsters. She opens her huge cavernous jaws to swallow him and the mighty aperture is ten leagues across. Hanuman distends himself to twenty leagues and puzzles the monster. Her monstrous jaws grow capable at last of compassing this huge swallow, and then Hanuman increases his bulk to forty leagues, and eventually to one hundred leagues as the swallowing capacity of the Naga pro- J? J MA. 325 portionately increases. Then Hanuman suddenly contracts himself to the size of a thumb and darts through her huge carcase. Professor Monier Williams half apologizes for men- tioning such " wild exaggeration." ^ But the student of mytho- logy may take a different estimate of its importance. At the date of the Sanchi temple (500 to 100 B.C.) the sign for Capricorn ^ was a huge sea monster with a gigantic elephant in his mouth. Symbol and narrative are plainly connected. In discussing the antiquity of the Indian zodiac the story of Hanuman and the Naga has its manifest value. Hanuman discovers Sita in a grove of trees amongst the splendid palaces of Ravana's infernal kingdom. She was plunged in sad dreams. She wore the garb of a widow. Her hair was collected in a simple braid. She appeared like "memory clouded, like prosperity ruined, like hope abandoned." Hanuman reveals himself as Rama's messenger, but she distrusts him. He exhibits Rama's ring, which had been entrusted to him, and gains her confidence. He offers to transport her through the skies to Rama, but she says that she cannot touch the person of any one but her husband. Hanuman then has a great fight with the demons. He kills many, but is in the end taken prisoner, and they set alight to his tail. He escapes and creates a great conflagration. By- and-by he returns to Rama, and exhibits a jewel sent by Sita as a token. The bridge built between Ceylon and the peninsula of Hindustan by the monkeys will be famous for ever. This was the prophecy of the Pitris, or dead saints of the past, as they witnessed the operation of building. The son of Visvakarman was the architect. The mighty boulders that have been scattered about the plains of India by ice or other action are believed to this day to have been dropped by the monkeys when collecting rocks for their gigantic bridge. The line of rocks that cross the straits and figure in modern maps as Adam's Bridge, are called Rama's Bridge in India. And the island half-way across is called Rama's Pillar. The terrible Ravana, having learnt from his spies that a 1 " Indian Epic Poetry," p. 78. ^ See p. 7. 326 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. mighty army of monkeys had crossed, made one more supreme effort to beguile poor Sita. By the power of his magic he produced a phantasmal head exactly like Rama's head. He flung it at her feet — " There," he said, " is your husband and your avenger, and there is his bow. I have put his army to the rout." Poor Sita was plunged in the depths of despair ; but by- and-by a benign spirit appeared to her and told her that the story was false. "Listen to yonder distant rumbling. Hear you not the drum and the conch. Rama is not dead. There is his army." Soon the noise of battle draws nearer. The single combats are of course numerous, and detailed at great length. Cohorts of doughty warriors bite the dust. Even Rama and Laksh- mana are by-and-by overthrown, and Rivana forces Sita to come with him in his chariot to view their dead bodies, as he believes them to be. But the bird Garuda heals them. At length the crucial battle takes place between Rama and Ravana. Ravana is seated in a magic car, drawn by horses with human heads. Indra sends Rama his own car, driven by charioteer Matali. As during the fight of Achilles and Hector, the gods range themselves on each side of the combatants, and the armies cease fighting to witness the crucial encounter. The tactics on both sides seems to have been skilful bow-shooting and rapid whirls of the cars. Rama cuts off a hundred heads in succession, but, Hydra-like, a fresh one takes the place of the last one. The fight lasts for seven days and seven nights. At length the mighty chakra is brought into play. This has the wind for its feathers, the fire for its point, the air for its body, the mountain of Meru for its weight. This is, I think, stating very plainly that it is the swastika, the symbol, the four seasons, the four elements. In one part of the poem it is said that the weapons of conquering Indra take the form of serpents ; and in a book, the " Hanumanataka," it is explained that these weapons change to serpents when they reach an enemy. Rama over- throws Ravana, and his wives set up doleful lamentations. ( 327 ) CHAPTER XXIII. Zodiacal Interpretation of the Story — The Horse the Indian Aries — Tlie Lower Marriage — The Indian Tree or Virgo with the Lion Throne — The Bird Garuda— Scorpion and the Bow— The Elephant, Cup, and Quoit of Death. The Zodiac of Indian Myth. The root idea of this story is to reveal and conceal the mysteries. For the initiates we have the story of an ascetic acquiring magical powers and the twelve stages of interior progress symbolized by the Indian zodiac. For those who are only fit for St. Paul's " milk for babes " we have the conceivable anthropomorphic God Purusha, whose life is made to fit in with the festivals and monthly worship of the twelve stone gods. Under the second aspect is presented the growth of rice, the material food, under the first the growth of the bread of life. " They [the Brahmins] have always observed the order of the gods as they are to be worshipped in the twelvemonth," says the " Rig Veda." ^ "The year is Prajapati" (the Divine Man), says the " Aitareya Brahmana." ^ " Thou dividest thy person in twelve parts," says a hymn in the " Mahabharata," " and becomest the twelve Adityas." ^ " These pillars, ranging in rows like swans, have come to 1 " Rig Veda," vii. p. 103. 2 Haug, vol. ii. p. 6. ^ " Vana Parva," v. 189. 328 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. US erected by pious rishis to the East. They proceed re- splendent in the path of the gods." ^ " The body is like a town with eleven gates, through which the soul enters. The soul dwells in the heavens as the divine bird.'"'^ Let us consider these mystical gates. Mr. Burgess and an American Orientalist named Whitney asserted a few years back that the Indians knew nothing of the zodiac until they borrowed it from the Greeks, A.D. 500. Of the Greek zodiac perhaps not. The Indian zodiac is detailed, with a little disguise, in the episode of the " Mahabharata," entitled the "Churning of the Ocean." Narayana, to gain for mortals the amrita or immortal drink, coils the serpent Vasuki or ecliptic round the mountain Mandar (the Indian symbol for the Kosmos), and makes it spin round and " churn " the ocean (unfashioned fluidic matter). This action is opposed by the spirits of darkness, and in the little story the signs of the Indian zodiac, as they figure in the earhest monuments, are somewhat clumsily brought in. 1. "The Deva Dhanwantari in a human shape came forth, holding in his hand a white vessel filled with the immortal juice amrita " (Aquarius). 2. " Chakra," the disc with the swastika symbol (Pisces). 3. " The White Horse, called Uchisrava " (Aries). 4. " Surabhi the Cow, that granted every heart's desire " (Taurus). 5. Gemini represents the positive and negative principles symbolized here by Narayana and Rahu the Sura (Spirit of Light) and the Asura (Spirit of Darkness). 6. " Kurma Raja " (King Tortoise) who has, like the Crab, the mystic outline of the Rod of Hermes. 7. " The Lion " (Leo). 8. " Sri, the goddess of Fortune, whose seat is the white lily of the waters." Virgo is also symbolized by the " Parija- talca, the Tree of Plenty." 9. The Jewel Kaustubha (Libra). 1 Translated by Max Miiller, " Rig Veda," iii. 8. 2 Cited by Mrs. Manning from Kattra Upanishad "A. Ind." i. 138. INDIAN ZODIAC. 329 10. " Rahu the Asura," beheaded by the quoit of Nara- yana (Scorpio). 11. "Immortal Indra " (Sagittarius) who pierces the cloud with his lightning. 12. " In the mean time Airavata, a mighty elephant, arose, now kept by the god of thunder. And as they continued to churn the ocean more than enough, that deadly poison (the elephant) issued from its bed burning like a raging fire, whose dreadful fumes in a moment spread through the world, con- founding the three regions of the universe with its mortal stench, until Siva, at the word of Brahma, swallowed the fatal drug to save mankind, which drug remaining in the throat of that sovereign Deva of magic form, from that time he hath been called Nilkanta, because his throat was stained blue." As early as the date of the Sanchi tope the sign for Capri- corn was an elephant sticking in the throat of a makara or leviathan. This is, of course, the same story as Hanuman and the Naga. The career of the sun-god begins, as I have shown, at the last octave of February, the feast of the Black Durga. As the symbol for this month is the swastika, we have in Rama's case a quadruple birth. The horse is Agni. Agni, in the " Rig Veda," is constantly called ,the messenger of the gods, the medium of communication between the seen and the unseen worlds. This brings in a second piece of symbolism. " Thou art born, majestic Child, of Heaven and of Earth. Thou hast come forth from the wood of the Arani (fire-churn). With noise thou appearest on the breast of thy mother. Darkness and Night flee away. " He is born majestic and wise, under the name of Vishnu." 1 As the Arani, or fire-churn, was also shaped like the swas- tika, we get from another source the meaning of that symbol. Its two limbs, as early as the " Rig Veda," meant heaven and earth, the two mighty serpents, the father and the mother. I wish here to notice a subtle principle of construction that seems to have been followed in framing the twelve 1 " Rig Veda," 7- 5- i5- 330 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Adityas. These in reality are only six. Each god of the summer half-year has his counterpart in the wintry half-year. In the instance of the black and the white Durga this seems patent enough. The higher Brahminism at bottom has always been an idealism and not a dualism. Aries. The Horse. Agni. " I honour the steed Dadhicras, strong and victorious. " Praise the swift Dadhicras ! Honour heaven and earth. "An humble servant, I honour the great Dadhicras, generous, adorable, shining like Agni. " In his ardour to attack (the Dasyous), he leads the war- chariot. With a panoply of flowers, a friend of the people he shines, beating the dust and champing his bit."^ The special symbol of Agni in the Hindu Pantheon is the horse. The following passage, from the "Satapatha Brahmana," describes him under eight different aspects, Rudra, Isama, etc. I give the opening verses. " The Lord of Beings was a householder and Ushas was his wife. Now these ' beings ' were the seasons. That Lord of Beings was the year. That wife Ushas was the daughter of the Dawn. Then both these beings and that Lord of Beings, the year, impregnated Ushas and a boy (Agni) was born." ^ In this passage we plainly see that the young sun-god, or year, Agni is the daughter of Ushas, our Black Durga. He opens the year in Aries, and has a complicated quaternity of seasons for a father like Rama, and, as I shall show, the five sons of Panda. The passage of the year was imaged as the flight of a horse round the world. Hence the horse sacrifice. A selected horse was cast loose like the scapegoat of the Jews. For an entire year he roamed free, and then was sacri- ficed with great pomp. Another Vedic hymn explains the wings — " Thine arms, O shining god, are like the wings of the sparrowhawk. O horse, thy birth is noble and worthy of our praise." ^ 1 " Rig Veda," 3. 7. 6 ; portions of hymns 6, 7, 8. 2 " ^atapatha Brahm.," 6. i. 3. 8. ^ " Rig Veda," ii. 3- 6. INDIAN ZODIAC. 33 I The wings of the horse are the flames, the wings of the heavenly bird, the doves of Agni, as one hymn calls them. On the other side of the zodiac, Agni is Ga- ruda, the divine spirit, as I shall show. This explains the first stage of Rama's life. He is the year born from the ichor of the horse sacrifice, '^" the dead year. I copy a winged horse from Buddha Gaya (Fig. 22). The Bull. That there are in reality only six year-gods, each figuring in the wintry half-year as well as the six months of summer, might be inferred from the Bull alone. Vriha, the Bull. Root word, wish, to rain. Whence also Vritra, the Scorpio, as I shall show, of the " Rig Veda." " Riidra, one who roars. The name of Siva as the god of the tempests." Thus Benfey in his " Sanskrit Dictionary." Rudra in the summer half-year roars Hke a bull. In the wintry half-year he roars like the terrible Indian tempest. In the one he is Taurus, in the other Scorpio. In the " Rig Veda " the demon Vritra is being constantly slaughtered by the arrow of Indra (Sagittarius). The modern Vritra figures as the terrible Bhairava. This last was an avatara of Siva, as the god of cruelty. He wears his terrible chaplet of skulls, and rides upon the bull Nandi. " Let us invoke the terrible Rudra with the Maruts"^ (winds). Human sacrifices were offered to Rudra at the date of the Mahabharata. In the " Rig Veda" Vritra is always represented as having carried away the cows or clouds to his cavern (the wintry half- year). He is constantly being called a thief, like Rudra the Prowler, the Lord of Woods, the Lord of Thieves. In the epics the evil principle, the villain of the story, as moderns would say, has always an excessive number of limbs, like Ravana. The noisome insect that, like Rudra, " assails with 1 "Rig Veda," x. 126. 5. 332 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. poison," and has, moreover, a superfluity of eyes and legs, was a fit emblem for Nature under her most unbenign aspect. In the East, scorpions are sometimes a foot long, and their sting fatal. But in the summer half-year he is the fructifying shower — " May the fruitful cows with their tongues caress the plants. May they drink those waters which give strength and life. Rudra, spare these moving creatures which give us our food ! " These cows who give up their bodies to the devas. Soma knows their forms. Bring them, Indra, to our pasturage. Let them give us their milk. For us let them become fruitful." The bull in Rama's life is the demon killed in the " Grove of Perfection." Gemini. The great Indian festival of the Twins, represented in India by a too homely word, means nature procreative. It is the festival of the waters, when from the days of Rama to the days of Lord Dufferin, young maidens pelt each other with red water and broad mirth ; and they dance round the Indian maypole, the tree of the Holi. The red water repre- sents nature's fecund juices. The rice buried in the earth is now to be fertilized by the rains. The festival is the Indian Olympia, where Buddha and Rama win a bride by their athletic prowess. At midnight, Sagittarius, the celestial bow, is shining. The pair, Aditi and Daksha, matter and spirit, the male and female symbol, arc they not the keystone of the old religions. They represent procreation, life, summer ; and opposite to them in the zodiac is the wintry arrow of death. " Of these two gods, which is the oldest ? Which is the youngest ? How were they born .'' O poets, who can tell ? They carry the world whilst Day and Night roll along like two wheels. " Calm and motionless, they contain beings endowed with activity and life. As parents protect a beloved child, preserve us, O Heaven and Earth, from evil. INDIAN ZODIAC. 333 "Sisters, always young and complete counterparts, they follow each other by their parents, and gliding through the centre of the universe. O Heaven and Earth, deliver us from evil. " I invoke in the sacrifice imploring the aid of the gods these two mothers, colossal, solid, beautiful, containing im- mortality. Heaven and Earth, deliver us from evil. . . . Heaven and Earth, our father and mother, grant to us the favour which we ask of thee." ^ In this hymn they are two sisters, and also husband and wife. In the following they are male twins, and also inferen- tially husband and wife. Sex is of small account in stars. " They (the Ribhus, or ancient prophets) have constructed for the truth-loving Aswins (the Indian Twins) a car of good omen that glides round the world. They have produced the cow that gives milk. "The Ribhus, powerful by their prayers and justice, have restored youth to their father and mother." ^ I will now quote some other passages that throw light upon the subject. "Two mothers of different colours, rapid in motion, give birth each to a babe. From the womb of one is born Hari (the Blue One), honoured by libations. From the womb of the other is born Sukra (the Shining One), with the dazzling flame." ^ " I invoke Night which covers the universe. I demand the succour of the divine Savitri. Divine Savitri returning to us with his dark face establishes every one in his right place, o-ods and mortals. ... He will follow two roads, the one ascending and the other descending (during the night). . . . His black horses step out with their white feet. And on the chariot with the golden wheels they bring light to men. The noble god called the Asura (Rayless One) rises by imper- ceptible movement, and comes, wing borne, to reveal himself in the sky. Where in this minute is the sun } ^ What regions are ht up with his rays ? " ^ 1 " Rig Veda," v. 2. ^ \\;^,^__^ ii. i. 34. 3 \\^x^,_^ vii. i. i. * At the moment of the Hindoo sacrifice, just before sunrise. ^ Ibid., iii. 2. 334 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. "Beneficent Asvvins, the same immortal chariot bears ye across the ocean (of their air). " Of this chariot one wheel touches the unscaleable moun- tain, the other rolls along the sky." ^ " Travellers, to form the light you drive along the sky one of • the shining wheels of your car. The other also rolls grandly across the worlds that belong to the children of Night." 2 " Aswins, we invoke to-day your swift and mighty chariot .... which on its scat transports the daughter of the sun." ^ These passages tell us pretty plainly all we want to know about the Aswins. As Yasca and the scholiast assure us, they are plainly the father and mother, the positive and negative principles. Savitri, the sun-god, has two roads, the ascending and descending nodes of the ecliptic. In the summer he is Sukra, the Shining One. In the winter he is the Asura. Cancer. Leo. Virgo. The signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and the Balance, are closely connected. The wicked queen of the material world and the crooked slave (perhaps Cancer) drive Rama to spiritual life under the mystical tree that in Buddhism has the lion throne at its base and the pearl Mani, also imaged as the bird Garuda, in its branches. This is why that bird watches over Sita. Sita marching round the tree is Virgo in her double aspect. We have reached the " Black Gate " of the Buddhists that separates the earth life from the heavenly life. It is the Indian gate crested with the bird Garucla. Sita (a furrow), as her name implies, is the Indian Ceres ; and in the Dekhan Peshwa and all his followers move out into camp on the twelfth day of her festival, the Dasara, as it is called by the Marathas. Sir John Malcolm describes the ceremonies. Elephants and cannon and sepoys and nobles are all dressed and decked out in gala array. The whole population moves in solemn procession towards the Holy Tree, the object of 1 " Rig Veda/' ii. 1 1. i8. 19. - Ibid., iv. 11. 3. 3 Ibid., vii. 12. I. INDIAN ZODIAC. 33 5 adoration. The Peshwa in person plucks a {q.\n leaves from it, after the Brahmins have gone through the prescribed sacri- fices and prayers. Cannon and muskets are discharged, and bows shot off; and the whole population, headed by the Peshwa, decorate themselves with stalks of jowri, or the rice stalk. Sita is, of course, the earth, and Rama the rice. Our sepoys in the old days used to make Sita's festival their great holiday. I saw on the drill ground of Dinapore two colossal wicker giants, built up to represent Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Then the sepoys, disguised as demons and as the monkeys of the army of Hanuman, executed a pan- tomime in which many a sounding stroke was delivered. The giants, stuffed with crackers, were then exploded with a loud noise. Assisted by the missionary Ward's excellent " History of the Hindoos," let us consider the great festival of Durga, or the full-grown tree. It took place at the same period of the year that the great Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated. They also had the Sacred Way to the Fig Tree. Durga is Geres. Durga is Aditi. The Great Mother has seen many rivals contest her throne, Indra, Vishnu, Siva, Allah, etc. She has seen many creeds wax and wane. She preceded them by many centuries, and has eclipsed them all. Her festival, with Vaishnavas, as well as with the worshippers of Siva, is still the great religious feast of the year. One of her names is Vana-devi, the goddess of forests.^ The festival of Durga is the great holiday of the year. All business is suspended for many days. Poor and rich devote themselves to piety and pleasure. One of the most important early ceremonies is the consecration of the image of the goddess. The officiating Brahmin has to give eyes and life to it. With the two forefingers of his right hand he touches the breast, the two cheeks, the eyes, and the forehead of the image. He says, " Let the soul of Durga long continue in happiness in this image ! " He then takes a leaf of the vilwa tree, rubs it with clarified butter, and holds it over a burning lamp until it is covered with soot. With ^ Ward, vol. ii. 115. 336 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. this soot he touches the eyes, filHng up with soot a small white place left in the pupil of the eye. This ceremony is called chakshur dana. Giving eyes to the idol, with all early religions, meant divine obsession. In the days of Rama the representation of a god was a shapeless stone. Stones, espe- cially the Shalagrama, are still worshipped by the Brahmins of India.^ Proceeding with his worship, the officiating priest now throws himself into the mystic trance (dhyana).^ He becomes, in fact, full of the divine spirit, like a Quaker at a meeting- house. He places a tiny square piece of gold for the goddess to sit upon. He offers rice, plantains, flowers, and leaves. For a drink-offering the soma wine is presented, or aromatic water, the flavouring medium of which is usually the sesamum Indicum. Handbells ring, gongs sound, incense rises. The priest says, " O goddess, come here, stay here. Take up thine abode here and receive my worship ! " ^ He then addresses her as if she were now occupying the tiny piece of gold as a seat. He asks her if she has arrived happily. A voice from the priest's throat, supposed to be the goddess, makes reply, "Very happily!" Water to bathe her feet, water to wash her mouth, water for a bath, clothes, jewels, arm bangles, ankle bangles, nose rings, earrings, even coins of money, are provided for her. Flowers are offered, each with a separate incantation. A lamp is lighted before the imaee. The Brahmin walks round her seven times. But Durga is not a vegetarian. She was in existence many years before Buddha forbade flesh meat and Krishna confirmed his edict. Therefore, if you want her to come down and sit on a tiny golden throne, you must give her something more substantial than rice. For the bloody sacri- fice, the Brahmin takes a sheep or goat and bathes it in the river. He marks its horns and forehead with red lead. He recites an incantation : " O goddess, I sacrifice this goat to thee that I may live in thy heaven to the end of ten years." He then whispers another incantation in the ear of the victim, and puts flowers and sprinkles water on its head. The 1 Ward, vol. ii. xxxiv ^ Ibid., p. 89. ^ Ibid., p. 47. INDIAN ZODIAC. 337 instrument with which the animal is killed is also consecrated with red lead, flowers, and incantations. A blessing-, in the shape of a flower, is given to the poor victim. Mr. Ward (an eye-witness) gives a graphic description of one of these animal sacrifices : " In the area were the animals devoted to the sacrifice, and also the executioner. About twenty persons were in attendance to throw the animal down and hold it to the post whilst the head was being cut off. The goats were sacrificed first, then the buffaloes, and last of all two or three rams. In order to secure the animals, ropes were fastened round their legs. They were then thrown down and the neck placed in a piece of wood fastened into the ground, and made open at the top like the space between the prongs of a fork. After the animal's neck was fastened in the wood by a peg which passed over it, the men who held it pulled forcibly at the heels, while the executioner, with a broad heavy axe, cut off the head at one blow. The heads were carried in an elevated posture by an attendant (dancing as he went), the blood running down him on all sides, into the presence of the goddess The heads and blood of the animals, as well as different meat offerings, are presented with incantations as a feast to the goddess, after which clarified butter is burnt on a prepared altar of sand. Never did I see men enter so eagerly into the shedding of blood, nor do I think any butchers could slaughter animals more expertly. The place literally swam with blood. The bleating of the animals, the numbers slain, and the ferocity of the people employed, actually made me unwell. I returned about midnight filled with horror and indignation." ^ Durga is worshipped as the smiling goddess of summer in September. Indeed, Maha Lakshmi,^ the great goddess of fortune, is one of her names. Her offerings are more bloody as Kali, or the black half-year. A native told our good mis- sionary that he had sacrificed as many as 108 buffaloes to her. Mr. Ward records also that 65,535 animals were butchered at one feast by the father of the then reigning King of Nadiya. Similar ceremonies take place all through the festival. ^ Ward, vol. ii. p. 123, also p. 90. 2 ibid., p. 115. Z 338 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Each day, the goddess, during her supposed visit to earth, is fed, washed, etc. Each day, dancing girls go through certain sedate pantomimic gestures in her presence. They raise their hands. They turn slowly round. They bow gracefully to the goddess from time to time, according to the cadences of the rude native music. Mr. Ward and the old missionaries used to pronounce their dances very indecent ; modern Anglo-Indians cannot see why. All rites, no doubt, in old days signified the mystic marriage of spirit and matter. Other dances in this feast, of a Bacchic type, are performed by naked men smeared with the bloody mud of the sacrifice ground, and lashed into a mystic frenzy with spirits and bhang. On the last day of the festival, the goddess is shipped on board two boats lashed together and manned with musicians, singers, and naked male dancers. The priest addresses her — " O goddess, I have to the best of my ability worshipped thee. Now go to thy residence, leaving this blessing, that thou wilt return the next year." The tinsel idol of the goddess is then drowned in the sacred Ganges. This allows us to understand a hymn of the " Rig Veda." The half-year is addressing her rival — " I tender that vigorous tree by means of which one kills her rival and gains a spouse. " Strong and happy tree, fostered by devas (spirits), thou puttest forth thy broad leaves. Let me see my rival leave my house, and my husband be all my own. " Great tree, I also am great, greater than all that is great, as my rival is baser than all that is base. I name her not. She is not of our race. We will speed my rival to a far-off land." 1 In these few verses we have many epics in epitome. The Balance. The Balance in the earliest times in India was, I feel con- vinced, the bird Garuda depicted like the winged sun and serpents in Egypt and Persia, as the following passage in the 1 " Rig Veda," viii. 8. 3. i. INDIAN ZODIAC, 339 " Mahabharata " shows : — " Carried on the back of Garuda, the glad serpents bathed in the clouds of Indra promptly alighted on the shores of an island." ^ This by-and-by with the Buddhists became the mani or trisul outline. (See the Scales in the old Buddhist zodiac, Plate IV. p. 119). Fig. 23. In the " Rig Veda," Garuda is Garatman. I give from Buddha Gaya a bas-relief of Garuda changing from one to the other. I give also from the " Asiatic Researches" the mani changing into the scales. Fig. 24. Scorpio and Sagittarius. Sagittarius is Indra, and the myth is that Vritra (Scorpio) had stolen the celestial cows (Taurus) and had hid them in a cavern (the wintry half-year). " Maghavan [Indra] has taken the lightning, which he is about to let fly like an arrow." ^ 1 "Adi Parva," v. 1305. 2 « j^jg Veda," ii. 13. 3. 340 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Indra has struck Vritra, the most cloudlike of his enemies." ^ " Surrounded by his army [the maruts, or winds], Indra has taken his quiver and his arrows. He is the Arya who conducts his cows whither he will. . . . This is why thou hast smitten with thy weapon Vritra, the robber charged with his booty. This is why thou hast attacked him, the maruts being at hand. Under the shafts from thy bow the Sanacas have died many deaths. They have perished, those foul men who perform no sacrifices. . . . " He has beaten in the door of that cavern where Vritra held the waters shut up. Indra has torn to pieces Suchna with his horrid horns." ^ " These waters, the celestial cows, were imprisoned by the miserly one (Pani). They had become the wives of a vile enemy." ^ The rainbow is called Indra Dhanus (the bow of Indra). It is worthy of remark that the upanishads, which the " Atharva Veda " ^ calls the higher wisdom of Brahminic teaching, are constantly using this simile of the bow — " Seizing the bow found in the upanishads, the strongest of weapons, man shall draw the arrow (of the soul) sharpened by the constant application of mind, to God." ° The word O.M., signifying God, is represented as the bow. The soul is the arrow, and the Supreme Being its aim.'' Buddha is said to have attained to the state of jinendra (Indra the Conqueror) in the " Sapta Buddha Stotra." The Buddhist sign of the bow is made with the vertebrae of the fleshless mystic. Amongst the early Christian mysteries or miracle-plays is a pretty little drama where Abraham and Ephrem are hermits in a forest. A beautiful young girl, named Mary, is entrusted to the care of the former, her uncle, who points out to her that the word Mary means the star of the sea. It is ever aloft in the sky as a guide to mariners. This means that it 1 "Rig Veda," ii. 13. 5. 2 i\^[d,^ [\i portions of hymn i. ^ Ibid., 13. II. * "Rammohun Roy," trans, p. 28. ^ " Mundaka Upanishad," cited p. 34. ^ Ibid. INDIAN ZODIAC. 341 never sinks into the contaminating earth, as do the other stars, at least in appearance. Therefore Mary must mean chastity. A small hermitage is constructed for the young girl ; but one day it is found empty. Abraham is in consternation, for he has had a terrible dream. A beautiful white dove was at- tacked by a serpent, and slain and eaten. The dove, of course, is the pure white soul of Mary. Ephrem is also in ereat straits ; but Abraham has been consoled by a second vision. Aeain the white dove was seen, but this time the serpent lay dead beside it. Abraham, in disguise, goes off in quest of Mary, and by-and-by discovers her at a house of infamy. His gentleness wins her to penitence, and she re- turns with him to the hermitage. Here we have all the ancient mysteries of the world in epitome. Far from being meaningless, as some modern writers contest, they were de- signed to inculcate a truth, the highest that man is capable of receiving. This Avas that it is impossible to know God with- out an experience of the non-god. It is impracticable to try to know the spiritual life without an experience of the material life. Lofty ideals must be prefaced by low ideals. All pro- gress comes from reaction. Without the conviction of error we cannot gain knowledge. Without sin how can we gain purity and compunction ? The mission of Sorrow, a name of Ceres and also of the Indian Mother, is to teach us happiness. The old mystics viewed the soul as " buried in a sepulchre," ^ the body. It had to " descend to Hades," to " be plunged in matter." ^ Hades was the wintry half-year, presided over by Rudra or Typhon. The crucial ordeal was necessary before the divine wisdom could be attained. " Men," said Ficinus, cited by T. Taylor, " were engaged in the delusion of dreams, and if they happened to die in this sleep before they were roused, they would be afflicted with similar and still sharper visions in a future state." ^ It will be seen that in all the Indian mystery stories the progress of the mystic is from the light half-year to the dark 1 " Clement of Alexandria," Strom, bk. iii. 2 « Plotinus Ennead," i. bk. viii. 2 T. Taylor, " Eleusinian Mysteries," p. 13. 342 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. half-year, and that the higher presentments of divinity, Hari (the Blue One), or Vishnu, Rama, Krishna (the Black One), Kali or Krishna (the Black Female), Varuna and Indra, and Siva or Rudra, are all in the black half of the zodiac, and most of them are painted blue-black, the colour of night. It means that the daylight of the material eye is the darkness of the soul. At night, heaven's own lamps glitter. ( 343 ) ' CHAPTER XXIV. Eleusis — Similarity between the Story of Rama and the Story of Bacchus — Other Points of Contact between the Indian and Eleusinian Mysteries. Eleusis. The sun is aglow in bright September, and a vast procession is issuing from the " Sacred Gate " at Athens. This " Sacred Gate " leads along the " Sacred Way," and the " Sacred Way " conducts over a low hill covered with oleander bushes to the little town of- Eleusis, which sparkles on the cobalt rim of the sea at a distance of ten miles. It is the period of the Eleusinian mysteries, celebrated every four years. The copper drums sound out, and the trumpets and flutes are loud. The crowd is immense, thirty thousand at least ; all ini- tiates. Death is the penalty of appearing in the procession without having trodden on the Dios Kodion. The fivarm march along proud of their garlands. More proud are the iTroirrai, those who know the aporrheta, or secret meaning of the rites. They have eaten out of the mystic " Drum." They have held the " Vase " in their hands. They have perused the secrets of the Petroma, the two tables of stone. They flaunt their white robes and bear proud myrtle on their brows. A mono- tonous low chant, such as we hear in Indian festivals, goes up into the balmy air, recounting the woes of the goddess whose mystic name is " Sorrow." Dancers dance. Actors play pan- tomimes on the car of Thespis. On goes the vast crowd to the " Sacred Fig Tree," the first solemn stage of the mystic pilgrimage. And now, amid a louder clash of cymbals and the blare of 344 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. trumpets, comes a solemn car, preceded by chanting priests. On it is the statue of a young man cut out in the whitest PenteHca marble. His limbs are the limbs that we know later as those of Apollo, not those of the tippling Bacchus. His face is of rare beauty. In his hand is a lighted torch, and nothing else. The crowd call out his name. It is the young Bacchus, the son of Jove, he who, torch in hand, sought his mother, Proserpine, in the regions of gloom. He is the "divine child" of all mysteries, the son of spirit and matter, the awakened soul. At the date of the holy festival of the Sacred Fig Tree, he leaves the rich temple of Athens for the gloomy caverns of the rock-cut temple of Eleusis. Sir William Jones, in the " Asiatic Researches," vol. ii. p. 132, has pointed out that the Greek Bacchus is Rama. It is recorded of him that he conquered India with an army of satyrs, beings half-men half-goats, led by Pan. These are plainly Hanuman and his monkeys, who also conquered India. Ceres is the Indian Sri. Jove, according to Max Muller, is the Sanskrit Dhyaus (Gk., Zeus), with the Sanscrit Pitar (father). May we not add that Demeter is probably Diva Matra, the divine mother ? The stories of the rape of Sita and the rape of Proser- pine are practically the same, the two narratives supplement- ing each other. This latter goddess was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. One day, as she was gathering flowers, she was seized by Pluto and carried to his gloomy cavern. This was conveniently placed by the ancients close to the mountain in Sicily that belches subterranean flames. Her cries of agony were heard by Hecate and Helios, but the mother only heard the echo. Instantly she forsook her husband and went off in search of her daughter. Iris was despatched to bid her return to Olympus, but she refused. Soon a mighty famine began to rage, for the angry mother forbade the earth to bear fruit. In this desperate strait, Zeus commanded Pluto to restore Proserpine. The God of Dark- ness complied, but he gave her a pomegranate to eat to force her to return to his kingdom from time to time. It was fixed at last that for six months of the year she should dwell with ELEUSIS. 345 Pluto, and for six months she should visit the realms of light. During her sojourn on earth, Demeter dwelt at Eleusis, and taught the mysteries in that city. This story, according to Clement, was told dramatically at the Eleusinian mysteries. They seem to have been more like the great pilgrimages to Chitra Kuta than real initiations. It was the pantomime of a pantomime of Rama's life. We hear of seven caverns of darkness and seven caverns of light, but these were probably for more serious occult training. The author of the article on the mysteries in the new " Encyclo- paedia Britannica " suggests that the real flashing of light was the entry to the great temple. A moonless night was selected, and the crowd stood in the gloom of the great sea. Then millions of tapers were lit, and the hill paths glittered with them. Then came the splendid interior of the temple, a vast pile, with its lights, music, statues, pantomime. Beautiful women presented Proserpine and her train as in India ; and we have hints that such episodes as Baubo denudata ^ and the divine hymeneals were too faithfully rendered. Does not the missionary Ward hint the same thing of the Indian festival t There are epochs of prudery and epochs before the epochs of prudery, and rites are stubborn things. " I have fasted. I have drunk the cyceon. I have taken out of the cista and placed that which I took into the calathus. I have taken out of the calathus and placed that which I took into the cista. The bed I have entered ! " This was the supreme formula. The calathus was a basket containing the fruits of Ceres, or earth. The cista was a chest with an egg and the Indian symbols of natural repro- duction. The meaning has been variously interpreted. It meant, I think, the birth of the torch-bearing Bacchus, the spiritual man, and the substitution of immortal food — the food of Proserpine for that of Ceres — barley cakes and a mullet. The Aio? Khihiov, " Jupiter's skin," was the skin of a victim — - a calf An Indian rite may throw some light on this. The Diksha ceremony may be called a drama in which the processes of nature are reproduced. The candidate is 1 " Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries," by T. Taylor, p. i6. 346 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. smeared with water and butter, and placed in a spot that represents the mother's womb. They cover him with a cloth which represents the caul. Outside the cloth is wrapped an antelope's skin (the placenta). The initiates of Eleusis were enveloped in a calf's skin. The Dikshita Vimita, where the initiate lies, is probably the Pastos, the bed, the coffin of the old mysteries. In it the initiate lies with closed hands like a child in the womb. In his hands he is supposed to hold " all the deities." When the proper moment arrives he is taken out of the Dikshita Vimita, the antelope's skin, or placenta, is removed, and he is bathed. ( 347 ) CHAPTER XXV. The Legend of Osiris— The Novice Utanka— Hiram Abif. The Legend of Osiris. " I AM Osiris, who led a large and numerous army as far as the deserts of India, and travelled over the greater part of the world." This old Egyptian inscription is important. The Greeks admit that they derived the story of Bacchus and the rape of Proserpine from the mysteries of Osiris ; and here again we have the conquest of India as the chief feature of a conqueror's life. Osiris and Isis, according to Plutarch, were brother and sister. They were also husband and wife, for two stars, many millions of miles apart, can commit incest without shame. They were the twins of the zodiac, and so were Osiris and his wicked brother Typhon. Osiris, leaving his brother in charge of his kingdom, like the Indian Rama, set out on his career of conquest. Every- where he spread the knowledge of agriculture, and gave salutary laws. His conquering army was an army of satyrs, led by Pan. In his absence, his brother stirred up the people against him, and hatched an infamous plot. At a great feast given by the Queen of Ethiopia, Osiris was inveigled into making an attempt to get into a strange coffer that was brought into the banquet. He was then locked up in this and pitched into the Nile. Isis wandered away in search of her husband's body, and, guided by the doleful cries of the satyrs, discovered it near Byblos ; but Typhon stole it away from her and cut it into fourteen pieces. Of these pieces, Isis, by- and-by, recovered all except the genitals, and had a splendid 348 BUDDHISM m CHRISTENDOM. pyramid built over each. "A temple unrivalled in the world," says Dupuis, " was erected in honour of the missing portion." This is the great pyramid, and in it is the mysterious king's chamber and the empty sarcophagus. The legend in this part is plainly framed to account for the worship of the Indian lingam. Sir W. Jones thought that the words Osiris and Isis were the Sanskrit Iswara and Isi. Other writers in the old days derived the Egyptian religion from India, notably M. Chevalier, an ex-governor of Chandernagore. Familiar with the ancient rock temples of India, he visited the similar rock temples that are to be found in Egypt, and pronounced that the similarity between them was too minute to be accounted for by any other theory than direct derivation.'^ It was held that both sets of temples must have been erected at least two thousand years before Christ. These opinions have been altered by modern authorities. It is admitted that the rock temples of Philas must have been erected at least two thousand years before Christ, but the similar temples in India were constructed two thousand five hundred years later. As the mystical story of Buddha was thought by Cole- brooke to be derived from the story of Rama, I will say a brief word on this, because, if we can connect thus closely Rama with the early Greek and Egyptian mysteries, the theory that the story of Buddha is derived from the Nestorian Christians falls through. Anthropology tells us that the earliest man was a cave-man. For hundreds, perhaps thou- sands, of years he knew nothing of agriculture, or how to clear the jungle. Like a beast, he dwelt in a natural cave and lived by hunting. His first attempt at architecture was to scrape and enlarge this natural cave. This gives us the raison d'etre of the rock temple. It takes the natural form of quarrying, as Mr. Gwilt has shown. And in his ignorance of the arch, man was obliged to carve his first detached temple inside a mountain, and then cut the moun- tain away. 'Tis thus that Mr. Gwilt accounts for the charac- teristics of the earlier Egyptian temples. 1 Savary, " Lettres sur I'Egypte," ii. p. 178, OSIRIS. 349 " The simplicity, not to say monotony, its extreme solidity, almost heaviness, forms its principal characters. Then the want of profile and paucity of its members, the small pro- jection of its mouldings, the absence of apertures, the enor- mous diameter of the columns employed much resembling the pillars left in quarrying for support, the pyramidal form of the doors, the omission of roofs and pediments, the ignorance of the arch ... all enable us to recur to the type from which we have set out." ^ The colossal sphinxes and enormous obelisks were con- structed also by cutting away rocks and hills. The obelisk was then moved in one solid piece. One obelisk, some 93 feet high, was brought to Karnac, a distance of 138 miles. Sculpture, too, throws its light on this early period. The earliest form of the art developed out of columns and blocks of stone. " The addition of heads," says VVestmacott, " and then of feet and hands — the latter close to the sides, and the legs united like columns — formed probably the earliest attempts at giving such objects a human form." ^ India is par excellence the land of cave temples, rock caverns in all stages of progress, natural caves smoothed and enlarged, temples without carving or statues, temples with plain octagonal columns, temples splendidly carved, enormous temples cut out of the mountain and detached. Also she has her stambhas or obelisks, her colossal bulls all formed by cut- ting away rocks and mountains ; and her statues with legs united and arms glued to the side. Such is the colossal statue at Sravana Belgula, seen by the Duke of Wellington. It is seventy feet in height, and a mountain was cut away to form it. Such are similar human statues at Karkala and Yannur.^ This seems to point to processes similar to those in Egypt and Greece. But here our Indian authorities step in. These dark caverns with enormous columns that take the form of quarrying, these colossal bulls cut out of a mountain, these masses of stone, 1 Gwilt, " Encyclopaedia of Architecture," p. 30. 2 " Handbook of Sculpture," p. 87. 3 Fergusson, " Indian Architecture," p. 268. 3 so BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. half column, half man, are not due in India to the tentative processes of the cave-man at least 2000 B.C. India first learnt to build temples in the plain about 500 B.C., to cut stone, and to carve a detached human figure as seen at Sanchi. After that, she adopted the crude art of the cavern- builder. A clever but self-opinionated architect, Mr. Fer- gusson, has ruled this, and all defer to him. For principal evidence he points to the rails and gates of King Asoka's dolmens or tumuli (Bharhut, 200 B.C. ; Buddha Gaya, 250 B.C.). He gives elaborate drawings to show that their stone rails and gateways imitate woodwork. On this he builds up the somewhat large superstructure that India knew nothing of stone-cutting until a short time before this period, and that here we catch the art in the process of change. But I fail to see that Mr. Fergusson's inferences are warranted by his facts. The dolmen was the earliest building known to the Arya when he emerged from his cave. It was his dwelling, his tomb, his temple. With its circle of mono- liths it was the Indian temple before Asoka. The rails and gates represented the confines and gates of paradise in the rites. Nothing is so conservative as religious symbolism, and this pattern may have been settled a thousand years before Asoka. Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra, in his work on Orissa, has shown that the stone cutting of the pillars of Asoka betrays not crudeness, but efflorescence. Indeed, the rails and gates of Bharhut and Sanchi remind one of the pattern of a Chinese card-case. Not an inch of marble can be found without lotuses, elephants, peacocks, winged horses. That Indian artists should have returned from such overdone efflorescence to a severe rock temple with no carving at all save one gigantic stone canopy for a high altar is inconceivable. Most of the rock temples exhibit figures of Buddha. This perhaps, has chiefly produced the idea that they are modern, One or two points suggest themselves which make me think too much has been made of this. I. The figure of Buddha, a naked man with wooll}- hair, IS quite different from the Buddha of the early topes. Major Keith tells me that it is unknown at Sanchi. OSIRIS. 351 2. These rock temples, said to be Buddhist, are far, far away from the Buddhist holy land. No such temples have been erected in any of the hilly country in the chief centres of the cultus. 3. The Brahmins assert that they erected these temples, and that the Buddhists took them over. They say that the figure presumed to be Buddha is Parisnath. 4. The most conspicuous figures in some of the Buddhist topes are Brahmin gods. 5. Another important point remains. Mr. Mackenzie gives from Lassen's " Indische Alterthum skunde" an account of the Indian initiation in the mysteries. It has this advantage, that it is written by a Freemason to show how close a likeness there is between the Indian initia- tion and that of Freemasons.^ At eight years of age, the child girded on the sacred cord. For the " Fellow-craft degree of the Mason," as Mr. Mac- kenzie calls it, the disciple " was led into a gloomy cavern in which the aporrheta were to be displayed to him. Here a striking similarity to the Masonic system may be found." Three chief officers or hierophants "are seated in the east, west, and south, attended by their respective subordinates. After an invocation to the sun, an oath was demanded of the aspirant to the effect of implicit obedience to superiors, purity of body, and inviolable secrecy. Water was then sprinkled over him, he was deprived of his sandals or shoes, and was made to circumambulate the cavern thrice with the sun. Suitable addresses were then made to him, after which he was conducted through seven ranges of caverns in utter dark- ness, and the lamentations of Mahadevi,or the great goddess, for the loss of Siva, similar to the wailings of Isis for Osiris, were imitated. After a number of impressive ceremonies, the initiate was suddenly admitted into an apartment of dazzling light, redolent with perfume and radiant with all the gorgeous beauty of the Indian clime, alike in flowers, perfumes, and gems. This represented the Hindu paradise, the acme of all earthly bliss. This was supposed to constitute the regenera- 1 " Royal Masonic Cyclopeedia," sub voce " Mysteries of Hindostan." 352 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. tion of the candidate, and he was now invested with the white robe and the tiara. A pecuh'ar cross was marked on his forehead and the Tau cross on his breast ; upon which he was instructed in the pecuhar signs, tokens, and doctrines of his order. He was presented with the sacred girdle, the magical black stone, the talismanic jewel for his breast, and the serpent stone which guaranteed him from the effects of poison. Finally, he was given the sacred word, A.U.M." To obtain the third degree, it was necessary to practise tapas in a forest. In the "fourth degree, the Brahmin was, by peculiar ceremonies, conjoined with the divinity." It is plain that we have the seven dark and the seven light caverns of the mysteries of Ceres, and the question is. From what country did this idea come ? The great temple of Eleusis was apparently a great cave temple, but it was solitary. " Egypt proper," says Mr. Fergusson, " has no rock- cut temples, only sepulchres." The rock-cut temples are in Nubia. In the west of India, on the other hand, there are cave temples innumerable. It is to be observed also that these temples, though they were taken over by the Buddhists, were not pre-eminently fitted for Buddhist rites. Mr. Fergusson calls many of the caverns viharas or monasteries, and the side chapels or caverns cells for the monks. Each sanctuary has usually a number of these, seven on one side and seven on the other. These would do admirably for the caverns of initiation, but they are not at all like the cells of monks as described in Buddhist scriptures. A large convent had some ten thousand monks, and these were usually lodged in little huts of boughs. To go back to Osiris, I must here point out, that whilst the stories of Buddha and Rama fit in exactly with the zodiacal career of the mystic working-up through six stages of animal life to the mystical portal, the new birth in the womb of the Virgin with the Lion and the Fire Dove, the story of Osiris, misfits it completely. This is due to the fact that the Egyptian festivals were based on agriculture by the aid of the Nile inundation. This event takes place about June 30th. Then comes the sowing about the middle of October, when OSIRIS. 353 the waters have subsided. The harvest is in April, the great festival of Isis or agriculture, and this festival is described by Greek writers as having been like their festivals of Ceres, with lamentations and lights, instead of flowers and joy for the new year. Then came the festival of the Nile ; and when the mystic should be opposing Scorpio with the bow of Indra, the sowing festival took place. To sum up, the stories of Rama, Osiris, and Bacchus, reveal the same mysteries. All three conquered India with an army of animals ; the pure totemism of the Indian story giving it priority. The zodiacal framework fits in exactly with the Indian rice culture, and the life of the Indian mystic. It misfits on all points corn culture by the inundation of the Nile. Its main features are in the hymns of the " Rig Veda," the earliest surviving hymns of the world ; hymns to the horse, to the bull, to the twins ; hymns to the mystic mother, the tree, and the fire dove ; hymns detailing the great battle of the mystic with the roaring storm-cloud, a feature unknown in Egypt at all. The cows shut up by the god of winter for six months in the cavern may point to the experience of the poor Aryan cave-man in his cavern on the steeps of Hindu Kush or Cashmere. Also in the zodiacal framework of each story much illus- trates and explains the others. The Indian feast of the Tree is the half-way house in the life of the mystic ; the feast of the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis. At this period we have the rape of Sita, the rape of Proserpine, Osiris shut up in his box, incidents which the Greek story confesses to symbolize the entry to Hades, imaged as the six wintry months. At that period the mystic forsakes his animal life for his battle with the demoniacal host — a battle to terminate only under the sign chakra,the terrible discus that Rama finally flings at Ravana,the swastika, the only cross in the catacombs. In hoc signo vinces. Another point is of the highest importance. We now know how the Indian seeks to gain psychic powers. The process is simply by the will-power of the yogi developed patiently in solitude. All concomitants, magic stars and tahsmans, food offerings and scent ofi"erings to spirits, are non- 2 A 354 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. essential, although perhaps the complete discernment of this truth may be due to Mesmer or some other modern investi- gator. The story of Rama is the simple story of a mystic practising yoga under a tree. The battles and sieges are mere symbol, and in the Buddhist version — for the Buddhists have made Rama an avatara of Buddha — are omitted. The pilgrimage to Chitra Kuta is not yoga, but the histrionics of yoga. It stands to reason that thirty thousand people spending a week in visiting holy fig-trees, holy ghauts, the successive spots where Rama developed his powers, would not be thirty thousand adepts at the end of the week, although it might be argued that the pilgrimage was an institution use- ful in suggesting, and also in concealing psychic knowledge. Now at Eleusis we get not yoga, but simply the pilgrimage presentment of yoga. The mystics go to the fig-tree as a sight ; Rama sits under it for fifteen years. The Temple of Eleusis is said to have been built 1330 years before Christ, This gives a very early date to Rama, if he suggested the mysteries to Egypt as well as Greece. The worship of Rama survives, although its pedigree may be so stupendous. In 1882, the Indian government, in collecting cholera statistics, discovered that three millions of pilgrims visited Allahabad for one festival in that year. More strange still is the fact that, although India throws such curious light on the distant past, no one hardly cares for these Indian subjects at all. The Initiation of the Novice Utanka. I will here give an episode from the " Mahabharata." It gives the initiation of a simple ascetic, without the usual account of the conquest of evil propensities in the guise of mailed warriors. Utanka was a young Brahmin, dwelling in the forest with a guru, or spiritual guide, named Veda. The novice on these occasions has to choose a sort of patron god, like Rama or Krishna. He must then conceive his guru as an incarnation of the god, and perform the most menial offices to him. He must wash his feet and drink some of the water afterwards. He must offer him flowers and treat him as God Almighty walking on the earth. OSIRIS. 355 One day, a king visited Veda and made him Archbrahmin of the palace. Veda left Utanka in charge of the hermitage and departed. Whilst he was away, the wives of the guru each tempted him as Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife. In the same way, the pretty daughters of Mara try and dis- tract the tapas of Buddha, and the phantom of Kotavi, the naked woman, tries to thwart Krishna. This ever-recurring incident in the great ordeal of the mystic may have been only psychological, as in the case of St. Augustine. When extasia supervenes it is well known that its visions often appeal thus grossly to the senses. But I cannot help thinking that when the great trial of the mystic became formalized into a scenic pantomime, this temptation by women was a prominent feature. Arjuna, in one episode of the " Mahabharata," is tempted in Indra's heaven by a beautiful Apsarasa. The woman in each case is man's lower nature. By-and-by Veda returns, and somehow discovers that his pupil has resisted temptation. He praises Utanka, and offers to put a term to his noviciate. Utanka is very happy with his guru, and asks leave to remain with him. Veda consents for a season. The higher initiation is introduced in this form. Veda orders his pupil to go and demand the earrings of the queen. As Libra in the account of the churning of the ocean is called the "Earrings of Aditi," the meaning of this is not far to seek. " If you get them," says the guru, " you will gain supreme happiness. In what other way can you get it ? " Utanka departs for the palace. On his way he meets a gigantic being mounted on a Colossal bull. " Eat the dung of this beast, Utanka, and drink its urine," said the giant. " I cannot," replied the novice. " Your master, Veda, once did the same thing." This unsavoury initiation is still practised by Brahmins and the followers of Zarathustra. Utanka obeys. He then pursues his path and reaches the palace. 356 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Give me, O king," he says, " the earrings of the queen, as a present to my guru." " Enter the women's apartments, O holy man," replied the king, " and ask her yourself." Utanka enters the harem and searches everywhere. He cannot find the queen. " You have eaten flesh-meat, and your body is not pure," says the king in explanation. " That is why she is not visible." Utanka went out to perform the ceremonial of purification. He sate down on the ground facing the east. He washed his mouth, his feet, his hands. He drank three gulps of pure water. He returned to the queen's apartment. This time the queen was visible. " What are thy commands, O holy man ? " " My master desires the queen's earrings," said the novice. " He is a worthy Brahmin," said the queen graciously, " I cannot disoblige him." But in giving them, she cautioned him to beware of the serpent Takshaka. This serpent had a great desire to get the queen's earrings. Utanka returned home overjoyed with his new possession. Passing near a holy tank he thought it right to purify himself. A naked Brahmin was near, who apparently possessed great powers of yoga or magic, for he appeared and disappeared in a most marvellous manner. Utanka plunged into the water. The Brahmin seized the earrings and fled. It was the wily serpent Takshaka in disguise. Utanka sprung out of the water and pursued him. At the very moment that he was being overtaken, the Brahmin changed his form and became a serpent. Deftly he glided into a chasm in the earth. The chasm was a very narrow one. Utanka tried to enlarge it with his staff, but was baffled. Indra on his throne witnessed his discomfiture, and sent his celebrated thunderbolt to open up the gap. Utanka descended into a cavern. There he saw the palaces and towers of Kuru Kshetra, the subterranean city of the serpents. The mystic earrings of Aditi (the purity of Utanka's soul) were not to be recovered easily. In their quest he has time to take note of OSIRIS. 357 the marvels of the mystic cavern. He sees two women weavine a veil, the one with white and the other with black threads. He sees a wheel with twelve spokes. He sees a man and a horse. He sings the following hymn : — " Three hundred and sixty rays spring from the nave of this eternal wheel. Its movement is everlasting. To it are joined twenty-four lunar fortnights. Six youths [the six seasons] turn it for ever. " This woof is woven by two women, who have the forms of the universe. They weave for ever with black threads and white. Adoration to the god who holds the thunderbolt, to the slaughterer of Vritra, who wears a blue garment, and has Agni for a charger ! " The man on the horse hearing this hymn, says to Utanka, " I am pleased with your praise. I will grant you a boon." " Be pleased to make the serpents pass under my power," says the novice. " Blow under the crupper of my horse," says the man. Utanka obeys, and at once the snake palaces are over- whelmed with terrific fire and smoke. Takshaka, in con- sternation, offers the earrings to the novice. " Mount this horse," says the man. Utanka obeys, and is transported to the hut of his guru. That holy man explains to him the significance of the sights he has seen. The man on the bull is Indra. The cow dung is the immortal ichor. The man on the horse is Indra also ; and the horse Agni. The wheel with the twelve spokes is the year. The two women are Dhata and Vidhata ; the white threads days, and the black threads nights. He might have added that the cave is the pastos, the coffin, the dark half-year. It is the " Cave of Indra," of all Indian initiations, even the Buddhist. Takshaka, man's lower nature, is subdued by the flaming Garuda, the dove of the Kabbalists, the baptism of fire. To subject the serpent is the secret of all magic, says the Abbe Alphonse Louis Constant. I will here say a word about the secrets of the so-called " Theosophy." Some time back I earned considerable oppro- brium from its votaries, by questioning the existence of Koot 358 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Hoomi,but I think it can be shown that his existence is more prejudicial to Theosophy, viewed as a school of mysticism, than his non-existence. In the year 1872, Madame Blavatsky earned her bread as a professional " medium." From a box, called a " cabinet," she could cause to issue a form with a beard and turban, the spirit, she affirmed, of a pirate who died more than two hundred years ago. In the year 1883, we find her at Adyar, in Madras. Again she has a box, which she calls this time a "shrine." Again a figure emerges with beard and turban. This time it is announced to be a " Buddhist " from Tibet, who some years back instructed Madame Blavatsky in the secrets of Esoteric Buddhism. She lived in Tibet for seven years under his roof. But she failed to notice in all these years that the Buddhist monks of Tibet do not wear long hair, but shave their heads. She failed also to remark that in climates like Lha Sa turbans are as little necessary as a parasol to a Greenlander, She failed also to notice that the language of Tibet is Tibetan, and not Chinese. She tells us in " Isis Unveiled," vol. ii. p. 59, that in Tibet Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are called " Fo, Fa, and Sengh." Our exoteric scholars tell us that Buddha is called Bchom-dan- hdas-Sangs-r-gyas, and Dharma and Sangha, T. Tchos and d Ge hdun. An interesting report has just been published by the Psychical Research Society (December, 1885). They sent out to India a gentleman named Hodgson to investigate certain veiy damaging revelations put forward by a Madame Coulomb and her husband, confederates of Madame Blavatsky. In this report, we see that " Tibet" was Madame Blavatsky's well-curtained bed-chamber at Adyar. This through a pierced wall and sliding panels furtively communicated with the interior of the " shrine." And through this " Esoteric " passage all the " Buddhism " was pushed. The letters of Koot Hoomi have been examined by Messrs. Netherclift and Sims, and pronounced to be all in the handwriting of Madame Blavatsky, the early ones unskilfully, the later ones skilfully disguised. The matter was plagiarized wholesale from a lecture on 0S7i?/s. 359 spiritualism, by Professor Kiddle, in America, and from a French book of magic, by Eliphas Levi, a dash of Orientalism having been added from notes furnished by a somewhat illogical Brahmin, named Mr. Subba Row,^ From this same "Tibet" issued the "astral form" of the Mahatma, seen by Mr. Sinnett, Mohini, and others. It was Mons. Coulomb, with false beard, turban, shoulders and mask, made up like the picture of the Mahatma within the "shrine." This picture was painted in America for Madame Blavatsky, who wanted an " ideal Hindoo." It was scarcely necessary for Mr. Edwin Arnold, in his recent visit to Ceylon, to get from the Buddhist high priest there a categorical statement that there were no Mahatmas in Tibet. More noteworthy is the statement that the atheism and nihilism of " Esoteric Buddhism " were unknown to him. I have said that the existence of Koot Hoomi is more pre- judicial to theosophy than his non-existence. The object of Indian mysticism was to bridge the worlds of matter and spirit, and pilot the novice through the demoniac host which were believed to infest the mystic portals. This was to be effected, as in the case of Utanka, under the supervision of a flesh and blood guru. It was held that man's usefulness on earth could be thus inconceivably increased, for all knowledge of God must come from within, not from without. Theosophy proclaims the direct opposite of all this. It says that, owing to the danger from evil spirits, all yoga must be practised under the guidance of an adept in his " astral form." These adepts, owing to the gross aura of India are obliged to reside in Tibet. But how is this in any way union with the next world .'' Koot Hoomi is a mortal. Moriah is a mortal. Their teaching is as rigid a mundane dogmatism as that of Bishop Proudie. And how can I tell that evil spirits are not personating Koot Hoomi or Moriah .-* The phantom form of this last gentleman, conjured up from the " ideal Hindoo " of the American artist, is said to have appeared to many " Theosophists " in visions of the night. His gospel is a jumble of contradictions changed every day. Supposing 1 See " Report Psyc. Res. Soc," p. 274. 36o BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. after a long course of asceticism I see this vision, how can I tell that it is not an evil spirit personating the holy man ? Also, how can I tell which gospel I am to pick out of his basket ? The Story of Hiram Abif. Has any one ever puzzled over the fact that the only modern representatives of the initiates of the ancient mys- teries should occupy themselves entirely with the practical business of the hodman and the builder. What is the con- nection between the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and matter-of-fact mortar, T squares, trowels ? Mr. H. Melville, a Royal Arch Mason, in a work entitled " Veritas," has given us an answer to this question. Esoteric masonry occupied itself in reality with a temple built without any sound of hammer, axe, or tool of iron.^ It was the temple in the skies, the Macro Kosmos in point of fact. And the true mason was seeking to construct the micro cosmos, the temple of the soul. "According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation." ^ It has been deduced from this passage that St. Paul was an initiate of these rites. Masonry has its fellow-craft mason and its royal arch. Modern researches are suggesting, as it seems to me, another point of contact between the trade of the builder and the trade of the astro-mystic. This even Mr. Melville has failed to see. The earliest astronomical instruments were the square, the level, the compass, the rule. By their aid a temple was oriented. This meant that important feast days, the periods of the sowing and reaping, could be thus accurately told by the stars. Recent writers have shown how much the Pleiades had to do with ancient rites and feasts. In Hesiod's day, corn was cut " when the Pleiades rise," and ploughing commenced when the Pleiades set.^ These two periods were the occasion of the two great festivals of the old world. * The first observatory was 1 I Kings vi. 7. 2 i Cor. iii. 10. ^ J. F. Blake, "Astronomical Myths," p. 120. ^ Ibid., 115. OSIRIS. 361 the temple of standing stones astronomically arranged. The dolmen, with its chamber of rough stones, is thought to be the first building of the cave-man in the plain. It imitates cave architecture. The primitive astronomy of the Chinese was able to obtain the solstitial and equinoctial points at the solstices by fixing on a horizontal platform a rule marking the point of sunrise, and another at night marking the point of sunset. A mean taken between these two lines would give the meri- dian. But to get the two other cardinal points was the difficulty. Hence the importance of T squares, plummets, masonry secrets. The early priest was scientist as well as theologian, and the twelve unhewn stones an observatory. The story of Hiram Abif need not detain us long. He was the master-builder of Solomon's temple. It is recorded that three apprentices murdered him because he would not disclose the lost word. Hiram made three efforts to escape. He ran to the eastern gate of the temple and found himself confronted by an assassin. It will be recollected that Buddha made his first effort to escape from the material pleasures of the palace of summer by the eastern gate, and that he was there arrested by the old man. The second and third journeys of Hiram were from west to south and south to west, each arrested by an assassin. Buddha's journeys were by the southern and western gates, during which he encountered the sick man and the corpse. Hiram was then slaughtered, and the body was carried out by the northern gate and buried. The conspirators had at first been fifteen. Twelve had re- pented, and much of the ritual of masonry goes on the dis- covery of the body by these twelve craft masons. A sprig betrayed the secret, and they planted a sprig of acacia at the grave whilst they hurried away to inform King Solomon. That king had a sumptuous tomb prepared for the body as near the holy of holies in the temple as was permissible by Jewish law. Masonry is plainly a Jewish version of the mysteries, with Buddhism and Osiris worship superadded. It is, I think, an echo of the Therapeut secrecy and precautions. The entered 362 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. apprentice, even in England, is stripped of his sovereigns, breast-pin, and watch. His eyes are blinded, and certain for- malities which menace "stabbing and strangling" are gone through. Vows of secrecy, fidelity, and obedience are enacted — obedience which must extend, if required, to the sacrifice of a son like that of Abraham. All this is Buddhist, although the gold and money is promptly returned, and marquesses and royal dukes are told that the vows of obedience will never be stretched so far as to force them to compass the overthrow of the House of Lords and the British Constitution. " Endow him with a competency of Thy divine Wisdom " is a portion of a prayer offered up, and it is explained to the aspirant that knowledge of self is the prime desideratum. " The light of a Master-Mason is darkness visible." ^ All these are profound mystical truths. The imaginary temple of Solomon has a royal arch made by two columns, Jachin and Boaz. Through this the fellow- craft mason must pass to become a master. Here we have another form of the Indian mysteries — the zodiac divided into Jachin and Boaz, the black and white halves, at the feast of the Tree. The candidate pretends to fall dead to imitate Hiram's death, in England, but in some lodges he is placed in a tomb with a tree by it. In England, masonry is thought to be an unmeaning farce. Abroad, by clericals and republicans alike, masonry in its various forms is pronounced the most formidable force in Europe. Lord Beaconsfield declared that the secret societies and the papacy were the only two institutions endowed with permanency. It was introduced by James II. during his exile in France. It was designed to prop up the Stuart. Instead, it pulled down the Bourbon ; for its main principle is the apocalyptic maxim that the individual must be made a priest and a king. The Albigenses were masonic mystics. So were the Hussites. That it produced the Reformation is the belief of all clerical writers abroad. It is asserted that the discovery of the *' Kabbalah " had spread mysticism and gnosticism. The Templars, leaving Europe to attack the ^ Carlile, p. 9. OSIRIS. 363 Moslem, had returned with the secret tenets of the Sufis, which they again had derived from the Buddhists. In the fourteenth century, as Mons. Jannet has shown, numerous guilds and corporations existed, and mystic societies were in the heart of Catholicism. " Social order was attacked, and the legitimacy of political power, the rights of property, and the institution of the family. . . . The Albigenses bor- rowed their grades and organization, as well as their doctrine, from the Freemasons." ^ In the matter of the French revolution the influence of Freemasonry was very great. Historians like Louis Blanc on the one side and the Pere Deschamps are there agreed. The Baron d'Haugwitz, at the Congress of Verona, used these words : " I acquired then a firm conviction that the drama which commenced in 1788 and 1789, the French Revolution, the regicide, and all its horrors had not only been resolved in the lodges of the illuminati, but was due to the association and oaths of the Freemasons." ^ Mirabeau was sent in the year 1785 on a diplomatic mission to Prussia. There he was initiated in German illuminism. He brought the institution to France, and five hundred lodges were promptly formed. The famous lodge of Les Amis Reunis in Paris had all the chief agents of the revolution on its lists, Robespierre, Barnave, Petion, Talleyrand, etc. It was debated whether the great explosion should occur in Germany or France, and decided for the latter country.^ In the days of Wieshaupt and the illuminati of Germany a strikine scene was enacted. The novice who had been brought in blindfolded, was shown an altar on which was a sceptre and crown, some gold pieces, and some valuable jewels. Above was a picture of the " Founder of Illuminism " — an Ecce Homo that was solemnly unveiled. " Here are the attributes of virtue," cried the Grand Master " here are the attributes of tyranny. Choose ! " It was explained to the aspirant that the masked brothers around were quite competent to push his career for him in court or 1 C. Jannet, " Les Soci^tds Secretes," p. 51. ^ Ibid., p. 74. ^ Ibid., p. 69. 364 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. camp. It was explained also to him that the aim of the society, " the Family of the Human Race," was very far- reaching, and exacted extremes of devotion and self-denial. It was directed against all despotism and class-privileges, secular and religious.^ ^ Victor Huriot, " Myst^res des Societds Secretes." ( 365 ) CHAPTER XXVI. THE AVAT^RA OF KRISHNA. After a dispensation or Day of Brahma has continued a certain time, says the "Vishnu Purana," the human race deteriorates. Kings despoil their subjects instead of pro- tecting them. " Property alone confers rank. Wealth is the only source of devotion. Passion is the sole bond of union between the sexes. . . . Dishonesty is the universal means of subsistence. Fine clothes are dignity. The Brahminical thread makes the Brahmin. Presumption is substituted for learning." Treasures are sought, not at the shrines of the immortal dead, but in the bowels of the earth. But when the prospect is blackest the relief is at hand. The two first stars of the seven rishis (the Great Bear) are seen at night in the heavens with a certain lunar asterism between them, and then the star-gazers are made aware that the Deliverer is about to be born.^ The nineteenth century should begin to watch the Great Bear. Once upon a time the world groaned with the oppressions of a demon Kalanemi, who was incarnate as King Kansa. In this strait. Earth repaired to Meru, and laid her complaint before Brahma. That god pronounced that Vishnu should be appealed to. Is it not a well-known fact that when his sacred feet have touched the earth, that globe is at peace for a hundred mystic years ? ^ The Avatara of Krishna was in this wise. In Mathura (the modern Muttra) was a nobleman named Vasudeva, who had two wives, Devaki and Rohini. Vishnu plucked two of 1 Wilson, " Vishnu Purana," pp. 482-487. ^ ibjd., p. 485. 366 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. his hairs, a black one and a white one. From that black one sprang up, in the womb of Devaki, Krishna, The Black One, as his name signifies. From the white hair, in the womb of Rohini, Bala Rama (the boy Rama) was conceived. Now, the special sign of Krishna and Vishnu, is a holy emblem on the breast formed by curling hair. It is called the srivatsa (holy breast, holy mark). I think this is plainly a later form of the swastika cross, the symbol of the commencing year. And the two hairs are the two principles — heaven and earth — the higher and the lower life — >g- 25. ^^^^ ^j^g Narayana, or god-man unites., A king of asuras, or spirits of darkness, has at his court Brahmins, soothsayers, and other holy institutions, just like a king of the spirits of light. Conspicuous at the court of King Kansa was a holy saint named Narada. This seer, by his mystic insight, was able to discern that the son of Devaki would one day overturn King Kansa. The monarch, hearing this, was in a fury, and determined to destroy the child. He flung Devaki into a dungeon, awaiting the infant's birth. At midnight one evening the child was born. It had four arms and the mystic mark, srivatsa, on its breast. Vasudeva begged the baby to veil his supernal " four-armed shape." He addressed him : " God of gods, who comprisest all the regions of the world in thy person ! " From this it appears that the four cardinal points were the express symbols to distinguish the universal from the anthropomorphic god. A mystic sleep, called yoganidra (the magic sleep of yoga), is cast upon the jailers and warders of the great gate of Ma- thura by unseen agencies. This yoganidra must have been a sort of mesmeric trance. The holy infant is then carried out of the prison and the city. The dew being heavy, a portent occurred. A many-headed serpent, the mighty Sesha, spread out its hoods to shield the four-armed divinity. A similar por- tent occurred to Buddha. A nimbus of serpent heads is a divine symbol in all the old Hindu temples and Buddhist topes. On this particular night, on the banks of the Yamuna, or Jumna, was a poor cowherd, Nanda, and his wife Yasoda. KRISHNA, 367 They were asleep on the cold ground under a waggon, after a weary journey. Nanda was bringing tribute to Kansa, Yasoda had just been confined. Babies were shifted, and the infant Krishna, " black as the dark leaves of the lotus," was placed by her side. In the morning, the infant of Yasoda was seized by the jailers and handed over to the delighted Kansa. He dashed it against a stone, but it changed into a gigantic being. " He is born who shall kill thee ! " said the apparition solemnly, and it vanished in the heavens. Kansa, alarmed, like Herod, ordered all the male children of Mathura to be put to death, but Krishna escaped with his putative father, Nanda. This poor cowherd dwelt at the village of Gokula. One night, the infant had a terrible adventure. A wicked fiend, Putana, tried to suckle it with her poisonous nipples. The infant drained the life out of her. Diseases in the old days were all believed to be the work of individual fiends ; so Yasoda, alarmed, fenced about the little infant with many charms. She swished a cow tail over him. She placed powdered cow-dung on his head. She bound round his arm a raksha or amulet. It was the following inscription tied with silk : — " May Hari from the lotus, of whose navel the world was developed, protect thee ! May that Kesava, who assumed the form of a boar, protect thee. May that Kesava who, as the man-lion, rent with his sharp nails the bosom of his foe, protect thee. May Garuda ^ guard thy head ; Kesava thy neck ; Vishnu thy belly ; Janarddana thy legs and feet ; the eternal and irresistible Narayana, thy face, thine arms, thy mind, thy faculties of sense. May all ghosts, goblins, and spirits unfriendly ever fly thee, appalled by the quoit, mace, and sword of Vishnu, and the echo of his shell." The ancients believed that diseases were the obsession by fiends, and different parts of the body had to be separately protected. Similar amulets to that of poor Yasoda were called " knots," in ancient Babylonia. " Knot, bind the head of the sick man, bind his forehead, ^ These are all synonyms of Vishnu. 368 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. bind the seat of his Hfc," etc., says an ancient formula.^ M. Lenormant points out that the phylacteries of the Pharisees and the " knots " patronized by mediaeval duchesses were of the same pattern. To dififerentiate Indian mythology and pure history is difficult. In the view of Indian scholars there was a real Krishna, a conqueror who enlarged the domains of the Aryas by victories over the aborigines, who figure always in Indian legends as giants and fiends. Mr. Garrett, in his excellent dictionary, fixes his date at the time when " the Aryans were still a nomad people, pasturing their herds of cattle at the foot of the Himalaya range and in the plains of the Punjab." The movement was towards " the interior and east " from the north-western corner of the peninsula.^ This geography would place him before Rama and the sons of Pandu. It is significant that Krishna differs from the other incarnations in not being of royal birth. The story of the baby being found close to the waggon of a cowherd means, of course, that he was a peasant. Krishna and his brother Balarama grow up amongst the cowherds. Their infant sports are a never-ending popular theme in modern India. When they were quite tiny they " began to crawl about the ground, supporting themselves on their hands and knees, and creeping everywhere, often amidst ashes and filth. Neither Rohini nor Yasoda was able to prevent them from getting into the cow-pens or amongst the calves, where they amused themselves by pulling their tails." ^ On one occasion, the infant Krishna, being tied as a punish- ment to the mortar with which the Indians bruise unwinnowed corn, pulled it along with him against two large trees, over- turning both in the process. On another occasion he upset the waggon which in those pastoral times seems to have been the paternal dwelling. By-and-by, the little colony emigrated to a pastoral district of Mathura, called Vrindavana, where " new grass springs up even in the hot weather." Here ^ Lenormant, " La Magie Chaldidnne," pp. 39, 43. 2 Garrett, sub voce Krishna. 3 Wilson, "Vishnu Purana," chap. v. KRISHNA. 369 the two boys romped in the forests. They made themselves crests of the peacocks' plumes, and garlands of forest flowers, and musical instruments of leaves and reeds. They piped to the cowherds. They sang in chorus and danced together. Sometimes they stained themselves of various hues with the minerals of the mountain. On his head each boy wore the Kaka-paksha/ or the hair trimmed like the outspread wings of a flying crow. The bird Garuda typifies spiritual light and fire. In a pool on the Yamuna, near Vrindavana, was a terrible water serpent. Its name was Kaliya, and it made the water poisonous to men and cattle. Young Krishna, reflecting that as the bird Garuda he had once before vanquished this snake, determined again to attack it. Climbing a kadamba tree, he leaped boldly into the pool. Immediately he was attacked by a vast number of serpents, male and female. They coiled themselves round every limb, and bit fiercely with their poisonous fangs. Nanda and Yasoda and the young gopis (cow-girls) wept bitter tears — " Without Hari the forest will lose its delight. We have listened to his music, and now the serpents will kill him. Let us all plunge likewise into the fearful pool of the serpent king." But Balarama, listening to the words of the cow-girls, and seeing the cowherds themselves pale with terror on the bank, was filled with disdain. He at once " reminded " Krishna of his " real character," as the " Vishnu Purana " somewhat quaintly puts it. " God of gods, the quality of mortal is sufficiently assumed. Thou art the centre of creation, as the nave is of the spokes of a wheel. The gods, to partake of thy pastimes as man, have all descended in disguise. The goddesses have come down to Gokula to join in thy sports. Disregard not these sorrowing divinities, the cowherds and cow-girls, thy kith and kin. Thou hast put on the character of man. Thou hast exhibited the tricks of childhood. Subdue this fierce snake." Krishna obeyed. The "fierce Kesin" was a demon haunting the woods of ^ Wilson, "Vishnu Purana," p. 510. 2 B 370 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Vrindavana. Kansa, alarmed at the death of Putana and other prodigies, sent him against the two divine boys. He assumed the form of a horse, " spurning the earth with his hoofs, scattering the clouds with his mane, and springing in his paces beyond the orbits of the sun and moon." The cow- herds and their wives, hearing his neighing, fled to Krishna for protection. "Away with these fears of Kesin," said the young hero. " He is but a galloping steed, ridden by the strength of the Daityas. His neighing is his only terror ! " The fierce steed galloped at Krishna with his mouth wide open. Krishna thrust his arm in it and tore out his teeth, as the wielder of the trident tore out the teeth of Pushan. The arm in the throat of the demon now enlarged, like a malady that grows and grows and ends in death. From his torn lips the demon vomited foam and blood. He was rent asunder by the arm of Krishna as a tree is rent by the lightning's flash. The cowherds were delighted, and Narada the Brahmin, invisible, seated on a cloud, exclaimed, " Well done, Lord of the Universe, thou hast destroyed Kesin, the oppressor of the denizens of heaven. Thou shalt be called the Slayer" (Kesa va) ! ^ After the fight Krishna returned to Gokula, the " sole object of the eyes of the women of Vraja." Krishna had another adventure. This was with the demon Arishta, disguised as a savage bull. " His colour was that of a cloud charged with rain. He had vast horns. His eyes were like two fiery suns. As he moved, he ploughed up the ground with his hoofs. His tail was erect." The hump, which is a feature of Indian cattle, was enormous. Many hermits in the forest had fallen victims to his fierce rage. Seeing Krishna, the fierce beast charged him with lowered horns. Krishna seized them deftly, and with gigantic strength tore them off. He beat the demon with them till he died. He pressed the bull with his knees. This feat reminded the 1 Professor Wilson questions the etymology of Narada, and gives "He of the hair" (Kesa) as the correct derivation. As the old Indians loved verbal quips, they perhaps had both root-words in view (" Vishnu Purana," p. 540). KRISHNA. 371 herdsmen of Indra triumphing over the Asura Jambha. Other feats were performed by this young boy. Whatever the respective dates of the three great Indian legends, I think that an attempt has been made to blend them into one harmonious whole. Having taken the aspects of Nature as a great symbol of God, the Brahmins have tried to make Rama's story specially deal with the autumn of life, Yudhishthira's with summer and kingship, Krishna's with youth and spring. This last is quite proved by the kalendar. With Indian genius, as with Sanzio and Fra Angelico, the child god is the favourite idea expressed. Krishna is drawn suckling, or sprawling with playthings, or strangling a snake whilst yet a baby. But at one point the Christ and the Krishna palpably diverge. The Brahmins were plainly of idea that God considered as Nature could never be fully drawn unless the element of adult love was added. There is the Bala Krishna, or child Krishna, but there is also a Krishna arrived at puberty. Krishna's celebrated dalliance with the milkmaids has been pronounced unchaste by missionaries, and been glossed over by some writers. Thus Miss Gordon Gumming suggests that when he hid their clothes when they were bathing he wished to read them a lesson of modesty. I think both sets of writers fail to read the legend aright. The mystic cows of the Brahmin religion and the milkmaids are one, and we know from the " Mahabharata " that these cows are the days of the year. The sun-god in his yearly course lights up each in succession. " The drops of perspiration from Krishna's arms were like the fertilizing rain," says the " Vishnu Purana." That Krishna's love has been pronounced platonic by so many readers shows that the subject has been treated with great delicacy. In spring the air is perfumed with the white water-lily and the bees murmur. At this time Krishna and his brother saner sweet strains in various measures such as the women love. The milkmaids came forth from their huts. One sang a gentle accompaniment to the song. Another listened, a third called out his name, and then shrunk abashed. One 372 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. girl, afraid of her father and mother, dared not come out, but meditated on Krishna with closed eyes, and emancipated herself from her lower nature. Some imaged him as the " Supreme Brahma," and obtained final emancipation. One fine moonlight night, the milkmaids and the god indulged in a pretty dance, the celebrated Ra.sa dance (" speech dance," " chain dance.") In this dance, the girls form a ring and a phantom Krishna is at the side of each. The pretty comedians then personate the god. One pretends to hold up the mountain Govard- dhana. Another makes believe to pipe, a third sings. One slaps her round brown arms like a wrestler and challenges the serpent Kaliya with a quite imposing defiance. One affects to see the footprints of the god and a particular milkmaid on the ground, and pouts with pretty jealousy. Then one shows her rapture that Krishna is by her ; another her despair because she is abandoned. One mimics the higher happiness of the rishi who, with closed eyes dreams of the formless Vishnu. Bracelets jingle and round arms are flung aloft till at last all the poor girls, abandoned, feel that they can only sing Krishna's songs to the sound of the Vina and the musical sing-song of the women. This dance was a temple dance when the Babylonian women wept for Tammuz, and probably many hundred years before. The chain represents the year and the girls the days. The sun-god visits each in turn. The name of one milkmaid, Radha, has been studiously kept out of the Puranas, but tradition has been too powerful. One night in the rainy season, Krishna, a wanderer, received shelter from one Nanda, a cowherd, and the cowherd's daughter became his mistress. Their lives are still sung in every bazaar.^ The sculptures too of the temple of Jagannatha, Krishna's temple in Orissa, are said to make plain the nature of Krishna's dalliance with the milkmaids.^ King Kansa having been unsuccessful with his zodiacal horse and his bull, determines to slaughter Krishna with a ^ See " Gita Govinda " and Tod's " Rajesthan," vol. i. p. 540. ^ " Garrett's " Dictionary," sub voce *' Jagannatha." KRISHNA. 373 famous brace of athletes, and bids him in consequence to a great summer festival. Akrura is his messenger. When the poor milkmaids hear that Govinda, the divine cowherd as they call him, is going to leave them, they weep bitter tears. The dames of Mathura are proud and seductive. The divine cowherd is a rustic. " Their smiles and airs and meaning glances will turn him from us. Bright is the morning for the women of Mathura, for the bees of their eyes will feed upon his lotus face. Delicious will be the great festival, for they will see Krishna. Brahma has given us a great treasure. He takes it away and we are blind. Despair shrivels our beauty and makes our bracelets slip from shrunken limbs." Akrura was possessed of the Syamantika gem (the higher initiation). On the journey he went down to the river for the Sandhya or noonday rite. He threw himself into the Dhyana or mystic reverie, and saw Krishna transfigured before him. Lightnings flashed as from a dark cloud. His body was changed. The mystic four arms held the four great symbols. The srivatsa or mystic cross was on his breast. A gem was on his brow, and the whitest of lotuses on his head. Emerging from the water, the Akrura was astonished to see the brothers in their car, sitting like ordinary mortals. Again he went into the stream, and again the phantasmal body of Krishna visited him there. The holy man became convinced that Balarama was Sesha, the mighty serpent that supports the Kosmos, and Krishna was the " the supreme Brahma, eternal, unchangeable, uncreated." Upon entering, Mathura, the divine cowherd, met a de- formed girl, Kubja. She was carrying a pot of precious ointment. "Fair girl," said Krishna, "give me of that ointment, the ointment of kings." " Take it," said Kubja. Krishna smeared his body with the Brakticheda anointing. This means that he put on the various mystic nose, cheek, breast, and arm marks of the followers of Vishnu, and the celebrated tridentine streaks on the forehead. They symbolize Vishnu's three steps. Then Krishna, who had the power of healing by touch, 374 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. put his thumb and two fingers under the deformed girl's chin and made her straight and beautiful. The festival of King Kansa was very like similar festivals in the other epics. Pavilions, and tents, and platforms were erected. They were decorated with pictures, and garlands, and flags, and statues. Aromatic scents were everywhere. The octagonal columns that were put up for the horse sacrifice in the Ramayana, were here likewise. The pavilions had each seven roofs, supported on four posts. Professor Wilson thinks that they must have been of the pattern of Chinese pagodas.^ Coloured awnings, and carpets, and silks, and pretty women animated the scene. They were allowed to appear, as in the " Mahabharata," without curtains or conceal- ment.^ Drinks were prepared for the common people, and a phrase that may mean "viands" is used.^ This would carry the legend to days before Asoka, the Buddhist, forbade flesh meat. Krishna, like Rama, breaks the bow that no one can bend. He and his brother then confront the two great athletes, Chandra and Mushtika. At the sight of these strong men, Devaki mourns for her son, and fears that she will never see his lovely face again. The courtesans, too, under the bright awnings, cry out, Alas ! The graceful, though light frame of the young cowherd, as he tightened his girdle and danced in the arena, had earned him their sympathies. As he slapped his arms in defiance to the mighty Chanura, all the women said, "How can the delicate form of Hari, the blue one, oppose that great giant .'' " The Indians are unrivalled wrestlers. Officers who have learnt their grips have shone against English athletes. The fight between Chanura and Krishna has found an expert for a historian. "Mutual grips," "interlacing arms," "inter- twining the whole body," " pulling forwards," " pushing back ; " these and a dozen other stratagems are detailed in long Sanskrit words. By-and-by, the wreath of flowers on Cha- ndra's head began to quiver, and his mighty strength to wane. At last Krishna lifted up his adversary and dashed him to the ground. His soul fled, and Balarama disposed of the other 1 "Vishnu Purana," p. 554. - Ibid., p. 555. ^ Ibid., p. 554, note. KRISHNA. 375 wrestler. Then the two brothers danced in the arena in the Indian manner. King Kansa was terribly incensed. He gave orders that Vasudeva should be horribly tortured, and Nanda, Krishna, and Balarama seized. Krishna came to the defence of his kinsmen, and jumped up and dragged Kansa out of his regal pavilion. He knocked off his tiara, squeezed him to death, and dragged his body across the sand in the middle of the arena. It was furrowed as by a watercourse. He released Ugrasena, the father of Kansa, from prison, and placed him on the throne. A Brahmin, Sandipani, was told off to instruct the youths in arms and magic. For a fee, Krishna promised to raise his son from the dead. He had been drowned when bathing at the celebrated temple of Somnath, in Guzerat. A terrible demon, named Panchajana, who was in the form of a conch-shell, had swallowed him. Krishna plunged in the sea and rescued the boy. He slew the marine monster and made a conch-shell out of his bones. This is his celebrated Sankha, whose "sound fills demon hosts with dismay." The great modern festival of Krishna, in India, takes place in Gemini-Cancer. Hence, the two wrestlers slaughtered by the two twins of the new year. The images of Krishna and his brother Balarama, in the great Temple of Jagganatha, in Orissa, have arms uplifted to form the Buddhist trisul. This explains the upraising of the mountain Govard-dhana. Krishna is stambha, the Kosmos-supporter. Kansa is the Kosmos-supporter of the preceding year. Opposite Gemini is the arrow, and opposite Cancer the marine monster with the elephant in his mouth. Hence the incident of the bow, and the monster like a shell. King Jarasandha (who figures likewise in the " Mahabha- rata ") was the father-in-law of King Kansa. Incensed at the death of the king, he marched from his capital, Magadha, with forty-six million fighting men. The men of Mathura were besieged ; but Krishna, with the " bow of Hari," the magic double quiver, and the mace Kaumodaki, did prodigies of valour. He had recourse to the four strategic devices — bribery, negotiation, dissension, and chastisement. A feigned 3/6 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. retreat is mentioned as another device.^ " It was the pastime of the Lord of the Universe, in his capacity of man, to launch various weapons against his enemies." After the defeat of Jarisandha, a Greco-Bactrian king, Kalayavana, whose " breast was as hard as the point of the thunderbolt," marched against Mathura. Krishna, reflecting that the Yudavas were much weakened by their long campaign against the king of Magadha, retreated westward, some six hundred miles to the sea. At the extremity of the peninsula of Guzerat, he begged from ocean twelve furlongs, and thereon constructed the city of Dwaraka. Ramparts and gardens, and tanks and buildings, made this city like Amaravati, the city of Indra. In this city he placed the inhabitants of Mathura. Kalayavana was enticed into a cavern and killed by Muchukunda ; and all his horses, and elephants, and chariots handed over to the men of Dwaraka. By the sounding sea, a shrine, called " Krishna's Shrine," is all that modern pilgrims can see of ancient Dwaraka. Mean- while Krishna runs away with the beautiful Ruckmini. A m.ore difficult task is before him to gain the earrings of Aditi, the celestial virgin, like Utanka in the former legend. There is a fine hymn to Aditi in the " Vishnu Purana," which runs partly thus : — Hymn to Aditi. Matter thou art unwelded and eternal ; And in the gloom The Lord of gods celestial, and infernal, Lay in thy womb. Then wert thou Speech ! The voice of the immortals, O Aditi, Whispers to man through the well-guarded portals — Whispers through thee ! By thee the world was fashioned from the waters, At Brahma's call ; The stars of heaven are thy shining daughters, Mother of all ! 1 According to the " Mahabharata," Krishna was driven westward by Jarasandha, KRISHNA. 377 In pursuit of his great task, Krishna calls to his aid the " eater of serpents," the bird Garuda. He mounts his back and proceeds to the city of King Naraka, which was defended by nooses with edges sharp as razors. Krishna, with the aid of his terrible discus, cuts in pieces the nooses, disperses the dark legions of the king, and slaughters that monarch. He lets loose sixteen thousand one hundred damsels, and comes back through the skies on Garuda, bringing the earrings of Aditi and the other treasures. The sixteen thousand one hundred damsels enter the hero's zenana. Krishna had a wife named Satyabhama, who desired to have the celebrated Parijata Tree (tree of life). This blooms in Paradise. Its bark is of gold. Its leaves of a rich copper colour. Its fruit is delicious. " Why," said the queen, " should not this divine tree be transported to Dwaraka ? If I am really dear to you, fetch it. You say neither Ruckmini nor Jambavati are so dear to you as I am. If this is not mere flattery, bring the tree from heaven and let me wear its flowers in the braids of my hair ! " Krishna having to return the earrings of Aditi to the universal mother, thought this would be a good opportunity to seize the Parijata Tree. He hurried to Swarga, the Indian Paradise, on the back of Garuda. He presented the earrings to their owner. He then seized the Parijata Tree and carried it off. Indra, indignant, attacked him with the heavenly legions, but Krishna triumphed. The Parijata Tree is another name for Virgo. And the episode is also brought in to exalt the Vishnu worship over the more ancient Indra worship. The abundant imagery of the Scales being exhausted, let us now see whether a character with a superfluity of arms appears upon the scene. Krishna had a grandson, Aniruddha. A girl, Usha, saw him in a dream. She became melancholy, and at last gave up her secret to a confidante. This lady being possessed of magic powers, inveigled Aniruddha to the court of the girl's father. King Bana. King Bana had for a patron deity the god with three eyes. This is Rudra or Siva. He was possessed also of a thousand 378 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. arms ; and he prayed to Rudra, saying, " Peace is not good for a monarch with a thousand arms, give me war ! " " When thy peacock banner shall break," said the god, " thou shalt have that war that delights the wicked spirits that feed on the flesh of man ! " Krishna, hearing of the captivity of his grandson, started off with his brother and Garuda, As he neared the court of King Bana, the " spirits that attend on Rudra " opposed him, but he vanquished them. Then Mighty Fever, an emanation from Rudra, having three feet and three heads, barred his path and afflicted Balarama with a burning heat, who clung to Krishna for help. Anticipating Hahnemann, the " fever emanating from Siva was quickly expelled from the person of Krishna by fever which he himself engendered." Krishna next overcame the five fires. Then Rudra in person, with the Indian Mars on his right hand, advanced to protect Bana. Kartikeya, the war-god, was born of six nymphs, the six Krittikas (the Pleiades). Rudra was defeated by Krishna, and Kartikeya by Balarama. Bana then, in his mighty car, advanced into the thick of the fight. He and Krishna shot arrow after arrow at each other, and blood flowed from both. At length, the Blue One took up the terrible discus that nothing can resist. As he was about to hurl the great chakra, a phantom appeared before him and veiled Bana from his sight. This was the naked woman, Kotavi. Undeterred by the apparition, Krishna hurled the discus and lopped off in succession all the arms of Bana. Rudra here interceded, and Bana was spared. The great value of the Purana legend is the bold way in which the inner teaching is blurted out. In the circle of twelve stones, one in spring and one in autumn represented Rudra, and these were worshipped according to the position of the Pleiades. Thus Rudra, Siva, and Kartikeya, the son of the Pleiades, figure without much disguise, and so does Bana with his thousand arms. Bana is spared, for the quaint reason that Krishna confesses that Rudra and Vishnu are one and the same person. The Indian triad is not three individualities, but three aspects of one God. Brahma creates, Vishnu pre- KRISHNA. 379 serves, Siva destroys. The year is a day of Brahma in miniature, and Brahma is the four months of spring, Vishnu the four months of summer, Siva the four months of winter. Other adventures occur to the two brothers. Paundraka assumes the insignia and style of Krishna. He is supported by the King of Benares. Krishna attacks them and sets Benares on fire with his discus. Balarama kills the Asuru Dwivida, in the form of an ape. The incidents of this portion of the legend, the five fires, the bird Garuda, the Parijata Tree, Bana or Rudra, typify the struede of the devotee with his lower nature. The serpent Sesha issues from the mouth of Rama. This is one form of the elephant issuing from the mouth of the sea-monster Makara. The ape incident is fresh proof, I think, that Cancer was once an ape. Krishna now determines to practise yoga, or the initiation of the mystic. He sat under a tree meditating on the Supreme God. There is an attitude known to the higher initiates, the left leg is laid across the right thigh, and the sole of the foot is turned outwards. Buddha constantly figures thus in the sculptures. It is called, I think, the swastika attitude. Krishna was seated thus when a huntsman, Jara, mistook his foot for a deer, and fired an arrow at it tipped with iron from the celebrated club kaumaudaki. At this particular instant Krishna had solved the riddle of the uni- verse, and merged his spirit into that of the universal Brahma. When Buddhism was expelled from India in the seventh century A.D. the modern religion of Vishnu, a form of Buddhism, stepped into its place, and as India was then vegetarian and water-drinking, accommodated itself to cir- cumstances. But if the present religion of Vishnu is modern, I think the actual story of Krishna very ancient. Krishna is a fighting herdsman. His virtues and his vices belong to a rude society. He treats woman as a spoil of war. He is brave, but cunning and cruel. The question of geo- graphy is also important. Rama's chief adventures are about Oude and the valley of the Ganges. Krishna, on the other hand, is born not far from the famous land of 38o BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the seven rivers of the earlier Aryas. Indeed, his tribe is pushed westwards by the incursions of fresh hordes from Bactria. All the local colour of the legend is in keeping. We see nomad herdsmen sleeping under their bullock carts, and under the pressure of prolific neighbours wresting fresh pastures from the earlier races. Both legends were probably sung in short ballads by the people long before they were elaborated. And the legend of Krishna has one immense advantage over that of Rama, his death is described. His body is left on a tree to be devoured by carrion, an Aryan custom of the date of Zarathustra's secession. His relics are prized, and traditions of a Kshetra being built over them are preserved. We hear nothing of Rama's dead body. This is suspicious. The body of a genuine historical hero or saint was more prized after death than in life. The story of Krishna is made very modern by writers who subordinate philology to theology. Thus a writer. Dr. Lorinser, has written an elaborate work to maintain that the idea of Krishna is plagiarized from Christianity. In parallel columns he shows the identity of much of the teachings of the " Bhagavad Gita " with that of the New Testament, and notably of the Fourth Gospel. I have only room for a few of these citations. They who honour me are in me and I in them. I am the origin of all. From me everything proceeds. I am the beginning, middle, and end of all things. Among letters I am A. From all sins will I free them. Be not sorrowful. No one knows me. Dwelling in the heart of every man. They who eat of the immortal food of the sacrifice pass into the eternal Brahma. Dwelleth in Me, and I in him (John vi. 56). For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things (Rom. xi. 36). I am the first and the last (Rev. i. 17). I am Alpha and Omega (Rev. i. 8). Be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee (Matt. ix. 2). No man hath seen God at any time (John i. 18). Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts (i Pet. iii. 15). I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever (John vi. 51). KRISHNA. 381 Dead in me. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Col. iii. 2). As opposed to this, an intelligent native convert, the Rev. K. M. Banerjea, chaplain to the Bishop of Calcutta, has shown how unwise it is to tell the natives of India that their creeds are all borrowed from Christianity. He shows that the ideas of the Incarnation, of Christ as the Creator of heaven and earth, and of Christ offered up as a sacrifice for the whole world, are familiar to all Hindoos in books admitted now to be long anterior to the Bible.^ Let us listen to the " Rig Veda." " Hiranyagarbha arose in the beginning. Born he was the one Lord of all things existing. He established the earth and the sky. To what god shall we offer our oblation } " He who gives breath, who gives strength, whose commands all, even the gods, reverence, whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death. To what God shall we offer our oblation .''... "Prajapati, no other than thou is lord over all these created thinsfs. To what God shall we offer our oblation .? " ^ Mr, Banerjea shows that Prajapati or Purusha, is the divine Man, like Christ ; that he is the Lord of a kalpa or dispensation — the maker of heaven and earth. Dr. Muir, too, has shown that many of the phrases which Dr. Lorinser imagines to have been taken from the Fourth Gospel, are in the " Rig Veda." " O Indra, we sages have been in thee." " This worshipper, O Agni, hath been in thee ! O son of strength."^ In point of fact, a triad like that of Philo and the Thera- peuts has existed in India from the earliest days. " The deities invoked," says Colebrooke in his " Essay on the Vedas," " appear on a cursory inspection of the Veda to to be as various as the authors of the prayers addressed to them ; but, according to the most ancient annotations of the 1 " The Relation between Christianity and Hinduism," p. 2. 2 " Rig Veda," x. 121. i. ^ " Metrical Translations," p. 14. 382 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. Indian scripture, those numerous names of persons and things are all resolvable into different titles of three deities, and ultimately of one God." ^ The triune nature of the Vedic divinity is accentuated all through the hymns with every conceivable play of fancy. Knowledge of God is called " triple knowledge ; " his revela- tion the " triple Veda," the " triple speech." " May the soft wind waft to us a pleasant healing ! May mother earth and father heaven convey it to us ! . . . We invoke that lord of living beings," etc.^ This lord of living beings is Purusha, the god-man, born of the inactive god and Aditi or Sophia, This birth was typified in every rite. The fire-churn was in the form of the swastika, the fish of the zodiac, and from it Ajini was born, as Krishna from the black and white hairs, at every sacrifice. He was also the Sisur Jatah produced by the offerings of rice and milk. I will give what the Scotch call a paraphrase of a fine hymn to Vishnu, in the "Vishnu Purana," which seems to set forth Indian theosophy very clearly. " Ruler of gods and kings, Thou dost enfold the spaces near and far ; System and shining orb and peopled star With thy Garuda wings. " For their fantastic creeds Men fashion gods with legs and arms of stone ; No legs nor arms hast thou of gods alone, Though near all needs. " Eyes hast thou not, nor ears ; Yet hearest thou all sounds that shake the air. The whispered villainy, the baby's prayer, Man's uttered wants and fears. " Seekers of heavenly light, Two secrets know — the Higher Wisdom this — The Lower Wisdom probes the blank abyss Of earthly appetite. 1 " Essays," vol. i. p. 25. 2 « Rjg Veda," i. 89. 4. KRISHNA. 383 " It learns how kings are crowned ; How Brahmins chant, and what will fatten kine ; Seeks gold in streams, and jewels in the mine ; Makes wealth abound. " To the dim Far away The Higher Wisdom turns with hungered eye ; It scans the stars uncounted in the sky, It bursts its bonds of clay. " It probes the heart of man ; He forms the potent longing in his brain, Desire deceives, and every hope is vain ; His life one baffled plan. " He looks within to find Ideas of life distinct from mortal scheming, Fancies and wants transcending mortal dreaming. He sees thy mind. " Both of these lores art thou ! We image thee a man with human breast, Gored with the shaft of hate and love's unrest, A man with fevered brow ! " As God we view thee too, All wise, all good ! with thy three mystic paces, The welkin's unimaginable spaces Were overlapped, Vishnu ! " Thou art the formless Brahm, The God that dwells in the awakened heart, The state our mystic dreamers know in part. Pure, passionless, and calm. " Earth's wailings sound afar. Crime rules, and Cruelty is throned on high ; Among the seven rishis in the sky, Glitters the mystic star. '' It heralds thy new birth. Thy glorious avatara come again ! To bring fresh comfort to the sons of men, Thy holy feet touch earth." 384 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. CHAPTER XXVII. The Legend of the Five Sons of Pandu. Dr. J. von Hahn, in analyzing the Aryan myth, sets forth amongst its characteristics the incident that the hero must found a city.^ In the epic of the Five Sons of Pandu this is a prominent event. The country round modern Delhi is sad to the thoughtful. The step of the traveller is over crumbling civilizations and the overturned spires of dead nationalities. Here is a column on which Asoka, the Buddhist, preached peace and toleration. There is a ruined fane where crowds of unarmed Hindus fell before the scimitar of the bloody Nadir Shah. Around for miles and miles are the ruins, pile upon pile, of many cities. In ancient days the enervated Indians of the plain always fell a prey to the hardier races that emerged from the direction of Central Asia, through the passes of Afghanistan. Elephants in thousands, and unwieldy crowds of horsemen and spear- men were hurried northward to oppose. But with Baber, Alexander, or Nadir Shah, the result was always the same. The onslaught of the hardier races resulted in a vast rout. Here Lake won India, and Archdale Wilson reconquered it. But the legend of the Five Sons of Pandu narrates a still more fierce struggle. On this field the Aryas gained a great victory over the Daisyas or black races, and then founded Indraprastha (ancient Delhi). The Aryas came from fabled Mcru, with its seven famous streams. Sir H. Rawlinson believes these to be the seven head streams of the Oxus. Other writers point to "the great ^ " Sagvvissenschaftliche Studien." Jena, 1876. THE MAHABHARATA, 385 plateau, walled to the north by the Altai and to the south by the Himalaya, from which the great rivers flow northward, eastward, and southward, through Siberia, China, and India, to the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans."^ It is asserted that the four great races of men, the Arya, the Semite, the Turanian, the Cushite, all came from this central table-land, as evidenced by their common legends. " Not far from the foot of the colossal Dhawalagiri, and Nanda-devi, and near the little town of Gartokh, lies the group of lakes called Ravana-Rhada, or Manasarowar. From these, or within a radius of thirty miles from the central one of the group, the four greatest rivers of India take their rise ; the Indus flowing to the north, the Ganges and its chief branch the Gogra to the south, the Brahmaputra to the east, and the Sutlej to the west. The Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Sutlej rise in the lakes." ^ Mr. Stanley holds, with many other writers, that Cashmir and Tibet were the paradise of Moses, Manu, and Zarathustra ; and that the serpents who drove them forth were the foaming torrents of a great debacle. This region fits in with Zarathustra's description of the " delicious region," and that suggested by Sir H. Rawlinson does not. " Ahura Mazda said to the holy Zarathustra, ' I made most holy Zarathrustra into a delicious spot, what was previously quite uninhabitable. ... As the first and best regions and countries, I, who am Ahura Mazda, created Aryanam Vaejo of good capability. Thereupon, in opposition to it, Angro Mainyus, the death-dealing, created a mighty serpent and snow, the work of the devas. " Ten months of winter are there, two months of summer. Seven months of summer are there, five months of winter. The latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees. There is midwinter, the heart of winter." This seems to mean, as Mr. Stanley plausibly suggests, that the region of the Aryas (Aryanam Vaejo) was at first temperate, and then a great change of climate set in. Snows 1 Stanley, " Future Religion of the World," p. 88. ^ Ibid., p. 100. 2 C 386 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. that gave only two months summer instead of seven ; a " flood " or inundation, typified in myths by the serpent. This flooding of the valley was the cause of the migration from this paradise, and is, perhaps, the deluge story common to the various legends of its inhabitants. The Aryas, when they came to India, had five gods, and a friend of mine who has studied India is convinced that the Rishi Pandu is in corrupted form Pan Deo (five gods). Pandu himself had nothing to do with the parentage of his five celebrated sons. Having accidentally killed a rishi, who had assumed the form of a deer, he had become an ascetic celibate. He had two wives, Kunti and Madri. Kunti, with an incantation given to her by an ancient rishi or adept, brought down three gods from the skies, one after another ; Dharma, who was the father of Yudhishthira ; Vayu, the wind, who begat Bhima, the Indian Hercules ; the great Indra himself, who was the father of Arjuna. The other wife sum- moned the Aswins, or celestial twins, and they performed the impossible physiological feat of a double paternity. The wives are plainly the black and white mother in the ecliptic, and the five gods the four seasons, the four points of heaven, one of which is Gemini. They are the five heavenly Buddhas, the five creative ^Eons of the Gnostics. As the Pleiades regulated early agriculture, perhaps they suggested the number five. Shortly after the birth of his illustrious sons, Pandu dies, and the widows draw lots which shall commit widow immola- tion in his honour. Madri mounts the pyre. It has been remarked by M. Senart that the mother of the demi-god, the Buddha, the Krishna, always dies in seven days. My ex- planation is that the year opens with the celebration of the festival of the Black Durga, and when the sun enters Aries, seven days later, she is drowned or consumed. The five sons of Pandu are brought up in the palace of their uncle Dhritarashtra, King of Hastinapura. The throne belonged by right to Yudhishthira, the elder boy. A brood of a hundred first cousins, hatched of an c^g like a scorpion, were the playfellows of the young princes. These cousins THE MAHABHARATA. 387 hated their playmates, and from their earhest years tried to poison them and otherwise get rid of them. Duryodhana was the name of the leading spirit amongst these hopeful infants. It was remarked at his birth that he at once gave forth dis- cordant sounds like the braying of many asses. The vultures of the air and the foul jackals echoed these noises of ill-omen, and a terrible tempest began to roar. The sky was on fire. Duryodhana is plainly Rudra in the sign of Scorpio. This is confirmed by the fact that he had one hundred brothers, all born at a birth. Rudra, as we have shown, has a hundred arms. Then certain soothsayers came to King Dhritarashtra and said to him : " The portents, O king, are terrible. Your nephew, Yudhishthira, is heir to the crown. This son of yours, born amidst the roaring of wild beasts, presages great calami- ties to your offspring. The wise have said, ' Sacrifice one man for the safety of a family. Sacrifice a family for the benefit of a village. Sacrifice a village for a nation. Sacrifice the whole world to save one's soul.' Make away with your son to save his brothers. If he lives, they will be destroyed." This allusion to human sacrifices shows the great antiquity of the legend. At the date of the " Yagur Veda " the form of tying the human victims to posts was alone gone through. No actual immolation took place. Dr. J. von Hahn sets down that another token of the liero of Aryan legend is that he must be driven forth from his home at an early age, owing to tokens and warnings of his future greatness. In the case of the five sons of Pandu this quickly came about. Arjuna learnt the use of the bow, and Bhima that of the club. They became so expert, that the soothsayers were alarmed, and this time recommended the king to make away with them. Alarmed, he consents to an infamous plan set on foot by Duryodhana to burn the five sons of Pandu. But Vidura, the uncle of the youths, was an adept in occult wisdom. By means of his arts he became acquainted with the peril that menaced them. He packed off silently the mother and her five sons in a large boat on the Ganges. Although this occurred, as some have said, before 388 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the siege of Troy, the large boats of the Ganges are as archaic now as then. In their boat, the fugitives, aided by the current, dropped down to Varanavata, the modern Allahabad. But the malice of a youn,g man like Duryodhana can go faster than a boat drifting with the stream. He despatched an agent, named Purochana, to Varanavata. This man was entrusted with the details of an infamous plot. He summoned workmen to erect a palace of great magnificence, to be called the House of Delight. This palace had four great halls. It was erected at some little distance from the town. Hemp, and resin, and shellac were plentifully used in its construc- tion. The shellac was mixed with oil and grease and other inflammable materials. The palace, which it is announced was erected very rapidly, was probably of the pattern of the veneered wooden structures of Chinese architecture. All things likely to inflame quickly were left carelessly lying about. " Of a truth," said an observer, " this is not the House of Delight, but the House of Calamity." The fugitives were dwelling in another building. They were invited by Purochana to occupy the House of Delight. The inhabitants of Allahabad had been very civil to them, especially the better-to-do folks. The Aryas of those days drew a line between " carriage company " (rathinam) and company that had no carriages. The Aryas of Cheltenham and Torquay are credited with formulating similar distinc- tions. The subtle Purochana did his best to lull the victims into a false sense of security whilst he waited for a propitious day for his crime. Exquisite food and delicious drinks, soft couches and royal thrones were provided ; silver vases, gold dishes, and sumptuous furniture. But Vidura afar, by means of his occult arts, detected the great danger that threatened his nephews. He sent an emissary to give them warning. "I am a miner," said a stranger one day. "I come from Vidura. On the fifteenth day of the dark half of this month, Purochana will try to burn you all alive." It was arranged THE MAHABHARATA. 389 that this expert miner should secretly prepare a subterranean passage for the escape of Kunti and her five sons. When this was finished, one night, a Nishadi woman, one of the wild tribes of the Vindhya mountains, "vexed by Famine and pushed on by Death," as the poem tersely puts it, arrived at the House of Delight with her five barbarian sons. They were feasted, and became very intoxicated. It seemed to the five sons of Pandu that the moment of escape had come. At once Bhimasena the Hercules applied a torch to the room where the treacherous Purochana was sleeping, and promptly disposed of him. He also set a light to the four doorways of the House of Shellac. In a short time the whole building was a vast conflagration. The citizens of Varanavata arrived in great terror. Afar the tempest muttered hoarsely. Kunti and her five sons hurried rapidly through the sub- terranean passage. They escaped unseen in the darkness of night to a forest. The mother grew weary, but her strong son Bhimasena carried her in his arms like an infant. The poor drunken Nishadi woman and her five sons were con- sumed. Their corpses were found, and the inhabitants of Varanavata wept for the death of the five sons of Pandu. By- and-by the fugitives grew thoroughly exhausted, and they slept on cold mother earth. Bhimasena alone kept awake to watch over them. The sight of his queenly mother sleeping like a beggar under a tree vexed this stout-hearted youth. "The poem of the ' Mahabharata,'" says the missionary Ward, is deemed so holy, " that it purifies the place in which it is read." ^ He adds that a Brahmin may not enter a village where a copy of it is not to be found. On the other hand, our Sanskrit professors are constantly pointing out to us that this celebrated poem, far from being very holy, is often very much the reverse. Thus Professor Monier Williams has some virtuous indignation at the five sons of Pandu for their treacherous conduct in leaving the poor Nishadi woman and her sons to burn.^ Plainly, he ^ " The Hindoos," vol. iii. p. 279. 2 " Indian Epic Poetry," p. 54. 390 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. would never send for a copy of the volume if he wished to deodorize his native village morally. How is it that these Pundits differ so radically ? Simply because the literal English mind cannot get beyond the letter of the scripture, and the Hindus declare that the letter is only for the vulgar. In the Mundaka Upanishad of the "Atharva Veda," Sau- naka, a wealthy householder, questioned the Rishi Angiras,who told him that there were two sorts of knowledge. There were the four Vedas, the "Rig Veda," the "YagurVeda," the "Sama Veda," and the "Atharva Veda ; " these were the scriptures of the "inferior knowledge." But the "superior knowledge" is not to be gained in books. It evaded " rites and rules of grammar." It was the interior knowledge of the Omniscient.^ The object of scriptures was to conceal as well as to inculcate the highest truths. It was judged that most men could not receive them. Can we get at the secret meaning of this episode ? On the surface, the story of the " House of Shellac " is mystical. The apparatus of villainy and the expedients to foil it are suspiciously elaborate. Why build a sumptuous palace, if you want to murder half a dozen unbefriended fugitives .'' Why construct toilsome subterranean galleries, if you want to run away from an assassin .'' But if, as I have suggested, Kunti and her sons mean the new year and the four seasons, then Nishadi and her sons mean the old year and the four seasons. It was necessary to destroy these by fire, as it is the appearance of Agni as Aries that puts an end to them. It was necessary that Kunti should escape through a cavern, the symbol of earth-life. The fugitives escape to a forest and slaughter a mighty demon, who falls headlong " like an ox." They then attend a great festival, where the beautiful princess Draupadi appears as a matchless prize if any competitor can bend a mighty bow. Duryodhana and the wicked cousins try and fail. Arjuna comes forward and succeeds. Draupadi became the common wife of the five sons of Pandu. In reality, the five sons were one man. When the Kuru faction returned to Hastinapura, they * Colebrooke, " Essays," vol. 1. p. 94. THE MAHABHARATA. 39 1 talked over the striking events of the Swayamvara and came to the conclusion that the successful strangers, for they were in disguise, could be no other than Bhima and Arjuna escaped from the old snares. Many schemes were proposed in the crisis. Duryodhana was in favour of assassination, Kama proposed manly and open warfare, Vidura and the holy men suggested compromise. This last proposal was adopted, and half the kingdom was given to the five sons of Pandu. In the terrible jungle of Khandava Prastha they were now to found the city of Indraprastha, or Delhi. The table-land by Indra's heavenly mount. This is the literal meaning of Indraprastha. Indraprastha is heaven, and Kuru Kshetra, the real head-quarters of the Kurus, is called hell in one or two of the legends, without any disguise. The sun each year builds up a celestial kingdom, the kingdom of summer. The account of Indraprastha states that " it was adorned like paradise." After preliminary sacrifices a propitious spot had been measured out. Soon upsprang mighty ramparts and towers like the gorged clouds of autumn. White palaces pierced the skies like the pinnacles of Meru. The great gates were like the bird Garuda with its wings outspread. The ditches in front of the ramparts were like the ocean. The streets were broad. In many gardens the asoka and the feathery pippala, the branching palm and the bamboo, the sweet pink laurel and the bignonia were heavy with bright and musical birds. Upon the broad surfaces of the lakes, which were fringed with the blue lotos, swam red geese and white swans. Cunning pictures were in the halls of the palaces. Indraprastha sparkled like a city in the clouds, like the heaven of Indra. The city of the poet's dream, the Atlantis, the Indra- prastha, is generally the exact opposite of the city wherein he dwells. Applying this test to the " Mahabharata," we might get a great deal of insight into the actual India of the period. In Indraprastha, every poor man had a settled occupation, for all enemies were exterminated, and truth was maintained. Agriculture flourished. Indra sent rain exactly as it was 392 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. called for, and the reason is a curious one. The rich nobles gave plenty of gifts to the Brahmins. Commerce flourished also, thanks to the supervision of the king ; and no favourite could obtain an unjust decree. Drought was unknown, and inundations, pestilence, and fever, for the department of priestly meteorology was well worked. A poet who sees everywhere around him suborned justice, and violence, and spoliation ; and who is liable at any moment to be himself offered up to Rudra as a caj^tive of war might well indulge in such happy dreams. Seated on thrones, the founders of Indraprastha dispensed patriarchal justice to all who sought it. They also enlarged their domains by successful war. One day, a Brahmin had his cows stolen from him. He appealed to Arjuna, but the arms of the community were in the king's house, and it was the turn of the king to possess the beautiful Draupadi for a week. It had been arranged that any son of Pandu who disturbed his brother under these circumstances should be banished to the forest for twelve years. Arjuna, balanced between duty and exile, chose the path of duty. He righted the wrongs of the poor Brahmin, and then went into voluntary exile in the forest, like Rama. When there, he puts out a burning wood, and rescues an Undine in a lake — the fire and water ordeals of the mysteries. Then, assisted by Krishna, the five sons of Pandu capture Magadha after a severe fight. As Krishna, acting as charioteer, drives Arjuna along, the bird Garuda comes down and perches on his banner. An episode of the " Mahabharata" illustrates the crisis of the story. It is recorded that Nala, King of Nishada, fell in love with the beautiful Damayanti, and won her at a Swayamvara held by her father the King of Berar. Sani, a baffled suitor and a malevolent being, cozens Nala out of his kingdom at a game of dice. The lovers, stripped of their possessions, repair to a forest ; and the king, finding the life too hard for his delicate wife, leaves her sleeping under a tree, hoping that that will induce her to return to her father's house. Lament- ing, she seeks her husband over many a weary mile, and eventually becomes maid of honour to a certain queen. Nala THE MAHABHARATA. 393 repairs to the same court, but he has become so black that no one can recognize him. He engages himself as a cook. Eventually Damayanti recognizes her husband, and the pair recover their kingdom. Here we have the backbone of the " Mahabharata ; " for the heroes also disguise themselves as menials. A king becomes a slave at the constellation of Libra. Whether this probably very old legend was the original form of the Mahabharata legend would be a curious inquiry. This gives in epitome the story of the five sons of Pandu. They are invited to a great feast by the treacherous Kurus who have hatched another plot. This is to inveigle Arjuna into a gambling bout with a noted cheat. He stakes his gold, his jewels, his dominions. He stakes his people, his brothers, his wife. He loses at every bout. The feast of course is the feast of Durga, who is also worshipped as Lakshmi (whence our word "luck") at this season, and all the natives still gamble immensely at the game of Pasha. The gambling is really the mysterious destiny that mortals see around them, which gives us health, life, joy, friends, loved ones, and then destroys our air-built castles. When the five sons of Pandu have become the chattels of the sons of Kuru, their clothes are torn off their backs. It is proposed to subject the beautiful Draupadi to the same in- dignity. Isis must be unveiled. Duhsasana drags her into the midst of the assembly by the hair of her head. This rouses the terrible Bhima, and the spoils won by cheating seem likely to be lost again through his great rage. Eventually matters are compromised. The kingdom was given up to Duryodhana for twelve years. The five sons of Pandu agreed to pass twelve years as ascetics in a forest. They were then to get back the kingdom. Accompanied by poor Draupadi they set out for the Kamyaka jungle on the banks of the Saraswati. This river was as holy to the early Aryas as the Ganges afterwards became to their descendants. Under instructions from the Brahmin Dhaumya Yudhishthira practises yoga under a tree. That of course was the meaning of the gambling and of the brothers becoming slaves. They had entered the 394 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. mystic portal of the interior life. They sat under the tree where broods Garuda, the fire-dove. There is a fine hymn to this bird in the epic. " Of lofty race art thou, The first of winged things that cleave the sky; 'J'hou art the king of birds ! Thou art a god in heaven ! Agni thy name, and Wind, And Brahm the lotus-born ; Thou art the Holy Book, Thou art the Priceless Food That touching mortal lips brings deathless being. Aloft upon thy shining wings outspread Thou bear'st the splendours of the universe. Thou art the sisters twain, That weave the double woof. Rapture and pang, bright deeds and infamy. Forth through the gleaming orbs that round us sail. Forth through the spirit spheres, Impalpable to grosser mortal ken, Thy fame is gloried near and far In all the mansions of the infinite. The Hfe that came and went. The life that is to be, O mystic bird art thou ! Thy name is Death. Thou art the forky flame of smoke, That with black wings that blot the sun. Amid amazement and great quiverings "Will scorch the systems and burn out the life, In the great day of Brahm. Prostrate before thy feet. We beg protection from the King of Birds, Whose sheen makes dim the flashes of the storm, Whose wings outroar the thunder. Thy flaming body fills us with affright, We dread its hugeness. Temper thy blinding rage. Temper thy swelling form. Prostrate we breathe our prayer, Be good to us, sweet god. And wing us peace." I have said that the brothers and Draupadi eventually travesty themselves as servants. This is said to be done for fear of Duryodhana and his malice. I suspect they were THE mahabhArata. 395 real slaves in the original story. The transformation gives rise to some clever comedy. They repair to the court of King Virata at Matsya. Yudhishthira is master of the ceremonies and head-dicer to the king. Bhima is cook. Nakula is groom. Sahadeva is herdsman. Arjuna puts on a woman's dress, and conceals the scars of the twanging bow Gandiva with many bracelets and trinkets. He is a eunuch in the women's apartments. The magic arms are stowed away in a hollow tree in a cemetery. On this a corpse is swinging. This method of disposal of the dead seems to give the poem great antiquity. At the time of the secession of Zarathustra, corpses were thus left to be devoured by vultures and dogs. For two thousand years at least the " Mahabharata " has been sung daily in all the Indian villages. For two thousand years at least its incidents have been worked up into miracle plays and acted at every great mystery and festival of the people. The comedy of the disguised heroes has had its share of popularity no doubt. It shows considerable know- ledge of comedy intrigue. The heroes in their forest are afraid of the malice of Duryodhana. They don their dis- guises as described. Draupadi goes to the palace as servant to the queen. The favourite wife of King Virata is called Sudeshna, and she has a brother a mighty warrior, who is the commander of all King Virata's forces. This brother is named Kichaka. Brother and sister are soon consumed with passion. One is madly jealous of the beauty of Draupadi and fears her rivalry with King Virata. The other is madly in love with her. An infamous alliance is the con- sequence of these powerful incentives. Sudeshna plots with Kichaka to effect the ruin of Draupadi, The bold commander-in-chief is not long in declaring his passion — " Thine eyes are very large, O woman of amazing beauty. Thine eyebrows are like the petals of the lotus. Thy face beams on mine eyes like the soft light of the moon. " Art thou Lakshmi in person, or Modesty, or Fame, or Beauty, or Auspicious Fortune ? 396 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. " Hast thou robbed Love of his hmbs ? " The pupils of thy smiHng eyes are veiled by their lashes as the moon by a fleecy cloud." The honest warrior then proceeds to catalogue her beauties with an old-world literalness which shocks modern mission- aries when they hear these songs droned out in the hush of a summer evening, accompanied by the rude music of an Indian bazaar ; but the general tone of the narrative is lofty, and the ethics unswerving. Kichaka offers to make all his wives her slaves, and give all his wealth to the beautiful stranger. Draupadi frames her answers with strong and evident desire to avoid extremes. "My caste is abject. I am a servant. I dress the hair of my mistress. " I am the wife of another. The wives of mortals are sacred. Remember thy duty. Five beings, superhuman, strong, terrible, watch over me. Thy craze to hold me in thine arms is like the delirium of the sick man in the presence of the tomb. The sinful mind that feeds on desire tastes infamy, perhaps death." The bold warrior is not to be frightened. The plot develops rapidly, and so do the schemes of the impassioned brother and sister. She orders poor Draupadi to go to the house of Kichaka alone in the middle of the night. He possesses a delicious beverage. It is to be found in no other house ; and the queen is thirsty. Poor Draupadi remonstrates : " I cannot go to his house, O queen. He is immodest, with- out fear, without honour. Love puffs him out with an insensate pride." The queen haughtily presents a golden vase to Draupadi, and orders her to go. She is called a voluntary servant in parts of the narrative ; but it is plain, from some of the warm Sapphics of the general, that she was completely naked and in fact a slave. But plot can be met with counterplot. Kichaka has the subtle Sudeshna as an ally. Draupadi confides her woe to Bhima. The catastrophe is tremendous. Kichaka, seeing a veiled female alone in a solitary bedroom, seizes her in his THE MAHABHARATA. 397 strong arms, and gets a return embrace which rather astonishes him. He is enlaced in the terrific hug of the Indian Hercules, and his life is literally squeezed out of him. This denouement acted before a rude audience in an Indian bazaar would be very effective. It may have been witnessed by Alexander the Great and Arthur, Duke of Wellington. According to some writers, chronology is no bar to Achilles having seen it. The travesty of the five brothers may have been seen by Buddha, Pythagoras, and Albert, Prince of Wales. Who can tell when this felicitous comedy was put on the stage and when it will be taken off? Our drama develops. The bold soldier Kichaka had one hundred brothers, which proves him to have been of the same mystic insect tribe as Scorpio. To avenge his death, they seize on Draupadi, and carry her off with his much mangled body to the graveyard. If she would not be his mistress on earth, she must go to his zenana in heaven. Her cries, as they are proceeding to burn her, attract the bold Bhima. He tears up a tree in the grave-yard, and makes sad havoc amongst the children of Rudra. Other complications soon occur. The brave Kichaka awed the neighbouring nations, and his death was the signal for much cattle-lifting and many raids. Duryo- dhana and the sons of Kuru took part in one of these expedi- tions. In another, Virata was seized. Uttara, his son, to rescue him, hurried away with an army. Arjuna was his charioteer. The boy's heart failed him, and he jumped out and ran away. Arjuna forced him back, and recovering for the nonce the terrible bow Gandiva, the hero returned to the fight, the boy this time acting as the charioteer. The unrivalled archer soon dispersed his foes. And to keep up his disguise, he fathered all this prowess on the young boy. The donkey in the lion's skin is as old as the day of Arjuna, as old as the world. Virata, once more at liberty, holds a council of war. At it he is astonished to see his head dancing-master and dicer, his head eunuch, his cook, his cowherd, etc. Krishna is there likewise, for Duryodhana refuses to give back the kingdom now that the stipulated thirteen years are expired. Krishna 398 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. counsels peace, but though he is looked upon by both sides as God Almighty on earth, no one pays any attention to him. The reason of this is plain. At the time he was clumsily added to the story, every man, woman and child in the humblest bazaar knew every detail of the great battle of Kuru Kshetra. He could not be made to take a prominent part in it, for the prowess of Bhima and Arjuna had been sung by countless wandering bards. A very lame explanation is o-iven that he could not take an active part in the contest because the Kurus were his cousins as well as the five sons of Pandu. When all hope of peace has departed, he consents to act as charioteer to Arjuna. A scene of the Homeric pattern takes place at Hastinapura when the ambassador of the five sons of Pandu arrives. Karna, the Achilles of the army of the sons of Kuru, makes a speech breathing defiance. Dhritarashtra, the blind king, and Bhishma counsel caution. Negotiations continue for some time but without result. Excepting when drilled by English or French drill- sereeants, the barbaric hordes of India have always fought in one way. A Bahador or doughty hero comes to the front and inspires his followers and confounds his foes by a flood of what he calls gali (heroic Billingsgate). He compares the first to mighty elephants in the rutting season and Bengal tigers. He compares his foes to pigs, to owls, and throws serious doubts on the question of their birth in lawful wedlock. It has been the fate of the present writer to witness an engage- ment where this ancient Indian method of warfare was adopted. The bow Gancliva twanged, and arrows fell thickly amongst our sepoys. The drum of Rudra kept up a weird continuous dull reverberation. Men as naked and almost as well limbed as Bhima and the Raksha when they wrestled (and the fate of Hidamba was in the balance) flashed rude battle-axes and swords aloft and shouted. These poor black men still worshipped the serpent. They sacrificed a kid under the holy Sal tree as our party came up, and we found the little victim still warm. They were simple herdsmen and clearers of jungle like the historical and early sons of Pandu. They THE MAHABHARATA. 399 slaughtered deer with their arrows. They were brave and truthful. Even before a court-martial they never attempted to conceal any acts of rebellion and breaches of the law. We came upon them in luxuriant bush amidst woody hillocks. The sun was setting, and I can see before me still the rude chief brandishing his sword and uttering his defiance to the bullets that were whistling near him. Mismanagement had driven these men (they were called Santals) into revolt. Their lair consisted of a few rude huts roofed with dried boughs. I think this experience is of use to me in enabling me to understand the great battle of Kuru Kshetra. Axes and swords flashed ; the drum of Rudra rolled incessantly. It is called a " thunder " in more than one passage. We here get the root idea of that popular military instrument. Conch shells sounded. Even the five heroic sons of Pandu con- descended to intimidate their foes with loud blasts of that archaic music. From the paramount importance given to archery in all the Indian epics, I think the chief tactics on these occasions consisted in first trying to weaken portions of the enemy's line with a skilful use of the bow. We hear of terrible charges of " thousands " of elephants, and tens of thousands of war chariots ; but, if any such organized and com- bined attack had been made, the battle would have been ended in half an hour. The commander-in-chief of the Kuru army, Bhishma, was a wonderful bowman. Sweta, the rival commander-in-chief, was almost his equal. When com- manders-in-chief are selected for their skill in archery, we may be sure that much of the battle will take place with the two forces not nearer than convenient bow-shot distance. And this seems to have been what really occurred. " Heroes sounded hundreds of drums and sent up noble shouts of war." ^ " Torrents " of arrows passed between the armies ; and the click of the bow-string against the hand- leather dominated the bells of the elephants and the neighing of the horses. The rival commanders had to show them- selves in the front of the battle, and the early descriptions are devoted chiefly to them. ^ "Bhishma Parva," 1631. 400 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. "They described various circles, sweeping forward and back, so great was the skill of their coachmen. Each watched his opportunity for an attack." They sounded their conchs to outroar the din of battle. They emptied their quivers with terrible effect. If an archaic Jomini had had to draw up the three great maxims of ancient battle, they must have been the following : — 1. Try with your arrows to make the rival commander-in- chief as much like 3. poulet pique au lard 2iS is practicable. 2. Try and kill the horse of his chariot. 3. Try and knock over his banner. Of these maxims the last was evidently considered the most important. Archers were trained by Brahmins, and charms and incantations were deemed more potent than eye and muscle. From the pains taken to strike down a hero's banner it is plain that it was held to possess some weird influence. It was important to slay the horse, because when the warrior alighted he ran a great danger of being ridden over and trampled to death. The feat of transfixing his body with many arrows seemed to be held in less esteem. The commanders-in-chief, Bhishma and Sweta. in their great personal encounter, are stated to have been both stuck all over with shafts, without apparently arresting their ardour. And Dhrishtadyumna put " ninety sharp arrows " into Drona.^ Sweta lost his car and was killed eventually by Bhishma. The shafts of that terrible archer created something like a panic in the army of the sons of Pandu. Although much in his narrative is mystic, the poet gives us a real picture of an Indian battle in those ancient times. We have the flights of arrows, the single combats with dart and sabre, with breast-plate and shield. Duryodhana and Kama are conspicuous for their prowess in one part of the field. Arjuna and Bhima are terrible in another. The fight lasts several days, and soon the spectacle of the theatre of carnage is frightful to contemplate. " The field of battle was covered with tall chiefs, sons of ^ " Bhishma Parva," 2200. THE MAHABHARATA. 4OI kings dying or dead, wearing their earrings and armlets. There were chariots with broken wheels, and crushed elephants. Foot soldiers fled pell-mell amongst the horse- men. Fisfhtincf men in chariots fell in all directions. Over- turned cars and torn flags, wheels and shafts, encumbered the ground. " Bathed in the red blood of many horses and elephants and brave men, the battle-field shone out like a cloud of autumn. "Dogs and crows, vultures and jackals, snarled and snapped and pecked over this rich prey. Quadrupeds and birds of the air became fierce foes. " The winds moaned with the voice of the Rakshasas, the murky legions of hell." ^ But Bhishma is still the great hero, and many kings visit the world of Yama. The ten points of heaven are darkened with his shafts. " He stood bow in hand between the two armies, and no king could fix his eye upon him. None can stare at the blinding sun in the noontide of his career." At length, on the tenth day of the fight, Arjuna drew near, with his ape banner fluttering in the breeze. The bow Gandiva was pitted against the powerful bow of Bhishma. Other heroes came up to assist the brave son of Pandu. Shafts in thousands flew at the heroic Bhishma ; his breast- plate was beaten to pieces, and his body torn with darts and javelins and golden arrows, with clubs, with the weapon called " scorpion " (Sathagni), with the mysterious Bhusundi, which many scholars conceive to have been a pre-historic piece of artillery. At last his banner is lying in the bloody mud, the vexed hero is brought to the ground, and the fierce battle is hushed with the crash of his fall. Heroes of both armies crowd round him, and the bright forms of Vyasa and other heavenly messengers are patent to his dying eyes. They tell him that the portals of Swarga, the shining refuge of the brave man who falls in battle, are already swinging wide open to receive him. ^ " Bhishma Parva," vv. 5504-10. 2 D 402 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. The account of his death is very pathetic. His body is so transfixed with shafts that they actually prop him up on the bloody battle-field. He calls this heroic couch, a bed of arrows. Also he goes so far as to demand a grim boon from Arjuna, three new arrows to act as a pillow and prop up his head. Leeches draw near, and cunning arrow-extractors, but he beckons them away. " The shafts of Arjuna are the messengers of Yama," he says. " They pierce through strong breast-plates, and like serpents full of venom they eat into my flesh. They are not like the puny missiles Sikhandi." He lingers until the sun's cycle has reached " the northern point " (entered Sagittarius), and then the white swans of Swarga fly down and carry off" his soul. Plainly in the epic there are two Rudras — one the vulgar villain, with the poison of the scorpion. He is Duryodhana. But Bhishma in this canto is noble and majestic. The sun is in Scorpio, and the shapeless monolith worshipped during the month would represent to the Vedic worshipper the storm- cloud with its many shining arms. Its lightnings spread death and desolation, but still it is an aspect of the Eternal as much as the smiling flowers of May. It is to be remarked that the war arose from the capture of cattle by the sons of Kuru. The demon Vritra had carried them to his celebrated cavern. The last act of Bhishma is to request Arjuna to give him water. This is effected by an arrow which creates a spring in the ground. The thunderbolt of Indra calls forth the fertilizing moisture of the storm. The hero with his thousand adhering arrows is Scorpio again with his thousand arms, and the "pillow" the tridentine horns or crest. In case this somewhat overdone symbolism should still fail to impress initiates, King Yudhishthira before the battle takes off" his breast-plate and tiara, and goes forward to kiss Bhishma's feet, humble and naked, like a slave. The fall of Bhishma, in the old story, was probably the end of the campaign ; but ballad-makers like plenty of fight- ing. Drona succeeds Bhishma, but he is decapitated by Dhrishta-dyumna, the rival commander-in-chief Bhima THE MAHABHARATA. 403 encounters Duhsasena, who had dragged in Draupadi when she was won as a slave. As a retaliation, Bhima cuts off his head and drinks his blood on the field of battle. The mighty Karna's head is also taken off by a weapon called an anjalika, launched by Arjuna. Duryodhana, by-and-by, is the only chief of note left alive. He escapes to a subaqueous cavern. There he is sheltered by his magic arts for a time ; but, stung by the taunts of his foes, he agrees to come out and fight Bhima with a club. Bhima slays him. Nearly all the forces, even of the sons of Pandu, were slain in the great fight. For victory Yudhishthira had a depeopled Indraprastha. The termination of the epic is so beautiful that it has been often translated. The five sons of Pandu, tired even of a heaven in the Khandava wood, resolve to journey to the eternal city on the steeps of Mount Meru. They depart with the royal Draupadi. Behind them follows a dog. The king, Yudhishthira, is seventh in the procession. Townsmen and the women of the palace accompany them for a short way, but none say " Return ! " The citizens at last bid farewell to the pilgrims. Then the five sons of Pandu and the queen journey towards the east. They yearn for union with Brahm. All worldly thoughts are suffocated. They pass many a sea and river, and many weary lands. Yudhishthira walks in front, then Bhima, then Arjuna ; The Twins follow. Then comes the Pearl of Wives — the woman with the lotus eyes. The dog walks last. On the shore of a mighty ocean Arjuna casts into the waves the celebrated bow Gandiva and the magic double quiver. Soon the tall steeps of Himavat glow above them. Beyond the Himalayas is a sea of sand. Across this the pilgrims footed wearily in the direction of the Hindoo Koosh, which probably contains the highest mountain peaks of the world. By-and-by — glad sight — the icy spires of the heavenly mount are seen glowing pink in the evening. But poor Draupadi can only see the promised land from afar. She falls with weariness. Arjuna and the Twins also perish. Stout Bhima is astonished at this, and comes to the conclu- sion that they are all too gross for heaven. This mysticism is a little intricate. We have seen from 404 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. the Aitareya Brahmanam that Prajapati— the Divine Male— is the year. He is Animisha, the Sleepless God, and starts at the end of February — a month whose symbol is quadruple. In all the old creeds this early god was quadruple. Bhima and the Twins and Arjuna (the bow) die, or are passed in the zodiac before Yudhishthira, whose symbol is the Man with the vase of Ichor, dominates. He stands alone with Yama's dog. Madame Blavatsky gives seven stages of spiritual pro- o-ress which mortals after thousands and thousands of re-births will successively reach. 1. The body (Rupa). 2. Vitality (Jiva). 3. Astral body (Linga sarira). 4. Animal soul (Kama rupa). 5. Human soul (Manas). 6. Spiritual soul (Buddhi). 7. Spirit (Atma). This, by many theosophists who have lost faith in the Russian lady, is still thought to be the esoteric doctrine of India, disclosed by Mr. Subba Row. I must acquit that Hindoo of any such complicity. These stages, if taken lite- rally, and that we may take them literally Mr. Sinnett gives the Sanskrit words, are pure nonsense. Body, vitality, animalism, soul, and spirit (five of the stages), must be acquired simultaneously with individuality. But the hand of a Western is patent. All Easterns know that the linga sarira is the envelope of the soul from the moment of its existence, and in a re-birth may have been in existence fifty thousand years before the body then assumed.^ The teachings of Madame Blavatsky were thus condensed in an article in the Saturday Review, which criticised my " Koot Hoomi Un- veiled "— 1. There is no God. 2. The great secret of magic is to perform miracles with His " ineffable name." 3. Annihilation is the reward of the just. 4. Annihilation is the punishment of the wicked. ^ Colebrooke's " Essays," vol. i. p. 245. THE MAHABHARATA. 405 It is to be confessed that many graver teachers in India and the West have held some of these views ; but the original Mahabharata knew nothing of the modern misty doctrines of Moksha and Nirvana. The hero goes to the eternal heaven of God, a heaven tenanted by the seven great legions of dead men made wise (vidyadharas). I will conclude with a fine hymn that shows this. Hymn to the Sun. Eye of the World art thou ! The soul of every mortal and the Womb Of Being ! The huckster on the mart, The calm philosopher removed from broils, The yogi by his tree, All turn to thee. Natheless thou art the Way ! The Gate of Freedom ! Thou bear'st the burthen of the universe, Lighting the gleaming worlds. And glowing with thy beams Our hearts grow pure ; and villainy Lets fall his cloak. Along the giddy pathway of the skies Thy car sails on to sound of mortal hymns And heavenly voices : The sweet Gandharves, the minstrels of the stars, The mighty Thirty-Three take up the sound. Thee, with rich lore of mystic rites. Adoring, to celestial eminence Indra arrived. And crowned with deathless flowers Plucked from immortal steeps. The Vidyadharas round thee stand Celestial courtiers. The seven great legions of dead men made wise. In all the hemispheres that zone on zone Climb up to Brahma's bliss, is none like thee ! Thou art the Light of Lights. Thy name is Power, Thy name is Love, Thy name is Truth. Thee Visvakarma. heavenly architect. Gave the great wheel that girds the ambient skies : Rise up each morn, sweet Light, or we are blind. 406 BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. i A myriad years, so say our oracles, ^ Make up that mighty cycle which we call A Day of Brahma ; Of which thou art the Embr>'0 and End, The First and Last ! And soon thy fires from out the womb of earth, Hungry and vast, Midst many thunders pealing through the skies. And silent serpents shining in the cloud, A million worlds shall melt to nothingness And lay a dead race by its slumbering brothers ; Men call thee many names : The Twelve Adityas of the Zone of Heaven, Indra, and Rudra, Vishnu, Soul and Fire 1 Eternal Brahma, Vivasvat, Pushan, Eternal Lord ; The Bird whose wings bring mortals skyey thought. The Nurse, The Egg of Death, the Sire of Day. The Mother of sweet Hours, the glittering God With locks of sunbeams and untiring steeds ; Thee I salute. Who trusts in thee Shall know no sorrow ! INDEX Acharya, 217 Adam, the Book of, 95, 102 Adi Buddha, supreme god in Nepal and Tibet, 197 Aditi, the Vedic universal mother, 376 Adityas, sons of Aditi, the months deified, 307 ^ons, 234 Agnosticism of early Buddhism dis- proved, 216, 217 Airavana, the elephant born of the water, 7 Alexandria, important position of, 232 Amaravati, bas-reliefs from, 83 Amrita, Pali Amata, immortality, "bread of life," the food of the sacrifice after consecration, 83 Arahat, one emancipated from re-births, an adept, 93 Aries, a horse in the Indian zodiac, 330 Arrah, the Grove of Perfection, 305 Architecture, 206 Arupuloka, heavens where form ceases, 222 Asita and Simeon, analogy between, 20 Asoka on " God," the future life, prayer, mysticism, etc. 219, 220; his attitude towards Buddhism, 215 Atheism of early Buddhism disproved, 216, 217 Avataras, 365 Avesthas, v. Avkhi, the " rayless place, hell, purgatory, 21 1 B Bactria, 384 Baptism, Buddhist rite of, 80 Baptist, 99 Beal, Professor, 206 Bhagavat, 162 Bhagavad Gita, 380 Bhikshu, beggar, 143 Bigandet, Bishop, 227, etc. Bimbisara and Herod, 24 Blavatsky, dishonesty of Madame, ex- posed, 358 Bloody sacrifice, specially attacked by Buddha and his missionaries, 77 Bodhi, the awakening of the spiritual life of the individual, i Body corporate ; priestly religion ; religion by, 288 Brahma, union with, 61 Brotherly Love, the Buddha of, vii. Buddha, esoterically God, exoterically Sakya Muni, 9 results of his movement, 222 ; comes down to earth as a white elephant, 7 ; miraculous birth, 17 ; marriage, 47 ; the four presaging tokens, 47 ; leaves the palace, 57 ; sits under the tree of knowledge, no ; on the Brahmin religion, 57 ; his reform, 61 ; begins to preach, 213 ; the historical Buddha, 213 4o8 INDEX. Buddha, the supreme, 197 Buddhas of the past, still worshipped ; proof that the nihilistic school was an innovating one, 221 Euthos, the Gnostic, the same as the Buddhist Nirvritti, 234 Ceylon, 218 Chaitya, 215, 221 Chakra, the swastika cross, in early Indian zodiac, 213 Christianity, the higher, 288 , lower, tries to combine two antagonistic ideas. Gnosticism and the lower Judaism, 288 Colebrooke, Henry, best astronomer of Orientalists, 19 ; on the seven Vedic heavens, 211 ; derives Buddha's life from Rama, 314; higher wisdom, 390 ; linga sarira, 404 Corban, the sacrament in the Greek Church, 85 Cosmology, the Buddhist, disproves nihilism in early Buddhism, 221 Coulomb, a confederate of Madame Blavatsky ; revelations of, 358 Cross, the sign of, in Buddhism and Christianity, 213 D Davids, T. W. Rhys, 186, 216 " Dhammapada," 161 Dharma, second person of Buddhist triad, 198 , the laws of spirit, the wisdom of the other bank, 198 ; personified as a divine woman, 198 Divo Vriksha, sacred tree of the " Rig Veda," 338 Dragon, the celestial, 200 E Elephant, called Bodhi, Aravana, born of the waters ; symbol of the holy spirit, 7 " Esoteric Buddhism " a pure inven- tion of Madame Blavatsky, 358, 359 Essenes described, 73 Fasting, Buddha's forty-seven days, 112 Feeding, Buddha, 85 Fergusson, James, 206 Fish, 214 Flabellum, or fan, in early church, 202 Foucaux, Philippe Edouard, 5, etc. Freemasonry, 360 G Garuda, 339 Garutmat, the winged sun, the early scales of the zodiac, 339 Gnosis, 2 Gnostics, 233, et seq. H Hanuman, 322 Heavenly man, 9 Hodgson, Brian, the orientalist, 235, etc. R., his able exposure of Madame Blavatsky, 358 Horse, 330 Horses, the four of the Apocalypse, 37 Idols, homage of, to Buddha and to Christ, 28 Inconceivable God, 6 Indra, 340 Jesus, genealogies, 10 ; miraculous con- ception, II ; birth, 19; the star and the Magi, 19 ; Herod, 24 ; disputa- tion with the doctors, 31 ; Egypt, 35 ; the Nazarite, 64 ; Jesus and the Baptist, 107 ; monastery of our Lord, 127 ; twelve disciples, 138 ; Essenism in the New Testament, 144 ; Sermon on the Mount, 153; on the Me- tempsychosis, 164; descent into hell, 189; Transfiguration, 191; Last Supper, 193; full force of His great work misunderstood, 165 ; appears to James on the night of the Cruci- fixion, 252 I INDEX. 409 Jinas, 221 John the Baptist, 99 Jordan, 103 K "Kabbalah," 3, 86 Karli, cave temple of, 206 Karma, the effects of sins or good deeds, which are supposed to land the doer in the hell Avichi or the heavens of the Devaloka, and detain him until the said Karma is ex- hausted. He is then born once more into the world, his Karma influencing the new birth, 21 1, 222 Kellogg, Professor, 16 Koot Hoomi, 357 Krishna, 365, et seq. Kumbha, the Indian Aquarius, 120 " Lalita Vistara," 5 Lama, the grand, successor of Buddhist high priest at Nalanda, 227 Lightfoot, Bishop, 257 Liturgy, 205 Lower world, a pattern of the upper, in the " Kabbalah," 5 M " Mahabharata," 384 Mahadeo, a monolith or menhir, " Great God," a name of Siva, 307 Mandala, mystic ring, 372 Mansel, Dean, on the derivation of the Therapeuts from Buddhist mission- aries, 2 Mantra, prayer, charm, 224 Milman, Dean, 75 Monastery of our Lord, 127 Mysteries, literal translation of sacra- ment, 83 Mystical Israel, 73 N Nairanjana, 114 Name-giving of Jesus, not a Jewish rite, 22 Nalanda, 216 Nazarites or Hebrews, gospel of, 252 Nirvana, 221 Nirvanapura, 221 O Origen, on the function of Scriptures, 4 Osiris, 347 Padmapani, 235 Pandu, from " Pandeo," the five gods, 386 ; five sons of, 384 Paramitas, 90, et seq. phiio, n Pleroma, 234 Pope, 227 Prajna, 12 Pravritti, 234 Purusha, 5 Pushya, Buddha's star, 19 R Rajagriha, 192 Re-births, 163 Religion in England, 272 Rishis ; seven stars, 383 Ritual, 206 Rupaloka, 221 Sabeans, disciples of the Baptist, 102 Saint worship, 208 Savitri, 333 Seal of the heart of Buddha, 214 Sephiroth, 90 Seven angels, 12 Seven stars, 12 Simeon the Indian, 20 Sparrows and Child Christ, 24 Star of Buddha, 19 Swastika, 214 Therapeuts, 73 Tidings, glad, in Buddhism, 157 Tree, 328 410 INDEX. Trinity, 196 Triratna, 196 Trithemius, curious prophecy of, vi. Tulloch, Principal, on the Gnostics, 234 Tusita heaven, 221 Twelve great disciples of Buddha, 138 U Umbellum, 206 Upham, " History of Buddhism," 213 Utanka, initiation of the novice, 354 V Vedas, 23 Vehicle, the Great, denies prolongation of individuality after the great en- lightenment, 216, 217 W Wilson, on the Avesthas or Hypostases of the Trinity, v. Yoga (lit. "imion"), the conjoining of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, the annihilation of the ego and merging of one's will with the divine will. Magical powers were conceived to be a result of the "union." Hence Yoga also means white magic, 61 Zodiacal framework legends, 35, et seq. bracelet, 123 of all sacred PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. A LIST OF KEG AN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO:S PUBLICATIONS. II, £6 I Patei nosfer Square, London. A LIST OF KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. CONTENTS. 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Royal l6mo. \s. (yd. STORR {Francis) and TURNER (Ha'wes). Canterbury Chimes ; or, Chaucer Tales Re-told to Children. With Six Illustrations from the Ellesmere MS. Third Edition. Fcp. 8vo. ^s. 6d. STRETTON {Hesba)— David Lloyd's Last Will. With Four Illustra- tions. New Edition. Royal i6mo. 2s. (yd. WHITAKER {Florence)— (Lw-sa^-xx'?. In- heritance : A London Story. Illus- trated. Royal i6mo. \s. (yd. Spottiswoode &' Co. Printers, New-street Square, London. Date Due 1 a 28 W *'s*«**'"'j|.»iii«<,i»t4'' ■»> ^ ^fi^-t :^.li ^ full iimJ; .ft-wwr.-w?? BL1475.5.L72 Buddhism in Christendom, or, Jesus, the Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 00036 ,*>X»>v>I> ■>:>'/>!.' ■.^t:^^^►L^^O.OI>l>X^K♦I•>>K♦I♦I»X^ K^l'lKK' v.•..•.•.•IOl•l•^^I^vX^v^^^^^kV^Iv^^Iw^^!' «!'.♦.' ►.*^^i /Vwlvlv.'*' •!>;>•►■• »»vt*.' ►♦.>>> >yX'>M>J»l»! >^^^!•^^t^^^;>^^;•^y,;;;:•^ •^^ ^ s:^:s:X:X:::x ►.♦».♦ ^v>^w^xK»^;•I^>!►^^^^>I»^. ("1 v.v.v.vlv ' (^Ki AWSV >x>,j;>;>x>