Part 2

♦The Causal Law♦ It is composed of “a vast aggregate of original elements which are perpetually working out their fresh re-distribution in accordance with their own inherent energies.” These elements never become more nor less; but under the Law which governs them, they are in constant motion; they form, distribute, change, re-form; each fresh combination being the effect of Causes, or groups of Causes which precede it.

The all-governing Law which keeps the universe in motion is the Law of Evolution, the Law of Cause and Effect.

This Law is absolute in its working, it provides for no exceptions. Harvest-time follows seed-time; effects follow causes: and as the harvest provides the seed for all future seed-times and harvests, so, in every sphere, effects in their turn become causes of all future causes and effects. There is no possible deviation from this universal, fundamental law.

There is, nevertheless, infinite variety in the universe. For, Causes continually combine to produce ever new Effects; and the universe in its endless progression, is an ever-varying, harmonious, reposeful Unity. There can be no conflict under the governance of the one glorious unalterable Law.

THE LAW ACCORDING TO THE CHRIST.

♦The Causal Law♦ Christ has many things to say which reveal His constant consciousness of the Harvest Law, as it may be called. To Him also it was the deepest, the fundamental thought; and He illustrates His teaching continually by reference to it. The Causes already in the field--the ground as well as the seed--determine the harvest of the sower. As surely as tares are sown amongst the good seed, so surely shall there be a mingled harvest of tares and good grain. The kind of harvest will be according to the kind of seed. The tree is known by its fruit. “Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles.”

There is no evasion of the Causal Law; and in the fair universe there is no desire to evade it. For the Causal Law is the Law of Life. “The earth beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear”--the farmer knoweth not how--but “when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come.”

* * * * *

♦The First Cause♦ ♦Buddha♦ How the universe came into existence, who enacted the Law, the Buddha did not inquire, and forbade men to inquire. It was enough for them that they found themselves a part of the endless chain of causation; duty lay for them in the practical task of finding their place in the chain, and of adjusting themselves within it.

♦Christ♦ The Christ, on the other hand, assumed a Builder of the universe, and a Purpose in the Law; and He summed the graciousness and the harmony of nature in the only human phrase which conveyed His own conception of its wonderfulness. “My Father worketh.” “Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father.” “Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field...?”

THE UNIVERSAL LAW IN HUMAN LIFE

“_It has been remarked by one of the most distinguished physical philosophers of our day that no atmospheric vibration ever becomes extinct; that the pulses of speech, when they have done their work, and become to our ears inaudible, pass in waves away, but wander still, hither and thither through the regions of the air, eternally. He conceives that as the atmosphere comprises still within itself the distinct traces of any sound impressed on any portion of it, as there the record indestructively exists, we have only to suffer a change of position, or receive the endowment of an acuter sense, to hear again every idle word that we have spoken, and every sigh that we have caused. The truth is, that already, and within the limits of our mental nature there is a power which will effect all this. It is fully within the scope of our natural faculties of association and memory. It may be doubted whether any idea once in the mind is ever lost and past recall: it may drop indeed into the gulf of forgotten things, and the waves of successive thoughts roll over it; but there are in our nature possible and even inevitable convulsions, which may displace the waters, heave up the deep, and disentomb whatever may be fair or hideous there.... It is remarkable how slight a suggestion is occasionally sufficient to bring back vast trains of emotion. There are cases in which some particular function of the memory acquires most exquisite sensibility, and usually, as if God would warn us what must happen when our moral nature is divorced from the physical, it is the memory of conscience that maintains this preternatural watch.... And if thus the past be truly indestructible, if thus its fragments may be regathered, if its details of evil thought and act may be thus brought together and fused into one big agony,--why, it may be left to fools to make a mock at sin._”

“_Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption._”

“_The lust when it hath conceived, beareth sin; and the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death. Be not deceived, my beloved brethren._”

THE LAW ACCORDING TO THE BUDDHA.

I

♦The Sacred Truth of Suffering♦ But conflict has appeared, and associates itself with the creatures which seem to have an existence apart from the mother universe. There ought to be no Self, no life apart, all such Selves or lives are abnormal. Conflict, suffering, is the inevitable result.

♦The Self-Life♦ How the universe became thus maimed, and creatures born to the misery of separation came into being, the Buddha did not inquire, even as he did not inquire into the problem of a First Cause which set the chain of causation in the universe in motion. He took the situation as he found it, and applied himself to it. If separation from the universe, that is, a separate existence or being, be the evil, clearly the only possible remedy must be to end the separation.

The Buddha broke away from previous Indian teaching on one point; to the Brahman, Soul in the universe and soul in man are the central fact; Soul, either in the Brahman sense, or in the sense in which we understand it, Buddhist teaching denies. The being of man is composed of certain elements in addition to the body or material part. These are:--Sensations, Ideas, Tendencies, and Powers; and it is these which make up the consciousness of existence--the Self. As soon as a Self is born, that is, a being apart from the only true Centre, it becomes its own centre. It has no knowledge, but it sees that which is outside of itself, and supposes that there must be joy in drawing towards itself, in possession.

♦Desire♦ It therefore begins to feel outward from itself, to _desire_; and then to attempt to grasp that which it desires. Whatever be the result of that grasping, whether success or failure to attain the desire, sorrow, suffering, and loss are the inevitable end.

“_This, O recluses, is the noble Truth concerning suffering. Birth is painful, and so is old age; disease is painful, and so is death; union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant; and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful._”

The Effect of that Cause--a Self apart from its true Centre--is, as it ought to be,--misery.

II

♦The Sacred Truth of the Cause of Suffering♦ “_Now this, O recluses, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering. Verily it originates in that craving thirst which causes the renewal of becomings, is accompanied by sensual delight, and seeks satisfaction, now here, now there; that is to say, the craving for the gratification of the passions, or the craving for a future life, or the craving for success in this present life._”

♦The Self-life the Cause: Misery the Effect♦ The self-life, then, is the cause of suffering.

The Self attains its desire only to lose it again, or in the very attainment to find disappointment, and so suffering.

The Self fails of its desire, and again it suffers.

In either case, so surely as a Self desires, and grasps at that which it desires, so surely will that Self have misery. For although each Self imagines itself to be free, to be responsible to none save Self, there is, even in separate existence, no such thing as freedom. The Causal Law, which acts so graciously in the universe of perfect mercifulness and truth, has the Self-life in its grip, and avenges the universe for the wrong done to it.

Every desire, every forth-going for Self, every action, good or bad, is a seed sown and will have its appropriate harvest; by so much increasing the sum of the Self-life; and at the dissolution of the body it will live on, taking to itself another body, and becoming the seed of harvests to come.

It will be noted that this is not a doctrine of heredity, effects are not transmitted with the physical being by parents. The true parent is the selfish Self, which transmits through its actions--_Karma_, as the Buddhist calls them--certain good or bad qualities, ideas, characteristics, which take to themselves new and appropriate form at the dissolution of the being which produced them.

Thus, a being and a character, the effect of certain previous causes, sows, in desire and action, seeds which another must reap to-morrow. As I now sow, another at my dissolution and the re-incarnation of my _Karma_ (the sum of my Self-graspings), will reap. “The Buddha himself cannot contradict this law, which is the Buddha of Buddha.” “Neither man nor God can prevent the results.”

THE LAW ACCORDING TO THE CHRIST.

I

♦CHRIST The Self-life the Cause of Suffering♦ That Suffering, or conflict, is the Effect of which separation from God and the self-centred life is the Cause, is an element of the teaching of the Christ apt to be forgotten by students of His life.

♦Reasons for forgetfulness of this teaching♦ There are two chief reasons for this:--_First_, His pitifulness towards all sufferers, and indignant repudiation of the idea current in His time that individual suffering was necessarily the effect of individual sin. _Second_, His peculiar doctrine of Suffering, which belongs to a later stage of this study.

But if His life meant anything at all, it meant that in His view the Self-centred life, the life of Desire, is the true and original Cause of human misery. The sheep which had become separated from the shepherd, the coin lost from its place upon the wedding chain, the son who chose a life of which his own pleasure was the motive power; each of these represents vividly His thought, that separation and isolation are abnormal, a pain to God, ruin and misery to man.

II

♦The Harvest of the Self-life♦ The harvest of the self-centred life is the subject of some of His most solemn words. “One thing thou lackest yet,” He said to one of warm enthusiasm and blameless life. “Free yourself from the self life. Come out into the open.” But the great renunciation seemed too costly. “How hardly shall such enter the Kingdom,” was the sorrowful after-word.

Again,--and note the first personal pronoun in this story:--

“The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said, ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my corn and my goods. And I will say to my soul (life), Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’”

“But God said unto him, ‘Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?’”

“_So is he that layeth up treasure for_ HIMSELF _and is not rich toward God_.”

THE REMEDY.

♦The Sacred Truth of the Cessation of Suffering♦ The third sacred truth points the direction in which man must look for the only possible remedy. He has broken away from his only true Home, and finds himself a sufferer under the rigour of the very law which should be his life and joy. The self-life, with its desires and forthgoings, is the seed of separation. The self-life must therefore be subdued.

Self must cease to sow the seed of evil deeds, however pleasant; for every such seed sown is adding to the harvest of evil.

Not only so, but Self must cease to sow the seed of any deeds good or evil, of which self-desire is the motive. Self must be rigorously disciplined and denied.

Deeds of mercy and love, having no selfish end, are indeed good; these hasten the at-one-ment of the broken universe; for the universe, in its unity, is pure truth and pure mercifulness.

“_Now this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering. Verily, it is the destruction, in which no craving remains over, of this very thirst; the laying aside of, the becoming free from, the harbouring no longer of, this thirst._”

♦CHRIST♦ Read in the light of the third sacred truth, the words of Christ:--

“If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.”

“If thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee.”

“If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

“Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.”

“If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast ... and come, follow Me.”

“Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.”

* * * * *

“_It is only with renunciation that life, properly speaking, can be said to begin._”

“_All turning to self is so far turning from God; and so much as we have of self-love, so much we have of the hellish earthly weight that must be taken off.... Self is not only the seat and habitation, but the very life of sin; the works of the devil are all wrought in self, it is his peculiar workshop, and therefore Christ is not come as a Saviour from sin, as a Destroyer of the works of the devil in any of us, but as far as self is overcome and beaten down in us._”--LAW.

“_God will have us surrender without terms, and until then we are fast prisoners, and not children in His universe._”--MARTINEAU.

“_Christ’s love is firm, and can be severe. It never pares down His requirements to make discipleship easy; rather it attracts by heightening them, and insisting most strenuously upon the most difficult surrender._”--MCLAREN.

“_For all followers of Christ, whoever and wherever they may be, the one essential and inestimable law is that of self-surrender. This was the very essence and substance of Christ’s teaching, again and again declared in language of almost awful sternness. This is Christ’s claim, just because He is our God and owns us; possible, because He is our kinsman, and understands us; blessed, because it enables Him to give us tenfold more, even now; merciful, for it is the way of our salvation._”--THOROLD.

THE WAY OF EMANCIPATION. BUDDHISM

I. THE WAY OF THE COMMON LIFE. II. THE WAY OF THE SAINT.

“_The instant of harmony is the instant when the Buddha in us and the pure truth become one. This is enlightenment. Literally we become Buddha by the correspondence of our wisdom with the universal truth. The aim is to reach this plane._”

I. THE WAY OF THE COMMON LIFE.

The three sacred truths discover the situation of humanity in relation to the universe, and the ideal remedy for its misery. _End the self-life and thus end the misery._

But the full teaching of the denial of Self cannot be received by all. The Self-life and the world-life are pleasant, and many will accept the misery which may come, rather than forego present joy.

For such, a simple, natural, human life, hedged and moralized by the law, is provided.

♦The ten Sins♦ The ten sins must be conquered. They are:--

THREE SINS OF THE BODY. The taking of life. Theft. Unlawful sexual intercourse.

FOUR SINS OF THE TONGUE. Lying. Slander. Swearing. Vain conversation.

THREE SINS OF THE MIND. Covetousness. Malice. Unbelief.

♦The Moral Law♦ For aid in the conquest of the sins, there is a short inclusive moral law:--

“Thou shalt not kill, nor cause to be killed, any living thing.”

“Thou shalt abstain from anything in any place, that has not been given thee.”

“Thou shalt avoid an unchaste life as a burning heap of coals.”

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against another.”

“Thou shalt not drink the Soma juice.”

(This command is not only a command of total abstinence from intoxicants, but a law of separation from the whole sacrificial system of Brahmanism.)

♦The Ideal♦ The ideal is of a life lived in the world, adding to _Karma_ as little as may be; solemnized by the thought of the future re-buildings of the being; a life of kindness, honesty, purity and temperance; a life of self-discipline, which shall aim at lessening the evil around as far as may be, and shall add none to the future. In particular, the human brotherhood, reverence for age, and for every living thing, and peacefulness of spirit, are the virtues to be practised.

* * * * *

♦Some Precepts♦ “Do not ask about descent, but ask about conduct.”

“Watching his speech, well restrained in mind, let a man never commit any wrong with his body. Let a man but keep these three roads of action clear, and he will achieve the way that is taught by the wise.”

“He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver, other people are but holding the reins.”

“He who by causing pain to others wishes to obtain pleasure for himself, he, entangled in the bonds of hatred, will never be free from hatred.”

“If a man find no prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, let him walk alone, like a king who has left his conquered country behind, like an elephant in the forest.”

“Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good, let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth.”

* * * * *

♦No Nirvana♦ But in the common life, how well soever it may be lived, there is no Nirvana.

* * * * *

Christ has in His teaching no counterpart to this path for the weak; even as there is small encouragement in the Buddha’s message for those who choose to walk in it.

“Narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”

II. THE WAY OF THE SAINT.

“_Noisy go the small waters, silent goes the vast ocean._”

♦Character of the Path♦ For him who will receive it there is another way revealed in the fourth sacred truth. It tells of the Eightfold Sacred Path which may lead within his own lifetime to the extinction of the Self-life.

It is called by the Buddha “the middle path,” for it is neither the path of the common life on the one hand, nor of asceticism (the Brahman path) on the other.

It is a path of understanding, and of release from all illusions about the harvest of Desire.

It is not a path of ease. Self-desire must be rigorously denied. The fetters which bind to the self-life must be broken.

The Path leads past sorrow and pain, past the illusions concerning the world and its pleasures, past future separate conscious existences, safely to the desired end, the repose of Nirvana.

THE FORMULA OF CONFESSION

I SEEK REFUGE IN THE BUDDHA. I SEEK REFUGE IN THE LAW. I SEEK REFUGE IN THE CHURCH.

♦The Path♦ “_This, O Recluses, is the noble truth concerning the WAY which leads to the destruction of suffering. Verily it is this noble Eightfold Path; that is to say_:--

_Right Views._ _Right Aspirations._ _Right Speech._ _Right Conduct._ _Right Livelihood._ _Right Effort._ _Right Mindfulness._ _Right Rapture._

Let no man think that this path is one easy to be trodden. At its entrance, after the Understanding which is the first step, and the Right Aspirations which is the entrance upon the Path, the candidate for Arahatship--sainthood--leads a life of constant, untiring watchfulness and self-culture.”

♦Hindrances♦ One by one the Hindrances must be overcome as he treads the Eightfold Path:--

_The belief in the Self._ _Doubt of the Teaching._ _Trust in works of merit, or in religious ceremonies._ _The desires of the body._ _The love of life._ _The desires after the earth life._ _The desires after a future life._ _Pride._ _Self-righteousness._ _Ignorance._

Each of these fetters which bind to the Self-life is loosened only at the cost of long strenuous discipline; and a glance must show the student that only one who has broken the bonds which bind him to the world-life, and has become a monk, is competent to practise it.

“Come, look at this world glittering like a royal chariot: the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.”

“Look upon the world as you would on a bubble, look upon it as you would on a mirage, the King of death does not see him who thus looks upon the world.”

♦Self-mastery the ideal♦ “Self is the lord of self, self is the refuge of self: therefore curb thyself as the merchant curbs a noble horse.”

“By oneself is evil done, by oneself one suffers: by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. The pure and the impure by themselves; no one can purify another.”

“If one man conquer in battle a thousand times ten thousand men, and if another conquers himself he is the greatest of conquerors. One’s own self conquered is better than all other people: not even a god, ... could change into defeat the victory of a man who has vanquished himself, and always lives under restraint.”

“Like a well-guarded frontier fort, with defences within and without, so let a man guard himself. Not a moment should escape, for they who allow the right moment to pass, suffer pain when they are in hell.”

“If a man holds himself dear, let him watch himself carefully: during one at least out of the three watches a wise man should be watchful.”

♦The last Message♦ “Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Hold the truth as a lamp. Hold fast to the lamp of truth. Hold fast as a refuge to the truth. Look not for refuge to any besides yourselves.”

♦The goal is Nirvana♦ Sainthood is attained through long struggle. The writings tell of the thirty-seven stages which must be passed before the Eightfold Path is trod,--stages which represent the severest Self-discipline, but which lead out to the life of entire freedom and serenity, until in the end emancipation from the Self-life with all its attendant evils, and the repose of Nirvana in at-one-ment with the Universe, has been attained.