Part 18 (1/2)

A. The will, its exertion, mental development, and discrimination between right and wrong.

379. Q. _Our Scriptures relate hundreds of instances of phenomena produced by Arhats: what did you say was the name of this faculty or power?_

A. _Iddhi vidha_. One possessing this can, by manipulating the forces of Nature, produce any wonderful phenomenon, _i.e._, make any scientific experiment he chooses.

380. Q. _Did the Buddha encourage displays of phenomena?_

A. No; he expressly discouraged them as tending to create confusion in the minds of those who were not acquainted with the principles involved. They also tempt their possessors to show them merely to gratify idle curiosity and their own vanity. Moreover, similar phenomena can be shown by magicians and sorcerers learned in the _Laukika_, or the baser form of _Iddhi_ science. All false pretensions to supernatural attainment by monks are among the unpardonable sins (_Tevijja Sutta_).

381. Q. _You spoke of a ”deva” having appeared to the Prince Siddhartha under a variety of forms; what do Buddhists believe respecting races of elemental invisible beings having relations with mankind?_

A. They believe that there are such beings who inhabit worlds or spheres of their own. The Buddhist doctrine is that, by interior self-development and conquest over his baser nature, the Arhat becomes superior to even the most formidable of the devas, and may subject and control the lower orders.

382. Q. _How many kinds of devas are there?_

A. Three: _Kamavachara_ (those who are still under the domination of the pa.s.sions); _Rupavachara_ (a higher cla.s.s, which still retain an individual form): _Arapavachara_ (the highest in degree of purification, who are devoid of material forms).

383. Q. _Should we fear any of them?_

A. He who is pure and compa.s.sionate in heart and of a courageous mind need fear nothing: no man, G.o.d, _brahmarakkhas_, demon or deva, can injure him, but some have power to torment the impure, as well as those who invite their approach.

[1] Sumangala Sthavira explains to me that those transcendent powers are permanently possessed only by one who has subdued all the pa.s.sions (_Klesa_), in other words, an Arhat. The powers may be developed by a bad man and used for doing evil things, but their activity is but brief, the rebellious pa.s.sions again dominate the sorcerer, and he becomes at last their victim.

[2] When the powers suddenly show themselves, the inference is that the individual had developed himself in the next anterior birth. We do not believe in eccentric breaks in natural law.

APPENDIX

The following text of the fourteen items of belief which have been accepted as fundamental principles in both the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were submitted by me personally, have so much historical importance that they are added to the present edition of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an Appendix. It has very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that having had the doc.u.ment translated to them, the Chief Lamas of the great Mongolian Buddhist monasteries declared to him that they accept every one of the propositions as drafted, with the one exception that the date of the Buddha is by them believed to have been some thousands of years earlier than the one given by me. This surprising fact had not hitherto come to my knowledge. Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse the real epoch of Sakya Muni with that of his alleged next predecessor? Be this as it may, it is a most encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic world may now be said to have united to the extent at least of these Fourteen Propositions.

H. S. O.

FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS

I Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.

II The universe was evolved, not created; and its functions according to law, not according to the caprice of any G.o.d.

III The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by certain illuminated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA meaning ”Enlightened”.

IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sakya Muni, or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500 years ago. He is an historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Gautama.

V Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.

VI Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing.

When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.