Buddha and the gospel of Buddhism

Front matter

Buddha and the a Gospel ot Buddhism

Ananda Coomareswamy

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Preface

HE aim of this book is to set forth as simply as | possible the Gospel of Buddhism according to the Buddhist scriptures, and to consider the Buddhist systems in relation, on the one hand, to the Brahmanical systems in which they originate, and, on the other hand, to those systems of Christian mysticism which afford the nearest analogies. At the same time the endeavour has been made to illustrate the part which Buddhist thought has played in the whole development of Asiatic culture, and to suggest a part of the significance it may still possess for modern thinkers.

The way of the Buddha is not, indeed, concerned directly with the order of the world, for it calls on higher men to leave the market-place. But the order of the world can only be established on a foundation of knowledge: every evil is ultimately traceable to ignorance. It is necessary, then, to recognize the world for what it truly is. Gautama teaches us that the marks of this life are imperfection, transcience, and the absence of any changeless individuality. He sets before us a summum bonum closely akin to the Christian mystic conception of ‘self-naughting.’ Here are definite statements which must be either true or false, and a clearly defined goal which we must either accept or refuse. If the statements be false, and if the goal be worthless, it is of the highest importance that the former should be refuted and the latter discredited. But if the diagnosis be correct and the aim worthy, it is at least of equal importance that this should be generally recognized : for we cannot wish to perpetuate as the basis of our sociology a view of life that is demonstrably false or a purpose demonstrably contrary to our conception of the good.

V

This book is designed, therefore, not as an addition to our already over burdened libraries of information, but as a definite contribution to the philosophy of life. Our study of alien modes of thought and feeling, if it is to be of any real use to us, must be inspired by other than curious motives or a desire to justify our own system. For the common civilization of the world we need a common will, a recognition of common problems, and to co-operate in their solution, At this moment, when the Western world is beginning to realize that it has failed to attain the fruit of life in a society based on competition and self-assertion, their lies a profound significance in the discovery of Asiatic thought, where it is affirmed with no uncertain voice that the fruit of life can only be attained in a society based on the conception of moral order and mutual responsibility. Let me illustrate by a single quotation the marvellous directness and sincerity of the social ethic to which the psychology of Buddhism affords its sanction: Vuzctory breeds hatred, for the conquered zs unhappy.

Stories are told of Asiatic rulers paying the price of kingdoms for a single word of profitable counsel. One may well inquire whether any conceivable price could have been too high for Europe to have paid for a general recognition of this truth, ere now. ‘There is, again, a passage of the Ruru-deer Jataka which is perhaps unique in all literature in its supreme tenderness and courtesy: For who—the Bodhisattva asks—would willingly use harsh speech to those who have done a sinful deed, strewing salt, as it were, upon the wound of ther fault?

It is with gifts such as this that Buddhism, and the Hinduism from which it issues and into which it has vil

Preface again merged, stand over against the world of J/azssez faire, demanding of their followers only the abandonment of all resentment, coveting, and dulness, and offering in return a happiness and peace beyond our reasonable understanding. Can we deny that modes of thought which find expression thus must for ever command our deepest sympathy and most profound consideration ? It is not possible that liberation from resentment, coveting, and dulness, should ever be ill-timed : and it is just this liberation which constitutes the ethical factor in Nibbana, where the psychological part is self-forgetfulness.

It will be plainly seen to what extent I am indebted to the work of other scholars and students, and I wish to make a frank and grateful acknowledgment to all those from whose work I have freely’ quoted, particularly Professor and Mrs Rhys Davids and Professor Oldenberg, as well as to others to whom I am indebted for the use of photographs. The latter, reproduced in monochrome, illustrate the history of Buddhist art: but beside this, the work of modern Indian painters illustrating Buddhist thought and legend is reproduced in colour.

A few suggestions may be useful as a guide to pronunciation. Vowels generally are pronounced as in Italian: a as in America, & as in father, e as a in nave, zas in 7, Z as ce in greet, o as in note, u as oo in room, # as oo in boot: az has the sound of z in dz¢e, aw the sound of ow in cow. Every consonant is distinctly pronounced, and aspirates are distinctly heard. C has the sound of ch in church, while s in some cases has the sound of sf, é.g. in Szva, Isvara, Sankara, etc. The accent falls on the first syllable or the third, rarely or never on the second.

vil

Certain words, such as hamma, Nibbana, Bodhisatta, etc., are quoted in these Pali forms where Hinayana Buddhism is in question, and in the more familiar Sanskrit forms karma, Nirvana, Bodhisattva, where the reference is to Mahayana.

ANANDA COOMARASWAMY

Lonpon, February 8, 1916

Vili

Contents

PART

I: THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

Part II : The Gospel Of Early Buddhism I II III

DHAMMA

SAMSARA AND KAMMA (KARMA) BUDDHIST HEAVENS AND HOW TO REACH THEM

NIBBANA

CONSCIENCE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES CONSOLATION

THE ORDER TOLERANCE

EARLY BUDDHISM AND NATURE BUDDHIST PESSIMISM A BUDDHIST EMPEROR

Ill : CONTEMPORARY SYSTEMS

VEDANTA SAMKHYA YOGA

BUDDHISM AND BRAHMANISM A

PAGE

115 126

137 141 148

Part Iv: The Mahayana

I BEGINNINGS OF THE MAHAYANA Il SYSTEM OF THE MAHAYANA III CH’AN, OR ZEN BUDDHISM

Part V : Buddhist Art I Literature II Sculpture And Painting

BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY INDEX

259 325 347 35% 359

LIST OF PLATES

PLATE

A B

BD Oe ee, i ee ee te et Oe eel <4

> <7)

Tue Forry-Nine Days (Cryton)

Tue First Sermon (SARNATH)

Tue First Sermon (Nepat)

Tue Buppua Teacuinc (Japan)

Sranpinc ImacE oF THE BuppHa (MaruHura) Rock-cur ImMacg oF THE Buppxa (Lonc-men, Cutna)

Stranpinc IMacE oF THE BuppHa wiTH ATTENDANTS

(Cuinese) THe Quetiinc or MAtAciri (AMaRAvAT!) Tue Deatu oF THE Buppua (PoLonnaruva) Tue Buppua in SaMADHI (ANURADHAPURA) Buppuist Monk (Curves)

Monastery anD 'TEMPLE-Court (CHINESE)

Buppuist TEMPLEs IN CEYLON

SAncHI Stipa anp GaTEway

CapiraL oF Asoxa CoLuMN (SARNATH) Lay-WorsuHiprers aT A Buppwa SHRINE (AMARAVATI) Avatoxiresvara (NEpat)

Mairreya (CEYLon)

Tue Buppua Teracuine (Laos)

PLATE goats W YaxxuiI anp Nacaraja (BHARHUT) 322 X Yaxxui (SAncut) 324 Y Sranpinc Imace oF THE Buppua (ANURADHAPURA) 326 Z Imacss oF THE BuppHa anpD oF Bopuisattvas (CEYLON

AND Cuina) 328

AA Tue Firsr Sermon (GanpHARA) 330 BB Tue Buppua (Camszopia) a9

CC Bopunisartva, PERHAPS AVALOKITESVARA (AJANTA) 334 DD Manjusri (Java) 336 EE Bopuisartva (Cura) 338

GG Kwanyin (Japan) 342 HH = Kwanyin (Cuina) 344

LIST OF PLATES IN COLOUR

Tue Temptation oF Buppua

Tue Deparrure or BuppHa

SujaTa AND THE Bow. oF MILK-RICE YasODHARA AND RAHULA

Buppua anp ANANDA

Tue Frinat REveasE

Tue Vicrory or BuppHa

Buppua as MeEnpIcANT

Nanda Lal Bose Nanda Lal Bose Nanda Lal Bose Nanda Lal Bose Nanda Lal Bose Abanindro Nath Tagore Abanindro Nath Tagore

Abanindro Nath Tagore

Frontispiece PAGE

24 30 50 76

“an ey

“es oe

QUOTATIONS

L will go down to self-annthilation and eternal death, Lest the Last Judgment come and find me unannihilate, And I be seizd and giv’'n into the hands of my own Selfhood. Blake, “* Milton.”

But, alas, how hard tt ts for the Will to sink into nothing, to attract nothing, to imagine nothing.

Let tt be granted that tt is so. Ls tt not surely worth thy while, and all that thou canst ever do?

Behmen, ‘‘ Dialogues,”

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you. You must travel it tor yourself,

Walt Whitman.

You cannot step twice into the same waters, for fresh waters are ever howing in upon you, Herakleitus.

By a man without passions I mean one who does not permit good and evil to disturb his internal economy, but rather falls in with whatever happens, as a matter of course, and does not add to the sum of his mortality.

Chuang Tau.

Profound, O Vaccha, ts this doctrine, recondite, and difficult of comprehenston, good, excellent, and not to be reached by mere reasoning, subtile, and intelligible only to the wise; and it is a hard doctrine for you to learn, who belong to another sect, to another faith, to another persuasion, to another discipline, and sit at the feet of another teacher.

‘ Mayhima Nekaya, “ Sutta 72.”

PART I: THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA His Birth

HE name Buddha, ‘ the Knower,’ ‘ the Enlightened,’

| ‘the Wake,’ is the appellation by which the wandering preaching friar Gautama became best

known to his disciples. Of this man we are able to say with some certainty that he was born in the year 563 B.c. and died in 483 B.c. He was the heir of a ruling house of the Sakyas, whose little kingdom, a rich irrigated plain between the Nepalese foot-hills and the river Rapti, lay to the north-east of the present province of Oudh. To the south-west lay the larger and more powerful kingdom of the Kosalas, to whom the Sakyas owed a nominal allegiance. The Buddha’s personal name was Siddhattha, his family name Gautama, his father’s name Suddhodana, his mother’s Maya. It is only in later legend that Suddhodana is represented as a great king; most likely he was in fact a wealthy knight and landowner. Siddhattha’s mother died seven days after his birth, and her sister Mahajapati, another wife of Suddhodana, filled the place of mother to the young prince. He was brought up in Kapilavatthu, a busy provincial capital; he was trained in martial exercises, riding, and outdoor life generally, and in all knightly accomplishments, but it is not indicated in the early books that he was accomplished in Brahmanical lore. In accordance with the custom of wellto-do youths, he occupied three different houses in winter, summer, and the rainy season, these houses being provided with beautiful pleasure gardens and a good deal of simple luxury. It is recorded that he was married, and had a son, by name Rahula, who afterwards became his disciple. Siddhattha experienced the intellectual and spiritual 2 unrest of his age, and felt a growing dissatisfaction with the world of pleasure in which he moved, a dissatisfaction rooted in the fact of its transience and uncertainty, and of man’s subjection to all the ills of mortality.

Suddhodana feared that these thoughts would lead to the loss of his son, who would become a hermit, as was the tendency of the thinkers of the time; and these fears were well founded, for in spite of every pleasure and luxury that could be devised to withhold him, Siddhattha ultimately left his home to adopt the ‘homeless life’ of the ‘Wanderer,’ a seeker after truth that should avail to liberate all men from the bondage of mortality. Such enlightenment he found after years of search. Thereafter, during a long ministry as a wandering preacher, he taught the Four Ariyan Truths and the Eightfold Path; attracting many disciples, he founded a monastic order as a refuge for higher men, the seekers for everlasting freedom and unshakable peace. He died at the age of eighty. After his death his disciples gathered together the “Words of the Enlightened One,” and from this nucleus there grew up in the course of a few centuries the whole body of the Pali canon, and ultimately, under slightly different interpretation, the whole mass of the Mahayana Siitras. That so much of the story represents literal fact is not only very possible, but extremely probable; for there is nothing here which is not in perfect accordance with the life of that age and the natural development of Indian thought. We know, for example, that many groups of wandering ascetics were engaged in the same quest, and that they were largely recruited from an intellectual and social aristocracy to whom the pretensions of Brahmanical priestcraft were no longer acceptable, and who were no less out of sympathy with the multitudinous cults 10

The Legendary Buddha of popular animism. We know the name of at least one other princely ascetic, Vardhamana, a contemporary of the Buddha, and the founder of the monastic system of the Jainas.

The Legendary Buddha

But while it is easy to extract from the Buddhist books such a nucleus of fact as is outlined above, the materials for a more circumstantial biography of the Buddha, extensive as they are, cannot be regarded as historical in the scientific usage of the word. What is, however, far more important than the record of fact, is the expression of all that the facts, as understood, implied to those to whom they were a living inspiration; and it is just this expression of what the life of Buddha meant to Buddhists, or Bauddhas, as the followers of Gautama are more properly called, that we find in the legendary lives, such as the Lalitavistara, which is familiar to Western readers in Sir Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia. Here, then, we shall relate the life of Buddha in some detail, from the various sources indicated,! regardless of the fact that these presuppose a doctrinal development which can only have taken place after the Buddha’s death; for the miraculous and mythological elements are always very transparent and artistic. The history of the Buddha begins with the resolve of the individual Brahman Sumedha, long ago, to become a Buddha in some future birth, that he might spread abroad saving truth for the help of suffering humanity. Countless ages ago this same Sumedha, retiring one day to the upper chamber of his house, seated himself and fell into thought: “Behold, I am subject to birth, to

1 Chiefly the idanakatha (introduction to the Pali Jatakas), the Maha Parinibbaina Sutta, and the Laktavistara. LI decay, to disease, and to death; it is right, then, that I should strive to win the great deathless Nibbana, which is tranquil, and free from birth and decay, sickness, and woe and weal. Surely there must be a road that leads to Nibbana and releases man from existence.” Accordingly, he gave away all his wealth and adopted the life of a hermit in the forest. At that time Dipankara Buddha appeared in the world, and attained enlightenment. It happened one day that Dipankara Buddha was to pass that way, and men were preparing the road for him. Sumedha asked and received permission to join in the work, and not only did he do so, but when Dipankara came Sumedha laid himself down in the mud, so that the Buddha might walk upon his body without soiling his feet. Then Dipankara’s attention was aroused and he became aware of Sumedha’s intention to become a Buddha, and, looking countless ages into the future, he saw that he would become a Buddha of the name of Gautama, and he prophesied accordingly. Thereupon Sumedha rejoiced, and, rejecting the immediate prospect of becoming an Arahat, as the disciple of Dipankara, ‘‘ Let me rather,” he said, “like Dipankara, having risen to the supreme knowledge of the truth, enable all men to enter the ship of truth, and thus I may bear them over the Sea of Existence, and then only let me realize Nibbana myself.”

Lncarnation of the Buddha

When Dipankara with all his followers had passed by Sumedha examined the Ten Perfections indispensable to Buddahood, and determined to practise them in his future births. So it came to pass, until in the last of these births the Bodhisatta was reborn as Prince Vessantara, who exhibited the Perfection of Supernatural Generosity, and

IQ

Incarnation of the Buddha in due time passed away and dwelt in the Heaven of Delight. When the time had come for the Bodhisatta to return to earth for the last time, the deities of the ten thousand world-systems assembled together, and, approaching the Bodhisatta in the Heaven of Delight, said: «Now has the moment come, O Blessed One, for thy Buddhahood ; now has the time, O Blessed One, arrived !”’ Then the Bodhisatta considered the time, the continent, the district, the tribe, and the mother, and, having determined these, he assented, saying: ‘‘ The time has come, O Blessed Ones, for me to become a Buddha.” And even as he was walking there in the Grove of Gladness he departed thence and was conceived in the womb of the lady Maha Maya. The manner of the conception is explained as follows. At the time of the midsummer festival in Kapilavatthu, Maha Maya, the lady of Suddhodana, lay on her couch and dreamed a dream. She dreamt that the Four Guardians of the Quarters lifted her up and bore her away to the Himalayas, and there she was bathed in the Anotatta lake and lay down to rest on a heavenly couch within a golden mansion on Silver Hill. Then the Bodhisatta, who had become a beautiful white elephant, bearing in his trunk a white lotus flower, approached from the North, and seemed to touch her right side and to enter her womb. The next day when she awoke she related the dream to her lord, and it was interpreted by the Brahmans as follows: that the lady had conceived a manchild who, should he adopt the life of a householder, would become a Universal Monarch; but if he adopted the religious life he would become a Buddha, removing from the world the veils of ignorance and sin.

It should be told also that at the moment of the incarnation the heavens and the earth showed signs, the dumb spake, the lame walked, all men began to speak kindly, musical instruments played of themselves, the earth was covered with lotus flowers, and lotuses descended from the sky, and every tree put forth its flowers. From the moment of the incarnation, moreover, four angels guarded the Bodhisatta and his mother, to shield them from all harm. The mother was not weary, and she could perceive the child in her womb as plainly as one may see the thread in a transparent gem. The Lady Maha Maya carried the Bodhisatta thus for ten lunar months; at the end of that time she expressed a wish to visit her family in Devadaha; and she set out on the journey. On the way from Kapilavatthu to Devadaha there is a pleasure-grove of Sal-trees belonging to the people of both cities, and at the time of the queen’s journey it was filled with fruits and flowers. Here the queen desired to rest, and she was carried to the greatest of the Sal-trees and stood beneath it. As she raised her hand to take hold of one of its branches the pains came upon her, and so standing and holding the branch of the Sal-tree she was delivered. Four Brahma angels received the child in a golden net, and showed it to the mother, saying: ‘Rejoice, O Lady! a great son is born to thee.” The child stood upright, and took seven strides and cried: “I am supreme in the world. This is my last birth: henceforth there shall be no more birth for mel?

At one and the same time there came into being the Seven Connatal Ones, viz., the mother of Rahula, Ananda the favourite disciple, Channa, the attendant, Kanthaka, the horse, Kaludayi, the minister, the great Bodhi tree, and the vases of Treasure.

Kala Devala Kala Devala

When the Bodhisatta was born there was great rejoicing in the heaven of the Thirty-three Gods. At that time also a certain hermit by name Kala Devala, an adept, sat in trance, visiting the heaven of the Thirty-three, and seeing the rejoicing he learnt its cause. Immediately he returned to earth, and repaired to the palace, asking to see the new-born child. The prince was brought in to salute the great adept, but he rose from his seat and bowed to the child, saying: “I may not work my own destruction”; for assuredly if the child had been made to bow to his feet, the hermit’s head would have split atwain, so much had it been against the order of nature. Now the adept cast backward and forward his vision over forty zons, and perceived that the child would become a Buddha in his present birth: but he saw that he himself would die before the Great Enlightenment came to pass, and being reborn in the heaven of No-form, a hundred or even a thousand Buddhas might appear before he found the opportunity to become the disciple of any; and seeing this, he wept. He sent, however, for his nephew, then a householder, and advised him to become a hermit, for at the end of thirty-five years he would receive the teaching of the Buddha; and that same nephew, by name Nalaka, afterwards entered the order and became an Arahat.

On the fifth day the name ceremonies were performed, and the child was call Siddhattha (Siddhartha). On this occasion eight soothsayers were present amongst the Brahmans, and of these seven foresaw that the child would become either a Universal Monarch or a Buddha, but the eighth, by name Kondaififia, predicted that he would of a surety become a Buddha. This same 15

Kondafifia afterwards belonged to the five who became the Buddha’s first disciples.

Then the prince’s father inquired: “What will my son see, that will be the occasion of his forsaking the household life’? ‘The Four Signs,”’ was the answer, ‘“‘a man worn out by age, a sick man, a dead body, and a hermit.” Then the king resolved that no such sights should ever be seen by his son, for he did not wish him to become a Buddha, but desired that he should rule the whole world ; and he appointed an innumerable and magnificent guard and retinue to protect his son from any such illuminating omens, and to occupy his mind with worldly pleasures.

Seven days after the child’s birth the Lady Maha Maya died, and was reborn in the heaven of the Thirty-three Gods, and Siddhattha was placed in the charge of his aunt and stepmother the Matron Gautami. And now came to pass another miracle, on the occasion of the Ploughing Festival. For while the king was inaugurating the ploughing with his own hands, and the nurses were preparing food, the Bodhisatta took his seat beneath a Jambu-tree, and, crossing his legs like a yogi, he exercised the first degree of contemplation; and though time passed, the shadow of the tree did not move. When the king beheld that miracle he bowed to the child, and cried: ‘‘This, dear one, is the second homage paid to thee!”

As the Bodhisatta grew up his father built for him three _palaces, respectively of nine, five, and seven stories, and here he dwelt according to the seasons. Here the Bodhisatta was surrounded by every luxury, and thousands of dancing-girls were appointed for his service and entertainment. Taken to the teachers of writing and the other 16

The Prince Marries arts, he soon surpassed them all, and he excelled in all martial exercises.

The Prince Marries At the age of sixteen, the king sought for a wife for his son; for by domestic ties he hoped to attach him still more to the worldly life. The prince had already experienced the desire to becomea hermit. But in order, as the books say, to conform with the custom of former Bodhisattas, he consented to marry, if it were possible to find a girl of perfect manners, wholly truthful, modest, congenial to his temperament, and of pure and honourable birth, young and fair, but not proud of her beauty, charitable, contented in self-denial, tender as a sister or a mother, not desiring music, scents, festivities or wine, pure in thought and word and deed, the last to sleep and the first to rise in the house where she should dwell. Brahmans were sent far and wide to seek for such a maiden amongst the Sakya families. At last the choice fell upon Siddhattha’s cousin Yasodhara, the daughter of Suprabuddha of Kapilavatthu. And the king devised a plan to engage the young man’s heart. He made ready a display of beautiful jewels which Siddhattha was to distribute amongst the Sakya maidens. So it came to pass: but when all the jewels had been bestowed, Yasodhara came late, and there was nothing left for her. Thinking that she was despised, she asked if there was no gift meant for her. Siddhattha said there was no such thought in his mind, and he sent for other rings and bracelets and gave them to her. She said: “Is it becoming for me to receive such gifts?” and he answered: ‘They are mine to give.” And so she went her way. Then Suddhodana’s spies reported that B 17

Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism Siddhattha had cast his eyes only upon Yasodhara, and had entered into conversation with her. A message was sent to Suprabuddha asking for his daughter. The answer came that daughters of the family were only given to those who excelled in the various arts and martial exercises, and “could this be the case with one whose whole life had been spent in the luxury of a palaceP?’? Suddhodana was grieved because his son was considered to be indolent and weak. The Bodhisatta perceived his mood, and asked its cause, and being informed, he reassured his father, and advised that a contest in martial exercises should be proclaimed, and all the Sakya youths invited. So it was done. Then the Bodhisatta proved himself the superior of all, first in the arts of literature and numbers, then in wrestling and archery, and each and all of the sixty-four arts and sciences. When Siddhattha had thus shown his prowess, Suprabuddha brought his daughter to be affianced to the prince, and the marriage was celebrated with all magnificence. Amongst the defeated Sakyas were two cousins of the Buddha, the one Ananda, who afterwards became the favourite disciple, the other Devadatta, whose growing envy and jealousy made him the life-long enemy of the victor.

The Four Signs

The Bodhisatta is never entirely forgetful of his high calling. Yet it is needful that he should be reminded of the approaching hour; and to this end the cosmic Buddhas made audible to Siddhattha, even as he sat and listened to the singing of the dancing-girls, the message—“ Recollect thy vow, to save all living things: the time is at hand: this alone is the purpose of thy birth.” And thus as the 18

The Four Signs

Bodhisatta sat in his beautiful palaces day after day surrounded by all the physical and intellectual pleasures that could be devised by love or art, he felt an ever more insistent call to the fulfilment of his spiritual destiny. And now were to be revealed to him the Four Signs which were to be the immediate cause of the Great Renunciation. The Bodhisatta desired one day to visit the royal pleasure-gardens. His father appointed a day, and gave command that the city should be swept and garnished, and that every inauspicious sight should be removed, and none allowed to appear save those who were young and fair. The day came, and the prince drove forth with the charioteer Channa. But the Devas? are not to be diverted from their ends: and a certain one assumed the form of an old and decrepit man, and stood in the midst of the street. “What kind of a man is this?” said the Prince, and Channa replied, “Sire, it is an aged man, bowed down by years.”’ “Are all men then,” said the prince, “or this man only, subject to age?” The charioteer could but answer that youth must yield to age in every living being. “Shame, then, on life!” said the prince, “since the decay of every living thing is notorious!” and he turned to his palace in sadness. When all that had taken place was reported to the king, he exclaimed: “This is my ruin!” and he devised more and more amusements, music and plays calculated to divert Siddhattha’s mind from the thought of leaving the world.

Again the prince drove out to visit the pleasure-gardens of Kapilavatthu: and on the way they met a sick man, thin and weak and scorched by fever. When the meaning of this spectacle was made clear by the charioteer, the 1 Devas, the Olympian deities, headed by Sakka, who dwell in the Heaven of the Thirty-three : spiritual powers generally, ‘ gods.’

Bodhisatta exclaimed again: “If health be frail as the substance ofa dream, who then can take delight in joy and pleasure?” And the car was turned, and he returned to the palace.

A third time the prince went forth, and now they met a corpse followed by mourners weeping and tearing their hair. ‘ Why does this man lie on a bier,” said the prince, “and why do they weep and beat their breasts ?”’ “Sire,” said the charioteer, “he is dead, and may never more see his father or mother, children or home: he has departed to another world.” ‘ Woe then to such youth as is destroyed by age,’’ exclaimed the prince, “‘and woe to the health that is destroyed by innumerable maladies! Woe to the life so soon ended! Would that sickness, age, and death might be for ever bound! Turn back again, that I may seek a way of deliverance.”