DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0174
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
Perhaps the prevailing thought is a more or less rapturous
delight in the escape from evil and from craving (dukkha
and tanha), from lust, hate, and infatuation, and from
the prospect of re-birth—of continued Becoming in any
other conditioned life. From the standpoint of will,
again, there is emphasis upon the achievement of freedom,
self-mastery, and so forth. And the attainment is also
expressed poetically—-just as the Brahman in Brahmanical
scripture is symbolized as ‘bliss,’ ‘intelligence,’ etc.—
as light, truth, knowledge, happiness, calm, peace; but
the similes are always cool, never suggesting any violent
rapture or overmastering emotion. But while we recog-
nize an unmistakable note of exultation in the conquest
achieved here and now, we must also clearly recognize
that orthodox Buddhist teaching is characterized by “the
absence of all joy in the forward view; ” 1 and, indeed, no
mystic can look forward to greater bliss than has already
been experienced:2 to what more, indeed, can one who
has already attained the summum bonuwt look forward,
or what can the physical accident of death achieve for
him who has already by his own effort reached the goal ?
Gautama expressly refuses to answer any question relative
to life after death, and he condemns all speculation
as unedifying: “ I have not,” he says, addressing the
venerable Malunkyaputta, who desired information on
these points, “ revealed that the Arahat exists after death,
I have not revealed that he does not exist; I have not
revealed that he at once exists and does not exist after
death, nor that he neither exists nor does not exist after
1 C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Brethren, 1913, p. xlviii.
2 For: “ Paradise is still upon earth—” (Behmen): “ When I go hence,
may my last words be, that what I have seen is unsurpassable ” (Tagore).
There is nothing more to be desired.
120
Perhaps the prevailing thought is a more or less rapturous
delight in the escape from evil and from craving (dukkha
and tanha), from lust, hate, and infatuation, and from
the prospect of re-birth—of continued Becoming in any
other conditioned life. From the standpoint of will,
again, there is emphasis upon the achievement of freedom,
self-mastery, and so forth. And the attainment is also
expressed poetically—-just as the Brahman in Brahmanical
scripture is symbolized as ‘bliss,’ ‘intelligence,’ etc.—
as light, truth, knowledge, happiness, calm, peace; but
the similes are always cool, never suggesting any violent
rapture or overmastering emotion. But while we recog-
nize an unmistakable note of exultation in the conquest
achieved here and now, we must also clearly recognize
that orthodox Buddhist teaching is characterized by “the
absence of all joy in the forward view; ” 1 and, indeed, no
mystic can look forward to greater bliss than has already
been experienced:2 to what more, indeed, can one who
has already attained the summum bonuwt look forward,
or what can the physical accident of death achieve for
him who has already by his own effort reached the goal ?
Gautama expressly refuses to answer any question relative
to life after death, and he condemns all speculation
as unedifying: “ I have not,” he says, addressing the
venerable Malunkyaputta, who desired information on
these points, “ revealed that the Arahat exists after death,
I have not revealed that he does not exist; I have not
revealed that he at once exists and does not exist after
death, nor that he neither exists nor does not exist after
1 C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Brethren, 1913, p. xlviii.
2 For: “ Paradise is still upon earth—” (Behmen): “ When I go hence,
may my last words be, that what I have seen is unsurpassable ” (Tagore).
There is nothing more to be desired.
120