DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0180
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
utter what it is, there being Nothing to which it may be
compared, to express it by.
“ But in that I lastly said : Whosoever finds it finds All
Things', there is nothing can be more true than this
assertion. It hath been the Beginning of All Things;
and it ruleth All Things. It is also the End of All
Things; and will thence comprehend All Things within
its circle. All Things are from it, and in it, and by
it. If thou findest it thou comest into that ground
from whence All Things are proceeded, and wherein
they subsist; and thou art in it a King over all the
works of God.”
V. ETHICS
“Let not a brother occupy himself with busy works.”
Theragatha, 1072.
In considering the subject of Buddhist morality, we can-
not, in the first place, too strongly emphasize the fact that
it was no more the purpose of Gautama than of Jesus to
establish order in the world.1 Nothing could have been
further from his thoughts than the redress of social in-
justice, nor could any more inappropriate title be devised
for Him-who-has-thus-attained, than that of democrat or
social reformer. A wise man, says the Dhammapada,
should leave the dark state of life in the world and follow
the bright state of life as a monk.2
1 Dhammapada, v, 412. The Buddhist, like the Tolstoyan Christian,
has no faith in government. We read of spiritual lessons for princes,
but the ‘ road of political wisdom ’ is called ‘ an unclean path of false-
ness ’ {Jatakamala, xix, 27). The point is further illustrated in Gautama’s
refusal to intervene when the message is brought that Devadatta has
usurped the throne of Kapilavatthu (supra, p. 32).
2 Ibid. 88.
126
utter what it is, there being Nothing to which it may be
compared, to express it by.
“ But in that I lastly said : Whosoever finds it finds All
Things', there is nothing can be more true than this
assertion. It hath been the Beginning of All Things;
and it ruleth All Things. It is also the End of All
Things; and will thence comprehend All Things within
its circle. All Things are from it, and in it, and by
it. If thou findest it thou comest into that ground
from whence All Things are proceeded, and wherein
they subsist; and thou art in it a King over all the
works of God.”
V. ETHICS
“Let not a brother occupy himself with busy works.”
Theragatha, 1072.
In considering the subject of Buddhist morality, we can-
not, in the first place, too strongly emphasize the fact that
it was no more the purpose of Gautama than of Jesus to
establish order in the world.1 Nothing could have been
further from his thoughts than the redress of social in-
justice, nor could any more inappropriate title be devised
for Him-who-has-thus-attained, than that of democrat or
social reformer. A wise man, says the Dhammapada,
should leave the dark state of life in the world and follow
the bright state of life as a monk.2
1 Dhammapada, v, 412. The Buddhist, like the Tolstoyan Christian,
has no faith in government. We read of spiritual lessons for princes,
but the ‘ road of political wisdom ’ is called ‘ an unclean path of false-
ness ’ {Jatakamala, xix, 27). The point is further illustrated in Gautama’s
refusal to intervene when the message is brought that Devadatta has
usurped the throne of Kapilavatthu (supra, p. 32).
2 Ibid. 88.
126