Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/408

402 BUDDHISM ancient Buddhistic paintings in fresco, as found in grottoes, are highly creditable to the taste and skill of the painters, who were mostly monks. Three sorts of relics of Buddha and of saints are distinguished, viz. : bodily dhdtus (elements) or mriras (sri, to injure), such as teeth, hairs, nails, pieces of bones ; things once possessed by the saint; and objects with which he came into contact. The most renowned relic is Buddha's left eye-tooth, the present palladium of Ceylon, whose history is quite ro- mantic and miraculous. It is a piece of bent ivory, about two inches long, kept in a splen- did chapel and surrounded by many jewels. Buddha's skull, eyeballs, shoulder blade, &c., his manuscript of the Dharma, his gowns, alms-pot, &c., his shadow, heaven-ladder, his animal bodies, as bird, elephant, &c., the Bodhi tree at Gaya, and many other relics, are shown in various places. Relics are kept in stupm or topes of peculiar construction ; the shape of a water bubble, and one or several umbrellas, being characteristic and symbolic features of these monuments, among which the celebrated porcelain pagoda of the convent of" celestial beatitude at Nanking is the principal. Most have cupolas ; but some, like the suvur- ghans of the Mongols, are pyramids, or only truncated pyramids. Their height is from a few inches to three hundred feet and more. Most of them contain a small cavity, in which the relics are kept; but some are solid. A trinity, called Triratna (three jewels), was at last developed in the less than Unitarian Buddhism, probably the prototype of the Brah- manic Trimurti, but certainly a personifica- tion of the ancient formula, "Buddha, Dhar- ma (law), and Sangha (collection)." We know the two former. Sangha is the collection or congregation of saints, or what we call the church or the council ; but at last it came to mean simply the priesthood. Since the priest- hood was the representative of Buddha and the expounder of the Dharmma, it became itself the whole trinity, and even God ; though in pure Buddhism no God is mentioned. The original formula of a prayer, " I take refuge with Buddha, I take refuge with Dharma, I take refuge with Sangha," is repeated ihechan- ically ad infinitum by the aid of the beads ; the movement of the lips being sufficient to render it efficacious. At last praying machines were constructed, consisting of a sort of hol- low barrel, which turns on an axis, and in which the prayer, written on a great many lit- tle scrolls, is turned about. Fa-hian, the Chi- nese pilgrim, describes (A. D. 400) some which he saw. Some are colossal, and moved by wind or water, or by special turners, or mere- ly kicked into motion by passers by; others are small, and carried in the hand. Magic formulas of exorcism, storm-making, raising from death, &c., remnants of ancient Shaman- ism, have been engrafted upon Buddhism among the Mongols and Calmucks. Sermons have also become an integral part of worship, as also processions around temples or stupas, with relics ; sacrifices of fruit, flowers, incense, eatables (not bloody) ; confession of laymen, consecration of sacred water, sacred baths or baptisms (in Mongolia), fasting, psalm-singing, chorals, benedictions, litanies. The lamas are dressed in pontificals, like those of the Catho- lic bishops. The temples are square, with a nave and lateral halls, separated from it by columns. Opposite the entrance is the sanctuary with the altar, and images of saints. In some there is a dagoba under a cupola. Paintings, banners, garlands, tap- estries, and allegorical representations adorn the church. There are eight altar imple- ments : an umbrella, a horn, crosses entwined in a knot of 24 angles, a lotus flower, a gold fish, a ewer, a wheel, an allegory of five senses ; all symbolic of Buddha, and made of pasteboard or of metal, varnished, gilt, and painted. On the altar are sacrificial shells, sacred vessels, a metallic mirror to reflect Buddha's image, a round plate with five protuberances, represent- ing the Meru and the four Dvipas or quarters of the world, and a chalice. Fumigations, illu- minations, music, bell-ringing, and many other things similar to those used in the west, attend the rites. Besides the festivals at the new and full moon, and some others in different coun- tries, there are three great annual festivals. One is called the lamp festival, at the close of the Varsha, or rainy season, our autumn ; there is another at the beginning of spring ; one on the day of the conception or birth of Sakya- muni, whose time varies in different countries. There is also, in some parts, a fourth festival, when the images of Buddha and of the saints are carried about on wagons ; and in the north a fifth is that of the consecration of water, riv- ers, lakes. The lamas also say masses for the repose of souls. Synods are held annually and quinquennially ; the latter, in olden times, on the sacred plain at the confluence of the Gan- ges and Jumna, called the great alms field. Family worship takes place at different stages of life, such as birth, naming of the child, hair cutting at puberty, marriage (though this is merely a civic and not a religious act), death, funerals ; at all of which the priest is present, although not necessarily, as in Europe. The priest acts also as a physician, and in the north as a sorcerer, magician, or augur. Samadhi (earn, together ; dha, to have hold), or medita- tion, for the sake of arriving at the extinction of the selfhood in the manner described above, is the acme of spiritual life. It consists of four degrees : 1, consideration of one thing as dis- tinct from others, with satisfaction at the dis- cernment of multifarious things ; this frees one from the conditions of sin ; 2, suppression of that discerning judgment, reduction of the many things to one, with pleasure thereat ; 3, indifference in the discernment by judgment; memory and consciousness yet active, with a dim feeling of bodily well-being ; 4, complete indifference, purification from all feeling of joy