Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/407

BUDDHISM 401 pies and stupas. Obedience and subordination are less required than fraternal and peaceful conduct. Sins are confessed twice a month, to an assembly of at least four priests. The pen- alties are not cruel, and consist in repentance, reprimand, suspension, or expulsion, according to the character of the sins. Nuns (Shikshuni) have to observe the same rules as monks, and to be respectful to them ; some are allowed to dwell with their parents or friends. They also shave their heads, dress in white, and go about begging, sometimes for the monastery. The abbots, or heads of monasteries, are chosen by a meeting of the monks ; but in Siam and Burmah they are appointed by the king, and among the Lamas of Thibet they are elected by the college. The number of monks in a monastery is from four to many thousands, es- pecially in northern countries ; for instance, in the collegiate monastery of the Ohutukts in Mongolia there are 30,000. On the whole, the hierarchy is more democratic than monar- chic. We have seen that the uninterrupted series of 28 patriarchs, who are believed to have followed Buddha Sakyamuni, has no his- toric foundation. In Thibet, however, there is a minutely regulated hierarchic and monar- chic government under the dalai-lama, who is always reborn after death in another person, and whose administration is carried on during his minority by regents. In the beginning Buddhism was very simple, without a compli- cated system of saints ; but in progress of time we find teachers of theology: Aryas (venera- bles), who know the four truths ; men of the four paths or fruits, those who have attained the stream which floats them into the Nirvana, others who will return yet once to life, others who will not return ; and Archatg, or the wor- shipful, who are perfectly pure, infallible, en- dowed with miraculous powers, and see the Nirvana. There are three still higher sorts of saints, according to the three passages or ve- hicles: those having life on account of their being pupils of Sakyamuni; Pratyeka Bud- dhas, or self-saviours, a million times higher than Archats, comprehending all causalities; and Bodhisattvas, a sort of embryonic Bud- dhas. The three passages or vehicles are repre- sented as being drawn, the little by antelopes, the middle by goats, the great by oxen. Bud- dha himself is represented to have been thrice as great in body as ordinary men, of the most majestic beauty of appearance, with 32 great and 80 lesser characters of physical perfection, with a protuberance on the head, with bluish- black locks flowing like a periwig, a tuft of hair between the brows, &c. His footsoles are marked with various emblems, such as a wheel with many spokes, an umbrella, an ele- phant's trunk, a lotus, Mount Meru, the sun, moon, tiger, and mystic crosses. The atmos- phere about him is aromatic ; his head is sur- rounded by a halo of light. Buddhism favored the laity by admitting them to salvation, and binding them to the priests. Upasakat and UpdsaTcit (upa, near ; as, to sit ; sufif. aka) are male and female religious servants, a sort of half monks and half nuns ; bound to observe the first five of the above ten precepts, with the following five: not to swear or curse, not to talk nonsense, not to be concupiscent or greedy of pleasure, not to be malignant, to eschew superstition, heresy, and skepticism. In short, the whole morality is more one of endurance, patience, submission, and abstinence, than of action, energy, and enterprise. A general love of all beings is its nucleus ; each animal being our neighbor or possible relative. To love even our enemies, to offer our lives for animals, to abstain even from defensive warfare, to gain the greatest of victories by conquering one's self, to avoid all vices, to practise all virtues of hu- mility and mildness, to be obedient to supe- riors, to cherish and respect parents, old age, learning, virtuous and holy men, to provide food, shelter, and comfort for men and animals, to plant trees on the roads, dig wells, &c. such are the moral duties of Buddhists. No religion is despised by them; religious wars waged against dissenters have never been heard of among them ; the only contest on record being that between the Thibetan Yellow and Bed caps, in which the latter were driven out into the high valleys of the Himalaya (Bootan, Ne- paul, Ladakh, &c.). " Honor your own faith, and do not slander that of others," is a Bud- dhistic maxim. Kublai Khan, who became a convert in 1259, allowed priests of all creeds to " swarm at his court," who were eager to con- vert him to their own faith. The persecutions of Christians in Japan, China, Siam, &c., are oc- casioned by other than religious causes, being commonly reprisals against their intermeddling habits. National barriers have been most effectually levelled to the ground by Buddhism. Polygamy is not countenanced, but merely tolerated where it had existed before Bud- dhism came in. Monogamy is the rule in Cey- lon, Siam, and Burmah; somewhat less so in Thibet, Mongolia, and among the Calmucks. Illegitimate children are not disowned or abandoned, but taken care of, although they have no equal right of inheritance with the strictly- legitimate. Woman, in general, is better treated than by any other oriental re- ligion. In the cold, high regions of Thibet, and in the Himalayan valleys, polyandry is not rare, several (sometimes as many as ten) men, mostly brothers, having but one wife. Wor- ship, in our sense of the word, arose slowly and late in Buddhism. Almsgiving, confes- sion, preaching, explaining the reasons for the inequality of fortune, and other relations be- tween the clergy and laity, produced at last the use of prayers, of adoration, and of sacri- fices. The memory of Sakyamuni, his pre- tended image, his relics, and afterward those of others, became objects of idolatry. Bud- dha is said to have made a portrait of him- self, which became the stereotyped model of an infinity of images, statues, and the like. The