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Some Sayings of the Buddha. Translated by F. L. Woodward. (Oxford University Press. fis. net.) Ti-me-kun-dan, Prince of Buddhist Benevolence. Trans-

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IT is true that the Buddha preached the loss of the soul. He saw in the soul of the common man an avid, multiform, selfish, and egotistic thing that changed its nature with every appetite that came to it. It would be better to call the body the Self, he said, than such a soul. For the body can last for a hundred years, but the soul takes on any hue and never lasts more than

B moment.

But whether the Buddha preached the loss of the soul in order that the soul should be gained has been put in dispute a thousand times. On this point there have been schools formed in opposition to each other, and differing philosophies have been elaborated. It is not that the Buddha was in doubt himself, but rather that he refused to say. It was not a fit question to ask. When one inquirer asked him if there was actually such a thing as soul, apart from the flux of appetites and perceptions in man, he held his peace. And asked by Ananda why he was silent, he replied :—

"If I said yes, he would make a fantasy of it as something immutable and eternal. And if I said no, he would think he perishes utterly at death. . . . Or he would think, I was eternal once but I am not so any longer."

For above all the Buddha saw that if you give men a word they will take it automatically as representing something real and substantive. They will fit it idly into their speech or their dreams, mean nothing very definite by it but let it run to seed in their mind. It has been remarked often enough that there are thousands of men who profess a belief in the soul or in God, and yet are indistinguishable in conduct from unbe- lievers. To such inoperative thoughts the Buddha would lend no countenance. A belief should be an experience and a rule of life ; that and that only. Like a Pragmatist, he would not even allow metaphysical speculation.

. "Do not have thoughts, 0 disciples, such as the vulgar think :— The world is eternal—or the world is not eternal ; the world is finite.—or the world is infinite If you think, 0 disciples, you should be able to think :—This is sorrow, this is the cause of sorrow, this is the ceasing of sorrow."

To the people names mean things, quite without knowledge of what it is they are naming. The Four Truths, the Eightfold Path, and Nirvana itself are falsities unless they are truths of directed will or actual attainment.

None the less, by virtue of that "directed will" we can observe that the Buddha was no materialist. For the centre of his doctrine was in "right effort " ; and the effort was towards the creation in man of exactly that eternal principle inde- pendent of the senses, or overlord of the senses, which in Christian terms we call "mind of the spirit," an awareness which shall be tranquil and undeflected by the passions, "grasping at nothing at all in the world."

Now the doctrine of the Buddha is often criticized as pessi- mistic. If it is pessimistic to consider that the natural man is in a state of ignoranee and disharmony and wretchedness, and that an entire change of mind is necessary, then Buddhism shares its pessimism with all other religions. But if it is the aim of Buddhism, the new valuation of Buddhism, Nirvana, that is counted a sad state of being to take as ideal, then at least some misconceptions must be cleared up before we agree or disagree. Nirvana is commonly taken to be the annihilation . of all life and all consciousness. This view was definitely pro- hibited and declared heretical. Nirvana is here ineffable ; and who shall try to describe it ? Suffice it to say that it was originally regarded as heretical to say that Nirvana was some- thing, or Nirvana was nothing, that Nirvana was conscious or Nirvana was unconscious. Nirvana was harmony and peace and illumination and rest. It must be remembered, too, that Nirvana was very definitely a value for life. It was on this

account that the Buddha would not suffer discussion of iminor. tality ; since most believers in immortality use their fantasy- as a make-weight for life now. Somehow, they consider, this

world does not allow them a chance of arriving at self-realiza- tion or the fullness of experience. There must be some other, world where the insufficient reality of this world will be made good. Without immortality life would not be worth living. - And in the proportion of their fixation upon another world,:

to the same degree they diminish the finality and purposive., ness of this world. But Nirvana is that fullness of experience

in life which, by containing everything without undue stress,' is tranquil and healing. There is certainly, in the Buddhist doctrine, a Paranirvana, a great Nirvana in death ; but even in this it is illegitimate to say that being comes to an end.

As to the Nirvana of life, what is there more to be said but that Nirvana was the state of being of the Buddha himself, and that Buddhahood is Nirvana ?

Still, to our Western eyes, there is something too tranquil, too pleasing, almost, in Buddhism. And if anyone, when all is accounted for, would call this valuation of life pessimistic in comparison to one of more childishness but more far4eaching ambition, he is entitled to his judgment. • But to call Budd- hism gloomy or nihilistic is absurd. Read, for example, the description of the Buddha's disciples :—

" Men whose senses are easy, like well-broken horses, who have divested themselves of pride, who are freed from all impurity— the gods themselves envy men who are thus consummated. In perfect happiness we live, without enemies in the world of enmity; whole among the sick, unwearied among those who wear them,. selves out. In perfect happiness we live, we to whom nothing belongs : joy is our nourishment, as to the shining gods."

Mr. 'Woodward's translations from the early canon are full and valuable. The English is simple and precise ; and tin air of graciousness and strength, as of a ,mild light, comei through the translation. For the most noticeable thing in all the Buddha's sayings is their combination of serenity, logical acuity, and dignity. It has been said that even where the doctrine of the Buddha makes no direct appeal, there is a beauty and charm in his attitude which can seduce the mind. We have one thing only to regret in Mr. Woodward's versions. There are seeming repetitions and recapitulations in the original which, by their recurrence, add an ease and pleasant- ness of rhythm to the argument. It is perhaps difficult for a European to get out of the habit of skipping the repetitions ; but half the effectiveness, the smooth pace, of the teaching is 'lost if we omit them. Often Mr. Woodward has not even per- mitted us the choice. We are jerked up continually by strings of dots or by the uncomfortable "(as above)."

Mrs. Rhys Davids' book is a new edition of a modestly, written but most well-informed short treatise. There are sup- plementary chapters, composed since it was first published; upon the doctrine of rebirth, the" anti-soul" attitude, and the Buddhist principle of change. There is a suspicion, in Mrs. Rhys Davids' presentations, of an idealism and a femininity • that would have been heretical, indeed. But we must remem- ber that the Buddhist teachings were directed against Brah- manism in a time of a too deep and conservative subjectivity, and that in an age like the present the expression of Buddhism would doubtless have been more clearly anti-materialist.

• Both these books deal with Buddhism in its earlier, " primi- , tive " stages. Later there were complications and divisions amongst which the original doctrine seems almost to have been lost. Brahmanism made a kind of peace by conquest with

• Buddhism, including its tenets under the Brahmanical systems. An/1 meanwhile Buddhism had migrated to strange- lands, and had taken on a new appearance with each new territory.

• Solpetimes it was formalized and philosophized out of recogni- tion. Sometimes it was made into a mere locus for devotional ardours and mysticisms. In Tibet it absorbed the local wor- ships and was injected with Tantrism, too.

But in Tibet, as we can see from the mystery play which Miss Morrison translates, the morality of self-renunciation has been . preserved. It has even been stressed, till it has all the sweetness and weakness of which the later Christianity has been accused.' Prince Ti-me-kun•dan, the immaculate, surrenders himself not to gain peace, but through a mere habit of surrendering. And, to tell the truth, he gives away his father's wealth, not his own ; which seems a kind of incontinence in charity. Still, • the play is good and affecting. - There are several lyrics of great beauty, and to anyone imaequainted withEastern fables the whole atmosphere will be strange and simple. A. P.