Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
The older Upanishads hint at a doctrine analogous to that of Kant,
namely that man is bound and conditioned in so far as he is a part of
the world of phenomena but free in so far as the self within him is
identical with the divine self which is the creator of all bonds and
conditions. Thus the Kaushîtaki Upanishad says, "He it is who causes the
man whom he will lead upwards from these worlds to do good works and He
it is who causes the man whom he will lead downwards to do evil works.
He is the guardian of the world, He is the ruler of the world, He is the
Lord of the world and He is myself." Here the last words destroy the
apparent determinism of the first part of the sentence. And similarly
the Chândogya Upanishad says, "They who depart hence without having
known the Self and those true desires, for them there is no freedom in
all worlds. But they who depart hence after knowing the Self and those
true desires, for them there is freedom in all worlds[70]."
Early Buddhist literature asserts uncompromisingly that every state of
consciousness has a cause and in one of his earliest discourses the
Buddha argues that the Skandhas, including mental states, cannot be the
Self because we have not free will to make them exactly what we
choose[71]. But throughout his ethical teaching it is I think assumed
that, subject to the law of karma, conscious action is equivalent to
spontaneous action. Good mental states can be made to grow and bad
mental states to decrease until the stage is reached when the saint
knows that he is free. It may perhaps be thought that the early
Buddhists did not realize the consequences of applying their doctrine of
causation to psychology and hence never faced the possibility of
determinism. But determinism, fatalism, and the uselessness of effort
formed part of the paradoxical teaching of Makkhali Gosala reported in
the Pitakas and therefore well known. If neither the Jains nor the
Buddhists allowed themselves to be embarrassed by such denials of free
will, the inference is that in some matters at least the Hindus had
strong common sense and declined to accept any view which takes away
from man the responsibility and lordship of his own soul.
19. _The Origin of Evil_
The reader will have gathered from what precedes that Hinduism has
little room for the Devil[72]. Buddhism being essentially an ethical
system recognizes the importance of the Tempter or Mâra, but still Mâra
is not an evil spirit who has spoilt a good world. In Hinduism, whether
pantheistic or polytheistic, there is even less disposition to personify
evil in one figure, and most Indian religious systems are disposed to
think of the imperfections of the world as suffering rather than as sin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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