Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
Two other special theses are enounced in the story of Kuñjarakarṇa.
The first is Vairocana's analysis of a human being, which makes it
consist of five Atmans or souls, called respectively Atman,
Cetanâtman, Parâtman, Nirâtman and Antarâtman, which somehow
correspond to the five elements, five senses and five Skandhas. The
singular list suggests that the author was imperfectly acquainted with
the meaning of the Sanskrit words employed and the whole terminology
is strange in a Buddhist writer. Still in the later Upanishads[437]
the epithet pancâtmaka is applied to the human body, especially in the
Garbha Upanishad which, like the passage here under consideration,
gives a psychophysiological explanation of the development of an
embryo into a human being.
The second thesis is put in the mouth of Yama. He states that when a
being has finished his term in purgatory he returns to life in this
world first as a worm or insect, then successively as a higher animal
and a human being, first diseased or maimed and finally perfect. No
parallel has yet been quoted to this account of metempsychosis.
Thus the Kuñjarakarṇa contains peculiar views which are probably
sectarian or individual. On the other hand their apparent singularity
may be due to our small knowledge of old Javanese literature. Though
other writings are not known to extol Vairocana as being Śiva and
Buddha in one, yet they have no scruple in identifying Buddhist and
Brahmanic deities or connecting them by some system of emanations, as
we have already seen in the Kamahâyânikan. Such an identity is still
more definitely proclaimed in the old Javanese version of the Sutasoma
Jâtaka[438]. It is called Purushâda-Śânta and was composed by
Tantular who lived at Madjapahit in the reign of Râjasanagara
(1350-1389 A.D.). In the Indian original Sutasoma is one of the
previous births of Gotama. But the Javanese writer describes him as an
Avatâra of the Buddha who is Brahmâ, Vishṇu and Iśvara, and he
states that "The Lord Buddha is not different from Śiva the king of
the gods.... They are distinct and they are one. In the Law is no
dualism." The superhuman Buddhas are identified with various Hindu
gods and also with the five senses. Thus Amitâbha is Mahâdeva and
Amoghasiddhi is Vishṇu. This is only a slight variation of the
teaching in the Kamahâyânikan. There Brahmanic deities emanate from
Śâkyamuni through various Bodhisattvas and Buddhas: here the Buddha
spirit is regarded as equivalent to the Hindu Trimûrti and the various
aspects of this spirit can be described in either Brahmanic or
Buddhistic terminology though in reality all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and
gods are one. But like the other authors quoted, Tantular appears to
lean to the Buddhist side of these equations, especially for didactic
purposes. For instance he says that meditation should be guided "by
Lokeśvara's word and Śâkyamuni's spirit."
7
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