Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
Still the mystical, quietist philosophy of Lao-tzŭ and
Chuang-tzŭ has an undoubted resemblance to Indian thought. No one
who is familiar with the Upanishads can read the Tao-Tê-Ching without
feeling that if Brahman is substituted for Tao the whole would be
intelligible to a Hindu. Its doctrine is not specifically Buddhist,
yet it contains passages which sound like echoes of the Pitakas.
Compare Tao-Tê-Ching, 33. 1, "He who overcomes others is strong: he
who overcomes himself is mighty," with Dhammapada, 103, "If one man
overcome a thousand thousand in battle and another overcome himself,
this last is the greatest of conquerors"; and 46. 2, "There is no
greater sin that to look on what moves desire: there is no greater
evil than discontent: there is no greater disaster than covetousness,"
with Dhammapada, 251, "There is no fire like desire, there is no
monster like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent
like covetousness." And if it be objected that these are the
coincidences of obvious ethics, I would call attention to 39. 1̣,
"Hence if we enumerate separately each part that goes to form a cart,
we have no cart at all." Here the thought and its illustration cannot
be called obvious and the resemblance to well-known passages in the
Samyutta Nikâya and Questions of Milinda[603] is striking.
Any discussion of the indebtedness of the Tao-Tê-Ching to India is too
complicated for insertion here since it involves the question of
its date or the date of particular passages, if we reject the
hypothesis that the work as we have it was composed by Lao-tzŭ in
the sixth century B.C.[604] But there is less reason to doubt the
genuineness of the essays of Chuang-tzŭ who lived in the fourth
century B.C. In them we find mention of trances which give superhuman
wisdom and lead to union with the all-pervading spirit, and of magical
powers enjoyed by sages, similar to the Indian _iddhi_. He approves
the practice of abandoning the world and enunciates the doctrines of
evolution and reincarnation. He knows, as does also the Tao-Tê-Ching,
methods of regulating the breathing which are conducive to mental
culture and long life. He speaks of the six faculties of perception,
which recall the Shaḍâyatana, and of name and real existence
(nâmarûpam) as being the conditions of a thing[605]. He has also a
remarkable comparison of death to the extinction of a fire: "what we
can point to are the faggots that have been consumed: but the fire is
transmitted and we know not that it is over and ended." Several
Buddhist parallels to this might be cited[606].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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