Life and works of Alexander Csoma de Körös : $b A biography compiled chiefly from hitherto unpublished dataDuka, Tivadar
History
Life and works of Alexander Csoma de Körös : $b A biography compiled chiefly from hitherto unpublished data
Duka, Tivadar
Kőrösi Csoma, Sándor, 1784-1842
The next subject is the performance of the great Buddhist rite, the
“Confession and Expiation,” which should be observed every new and full
moon in a public place, and before the whole congregation of monks. The
ceremony is fully detailed.
The rest of the volume contains a number of precepts and prohibitions;
some of them are of a whimsical character.
The second volume treats on matters of dress, fitness of leather or
hides for shoes to be worn by the priests. There is a treatise on such
drugs as the disciples are permitted to use and to carry about them.
There is also an account of how the King of Magadha entertained Shakya
for three months. Various legends are told, and in the course of them
the six chief cities of India are mentioned, namely, Sravasti and
Saketana in Oude, Varanasi (the Benares of to-day), Vaisali (now
Allahabad), Champa (Bhagulpore), and Rajagriha (Behar, Gaya).
From Magadha Shakya went to Vaisali upon invitation of the Lichchavi
inhabitants of that city, who appear to have been republicans and very
wealthy. The peregrinations of Shakya are continued, in which he made
many converts, relating the events of their present and previous lives,
as well as those of his own, and how he became a Bodhisatvan or a sage.
The conclusion of the second volume leaves him, with thirty-six of his
principal disciples, at the lake Mansarowar, or Manassarovara, in the
northern Himalayas, near the source of the Ganges and the Indus.
The third volume continues in the same strain. At a place in Kosala,
Shakya and his followers were entertained by certain people with the
view of ascertaining the habits of the Buddhist monks; they were found
moderate in their enjoyments and easily satisfied. Their opponents, the
Brahmans, on the contrary, showed greediness and insatiability.
Special lessons are given to the priests, as in the preceding volumes.
They are permitted to eat treacle, to cook for themselves in time of
famine, to eat meat under certain restrictions, and to accept gifts
from the laity. These lessons are interspersed with notices on
medicines and on the mode of administering them; the employment of
charms and incantations is inculcated.
Next are laid down rules for the proper attire to be worn by the
disciples of Shakya. They are directed to wear not more than three
pieces of cloth of a red colour, to use cotton garments when bathing,
to be clean in their dress and in their bedding, and never to go about
naked as the Brahmin fakirs do. The subject of dress is followed up by
directions as to the use of mats or sheets to lie upon.
Important injunctions are given regarding the conduct to be observed
towards refractory and quarrelsome brethren. They are first to be
admonished in the congregation, and if still impenitent, to be expelled
from the community. The mode in which confession, repentance, and
absolution are to be practised is explained and illustrated by
examples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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