Followers of the Buddha

 

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato, Sammasambuddhassa!

(Reprinted from the Buddhist Review, No. 1, pp. 7-12.)

THESE words are written only for those who, in the new Buddhist Society and without it, look on what the West calls Buddhism not merely with the interest of the philosopher, the linguist, or the antiquary, but as a Religion, as the Religion they are proud-and yet humble-to call their own.

As a body, the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland is, of course, not a religious association, whether Buddhist or otherwise. Its doors are open to all who take any interest whatsoever in this greatest and most ancient of the world-religions, alike whether that interest be religious, or merely academic; all members of the society are, of course, entitled to hold whatsoever view of Buddhism seems the right view for them; that there should be such perfect eclecticism in the society seems to us Buddhists to be one of the essential conditions of life and growth in the movement, as, from the keenest criticism, the clearest and deepest investigation, Buddhism has everything to gain and naught to fear; for, as we have heard, "Truth, verily, is Immortal Speech.

But the same liberty, which is the right of each non-Buddhist member also, of necessity, extends to the Buddhists in the movement; those, therefore, whose interest in Buddhism is from other than the religious standpoint, will doubtless pardon a Buddhist Religious if he writes, in this journal, of an eclectic society, as a Buddhist speaking to his co-religionists, of whom, happily, the society includes no small proportion.

To those of us whose great privilege it has been to win to this position, who count ourselves thrice fortunate in having, thus early in the course of events, perceived the immeasurable value, the deep, wide truth of that teaching of the Awakened One, which, in the intellectual and intuitional growth of our civilisation, is surely destined to become the Guide of all the West­as even now it is the Guide of so many minions in the East; for those of us who deem ourselves Followers of the Buddha, it is above all things needful to analyse our own position, to ascertain how this our Buddhism speaks to our own hearts and minds, and what manner of life it makes incumbent on us.

For, if we be indeed worthy of the name of Followers of the Buddha, it behoves us, first and foremost, to understand the full meaning that that title has for us; and, not less essentially, to consider what course of action we must follow, if we are to make the most of the great opportunity that our Karma now has brought to us. If, indeed, we be Followers of the Buddha we must needs, according to the utmost of our small powers, attempt to follow Him; it is a question, for the interior world, of rightly understanding; for the exterior world, of rightly acting at a juncture which must profoundly affect the course of our own future life and lives; and may, if we act but wisely, profoundly, and for the better, change the destinies of succeeding generations of our fellow-men.

Considering, then, our Great Exemplar, we see that, first, moved by His pity for the suffering of life, He sought to find that Truth, that Way, whereby all beings­like ourselves enthralled by Ignorance­might find the Peace; secondly, that having won that Highest Wisdom, He forthwith devoted all His life and love for over twoscore years to making that way, that Truth, known to all amongst His fellow-men whom, by His Teaching, and yet more potently, by the incomparable example of His life, He had it in His power to reach.

We ourselves, too blinded by our ignorance ever of our own unaided efforts to be able in one life to win that Highest Truth from the sanctuary wherein it hides in being's heart, have­Homage to Him­that first step won­for us, the Truth declared and known. Here it remains to us only to understand it; and that task, as we well know, must, in its deepest sense­the attainment of the Goal­take for us many a following life. But, in respect of the second stage, where Understanding has grown into Action, where the making-known of that Truth is concerned, there even we have, at this auspicious present time, an opportunity such as can occur but once in manifold lives­even we, to just the extent ourselves have understood it, are able now to pass the liberating Message on.

To think what it all means­for us, for Life! Our minds, indeed, may yet be darkened by the merciful veil of oblivion that hides from us the interminable procession of the past. But if the Message we have heard be true­if, indeed, Causation, and not chaos, reigns at the root of life­ then, life after life in endless awful series, have we passed on from birth to death, from death to birth again; no rest in it, no end to it­hounded ever by Desire, dogged ever by our good and evil deeds; all transient and full of sorrow, all unreal; till, as the Master taught us, there is no drop in all the Ocean's deeps but once has fallen from our eyes as tears, or yet one breath of all earth's atmosphere, but once has passed from us­a sigh!

And now. Now­peradventure in our hearts' despair of life, the hope that once inspired our fathers gone for ever from us, grown past the period of mental childhood when Faith can take high Wisdom's place now there has come to us, echoing through the hearts and lives of eighty generations of our kind, this great new tale of Hope Renewed: Hope that we all can understand, nor longer need believe it since we know-this Hope that gives renewing life to us, makes light again the heavy burden of our passing years, a Voice that speaks to us from out the immemorial past, and tells us of the secret of our being and our tears.

The prison door stands open­it is your Self is warden of these woes­that is the simple Message that for us has changed the face of all the world! For what, these weary lives, have we all suffered, for what desired, for what inflicted suffering on Life? For Self alone; and Self is but a phantom of our Nescience­we have not know, we have not understood. See, then, the great free Truth, this Self is but a mirage; see the great Truth ! All life is One, and wherefore more endure this long despotic tyranny?­strive then no more with Life, for you are Life itself; but live and work and help for Life, and you will surely find it, as the old sad bondage wears away, that Life is but the preparation for a State so wonderful, so past all thought and speech, that we can here but say of it that it is Peace, Peace, Peace!

That is the Message­so far as a few poor words can claim to represent that uttermost ideal of Life. And unto us, out of the length of years, and from ten thousand miles away, here has it changed for us the very meaning of our lives. And why, why then are we so privileged, so highly chosen by our destiny, that first of all our Western race, Its Treasure, has been seized by such as we? Causation reigns; and if to-day our ears have heard, surely but yesterday our lips have spoken. In the long past, one happy fruitful life, we saw that Truth's high light, and wrought to bring its blessings to our fellows; the balance swings, life's day flies by, and now again we find ourselves in life. Home comes the Message that of yore we sped; for Justice reigns, the Great Laws balance, aye, weigh true and sure.

So do we Buddhists read the riddle of our present and our past; and the great question now before us is, What shall we do for this our opportunity? Shall we, being wise, seize on the blessing of the moment, and, in this land where yet the Dharma is unknown, earn once again for future lives the privilege we in this life have won, ever gaining more and more of Truth's unchanging power in all this World of Change immutable and sure? Or shall we, letting the moment slip, leave unto others wiser and more far-sighted than are we, this guerdon we have won, this privilege of helping by our work and lives, the new forth-streaming of the Dharma's mighty power­that power forth-streaming from beyond the Veil, which once spread wide this Message over the greatest and most civilised of all the continents, and which shall yet bear that Message far and wide, throughout the new third of humanity, grown well-nigh able to receive it?

That is our problem­and none of us, at least, but knows the answer that we hope to make to it. That answer, we have all determined, shall be written as the story of all our following years, till death once more shall bring to us inheritance of further life­life wherein we with power ever growing from our gathering wisdom, shall come to vaster opportunities to help even than that which now is spread before us. We know­we who a little have come to understand the meaning of the Master's Message, who dare to call ourselves His Followers­we know what that great Truth has done for us, what it might do for so many of our seeking fellow-men. We know what mighty changes Its acceptance must surely mean for just all those conditions that are to-day the shame and the despair of this new, garish civilisation of the West. All that remains to us is Action­not the vain claim that we are Followers of the Buddha, whilst yet our lives are empty of the pity and the love and helpfulness He taught, but action true, following to the best of our small powers that fairest blossom of our Aryan Race; it is not vain talk and futile declamation, nor even, by itself, mere learning in the ancient Texts, that make a man our Master's Follower­but love for all, but work, but life.

So let whoso shall make that claim content himself with that­your privilege it is to do the work, to help the spreading of the Law of Love; to live according to the Buddha's Message. Suffer no attack, and no futility, to alter in the least your contribution to the welfare of Humanity, remembering that the world can only judge of Buddhism by your actions, by your love, your life. So may you help to render to the Western World that greatest of all services whereof it stands so sorely now in need: the spreading of the great Religion which, from the small beginning now made, will yet grow till all the thinking West stands where you stand to-day; and which in very fact is the sole cure for all its manifold sufferings­sole cure for its deep-rooted self-idolatry which, as Arnold has so accurately put it, "Crying 'I,' would have the world say 'I.'

And so, remembering in daily practice of Right Mindfulness, who and what you are­what your high privilege, and what your Hope in life­bear ever in your hearts the last, great exhortation that the Master uttered, when, at the close of that long life which did so much to change the history of mankind, He passed away into that utter passing which leaves no remnant of the self behind it:­"Lo! now, O brothers, I exhort ye! Decay is inherent in all the Tendencies­wherefore by earnestness work out your Liberation.

ANANDA METTEYYA.

London, the 15th Waning of Potthapada, 2,452 (September 24th, 1908).