Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c8.s4.7

c8.s4.7

Buddhism, therefore, in laying stress on the presence of law in the nature of things, was merely developing a doctrine which was fully realized in the Brahmanic circles, though in the new belief much greater stress was directed to this conception, as a result of the lack of concentration on the absolute as real. Dhamma is freely and widely applied; it denotes the laws of nature: man's body falls under the rule of decay; it equally applies to the law of impermanence enunciated by the Buddha; whatever comes into being is subject to the law of destruction. It applies with special appropriateness to the chain of causation; he who sees the chain sees the law, and vice versa. The various members of the chain stand in a relation of accordance with law (dhamma-ṭhiti), and the knowledge of this relationship is itself subject to the law of evanescence (khaya-dhamma). The progress to enlightenment on the part of the individual is regulated by law; the aspirant who has entered on the path to salvation is subject to the rule that he cannot fall away from the fulfilment of his purpose; the non-returner (anāgāmin) to the rule that he cannot be born again in this world. Dhamma applies equally to law in the sphere presided over by the king and his judges. It covers again the norm for the castes, and the duties which that norm exacts from them, and all action in accord with duty, in contrast with Adhamma, disobedience to, or discord from, the norm. It denotes whatever is righteous or good, with the same contrast; indeed in the Milindapañha¹ we find a curious quasi-personification of the idea, just as in the Ṣatapatha Brāhmaṇa² a god, Dharma, the embodiment of righteousness, appears formally. In a less pregnant sense Dhamma denotes any usage or practice, without regard to its moral quality; it expresses the characteristic of any person or thing. Still more vaguely it comes occasionally to be used almost as a synonym of cause or ground (hetu), with which the commentators identify it.³