The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s7.t3.98

v2.c40.s7.t3.98

Slight as is normally the recognition in the Buddhist texts of the Brahman doctrine of their rivals, Geiger³ has shown that the term Dhamma not rarely is used as a substitute, in expressing the Buddhist ideal, for the Brahman of the Upaniṣads, while the term Brahman itself is occasionally preserved.⁴ The famous phrase ‘Wheel of the Law (*dhamma-cakka*)’ is also paralleled by Brahma-cakka;⁵ the Dhammayāna by Brahmayāna;⁶ the Tathāgata is not merely an incorporation of Dhamma but also of the Brahman, he has become not only the Dhamma but also the Brahman;⁷ the Dhamma even claims the worship which is the lot of the Brahman in the Upaniṣads.⁸ Nor in choosing the term Dhamma for the system was Buddhism without Upaniṣad precedent; the Bṛhadāraṇyaka⁹ tells that Brahman created the Dharma, than which nothing is higher, and the Mahānārāyaṇa¹⁰ asserts that the whole universe is encircled by the Dharma, than which there is nothing harder to describe.