Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.31

c10.31

have concentrated itself.[*] But we find that not even the slightest attempt has been made in the whole Church-regulations for carrying out such arrangements.[†] The centre of gravity of all operations of Church-government, if we may speak of such a thing at all, lies within the circumference, within the small corps of brethren dwelling in the same circuit. But in the wandering life of these mendicant monks, in their constant coming and going, which only the three months of the rainy season bring to a certain standstill, the composition of these limited corps is naturally always changing. These monks to-day, to-morrow those have been thrown together, to-day these, to-morrow those exercise decisive authority among the brothers. Continuity and succession in the direction of matters of common interest could not, under these circumstances, possibly exist—and how could there be wanting in the life of this vast ecclesiastical corporation matters which demanded a continuous direction? If the synod of a particular district had come to any resolution for the decision of a doubtful point, or as to the right and wrong in a dispute between spiritual brothers, it was open to every other synod to resolve the contrary, and higher authority there was none, either to re-establish harmony in a synod divided within itself, or to reconcile the rival claims of different synods.* In the early times after Buddha’s death the personal authority of the disciples, who had stood nearest to the Master, may possibly have operated to compensate this want and have checked the outbreak of serious discord: but a condition of things, which depends on the weight of individuals, not upon the sure structure of legal institutions, bears in itself the germ of dissolution. The sacred texts, which became fixed some time towards the end of the first century after Buddha’s death, show clearly what disorder and confusion must have prevailed in the Church at that time; there is reflected in these texts the deep feeling of disaster, which dissensions among the brethren were bound to cause and were already causing, and at the same time the utter incapacity to prevent this disaster. The chapter on Schisms in the Church is constantly treated of, whenever the topic of spiritual life is discussed; the guilt of him who has given occasion for such dissensions is reckoned among the gravest sins; the most impressive admonitions to the brethren are put in Buddha’s mouth, to live in harmony with each other and to make concessions, even when in the right, rather than to allow divisions to arise in the Order. More effective still than these admonitions would have been institutions, possessing the power to watch over the relations between communities and members of communities, over the co-operation of all; such institutions were wholly wanting.