Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t3: The Spiritual Order and the Lay World
Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t3
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The Spiritual Order and the Lay World
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Buddha's Church is a Church of monks and nuns. "Very straitened," it is said, "is life in the home, a state of impurity; freedom is in leaving the home." He who cannot or will not gain this freedom, is not a member of the Church. But the nature of the case was such, and the external existence of the Church even demanded, that regular relations should be maintained between it and the worldly circles, which were favourably disposed to the interests of the Order. Without a laity, which professed a faith in Buddha and Buddha’s teaching, and evinced this faith in pious offices, above all in works of helpful beneficence, an order of mendicants could not be thought of, and the religious movement of Buddhism would have been shut out from contact with the broad surface of popular life. Tradition, therefore, as we have pointed out, represents, assuredly with propriety, not merely monks and nuns, but also “male votaries” (upâsaka) and “female votaries” (upâsikâ) as gathering round Buddha from the very beginning, persons who while remaining in the worldly state, “take their refuge” in Buddha, in the Doctrine, and in the Order, and show by word and deed their adherence to this holy triad.*
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∗ An illustration of this is given, for example, in the statements of the "Dîpavaṃsa" (7, i.) regarding the number of the monks and nuns, who have assisted at a great festival instituted by Asoka. Though the numbers themselves are inordinately exaggerated, yet they throw a certain light on the relation of the two sides. The chronicle speaks of 800 millions of monks and of only 96,000 nuns.
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But while there was framed from the beginning for the monastic Church an organization, clothed with strict forms of spiritual procedure, there was no attempt made at creations of a similar kind for the quasi-Church of lay-brothers and lay-sisters. Certain customs of spiritual life and practical beneficence must obviously have arisen even here; definite institutions have not followed. There was not so much as any sharply drawn line between the laity, who were to be regarded as adherents of the Order of Buddha, and those who stood aloof therefrom; entry into the circle of “votaries” was dependent on no qualification and followed regularly upon a form fixed by custom, but not determind by rule,† namely upon the person taking the step declaring in the presence of a monk, either on his own behalf alone, or jointly with wife, children, and servants, that he takes his refuge in Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order of Disciples. Then there was also, it is true, inculcated on the lay-disciples on the part of the Order, the observance of certain duties of temperance and rectitude,* but neither was the profession of a formal vow by them insisted upon, nor did the Church keep watch in any way whatever over the actual fulfilment of these duties. A formal excommunication of unbelieving, unworthy, or scandalously-living lay-brothers there was not, and, as a result of circumstances, there could not be. The only procedure prescribed in the regulations of the Church against laity, who had given cause of complaint, shows clearly how little the ideas of admission and expulsion had been applied to this relation: namely, the Order might resolve “to withdraw the almsbowl” from such a layman (i.e., take no gifts from him) “and refuse the admission of an Upâsaka had been looked upon as one determined by rule, some narrative of the introduction of this form by an injunction of Buddha must also exist. In truth he is an Upâsaka, who shows himself to be so by his acts. It cannot therefore cause astonishment, if occasionally people, who show honour to monks and entertain them, are addressed by them as Upâsakas, although they do not make a declaration of their taking refuge until afterwards (“Dhp. Atth.,” p. 81). Cf. also supra, note p. 162.
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∗ Vide supra, p. 161, seq.
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† Any one who is conversant with the method of description prevailing in the Vinaya Texts, will admit the conclusion, that, if the form for
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∗ Certain business pursuits were regarded as unallowable for a lay-disciple, for instance, dealing in arms, in intoxicating liquors, in poison (“Anguttara Nikâya,” vol. ii, fol. cam.).—As a counterpart to the confessional celebration observed by the monk on the first day, there is also enjoined on the laity the observance of an “eightfold abstinence;” the refraining from killing living creatures, from the appropriation of another’s property, from lying, from the enjoyment of intoxicating liquors, from unchastity, from eating after midday, from perfumes and garlands; and the sleeping on low, hard couches or on the ground (idem, vol. iii, fol. ghau’).
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their company to him at table”*); if after this he reformed and conciliated the Order, then by a new resolution “the almsbowl would be again presented to him, and the company (of the Order) at table be granted to him.” It is evident, that what is here dealt with, is not the deprivation or the re-conferring of a legal qualification of a kind such as we are in these days accustomed to associate with membership of a Church community, but merely the interruption or revival of a purely factitious relation of daily intercourse, the giving and receiving of material gifts and spiritual instruction.
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It is entirely in keeping with the manner and method in which the position of the lay believers has been treated, that regular spiritual gatherings were not instituted for them, and much less were they admitted to be present at the ceremonious proceedings of the Order, or even to a share of any kind whatsoever in the administration of the business affairs of the Order. The daily begging excursion of the monks maintained the usual contact between them and the believing laity, and gave a natural opening for attentions of a pastoral kind. The laity also on their part came to the parks of the community near the gates of the town with gifts of every kind, with food and medicine, with garlands and perfumes; there they paid their respects to the monks, and listened to the exposition of the sacred discourses and sayings. Or they erected buildings
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* This separation was not desired in the case of a scandalous mode of living—of this the Order as such took no notice—but only as a punishment for an affront or injury done to the Order. There are eight cases noted, in which this resolution was to be passed against a layman: “He endeavours to prevent the monks obtaining gifts; he endeavours to cause the monks to suffer injury; he endeavours to cause the monks not to obtain lodgings; he abuses or scolds the monks; he causes dissensions among the monks; he speaks evil of Buddha; he speaks evil of the Doctrine; he speaks evil of the Order.”—Cullavagga, v, 20, 3.
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for the uses of the Order, and invited the monks to the dedicatory and opening celebrations. "May it please the venerable ones to come to me," the message ran somewhat thus, which they sent to the Order, "I wish to present a gift and to hear the preaching of the Doctrine and to see the monks." Such invitations the Order is to receive, and even during the rainy season, when otherwise it is forbidden the monks to travel, they are allowed in a case of this kind to be absent from their place of residence for a period of seven days. Or the believers of a township requested the monks to pass the rainy season in their neighbourhood; then they provided lodgings for their guests, and gave them daily food when they made their begging excursions; and before the monks proceeded on their wanderings on the expiration of the rainy season, the lay believers were in the habit of giving them a farewell meal, with which was connected a distribution of clothing, or of stuff for clothing, to the parting spiritual pilgrims. Not unfrequently, too, a circle of laymen clubbed together to establish among themselves a "roster of dinners" for the Order, each taking his turn, and in dear times, when the entertaining of all the brethren would have exceeded the ability of one layman, there were instituted "dinners by arrangement," "dinners by invitation," "dinners on subscriptions," "fortnightly dinners." They promised the brethren to furnish, be it constantly or only for a limited period, the medicines of which they might be in need, or benefactresses of the Order went through the gardens of the monasteries and asked from house to house: "Who is sick among you, reverend sirs? To whom are we to bring anything, and what?" That the monks then, on their part, were not sparing in promising to the givers every heavenly reward, was a matter of course. "To give houses to the Order,” it is said,* “a place of refuge and joy, so that we may there exercise concentration and holy intuition, has been commanded by Buddha as the most noble gift. Therefore let a wise man, who understands what is best for himself, build beautiful houses, and receive into them knowers of the Doctrine. He may give food and drink, clothes and lodging to such, the upright with cheerful heart. These preach to him the Doctrine which drives away all suffering; if he apprehends the Doctrine here below, he goes sinless into Nirvâna.” In another place it is said:† “Well is it for a man always to dispense boiled-rice if he have a desire for joy, whether he seek heavenly joy or long for earthly happiness.” That occasionally the givers, for whom the drafts on a heavenly reward-fund in return for earthly benefaction had so much attraction, must have allowed themselves to be laid very wantonly under contribution by pretentious comrades among the begging stewards of heavenly treasures, is only natural. Certainly those narratives are drawn from life, as they are not unfrequently told of such occurrences in the Vinaya: of the man who had incautiously offered to give to the venerable Upananda whatever he required, and from whom he immediately demanded the clothes he was wearing, or of the pious potter, of whom the monks demanded almsbowls in such numbers that his business was thereby ruined. A long series of statements in the confessional liturgy was directed against this unauthorized exaction of pious charity, and confined within narrow limits the little, which monks receive, and the still less, for which they were allowed to ask. Apparently the criticism was by no means regarded with indifference, which might be practised in lay circles, and which the rival religious orders certainly did not neglect to maintain vigilantly and keenly. Monks who exercised in any way whatever an evil influence upon the laity, or caused them mortification, were most severely discountenanced, and in every way the laity were regarded as an ally on whose friendship they knew how to put a proper value.
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As an ally, but at the same time as nothing more. The feeling of having a share as a citizen in the kingdom of Buddha’s children, was denied to the laity, much more so even than was such a feeling denied in the old Brahmanical sacrificial-faith to the non-Brahman who, albeit only through the medium of the priest, could draw near to the god equally with the priest himself. The Buddhist believer, who did not feel in himself the power to renounce the world, could console himself with coming ages; he could hope for this, that it might then be vouchsafed to him, as a disciple of Metteyya, or of one of the countless Buddhas, who shall come after him, to don the garb of a monk and to taste the bliss of deliverance.
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For to but a few chosen ones, thus the Doctrine says, was it given, already in this age to attain the goal as disciples of the Son of the Sakya house, and short term was allotted to the existence of the Church on earth. When in the cloister-gardens at Râjagaha and Sâvatthi the discourses of Buddha were recited among the assembled brethren, they bethought themselves also of the prophecy: “Not a long time, Ânanda, will holy living remain preserved; five hundred years, Ânanda, will the Doctrine of the truth abide.” Who then foresaw, that after five hundred years the Church of the Buddhists would overspread India, and that its missionaries far beyond India, traversing the ocean, crossing the snowy ranges of the Himalaya, wandering through the deserts of Central Asia, would bring the faith of Buddha to nations, whose name even was not then named in India—to nations among whom this faith survived and still survives to this day, while in its parent-land the spirit of the Indian people, which in endless play dashed into ever new spheres of thought and fancy, which relegated to nothingness the wreck of ruined worlds and rebuilt lost beauty, not always in greater stateliness,* has long since permitted the Doctrine of Buddha to decay.
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∗ The reader of the original will observe the happy use which Dr. Oldenberg has made of the Chorus of Spirits in Göthe’s “Faust,” Pt. I.
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Weh! Weh!
Du hast sie zerstört
Die schöne Welt
Mit mächtiger Faust;
Sie stürzt, sie zerfällt!
Ein Halbgott hat sie zerschlagen!
Wir tragen
Die Trümmern ins Nichts hinüber
Und klagen
Ueber die verlorne Schöne.
Mächtiger
Der Erdensöhne,
Prächtiger,
Baue sie wieder,
In deinem Busen baue sie auf!
Linked texts (3)
- Cullavagga — Pāli
- Dīpavaṃsa — Pāli
- Aṅguttaranikāya — Pāli