Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t3.1

c10.t3.1

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.*