Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.14

c8.14

There we see first and foremost that from the very beginning, as far back as we can go to the time of the earliest utterances of Buddhist religious consciousness, there is a firm conviction that the source of saving knowledge and holy life is the word of a teacher and founder of the Church, whom they designate the Exalted One (Bhagavâ), or the Knowing, the Enlightened One (Buddha). Whoever proposes to enter the spiritual brotherhood, repeats this formula three times: "I take my refuge with Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doctrine: I take my refuge in the Order." At the fortnightly confession, the liturgy of which is among the oldest of all the monuments of Buddhist Church life, the monk, who leads in the confession, charges the brethren who are present, not to conceal by silence any sins which they have committed, for silence is lying, "And intentional lying, O brethren, brings destruction; thus hath the Exalted One said." And the same liturgy of confession describes monks, who embrace heresies, by putting in their mouths these words: "Thus I understand the doctrine which the Exalted One hath preached," etc. Throughout it is not an impersonal revelation, nor is it the individual's own thought, but it is the person, the word of the Master, the Exalted One, the Buddha, which is regarded as the source of the truth and holy life.