Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t2.5

c8.s1.t2.5

We know not how far the forms of that corporate life, of which we shall give a fuller description later on, severally extend back to Buddha’s own time, of which we are now speaking. It is possible, those half-monthly confessional gatherings, to which so great significance is attached in the simple cult of ancient Buddhism, may have been observed by Buddha himself with the disciples who were with him. The tone which prevailed in the assembly of the believers was calm, composed, one might say, ceremonious. Were we permitted to judge by the impression conveyed to us by the sacred writings, we might opine that the sense of tranquil goodness and the quiet self-conscious joy, by which the associated life of these monks was pervaded, were not sufficient to compensate the lack of liveliness in expression and interchange of the experiences and emotions of each individual. Occasions of rapture were not unfrequent, and were desired as a high spiritual good: they consisted rather in quiet transport than in ecstatic excitement. Each aspired to them for himself alone; they knew nothing of that popular enthusiasm which seizes on whole assemblies, where one carries the others away and common emotion excites similar visions in the imagination of hundreds. To boast before the brothers of experiences of ecstasy was strictly forbidden.