Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c9.s1.12

c9.s1.12

used often in distinctly different meanings, or we find the same thought expressed in different settings, which can be only partially harmonized with each other. The most serious obstacle, however, which stands in the way of our comprehending Buddhist dogmatics is the silence with which everything is passed over which does not lead "to the separation from the earthly, to the subjection of all desire, to the cessation of the transitory, to quietude, knowledge, illumination, to Nirvâna." We remarked that an extensive stock of metaphysical, and especially psychological technicalities, was esteemed anything but superfluous for him who seeks after quietude and illumination; but advance in this direction was made only up to a certain point, and no farther. Speculations like those which were proposed can only be thoroughly comprehensible when they present themselves as a complete, self-contained circle. But here we have a fragment of a circle, to complete which, and to find the centre of which, is forbidden, for it would involve an inquiry after things which do not contribute to deliverance and happiness. When we try to resuscitate in our own way and in our own language the thoughts that are embedded in the Buddhist teaching, we can scarcely help forming the impression that it was not a mere idle statement which the sacred texts preserve to us, that the Perfect One knew much more which he thought inadvisable to say, than what he esteemed it profitable to his disciples to unfold. For that which is declared points for its explanation and completion to something else, which is passed over in silence—for it seemed not to serve for quietude, illumination, the Nirvâna—but of which we can scarcely help believing that it was really present in the minds of Buddha and those disciples, to whom we owe the compilation of the dogmatic texts.