Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.140

c19.140

The Brahmaviharas.—This "compassion" included but was something more than mere non-injury (Ahiṃsā).¹⁰³ Even under the direct provocation and harm one must not retaliate.¹⁰⁴ More, the earnest Buddhist must engage in the active cultivation of universal sympathy,¹⁰⁵ friendliness¹⁰⁶ and "Mitfreude". This, of course, does not amount to saying that the practice was an original teaching of Buddha.¹⁰⁷ In fact, in the Bojhanga Saṃ (No. 46—S. V. 346) the doctrine is described as held in common with the heretics. Makhādeva, king of Mithilā, is made to practise it.¹⁰⁸ So the Brāhmaṇa minister of yore, Mahāgovinda, is supposed to have reached the Brahman-world, through the practice of Karuṇā-vihāra.¹⁰⁹ The Vihāras themselves are called Brahma-vihāras and are described as the way to Brahma-Sahavyatā and °Patti.¹¹⁰ The use of the term Vimutti in connection with them is also perhaps not without significance. Finally, the Yoga-sūtras too mention them in fact, though there the practices have shrunk to an individualistic cultivation, and the idea of suffusion (Pharitvā viharati) is lost. All this, however, only suggests that the doctrine of the Four Vihāras originated in an atmosphere full of Brāhmaṇic ideas, and that at one period of its history it became a common possession of many different sects. Its actual origins are obscure, but it appears to have been a feature of original Buddhism, if not an original feature of Buddhism. It must, however, be remembered that apart from the late reference in the Yogasūtras, the Brāhmaṇa and Jinist works are generally quite silent about the doctrine, which finds absolutely no mention in later Vedic literature.¹¹¹