Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.30

c19.30

What the Way was not.—The negative aspects of the way are more or less clear. External sacrifice and the superstitious worship of Nature-deities were opposed by Buddha.²¹ Real sacrifice and worship, he held, were internal and consisted in the practice of virtue.²² Similarly he opposed the extreme austerities which contemporary Samaṇa sects like the Nigaṇṭhas and the Ājīvakas practised.²³ This, however, must not be taken to mean that he condemned all austerities indiscriminately.²⁴ He appears to have conceded to asceticism a limited usefulness.²⁵ Further, in as far as the contemporary “mystic” practices were undertaken to attain to this or that Deva world, Buddha considered them unsatisfactory,²⁶ although he himself appears to have taught a “Jhānic”