The History of Buddhist Thought c12.10

c12.10

Morality is more than the Vinaya rules, for these chiefly concern the behaviour of the monk as the member of a community, and the moral conceptions of Buddhism are admittedly the highest product of Indian ethical thought. They derive their convincing character from two doctrines which were already established in Hindu belief, karma, “action,” i.e. the retribution of all deliberately willed actions, and the doctrine of continued rebirth. The latter made the doctrine of retribution seem real, for a single existence does not always appear to bear out the teaching that whatsoever a man sows he shall also reap. But the real greatness of Buddhist morality is in the truly ethical character of its teaching. In this it was helped by its rejection of brahminical ritual and sacrifice, and its principles apply equally to the life of the layman and the ascetic. The formulation of the moral training in the *Dīgha* is no doubt a scholastic production. The question is how far it was a correct presentation of the earliest teaching will be considered later.