The History of Buddhist Thought c12.100

c12.100

The seven groups of the *bodhipakkhikā dhammā*, from the four Contemplations to the Eightfold Path, form a whole of thirty-seven items, and they for long remained a summary of the positive aspect of the doctrine. In the story of Buddha’s death they are said to have formed his last discourse to the monks.¹ Rhys Davids, apparently assuming that the details are historical, said, “it is of great interest to notice what are the points upon which Gotama, in this last address to his disciples, and at the solemn time when death was so near at hand, is reported to have laid such emphatic stress . . . This summary of the Buddha’s last address may fairly be taken as a summary of Buddhism, which thus appears to be simply a system of earnest self-culture and self-control.”² Its importance does not lie in the supposition that it may contain a nucleus of truth about a quite legendary period, but in the fact that it was accepted by the chief schools as constituting the essentials of the doctrine. As thus stated it gives good grounds for those scholars like La Vallée Poussin, who refuse to call it a religion. It does not deny the gods, but it recommends remembrance³ of them only in order to recognize that they have reached their respective heavens by means of such faith, morality, and other virtues as the disciple himself possesses. They are not worshipped, they are not the basis of morality, nor are they the bestowers of happiness.