The History of Buddhist Thought c15.20

c15.20

Where the discussions touch most closely upon positive Buddhist doctrines is in the treatment of the way of salvation and in cosmogony, the theory of the origin of the universe. But what we find are the peculiar Buddhist theories, stated without any distinct recognition of the different conceptions of brahminism, and in no case with any allusion or quotation referring to an upanishad. On the one hand there was the view of the brahmin priests that by due performance of the sacrifices and other duties of life rebirth in heaven might be won, and on the other the secret doctrine of the brahmin recluses that freedom from rebirth might be won by attaining a certain knowledge. It is only the first that we find discussed by the Buddhists. The *Tevijja-sutta*, the discourse on the three-fold knowledge, the Vedas, undertakes to discuss the value of sacrifice, and the brahmins are represented as holding that it leads to life in the Brahma-world. But the Brahma-world as described belongs purely to the Buddhist conception of the universe. It is a definite region above the heavens of sense-pleasures, and is ruled by Mahā-Brahmā, the god who thinks he has created the universe, and every inhabitant