The History of Buddhist Thought c25.3

c25.3

There were internal disputes between the different schools, and probably rivalry with the orthodox philosophies. The result was a metaphysical system in conscious opposition to the older standpoint. Dr. Stcherbatsky thus describes it in rather highly coloured language: "When we see an atheistic, soul-denying, philosophic teaching of a path to personal final deliverance, consisting in an absolute extinction of life and a simple worship of the memory of its human founder—when we see it superseded by a magnificent High Church with a supreme God, surrounded by a numerous pantheon and a host of saints, a religion highly devotional, highly ceremonious and clerical, with an ideal of universal salvation of all living creatures, a salvation by the divine grace of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, a salvation not in annihilation but in eternal life—we are fully justified in maintaining that the history of religions has scarcely witnessed such a break between new and old within the pale of what nevertheless continues to claim common descent from the same religious founder.” 1