Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.28

c6.28

At first, no doubt, the primary idea was to provide for the proper instruction of the novice in the doctrines of the Buddhist faith, and to secure some supervision over his conduct while he was becoming habituated to the monastic life. Buddhism, indeed, exists to abolish ignorance, but it is not primarily concerned with the intellect or with the promotion of learning. The ignorance which is to be abolished is ignorance of a small number of practical doctrines, such as the necessary connection of sorrow with existence, and the need of extinguishing desire. The pursuit of secular knowledge would almost seem, from one point of view, to be contrary to the spirit and purpose of Buddhism, and yet we know that the Buddhist monastic institutions did become to some extent places of general learning. A person who is on his way to the attainment of perfect knowledge of things in themselves—that is, one who is determined to become a future Buddha—is called, according to the *Mahāyāna* form of Buddhism, a *Bodhisattva*. To reach this high estate he has to pass through certain stages, and among some of the stages which came to be recognized by Mahāyāna teaching are those in which intellectual pursuits and study are required.¹ This development of ideas, however, only took place after Buddhism had existed for a long time.