348 BUDDHA, BUDDHISM

Meru as the centre; outside of the last girdle,in our world, is our sea with the four continentscorresponding to the four sides of Meru, viz.,Purvavideha to the east; Jambudwipa (or Indiaand its adjoining regions) to the south; God-haiya, or Aparagodana, to the west; and Utta-rakuru to the north. The whole is enclosed bya huge iron,wall, called Chakravala, and underit are the principal hells. Each world has itsown chakravala, its own sun, moon, stars, hells,and heavens. Above Mount Meru, in eachsystem, rise first the six heavens of the gods,which with the earth constitute the world ofdesire (Kdmadhdtu) ; above these rises the worldof form ( Rupadhatu\ divided into four successivestages of Dhyana, or contemplation; and lastly,the world without form {Arupadhatu). Thereare six classes of beings: gods, men, asuras (ordemons), beasts, pretas (or ravenous monsters),and the damned; these are the six gatis or“ paths ” of souls. Only the first two are thegood paths; the others cannot in their presentcondition enter on the road to Nirvana, thoughthey may have the hope of it in some futurebirth. 1

The Hindu pantheon is transferred almost un-altered into the Buddhist system, but the godsare of course immeasurably inferior to its ownpeculiar spiritual powers. Indra is the king ofthe second heaven (or lowest but one); the thirdis that of the yamas, the fourth is that of theTushitas, where the Bodhisattwas reside, whileawaiting their final birth on earth; the fifthand sixth are similarly appropriated to peculiarclasses of celestial beings. Mara, the god ofdesire (whom we have seen as Buddha’s tempterunder the Bodhi tree), is located in the sixth, thehighest stage of the world of desire, and hasmore or less influence over all the beings beneathhim.

The lowest region of the world of form ( ru~padhatu ), corresponding to the first degree ofcontemplation, is ruled by Brahma; u the secondbelongs to the beings of light; the third, to thebeings of purity; each of these regions consistsof three stages; the fourth or highest consistsof seven or nine stages, inhabited by variousclasses of beings, like those of the second andthird regions, peculiar to Buddhist mythology.Here dwell certain arhats , or beings next belowBuddhas and Bodhisattwas. Above these is theworld without form ( arupadhatu ), comprisingfour stages; this is the sphere of the Buddhas,or, according to the Southern scheme, of theformless Brahmas.

The Buddhist chronology consists of an endlessseries of aeons ( Kalpas ) on aeons, with perpetu-ally recurring periods of wider or more limiteddestruction and renovation. The destruction is

1 The legends sometimes represent even the lower ani-mals as influenced by Buddha’s preaching; thus in one hepreaches to fishes, in another a frog hears him preachingat Champ£, and is subsequently born in the Tushitaheaven(Hardy, Manual, p. 378). Cf. the similar stories in thelives of St. Francis and St. Philip Neri of the Oratory.

u The whole range of regions below him is called inNorthern Buddhism the sahaloJcadhatu, or world of suffer-ing; hence Brabm& is called sakdmpati, “ lord of suffer-ing beings.” The sahaloJcadhatu is generally held to bethe region of sansdra, or birth and death; above thereis still gradation, but only upward progress.

BUDDHA, BUDDHISM

effected by fire, water, or wind. The detail*vary widely in different, books, but the generaloutline is the same. We have here in fact amere copy of Brahmanical yugas and days ofBrahma; but Buddhism shews its posteriorityby fresh additions and multiplications. Theseries has no beginning, and, until all souls areemancipated, it will have no end.

Buddhism, unlike the Sankhya philosophy,admits no prakriti or \j\rj into its system, as thebasis of the universe, which remains unchangedeven during an aeon of destruction. Everythingdepends on the accumulated merit and demeritof individual souls; this merit or demerit regu-lates and causes everything, from the minutestincident of individual experience up to the revo-lutions of worlds.

Souls wander through the six orders of beings,but it is only in exceptional cases that theyenter plants or inorganic bodies (Koppen, Re-ligion des Buddha , i. 293). Each successive birthis determined by the actions of the soul in itsformer births, as every action inevitably ripenssooner or later, and brings a sensible fruit insome subsequent birth. This mechanical in-fluence of former actions is the Buddhist fate ,and, combined with the inherent attachment toexistence in every individual soul, is the causeof all mundane phaenomena. The latter is thegravitation to new life; the former supplies thedirection. Some of the Buddhist schools (par-ticularly 'those of Ceylon and Burmah) do notallow any identity between the souls of two suc-cessive existences; the soul dies at the end ofeach life, and transfers its responsibilities at deathto a new entity, just as it had inherited its ownfrom a previous one ; but this is not the doctrineof Nepal or China, nor was it probably theoriginal creed of Buddhism. Still, as we shallsee, when we come to Buddhist metaphysics, iteasily flows from the tenet of the five skandhas.

The cardinal tenet of Buddhism is the foursublime truths, “pain ( duhkha ),—its cause (sa-mudaya )>—its prevention ( nirodha ),—the way( marga ).” Pain is the eternal fact presented toconsciousness throughout the entire universe ofsansdra; it springs from desire which leads toaction, and consequent merit and demerit; it canbe prevented, but the only means is the law, aspromulgated by Buddha. These four truths re-cur everywhere in Buddhist literature, and theyno doubt formed one of the main features of/

Sakya Muni’s teaching. They are arranged intwo pairs, and the members of each pair aremutually related as effect and cause. They arerepeated in a well-known stanza, which was firstfound on the pedestal of a Buddhist statue dugup at Bakhra, and then afterwards on a stoneblock discovered at Sarnath, near Benares; theyare also found in the Nepalese and Pali canonicalbooks, and no doubt are a very ancient memorial.“ Whatever laws (or qualities, dharmah ) arisefrom a cause, the cause thereof hath the Tathagatadeclared; and what is the check to the same,that too hath the great ascetic explained 5 ’ 1 (cf.Burnouf, Lotus , App. p. 522).

* Tbe same division is found in Hindu philosophy*thus tbe Commentaries on the S&nkhya and Yoga bothspeak of the four heads of their school’s doctrine, via.mundane existence and its cause, or the conjunction ofthe soul and matter; and liberation, and its cause, or tbo