Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-09-27
Buddhistic Ethics.
Translated for the Gazette. ]

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Translated for the Gazette.
In the religious works of the past
we frequently find passages which eN-
press with great force and clearness
the spirit of the people under which
they originated. For the sake of COM
parison will cite one passage from Il e
old testament and one from canoni-
cal book of the Buddhists, because they
are particularly adapted to show the
immense difference in their ethical
views. The second book of Moses
contains the living commandment {:
Honor thy father and mother, that
thy days may be long urou the lard
which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee. :"
The Sutta Nipara, one of the canon
cal books of the Buddhists contains the
following: He who, without compre-
hending philosophical considerations, is
full of virtue, after having suppressed
the strong desire for sensual pleasures,
will never be born again." In neither
case has the lawgiver limited himself
to the simple proclamation of COM
mandant, but has added promise to
the fulfillment of the same. The re.
markable contradiction between the
two promises indicates diametrical
difference in the axiomatical views of
these people. The Jewish lawgiver
promises life to those who follow the
commandant but the Buddhist promises
death and the philosopher is confronted
by the question how two ethical minds
of ofinc0mparable importance, each one of
whom has served as light for his pee
pie for thousands of years, can offer OF
posite rewards for doing good.
To us the teachings of Moses seem so
self evident that we can't comprehend
how aWmaker could arrive at the
conclusion to represent the end ofall
life as most desirable purpose. The
average man loves life dearly and reg
ulates great many of his actions with
view Of prolonging his life, aud good
many of our virtues are attributable to
the fact that they have a tendency to
prolong life and enhance the chances of
our entire race, and we can't under
stand teacher who breaches the ex-
tinction Of life as reward for our vir-
tues. After careful consideration we
must come to the conclusion that the
explanation for this difference lies in
the different views of the people whom
the teachers wanted to influence.
Every lawmaker prom ses such q re-
ward as is most desireable by his peo-
pie, because only thereby he can offer
strong motive for dutiful and yir-
tuous life. Buddha was O genuine son
of his people, and his age, in as far as
he shared the pessimist views of life en-
tertained by his people. For him suf.
fering and life were identical, and his
aim was to be relieved from his suffer
ing, and his chief desire was to reform
the means to attain this eud. Neither
asceticism nor g rigorous enforcement
of ritual services seemed to him to be
proper means to end the suffering. He
became convinced that only the deeds
of mankind could free them from being
born again and preached as the greatest
of ethical reformers of all histories the
holy eightfold path, namely: true faith,
true resolve, true word, true deed, tue
life, true endeavor, true r'-
membrance and true devotedness.
In this manner Buddha repudiated the
idea that redemption would be achieved
by asceticism or by sacrificing to the
gods and taught his people that moral
life only would lead to the desired end.
His conception of ethics therefore is al
most identical with that of our most emf
nent contemporaries. For Buddha there
existed no supernatural power making
laws for men, and therefore he appears
in the light of great reformer. who
did not hesitate to call the attention OF
his people to their own responsibility
and tell them plainly that no being
that acted immorally would be redeem
ed. But Buddhism has one vulnerable
point, it contains elements of individual
eudemonism. The Buddhist leads a
righteous life, because he expects to be
rewarded and because he believes the
evil-minded will be punished, and his
intellect tells him to choose the former.
Notwithstanding this, it would be
wrong to consider Buddhism simply an
egotistical eudemonism, although this
is frequently done, but it reminds one
of the teachings of the sophists and
still more so of the philosophy of
Hobbies. 1t considers moral action, to
great extent at least, the means for
an individual purpose, although it is
true that this purpose is of super
human magnitude, the redemption Of
existence. But this alone would not
secure for Buddhism a higher rank than
the ethics of Hobbies, if there was not
an important attribute which raises
Buddhism to the heights of genuine
ethics.
1t has adopted the doctrine of the
Vedanta "a Hindoo secD by which all
beings are identical, so there is no
"you" or 81" because the "T' is also
the you The logical consequence of
this doctrine is benevolence and COM
passion for all, and this universal be-
nevolence compensates the defects of
the Buddhist ethics. The beautiful
parallels and sayings, contained in the
canonicll books, very clearly prove to
us that Buddhism receives the chief
strength from this universal benevo.
lence. 1t is astonishing to see the mul-
titude of sentences contained in the
holy books of Buddhism, teaching be-
nevolence and mercy. Particularly so