The Dhamma Of Gotama The Buddha And The Gospel Of Jesus The Christ
Subtitle: a critical inquiry into the alleged relations of Buddhism with primitive Christianity
Publisher: Marlier & Company
Published: 1900
Place of publication: Boston, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
Table of contents: title: TABLE OF CONTENTS; title: PART I.— THE ANTECEDENTS OFBUDDHISM — BRAHMANISM; title: CHAPTER I; title: Vedic and Brahman Rites 3; title: The Aryan invaders of India — Their gods chiefly nature-deities — Monotheistic tendencies — The sacrifices — Worship of the pitris — Rude superstitions — Transition to Brahmanism — Elaborate liturgy — Sacredness of the sacrifice — The Agni-hotra — The sacred Vedas — Sacred formulae — Purificatory rites — Retribution of good and evil deeds, transmigration, karma — Brahman religion more than an empty formalism.; title: CHAPTER II; title: Social and Religious Institutions 16; title: The caste-system — Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras — Brahmans first in dignity — Unequal distribution of privileges — Rigid caste-rules — Sudras excluded from the Vedic rites — Studentship of the three upper castes — Ceremony of initiation — Ascetic life of the student — Marriage — Rigid caste-rule for the choice of the first wife — Polygamy allowed — Low estimate of woman — Duties of the wife — The religious duties of the house-holder — Sraddha feasts in honor of the dead — Ascetics — Their rule of life — Their incredible mortifications — The practice of Yoga — Vows of the ascetic.; title: CHAPTER III; title: Rules of Conduct; title: Multiplicity of Brahman restrictions — Arbitrary and absurd rules — Food-restrictions, especially as to flesh-meat and spirituous liquors — Penalty for drinking sura — Contempt for manual labor — Occupations held to be degrading and impure — Precautions observed in drinking and walking out of regard for insect life — High standard of ethics — Insistence on forgiveness of injuries — Moral significance of thoughts clearly recognized — Choice examples of Brahman wisdom.; title: CHAPTER IV; title: Pantheistic Speculations; title: The development towards monotheism : Prajapati-Brahman — The rise of pantheistic speculations — The Upanishads — Brahman-Atman-Purusha identified with all things — The incomprehensibility of Brahman — Maya — Rebirth and misery due to maya — Brahman pessimism — Recognition of man's identity with Brahman the only means of salvation — Absorption into Brahman the true end of man — Pantheism subversive of traditional Brahmanism, though nominally in harmony with it.; title: PART II. — BUDDHISM; title: CHAPTER I; title: The Founder, Buddha 63 Brahman pantheism popular with the caste of warriors — It gives rise to rival sects, one of which is Buddhism — Of Buddha but little known for certain — His father not a king but a petty raja — His birthplace — His various names — His education and marriage — His abandonment of home for the ascetic life — His long period of missionary activity — The Buddha-Legend — Miraculous conception and birth — Asita — Life in the palace of pleasure — The flight from home — Mortifications — The Bodhi-tree — Mara's temptations — Supreme enlightenment — First preaching at Benares — Conversions — Devadatta — The fatal meal with Chunda — The painful journey to Kusinara — Under the Sala-trees — Subhadda — Buddha's last words — Obsequies — Division of relics — Estimate of Buddha's character.; title: CHAPTER II; title: The Law, Dhamma 87; title: Deliverance from suffering the aim of Buddhism — The Four Great Truths — (1) The truth of suffering — Buddhist pessimism — (2) The cause of suffering: desire and ignorance — Karma and rebirth — (3) The extinction of suffering through the extinction of desire — Nirvana, of the living, of the dead — The Buddhist view of the soul — The joyful element in Buddhism — Nirvana supplemented by the Brahman paradise, swarga — The latter the more popular conception — (4) The eightfold path to Nirvana — Comparison of the Buddhist with the Brahman standard of ethics — The five great duties — Attitude of Buddhism towards suicide — Gentleness and forgiveness of injuries — Examples of Buddhist wisdom.; title: CHAPTER III; title: The Buddhist Order, Sangha 108; title: Celibacy exacted of Buddha's followers — Severe attitude towards marriage — Poverty and asceticism also requisite — Excessive austerities avoided — Alms the means of subsistence : hence the name Bhikkhus — Neither manual labor nor works of charity in harmony with Buddhist discipline — Distinctions of birth ignored — Buddha not asocial reformer — The Novitiate — Rite of initiation — Rule of life — Clothing and food — Avoidance of luxuries and worldly amusements — Cleanliness exacted — Precautions to be observed in traversing the village and in the presence of women — The rite of confession, the Patimokkha — The retreat during the rainy season, Vassa — Med- itation — Grades of perfection — Bhikkhunis — The lay element in Buddhism.; title: CHAPTER IV; title: The History of Buddhism 129; title: Religious Developments — The existence of the Brahman gods recognized in primitive Buddhism, but man's dependence on them denied — Hence no rites of worship — Devotion to the gods tolerated in the Buddhist layman — Rise of religious rites after Buddha's death — Veneration of his relics, stupas, and statues : pilgrimages, processions, and festivals — Worship of the Buddha to come, Metteyya — Divinization of Gotama Buddha as the Adi-Buddha — The Bodhisattvas — Mahayana and Hinayana — The Growth of Buddhism — The dubious councils of Rajagriha and Vaisali — Asoka — His rock-inscriptions — His zeal for Buddhism — Unreliable traditions, especially concerning Mahinda and the council of Patna — The introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon — The evangelization of Kashmir, Gandhara, and Bactria — King Menander — King Kanishka — The council of Kashmir — The introduction of Buddhism into China — Chinese pilgrims: Fa Hien and Hiouen Thsang — The character of Chinese Buddhism — Mito and Fousa Kwanyin — The introduction of Buddhism into Tibet — The character of Lamaism — Resemblances to certain features of Catholicism — The spread of Buddhism over Southern Asia — The decline of Buddhism in India — The number of Buddhists greatly exaggerated.; title: CHAPTER V; title: The Buddhist Sacred Books 153; title: The twofold Buddhist canon, the Northern (Sanskrit) and the Southern (Pali) — The character of the Southern canon — The Vinaya-pitaka , Sutta-pitaka , and Abhidhamma-pitaka , constituting the Ti-pitaka — Extra-canonical works: the Dipavansa, Mahavansa, Commentaries of Buddhaghosa y Milittda Panha — Works peculiar to the Northern canon: the Buddha Charita, Lalita Vistara, Abhinishkramana Sutra , Saddharma-pundarika — Translations — Age of the Ti-pitaka greatly exaggerated — The view that it was fixed for good in the time of Asoka unwarranted — The Legendary Biographies of Buddha — Critical examination of the age of the Buddha Charita — Critical examination of the age of the Lalita Vistara — Date of the chief Chinese biography — Other Chinese versions — Tibetan versions — Dates of the chief biographies of the Southern school : the Nidana Katha and the Commentary on the Buddhavansa — More recent forms of the Buddha-legend.; title: PART III. — THE ALLEGED RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM WITH CHRISTIANITY EXAMINED; title: CHAPTER I; title: Survey of the Chief Works Written to Show the Presence of Buddhist Thought in the Gospels 173; title: The theory that primitive Christianity was influenced by Buddhism not held by the majority of scholars — The three chief advocates of the theory — (1) Ernst von Bunsen — Outline of his argument — Critical view of his defects — (2) Prof. Rudolf Seydel — Outline of his argument — Critical view of his defects — (3) Arthur Lillie — The untrustworthy character of his works — Outline of his argument — Critical view of his defects — Jesus not an Essene — Neither Essenes nor Therapeuts Buddhists — Futility of the attempt to make John and Paul out to be Gnostics.; title: CHAPTER II; title: Exaggerated Resemblances 198; title: Spurious evidence used to impugn the originality of the Gospels classified under three heads : exaggerations, anachronisms, fictions — Exaggerations — The pre-existence of Jesus in heaven contrasted with that ascribed to Buddha — Divergent circumstances of birth — Simeon versus Asita — The fast of Jesus compared with that of Buddha — Unfair attempts to exaggerate the resemblances between the temptation of Jesus and that of Buddha — The transfiguration of Jesus without a close counterpart in the Buddha-legend.; title: CHAPTER III; title: Anachronisms 211; title: Resemblances drawn from Buddhist sources plainly pre-christian, alone legitimate in the present comparison — Kanishka's conquest of Northern India in 78 a. d. the probable cause of separation of the Buddhists of the North from those of the South : hence Buddhist parallels not known to both Northern and Southern schools are of doubtful prechristian origin — Further means of control afforded by the different early versions of the Buddha-legend — Anachronisms — The genealogy of Buddha — The presentation of the infant Buddha in the temple — The corresponding Gospel story not out of harmony with Jewish custom — The school-scene — The gift of tongues — The augmenting of food at the marriage-feast — Lamentation of women over Buddha's corpse — The Chinese variant — Buddha's descent into hell — The Buddhist parable of the lost son — Parallels to John> viii. 57, and to Matthew , v. 28 — Sadhu — Lamaistic resemblances to certain features of Catholicism — The Kwanyin liturgy — The swastika.; title: CHAPTER IV; title: Fictions 234; title: Vain attempts to find a Buddhist parallel to the Holy Ghost — Maya not a virgin — Spurious parallels to the angelic announcements to Mary and to Joseph — The star in the East — Buddha not bom on Christmas -day — Pretended counterparts to the offerings of the Magi — Bimbisara not the prototype of Herod — Habba not synonymous with Tathagata — Lack of resemblance between the story of the lost child Jesus and the Jambu-tree incident — Pretended baptism of Buddha — Untenableness of the statement that Buddha and Christ began to preach at the same age — The Bodhi-tree incident not the source of the story of Nathaniel and the fig-tree — The Gospel incident of the man born blind independent of the Buddhist notion of karma — Yasa not the prototype of Nicodemus — Lack of resemblance between Buddha's entry into Rajagnha and Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem — The Last Supper of Jesus wholly unlike the final meal of Buddha — Unwarranted ascription to Buddha of words spoken by Christ — Spurious Buddhist parallels to the abandonment of Jesus by His disciples, to the thief on the cross, to the parting of Christ's garments, to the resurrection, to Matthew , v. 29, and xiii. 45.; title: CHAPTER V; title: Resemblances not Implying Dependence  258 Abuse of the principle that resemblance means dependence — Resemblances often of independent origin — Examples from comparative ethnology and religion — Explained by similarity of conditions and by the uniformity of the laws of thought — Further instances — Enumeration of the Buddhist parallels wrongly taken to indicate the influence of Buddhism on Christianity.; title: CHAPTER VI; title: Arguments for the Independent Origin of the Gospels 269; title: The apostolic origin of the Gospels of Matthew and of Luke incompatible with the adoption of mythical elements, and especially of features of the Buddha-legend — The alleged presence of Buddhist lore in Palestine and Greece an unwarranted assumption — The second Girnar Edict not an indication of Buddhist activity in the western possessions of Antiochus — The meaning of Yavana (Yona), and of Yavana( Yona)-loka — The thirteenth edict not conclusive evidence of the existence of Buddhism in the Greek-speaking world — The latter disproved by the silence of Greek literature and the total absence of Buddhist remains — Inconsistent also with the silence of the Buddhist Chronicles — Alasadda, capital of the Yona country, not Alexandria of Egypt — Zarmanochegas not a Buddhist.; title: CHAPTER VII; title: The Possible Influence of Christianity on Buddhism 288; title: Parthian Jews converted by Peter — Reliability of the tradition that the apostle Thomas preached to the people of Parthia, Bactria, and Northwest India — Gondophares — The early mission of Pantaenus in India — The testimony of Cosmas — The ancient episcopal sees of Merv, Herat, and Sistan — Christian influence in Panjab in the fifth century shown by the Jamalgiri sculptures — The spread of Nestorianism over the East in the fifth and following centuries — The Nestorian monument of Singan-fu — Likelihood that some of the incidents related of Christ have been incorporated into the Buddha-legend — Is the Asita-story one of these?; title: CHAPTER VIII; title: Buddhism Viewed in the Light of Christianity 304; title: The miracles of Christ above comparison with those ascribed to Buddha : the latter unvouched by contemporary witnesses and tainted by absurdities — Examples — Buddhism a religion not of enlightenment, but of superstition and error — Karma and its implied transmigration a false assumption — The failure of Buddhism to recognize man's dependence on the supreme God — Buddhism lacking in the powerful Christian motives to right conduct — Buddhist morality utilitarian — Nirvana not an appeal to unselfishness — Buddhist pessimism a crime against nature — Its injustice to the individual, to the family, to society — Buddhist propagandism far inferior to the Christian — Alliance of Buddhism with local superstitions — Buddhist benevolence greatly surpassed by Christian works of charity — The impotence of Buddhism to elevate the people of Asia — Sad state of morals in Buddhist lands — Slavery and polygamy untouched by Buddhism — The degenerate condition of the Buddhist order — The transcendent excellence of Christianity.; title: Bibliography 325; title: Index 345