7. Buddhism is a Religion of Enlightenment and Reason.
Buddhism exhibits salvation as, first of all, a way of understanding. It is a religion of analysis, which bids man see life steadily and see it whole, by first taking it to pieces! When one looks at the body, what is it, says Buddhism, after all, that we should regard ourselves as attached to it? There are so many bones, so many tendons, so much skin, so many juices. If a man views the body with an anatomical eye, he will see it as it really is; disgust will arise in him which will lead him out into detachment. A Buddhist is sometimes urged to practise the habit of sitting in cemeteries or among reminders of the dead, or to have a skeleton near at hand, in order that he may meditate upon the transient nature of all that is mortal. Similarly he is to dispel anger or lust by asking, "Who is it I am angry with, after whom do I lust, but a bag of bones?" It seeks to dispel passion by reason.
8. It has a strong Moral Code: The "Four Noble Truths," and the "Eight-fold Path."
As the old Teacher was passing away he emphasised anew the part which intelligent belief plays in the Buddhist scheme of religion. "It is through not understanding and not grasping four things, O monks, that we have to abide and wander through this maze of being," he remarked. The four things which he had in mind were suffering, its real cause (tanhā), the cure of suffering, and the path which leads to Nibbāna. These are the "Four Noble Truths" of Buddhism, driven home to every disciple as the very foundation of his religious life.
With reference to the "way" which leads to Nibbāna Buddhism has made its most remarkable contribution to human thought. It is called the "Middle Way," between the extremes of an austere asceticism and a spirit of worldliness, a clear-cut and admirably arranged ethical scheme, which has undoubtedly done much to elevate the nations among whom it has been practised. The "eight practices," urged upon every one who aspires to spiritual growth, are right thinking (about the "four noble truths," etc.), right aspirations (benevolence, pity, brotherhood, etc.), right speech, right action, right livelihood (by industries which are not harmful), right effort of mind, right attention (alertness), and right contemplation, or mystic meditation. Such a scheme may readily be ritualised and deadened, but it lends itself no less readily to the cultivation of simple virtues. A popular summary, universally known, teaches "Do good, shun ill, and cleanse the inmost thoughts, this is the teaching of Buddhas."
The "eight-fold path" is usually developed under three main endeavours—enlightenment, morality, and concentrated meditation. Stage by stage the disciple is led along this path. "Step by step, day by day, one may purify one's heart from defilements by understanding, even as the smith purifies silver in the fire." The true disciple must avoid the extremes of asceticism, on the one hand, or of entanglement with the world on the other. So the noble path claims to be a "middle path" of sweet reasonableness. The lines are not always clearly drawn between ritual offences or mistakes and moral failures, and the ideal life often seems to be represented as primarily monastic, but there is no doubt that one who deliberately sets himself to follow the "eight-fold path" would be a lovable and strong type of character, something like the fine old monk from Tibet in Kipling's "Kim." And there have been many such, men not only of his gentle strength, but men filled with missionary zeal and devotion to noble tasks.
9. It has come to practise Prayer.
In spite of the protests of Gotama against attempts to persuade the gods, this is what most Buddhists in Southern Asia have come to do: and in Tibet, China, and Japan prayer is multiplied by mechanical devices, such as prayer-wheels, prayer-cylinders, and prayer-flags—a degeneration of mysticism into magic, not unknown in some Christian lands. The human heart is hungry and wants to pray! And even this religion of enlightenment and of the fixed causality of the universe has had to find a place for prayer. And Divine Beings have been called in to answer the aspiration of the heart. Gotama himself is deified: and folk pray to him in Burma, Siam, and Ceylon: whilst in the other Buddhist lands they have learnt to love such compassionate beings as Kwanyin, and Amitābha, Buddha of eternal Light who saves men by his grace. That there is mercy in heaven is the hope of every man. It is but a pathetic dream, until we know that the heavens have spoken and declared that mercy in the Word made Flesh.
"So through the thunder comes a human voice."
10. Yet it emphasises Stoical Self-mastery.