In imitation of all other compilers, our author ends his narrative with the following pious wishes. As a fit reward of the good work that I have happily brought to a close, I desire to become in some future existence a true Buddha, possessing all the science which will enable me to know all beings, their state and condition, and all the relations subsisting between them, and likewise to be gifted with a true compassion for and benevolence towards all beings, which will prompt me to labour for their deliverance. I desire that during the existences which are to precede the last one, I may continually practise the ten great and principal virtues. May my father, mother, relatives, teachers, and friends, have their share in this my good work!
Though far more comprehensive than that of the author of Malla-linkara, the compilation of the Tathagatha-oudana is very inferior to it as regards the drawing up of the subject and the disposition of its parts. Both are made by Burmans. We do not mean to say that the Burmans have made works of an original character. The authors have extracted from various parts of the scriptures all the materials they wanted for composing a work which might be considered as the history of the founder of their religion.
[44] The Burmese translator of the Malla-linkara finishes his work by candidly stating the motives that have induced him to undertake it. He desires to create, promote, and propagate, in the heart of future generations, religious sentiments, and feelings of the tenderest affection for the person of Buddha and his doctrine, that is to say, the law and the assembly of the perfect. Such are the lofty objects he had in view when he began to write. He was encouraged in his difficult task by purely religious considerations, viz., the promotion and triumph of Buddhism. For securing the attainment of what he considered to be a most desirable end, he summoned all his abilities with a most praiseworthy energy and perseverance.
With a somewhat different object in view, the Burmese work has been translated into a European language. The translation has been accompanied with notes intended to explain the text, which would otherwise prove, in many parts, almost unintelligible to the generality of readers. The principles of Buddhism, such as they are held and professed by Buddhists in general, but in particular by those inhabiting Burmah, have received a certain degree of attention, and have been examined as carefully as possible from a Buddhistic point of view. That great religious system has been considered, as it is in itself, without any regard to its intrinsic merits or demerits. The notes are not designed to be an apology or a confutation of Buddhism, but an exposition of its doctrines, such as they are found in the best writings and believed by its votaries. When certain tenets or practices were to be accounted for, recourse has always been had to the general principles of Buddhism and to the notions certainly prevailing at various periods in Buddhist countries. It is needless to add that the notes, having been hurriedly written in the midst of almost uninterrupted and time-absorbing occupations, are destitute of pretension either to deep research or scientific merit. In former years, the writer bestowed a certain amount of time and efforts on the study of Buddhism in Burmah, where it has been for centuries the only religious creed. A portion of the knowledge thus acquired has been embodied in the foregoing notes, with the intention of compressing within a narrow compass the elementary principles and general notions of Buddhism, affording thereby to the readers, who cannot have access to the voluminous writings of the French and German Orientalist savans, on the great religious system of Eastern Asia, comparatively easy means to obtain some information on a religion, which, false as it is, deserves to be known and understood, since in point of antiquity it is second to none except to Brahminism, and as regards diffusion extends its sway over probably one-fifth of the human race.
[45] The distinction alluded to by our author is a most important one. What does he mean when he states that all things in this world obey the principle of mutability, and are liable to perpetual changes and modifications, and that they have a cause? One would be tempted to believe that the Buddhists admit of a first cause. But such is not the case. To understand such a language coming from a Buddhist’s mouth, we must bear in mind the theory of the twelve Nidanas, or causes and effects. Each of the Nidanas is an effect relatively to the preceding one, and a cause to the following one. All existing beings are, relatively to each other, effects and causes. All undergo the irresistible influence of mutability and change. The beings that reside in the seats of Brahma are not beyond the reach of that influence, not even those who dwell in the four immaterial seats.
Are there things which are fixedly and everlastingly the same, upon which no change, no vicissitude can ever act? There is the law, there is the state of Neibban. The law is the expression of truth, which is reality, in contradistinction to the unreality of the visible world. The essence of the law is contained in the four sublime truths, which are emphatically called the Law of the Wheel. They are the declaration of the true state and condition of all beings; they proclaim the necessity of putting an end to such a miserable state of things, and point out the sure means of freeing oneself from the miseries attending existence. These truths are eternal, insomuch that what they proclaim has ever been true in all the worlds that have preceded the present one, since they always resemble each other, and will ever be equally true during the endless series of worlds that will follow. In this sense the law, in the opinion of Buddhists, being the declaration of truth, or of what is, must be eternal, as truth itself is everlasting. The state of Neibban, in contradistinction to that of existence such as we comprehend it, is likewise a thing which never changes, since it is the end of changes. It remains always the same; it is the opposite of existence. What is then called here everlasting, or eternal, is, in the opinion of Buddhists, but the things that are conceived as subsisting abstractively per se, and never affected by the great principle of mutability that pervades all beings. To sum up the whole in a few words, the science which points out the means of coming out of the whirlpool of existences, and the being out of that circle, such are the two things which are always the same, never undergo any change, and are eternal.
[46] In the definition of man which is given by the Buddhist author, we find the words intelligence, capacity for reflecting, comparing and drawing inferences, &c. He who is not familiar with the revolting materialist doctrines of Buddhism would be tempted to believe that they admit of a soul or spiritual principle subsisting in man. But such is not the case. The faculty for performing all the functions which we rightly attribute to the soul resides in the sixth sense, called mano, or the heart, or the knowing principle. But this sense, in their opinion, is as material as the eye, the ear, and the other senses. It is delightful to the Christian reader to find in the midst of a heap of rubbish and fables a few fragments of the primitive revelation. We see man coming from a noble origin, appearing in this world with the most glorious privileges, which he forfeits by eating the rice called Tsale, which produced on his being the same destructive effects which the eating of the forbidden fruit caused on our first parents in the garden of Eden.
[47] Buddhists lay the greatest stress on the belief in the three precious things. It is the foundation on which rests the whole spiritual edifice. But it is somewhat extraordinary to see that the superstition of believing in lucky and unlucky days, in good and bad luck, is openly condemned, and entails upon him who is addicted to it the severest penalty. Though such childish belief is so exceedingly common in Burmah that it influences man in his daily and hourly affairs, yet we must admit that it is opposed to the tenets of strict Buddhism. There can never be any good or bad luck in the opinion of him who has faith in the influence of merits and demerits. There is no other agent in this world but that one; it is it alone that brings in and regulates all the accidents which attend the life of man. Such is indeed the theory of the true Buddhist. But how widely differs the practice from the theory? He who has lived for some time in a Buddhist country, and made himself acquainted with the intimate habits of the people, will soon discover that superstitious ideas, and, as a necessary consequence, superstitious practices, are the spring and prime mover of all actions from morning to night. In this respect, Buddhist monks differ not from the laity; nay, they are often seen as the leaders of the people in the performance of rites at variance with the tenets of their creed.
[48] This is a consequence of the axiom established by our author, viz., that the principle of mutability pervades all the beings which reside in the thirty-one seats allotted to them. It cannot be supposed for a moment, according to Buddhists, that a being, whatever may be the amount of his merits and demerits, can ever be placed without the pale of the influence of his good or bad deeds. It accompanies him in all positions, and causes the vicissitudes that attend his existence. It works upon him in hell, as well as on earth, and in the seats of Nats and Brahmas. Fixity is to be found nowhere except in going out of the circle of existences, that is to say, in Neibban. When we speak of existence in a Buddhistic sense, we mean a state of being in any conceivable form or situation or place. Fixity in the enjoyment of reward or in the undergoing of punishment is a contradiction with the first principle of Buddhism. The awarder of reward or punishment is the above-named influence, which proceeds from the actions performed, and in its turn allots good or evil in exact proportion with the cause that has created it.
Gaudama, having wilfully and unwilfully ignored a first cause from which all the things that exist draw their being and life, has been forced to allow to an imaginary agent the very same attributes which belong exclusively to the supreme being. On the rock of atheism he has made a sad shipwreck. Apart from this capital error it is surprising to see him maintaining with an admirable acuteness the existence of many fundamental truths; such, for instance, as the reward of good actions and the punishment of bad ones. With him the doing of evil is ever attended with consequences fatal to the perpetrator, whilst the performance of good is always accompanied with beneficial results. One would be inclined to believe that Gaudama has appropriated to himself with a great tact all the truths emanating from the belief in a supreme being; and whilst he has, with a barefaced and impious audacity, denied to the eternal author of all things the very existence, he has been placed under the necessity of accounting, in a most unlogical manner, for the existence of this world.