Gautama the Buddha

Meditation is an act of attention, an effort of will. It is not passive reverie but intense striving. concentration of mind in which will and thought be­come fused. According to the Buddha’s teaching each man will have to find salvation, in the last resort, alone and with his own will, and he needs all the will in the world for so formidable an effort. The general impression that the mystic experience is granted and not achieved is far from correct, except in the sense that all great moments of experience are in a measure given. The mystic is not so much passive as receptive. His life is one of strenuous discipline. Right contemplation is the end and the crown of the eight-fold path. When the mind and the senses are no longer active, when discursive thought ceases, we get the highest and purest state of the soul when it enjoys the untrammelled bliss of its own nature. It is the substance of the high­est life when ignorance and craving become extinct and insight and holi­ness take their place. It is peaceful contemplation and ecstatic rapture wrought by the mind for itself. It is the true and healthy life of the soul in which we have a foretaste of a higher existence compared with which our ordinary life is sick and ailing. We have in it a sense of freedom, of knowledge, immediate and unbounded.

The Buddha gives a workable system for monks and lay people. In the discourse to the Brahmin Kutadanta he lays down five moral rules binding on all lay people, which are refraining from killing, from taking what is not given, from wrongful indul­gence in the passions, from lying, and from intoxicants. It is not abstention from work that he demands. A Jain layman asks him if he teaches the doctrine of in-action, and the Buddha replies: ‘How might one rightly say of me that the ascetic Gautama holds the principle of in-action? I proclaim the non-doing of evil conduct of body, speech, and thought. I proclaim the non-doing of various kinds of wicked and evil things. I proclaim the doing of good conduct of the body, speech and thought. I proclaim the doing of vari­ous kinds of good things.’ In the Buddha’s scheme of ethics, the spirit of love is more important than good works. ‘All good works whatever are not worth one sixteenth part of love which sets free the heart. Love which sets free the heart comprises them, it shines, gives light and radiance. As a mother, at the risk of her life, watches over her only child, so let every one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings. ‘Respect for ani­mal life is an integral part of morality. A good Buddhist does not kill animals for pleasure or eat flesh. They are his humble brethren and not lower crea­tures over whom he has dominion by divine right. Serenity of spirit and love for an sentient creation are enjoined by the Buddha. He does not speak of sin, but only of ignorance and foolish­ness which should be cured by en­lightenment and sympathy.

            (Excerpts from Lecture on Master Minds of the East delivered at the Brit­ish Academy, published by Hind Kitabs pages 28 and 29)