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The Doctrine of the Buddha

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. Berriedale Keith
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Extract

When we contemplate the extraordinary diversity of doctrine which has developed from the teaching in the sixth century B.C. of the Buddha, it is perhaps the most natural conclusion that it is really impracticable to discover with any precision the doctrine which in fact he expounded. This view, however, is naturally disappointing, and it is easy to sympathize with the energetic efforts of Professor Stcherbatsky in his works on The Central Conception of Buddhism and The Conception of Buddhist Nirvāṇa to ascribe to the founder of the faith a definite system, inspired by an intelligible philsophy, which again can be regarded as arising naturally from the spiritual ferment of his time among the non-brahmanical classes of India. Incidentally we may doubt the restriction of the ferment to these classes and believe that the Brahmans played, as they have normally and regularly done, a leading part of this activity, though we need not claim that their speculations powerfully affected the Buddha. In fact, Professor Stcherbatsky elsewhere admits that in the Buddha's time the Brahmanical community was mentally alert.

Type
List of Contributions
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1931 , pp. 393 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1931

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References

page 393 note 1 Nirvāṇa, p. 60Google Scholar.

page 393 note 2 Ibid., p. 2.

page 393 note 3 Cf. Vallée Poussin, L. de la, Nirváṇa, p. 16.Google Scholar

page 394 note 1 Op. cit., p. 61; emphasized p. 36, where the very implausible view is asserted that the absence of the image of the Buddha is explained as showing the annihilation of the saint in Nirváṇa. Cf. Poussin, , L’Inde aux temps des Mauryas, pp. 252 ff.Google Scholar

page 395 note 1 Op. cit., p. 5.

page 396 note 1 Op. oit., pp. 3, 54.

page 396 note 2 Keith, , Indian Logic and Atomism, pp. 263–6.Google Scholar

page 397 note 1 Keith, , Religion and Philosophy of the. Veda, ii, 519–21.Google Scholar

page 397 note 2 Radhakrishnan, , Indian Philosophy, i, 332.Google Scholar

page 397 note 3 Mahāvagga, i, 6, 12.Google Scholar

page 397 note 4 Ibid., i, 23.

page 397 note 5 Udāna, viii, 10.Google Scholar

page 397 note 6 Keith, , Buddhist Philosophy, pp. 65, 66Google Scholar; Poussin, , Nirvāṇa, p. 146.Google Scholar

page 398 note 1 Poussin, op. cit., pp. 59 ff.

page 398 note 2 Ibid., pp. 150 ff.; La morale bouddhique, pp. 15–21.Google Scholar

page 398 note 3 Poussin, op. cit., pp. 85–129; Keith, op. cit., pp. 39–46.

page 399 note 1 Op. cit., pp. 22, 23.

page 399 note 2 Poussin, op. cit., p. 56, rightly insists on the Brahmanical milieu of Buddhism, but that is not to say that the best forms of Brahmanical activity prevailed in Magadha.

page 400 note 1 Op. cit., p. 120.

page 400 note 2 Poussin, , L’Inde aux temps des Mauryas, pp. 120 f.Google Scholar; Smith, V., Asoka, pp. 63 ff.Google Scholar

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page 401 note 3 Keith, , Buddhist Philosophy, pp. 169–76Google Scholar; Poussin, , Nirvāṇa, pp. 38ff.Google Scholar; La morale bouddhique, pp. 197 ff.Google Scholar

page 402 note 1 Op. cit., pp. 45, 61.

page 402 note 2 Keith, op. eit., pp. 27 ff. Cf. Poussin, , La morale bouddhique, pp. 231 ff.Google Scholar

page 402 note 3 Stcherbatsky, op. cit., p. 57; Glasenapp, , Der Jainismus, pp. 158 f.Google Scholar

page 403 note 1 Die Probleme der buddhistischer Philosophie, 1924.

page 403 note 2 Poussin, , Nirvāṇa, pp. 10 ff.Google Scholar; Senart, Origines bouddhiques; Gupta, Das, Yoga Philosophy, 1930.Google Scholar

page 403 note 3 Op. cit., p. 19.

page 403 note 4 Op. cit., p. 6, n. 1.

page 403 note 5 Keith, , Buddhist Philosophy, p. 19.Google Scholar

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page 404 note 1 Die Sekten des alien Buddhismus, p. 75.Google Scholar

page 404 note 2 Walleser, op. cit., pp. 9–12, now admits this. Cf. Keith, op. cit., pp. 18 ff.; Poussin, , L’Inde aux temps des Mauryas, pp. 135–9.Google Scholar

page 404 note 3 Poussin, , Nirvāṇa, pp. viii, 123.Google Scholar