Collected Works (Vol. II)

SCIENCE ANI) BUDDHISM 257 And so for all the Eight Stages; as re- gards their obvious meaning on the moral plane, I can do no better than quote my friend Bhikkhu Ananda Maitriya, in his ‘ Four Noble Truths.” ‘¢He who has attained, by force of pure understanding, to the realisation of the Four Noble Truths, who has realised the fact that depends from that understanding, namely that all the constituents of being are by nature endowed with the Three Character- istics of Sorrow, Transitoriness, and Absence of any immortal principle or Atma—such a one is said to be Sammaditthi, to hold right views, and the term has come to mean one of the Buddhist Faith. We may not have taken the other and higher steps on the Noble Eightfold Path; but must have rea- lised those Four Truths and their sequential three Characteristics. He who has attained Sammaditthi has at least entered upon the Holy Way, and, if he but try, there will come to him the power to overcome the other fetters that restrict his progress. But first: of all he must abandon all those false hopes and beliefs; and one who has done this is called a Buddhist. And this holding of Right Views, in Pali Sammaditthi, is the first step upon the Noble Eightfold Path. The second stage is Right Aspiration— Sammasankappo. MHaving realised the woe and transitoriness and soullessness of all life, there rises in the mind this Right Aspi- ration. When all things suffer, we at least will not increase their burden, so we aspire to become pitiful and loving, to cherish ill- will toward none, to retire from those pleasures of sense which are the fruitful cause of woe. The will, we all know, is ever readier than the mind, and so, though we aspire to renounce the pleasures of sense, to love and pity all that lives, yet perhaps we often fail in the accomplishment of our aspiration. But if the desire to become pitiful and pure be but honest and earnest, we have gained the Second Step upon the Path-—Sammasankappo, Right Aspiration. He whose motives are pure has no need VOL. II, to conceal the Truth—he who truly loves and who has a malice towards none, will ever speak only fair and soft words. By a man’s speech do we learn his nature, and that one whose Right Aspirations are bearing fruit attains to the Third Step, Right Speech, Sammavaca. Speaking only the Truth in all things, never speaking * harshly or un- kindly, in his speech realising the love and pity that is in his heart—that man _ has attained to Stage the Third. And because of the great power of a man’s thoughts and words to change his being, because by thinking of the pitiful our acts grow full of mercy, therefore is Stage the Fourth called Right Conduct. To him who has gained this Fourth Stage, his intense as- piration, his right understanding, his care- fully guarded speech—perhaps for many years of self-control— have at last borne outward fruit, till all his acts are loving, and pure, and done without hope of gain, he has attained the Fourth Step, called Sammakammanto. And when, growing yet holier, that habit of Right Action grows firm and inalienable, when his whole life is lived for the Faith that is in him, when every act of his daily life, yea, of his sleep also, is set to a holy purpose, when not one thought or deed that is cruel or unpitiful can stain his being— when, not even as a duty, will he inflict pain by deed, word, or thought—then he has gained the Fifth High Path, the Living of the Jife that’s Right — Samma aijivo. Abstaining from all that can cause pain, he has become blameless, and can live only by such occupations as can bring no sorrow in their train,} To him who has lived so, say the Holy Books, there comes a power which is unknown to ordinary men. Long training and restraint have given him conquest of his mind, he can 1 From my point of view, this is of course impossible. See Sec. IIT. If wilful infliction of pain only is meant, our state becomes moral, or even worse !—mystical. I should prefer to cancel this sentence. Cf. Appendix L., supra.—A, C, ) R