THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
gutless; puritanic, pharisaical and “suburban” as any seven-
teenth century presbyter, as biliously narrow-minded as
any of the present day Bethelites, Baptists, and Bible-beer
brewers.*
The dogmatism of literal Buddhism appalled him. The
Five Precepts, which are the Yama and Niyama of Buddhism,
he at once saw, in spite of Nagasena and prig Milinda, must
be broken by every Arahat each time he inhaled a breath of
air. They were as absurd as they were valueless. But behind all
this tantalizing frou-frou, this lingerie de cocotte, beautifully
designed to cover the narded limbs of foolish virgins, sits the
Buddha in silent meditation; so that P. soon discovered that
by stripping his body of all these tawdry trappings, this
feminine under-wear, and by utterly discarding the copy-book
precepts of Baptistical Buddhists, the Four Noble Truths
were none other than the complete Yoga, and that in The
Three Characteristics + the summit of philosophy (The Ruach)
had been reached.
The terrific strain of Asana and Pranayama, the two chief
exercises of Hathavidya, P., by months of trial proved to be
* Buddhism as a schism from the Brahminical religion may in many respects
be compared with Lutheranism as a schism from the Catholic Church, Both
Buddha and Luther set aside the authority of miracles, and appealed to the
reason of the middle classes of their day. The Vedas were the outcome of
aristocratic thought; and so in truth was the Christianity of Constantine and the
Popes, that full-blooded Christianity which so soon swallowed the mystical
Christ and the anaemic communism of the canazlle which followed him. Conven-
tional Buddhism is pre-eminently the “nice” religion of the bourgeoisie; it
neither panders to the superstition of the masses nor palliates the gallantries of
the aristocracy; it is essentially middle-class; and this no doubt is the chief
reason why it has met with a kindly reception by this nation of shop-walkers.
t+ Anikka, Change; Dukka, Sorrow; Anatta, Absence of an Ego.
IV N 193