The Sword of Song

SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM 113 And this is Agnosticism. We have a scien- tific religion. How far would Newton have got if he had stuck to Ty cho Brahe as the One Guide? How far the Buddha had he reverenced the Vedas with blind faith? Or how far can we proceed even from partial truth, unless a perfectly open mind be kept regarding it, aware that some new pheno- menon may possibly overthrow our most fun- damental hypotheses ! Give me a reasonable proof of some (intelligent) existence which is not liable to sorrow, and I will throw the First Noble Truth to the dogs without a pang. And, knowing this, how splendid is it to read the grand words uttered m ore than two thousand y ears ago: “Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake y ourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lam p. Hold fas t as a refugee to the truth. Look not for refuge to any one be- sides y ourselves.” (M ahaparanibbana S utta, ii. 33.) And to such seekers only does the Buddha promise “the very topmost Height”— if only they are “anxious to learn.” This is the corner-stone of Buddhism; can scien- tific men deny their assent to these words when they look back on the history of Thought in the West; the torture of Bruno, the sham e of Galileo, the obscurantism of the Schoolmen, the “my stery” of the hard- pressed priests, the weapons carnal and spiritual of stake and rack, the labyrinths of lying and vile intrigue by which Science, t he child, was deformed, distorted, stunted, in the interest of the contrary proposition? If you ask me why you should be Buddhists and not indifferentists, as y ou are now, I tell you that I come, however unworthy , to take up the sword that Huxley wielded; I tell you that the Oppressor of Science in her girlhood is already at work to ravish her virginity; that a m oment’s hesitation, idle- ness, security may force us back from the positions so hardly won. Are we never to go forward, moreover ? Are our children still to be taught as facts the stupid and indecent fables of the Old Tes tament, fables that the Archbishop of Canterbury himself would indignantly repudiate ? Are minds to be warped early , the scientific method and imagination checked, the logical faculty thwarted—thousands of workers lost each year to Science? And the way to do this is not only through the negative common-sense of indifference ; organise, organise, organise! For a flag we offer you the stainless lotus-banner of the Buddha, in defence of which no drop of blood has ever been, nor ever will be shed, a banner under which y ou will join forces with five hundred m illions of your fellow- men. And y ou will not be privates in the army ; for you the highest place, the place of leaders, waits; as far as the trium phs of the intellect are concerned, it is to Western Science that we look. Your achievements have shattered the battle-array of dogm a a nd despotism; your columns roll in trium phant power through the breaches of false m eta- physics and baseless l ogic; you have fought that battle, and the laurels are on y our brows. The battle was fought by us more than two thousand y ears ago; the authority of the Vedas, the restrictions of caste, were shattered by the invulnerable sword of truth in Buddha’s hand; we are your brothers. But in the race of intellect we have fallen behind a little; will y ou take no interest in us, who have been y our comrades? To Science Buddhism cries: Lead us, reform us, give us clear ideas of Nature and her laws; give us that basis of irrefragable logic and wide knowledge that we need, and march with us into the Universe ! The Buddhist faith is not a blind faith ; its truths are obvious to all who are not blinded by the spectacles of bibliolatry and deafened by the clam our of priests, presby- ters, ministers: whatever name they choose for them selves, we can at leas t put them aside in one great class, the Thought-stiflers; and these truths are thosse which we have long accepted and to which you have recently and hardly won. It is to men of your stamp, men of inde-