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    "num": 9,
    "slug": "08-chapter-ix",
    "title": "CHAPTER IX.",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 5362,
    "text": "## CHAPTER IX.\n\nBUDDHA.\n\nThe historical Buddha, as known to the cus-\ntodians of the Esoteric Doctrine, is a personage\nwhose birth is not invested with the quaint\nmarvels popular story has crowded round it.\nNor was his progress to adeptship traced by the\nliteral occurrence of the supernatural struggles\ndepicted in symbolic legend. On the other\nhand, the incarnation, which may outwardly be\ndescribed as the birth of Buddha, is certainly\nnot regarded by occult science as an event like\nany other birth, nor the spiritual development\nthrough which Buddha passed during his earth-\nlife a mere process of intellectual evolution,\nlike the mental history of any other philoso-\npher. The mistake which ordinary European\nwriters make in dealing with a problem of this\nsort lies in their inclination to treat exoteric\nlegend either as a record of a miracle about\nwhich no more need be said, or as pure myth,\nputting merely a fantastic decoration on a re-\nmarkable life. This, it is assumed, however\n\n210 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nremarkable, must have been lived according to\nthe theories of Nature at present accepted by\nthe nineteenth century. The account which\nhas now been given in the foregoing pages may\nprepare the way for a statement as to what the\nEsoteric Doctrine teaches concerning the real\nBuddha, who was born, as modern investigation\nhas quite correctly ascertained, 643 years be-\nfore the Christian era, at Kapila-Vastu near\nBenares.\n\nExoteric conceptions, knowing nothing of the\nlaws which govern the operations of Nature in\nher higher departments, can only explain an\nabnormal dignity attaching to some particular\nbirth by supposing that the physical body of\nthe person concerned was generated in a mirac-\nulous manner. Hence the popular notion about\nBuddha, that his incarnation in this world was\ndue to an immaculate conception. Occult sci-\nence knows nothing of any process for the pro-\nduction of a physical human child other than\nthat appointed by physical laws ; but it does\nknow a good deal concerning the limits within\nwhich the progressive \" one life,\" or \"spiritual\nmonad,\" or continuous thread of a series of in-\ncarnations, may select definite child-bodies as\ntheir human tenements. By the operation of\nKarma, in the case of ordinary mankind, this\nselection is made, unconsciously as far as the\n\nBUDDHA. 211\n\nantecedent, spiritual Ego emerging from De-\nvachan is concerned. But in those abnormal\ncases where the one life has already forced it-\nself into the sixth principle — that is to say,\nwhere a man has become an adept, and has the\npower of guiding his own spiritual Ego, in full\nconsciousness as to what he is about, after he\nhas quitted the body in which he won adept-\nship, either temporarily or permanently — it is\nquite within his power to select his own next\nincarnation. During life, even, he gets above\nthe Devachanic attraction. He becomes one of\nthe conscious directing powers of the planetary\nsystem to which he belongs ; and great as this\nmystery of selected re-incarnation may be, it is\nnot by any means restricted in its application\nto such extraordinary events as the birth of a\nBuddha. It is a phenomenon frequently repro-\nduced by the higher adepts to this day, and\nwhile a great deal recounted in popular Ori-\nental mythology is either purely fictitious or\nentirely symbolical, the re-incarnation of the\nDalai and Teshu Lamas in Tibet, at which\ntravelers only laugh for want of the knowledge\nthat might enable them to sift fact from fancy,\nis a sober scientific achievement. In such cases\nthe adept states beforehand in what child, when\nand where to be born, he is going to re-incar-\nnate, and he very rarely fails. We say very\n\n212 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nrarely, because there are some accidents of phys-\nical nature which cannot be entirely guarded\nagainst ; and it is not absolutely certain that,\nwith all the foresight even an adept may bring\nto bear upon the matter, the child he may choose\nto become, in his re-incarnated state, may attain\nphysical maturity successfully. And, mean-\nwhile, in the body, the adept is relatively help-\nless. Out of the body he is just what he has\nbeen ever since he became an adept ; but as\nregards the new body he has chosen to inhabit,\nhe must let it grow up in the ordinary course of\nNature, and educate it by ordinary processes,\nand initiate it by the regular occult method\ninto adeptship, before he has got a body fully\nready again for occult work on the physical\nplane. All these processes are immensely sim-\nplified, it is true, by the peculiar spiritual force\nworking within ; but at first, in the child's body,\nthe adept soul is certainly cramped and embar-\nrassed, and, as ordinary imagination might sug-\ngest, very uncomfortable and ill at ease. The\nsituation would be very much misunderstood if\nthe reader were to imagine that re-incarnation\nof the kind described is a privilege which adepts\navail themselves of with pleasure.\n\nBuddha's birth was a mystery of the kind\ndescribed, and by the light of what has been\nsaid it will be easy to go over the popular story\n\nBUDDHA. 213\n\nof his miraculous origin, and trace the symbolic\nreferences to the facts of the situation in some\neven of the most grotesque fables. None, for\nexample, can look less promising as an allu-\nsion to anything like a scientific fact than the\nstatement that Buddha entered the side of his\nmother as a young white elephant. But the\nwhite elephant is simply the symbol of adept-\nship, — something considered to be a rare and\nbeautiful specimen of its kind. So with other\nante-natal legends pointing to the fact that the\nfuture child's body had been chosen as the hab-\nitation of a great spirit already endowed with\nsuperlative wisdom and goodness. Indra and\nBrahma came to do homage to the child at his\nbirth ; that is to say, the powers of Nature\nwere already in submission to the Spirit within\nhim. The thirty-two signs of a Buddha, which\nlegends describe by means of a ludicrous phys-\nical symbolism, are merely the various powers\nof adeptship.\n\nThe selection of the body known as Siddhar-\ntha, and afterwards as Gautama, son of Sud-\ndhodana, of Kapila-Vastu, as the human tene-\nment of the enlightened human spirit, who had\nsubmitted to incarnation for the sake of teach-\ning mankind, was not one of those rare failures\nspoken of above ; on the contrar}7, it was a\nsignally successful choice in all respects, and\n\n214 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnothing interfered with the accomplishment\nof adeptship by the Buddha in his new body.\nThe popular narrative of his ascetic struggles\nand temptations, and of his final attainment\nof Buddhahood under the Bo-tree, is nothing\nmore, of course, than the exoteric version of his\ninitiation.\n\nFrom that period onward, his work was of a\ndual nature ; he had to reform and revive the\nmorals of the populace and the science of the\nadepts, — for adeptship itself is subject to cyclic\nchanges, and in need of periodical impulses.\nThe explanation of this branch of the subject,\nin plain terms, will not alone be important for\nits own sake, but will be interesting to all stu-\ndents of exoteric Buddhism, as elucidating some\nof the puzzling complications of the more ab-\nstruse \" Northern doctrine.\"\n\nA Buddha visits the earth for each of the\nseven races of the great planetary period. The\nBuddha with whom we are occupied was the\nfourth of the series, and that is why he stands\nfourth in the list quoted by Mr. Rhys Davids,\nfrom Burnouf, — quoted as an illustration of\nthe way the Northern doctrine has been, as Mr.\nDavids supposes, inflated by metaphysical sub-\ntleties and absurdities crowded round the sim-\nple morality which sums up Buddhism as pre-\nsented to the populace. The fifth, or Maitreya\n\nBUDDHA. 215\n\nBuddha, will come after the final disappear-\nance of the fifth race, and when the sixth race\nwill already have been established on earth\nfor some hundreds of thousands of years. The\nsixth will come at the beginning of the seventh\nrace, and the seventh towards the close of that\nrace.\n\nThis arrangement will seem, at the first\nglance, out of harmony with the general design\nof human evolution. Here we are in the mid-\ndle of the fifth race, and yet it is the fourth\nBuddha who has been identified with this race,\nand the fifth will not come till the fifth race is\npractically extinct. The explanation is to be\nfound, however, in the great outlines of the\nesoteric cosmogony. At the beginning of each\ngreat planetary period, when obscuration comes\nto an end, and the human tide-wave in its prog-\nress round the chain of worlds arrives at the\nshore of a globe where no humanity has existed\nfor milliards of years, a teacher is required from\nthe first for the new crop of mankind about to\nspring up. Remember that the preliminary\nevolution of the mineral, vegetable, and animal\nkingdoms has been accomplished in preparation\nfor the new round period. With the first infu-\nsion of the life-current into the \" missing link \"\nspecies the first race of the new series will begin\nto evolve. It is then that the Being, who may\n\n216 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nbe considered the Buddha of the first race, ap-\npears. The planetary spirit, or Dhyan Cho-\nhan, who is — or, to avoid the suggestion of an\nerroneous idea by the use of a singular verb,\nlet us defy grammar and say, who are — Bud-\ndha in all his or their developments, incarnates\namong the young, innocent, teachable forerun-\nners of the new humanity, and impresses the\nfirst broad principles of right and wrong and\nthe first truths of the esoteric doctrine on a suf-\nficient number of receptive minds to insure the\ncontinued reverberation of the ideas so im-\nplanted through successive generations of men\nin the millions of years to come, before the first\nrace shall have completed its course. It is this\nadvent in the beginning of the round period of\na Divine Being in human form that starts the\nineradicable conception of the anthropomorphic\nGod in all exoteric religions.\n\nThe first Buddha of the series in which Gau-\ntama Buddha stands fourth is thus the second\nincarnation of Avaloketiswara, — the mystic\nname of the hosts of the Dhyan Chohans, or\nplanetary spirits, belonging to our planetary\nchain ; and though Gautama is thus the fourth\nincarnation of enlightenment by exoteric reck-\noning, he is really the fifth of the true series,\nand thus properly belonging to our fifth race.\n\nAvaloketiswara, as just stated, is the mystin\n\nBUDDHA. 217\n\nname of the hosts of the Dhyan Chohans ; the\nproper meaning of the word is manifested wis-\ndom, just as Addi-Buddha and Amitabha both\nmean abstract wisdom.\n\nThe doctrine, as quoted by Mr. Davids, that\n\" every earthly mortal Buddha has his pure and\nglorious counterpart in the mystic world, free\nfrom the debasing conditions of this material\nlife, or rather that the Buddha under material\nconditions is only an appearance, the reflection,\nor emanation, or type of a Dhyani Buddha,\" is\nperfectly correct. The number of Dhyani Bud-\ndhas, or Dhyan Chohans, or planetary spirits,\nperfected human spirits of former world periods,\nis infinite, but only five are practically identified\nin exoteric and seven in esoteric teaching ; and\nthis identification, be it remembered, is a man-\nner of speaking which must not be interpreted\ntoo literally, for there is a unity in the sublime\nspirit-life in question that leaves no room for\nthe isolation of individuality. All this will be\nseen to harmonize perfectly with the revelations\nconcerning Nature embodied in previous chap-\nters, and need not in any way be attributed to\nmystic imaginings. The Dhyani Buddhas, or\nDhyan Chohans, are the perfected humanity of\nprevious Manwantaric epochs, and their collec-\ntive intelligence is described by the name \" Addi-\nBuddha,\" which Mr. Rhys Davids is mistaken\n\n218 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nin treating as a comparatively recent invention\nof the Northern Buddhish. Addi-Buddha means\nprimordial wisdom, and is mentioned in the\noldest Sanskrit books. For example, in the phil-\nosophical dissertation on the \" Mandnkya Upan-\nishad,\" by Gowdapatha, a Sanskrit author con-\ntemporary with Buddha himself, the expression\nis freely used and expounded in exact accord-\nance with the present statement. A friend of\nmine in India, a Brahmin pundit of first-rate\nattainments as a Sanskrit scholar, has shown\nme a copy of this book, which has never yet,\nthat he knows of, been translated into English,\nand has pointed out a sentence bearing on the\npresent question, giving me the following trans-\nlation : \" Prakriti itself, in fact, is Addi-Buddha,\nand all the Dharmas have been existing from\neternity.\" Gowdapatha is a philosophical wri-\nter respected by all Hindu and Buddhist sects\nalike, and widely known. He was the guru, or\nspiritual teacher of the first Sankaracharya, of\nwhom I shall have to speak more at length\nvery shortly.\n\nAdeptship, when Buddha incarnated, was not\nthe condensed, compact hierarchy that it has\nsince become under his influence. There has\nnever been an age of the world without its\nadepts ; but they have sometimes been scat-\ntered throughout the world ; they have some*\n\nBUDDHA. 219\n\ntimes been isolated in separate seclusions ; they\nhave gravitated now to this country, now to\nthat ; and finally, be it remembered, their\nknowledge and power has not always been\ninspired with the elevated and severe morality\nwhich Buddha infused into its latest and high-\nest organization. The reform of the occult\nworld by his instrumentality was, in fact, the\nresult of his great sacrifice ; of the self-denial\nwhich induced him to reject the blessed condi-\ntion of Nirvana to which, after his earth-life as\nBuddha, he was fully entitled, and undertake\nthe burden of renewed incarnations in order to\ncarry out more thoroughly the task he had\ntaken in hand, and confer a correspondingly\nincreased benefit on mankind. Buddha re-in-\ncarnated himself, next after his existence as\nGautama Buddha, in the person of the great\nteacher of whom but little is said in exoteric\nworks on Buddhism, but without a considera-\ntion of whose life it would be impossible to\nget a correct conception of the position in the\nEastern world of esoteric science, — namely,\nSankaracharya. The latter part of this name,\nit may be explained — acharya — merely means\nteacher. The whole name as a title is perpet-\nuated to this day under curious circumstances,\nbut the modern bearers of it are not in the\ndirect line of Buddhist spiritual incarnations.\n\n220 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nSankaracharya appeared in India — no atten-\ntion being paid to his birth, which appears to\nhave taken place on the Malabar coast — about\nsixty years after Gautama Buddha's death.\nEsoteric teaching is to the effect that Sankara-\ncharya simply was Buddha in all respects, in a\nnew body. This view will not be acceptable to\nuninitiated Hindu authorities, who attribute a\nlater date to Sankaracharya's appearance, and\nregard him as a wholly independent teacher,\neven inimical to Buddhism, but none the less\nis the statement just made the real opinion of\ninitiates in esoteric science, whether these call\nthemselves Buddhists or Hindus. I have re-\nceived the information I am now giving from a\nBrahmin Adwaiti, of Southern India, — not\ndirectly from my Tibetan instructor, — and all\ninitiated Brahmins, he assures me, would say\nthe same. Some of the later incarnations of\nBuddha are described differently as overshad-\nowings by the spirit of Buddha, but in the per-\nson of Sankaracharya he reappeared on earth.\nThe object he had in view was to fill up some\ngaps and repair certain errors in his own pre-\nvious teaching ; for there is no contention in\nesotoric Buddhism that even a Buddha can be\nabsolutely infallible at every moment of his\ncareer.\n\nThe position was as follows : Up to the time\n\nBUDDHA. 221\n\nof Buddha, the Brahmins of India had jeal-\nously reserved occult knowledge as the appan-\nage of their own caste. Exceptions were oc-\ncasionally made in favor of Tshatryas, but the\nrule was exclusive in a very high degree. This\nrule Buddha broke down, admitting all castes\nequally to the path of adeptship. The change\nmay have been perfectly right in principle, but\nit paved the way for a great deal of trouble,\nand as the Brahmins conceived for the degrada-\ntion of occult knowledge itself ; that is to say,\nits transfer to unworthy hands, — not unworthy\nmerely because of caste inferiority, but because\nof the moral inferiority which they conceived\nto be introduced into the occult fraternity, to-\ngether with brothers of low birth. The Brah-\nmin contention would not by any means be\nthat because a man should be a Brahmin it fol-\nlowed that he was necessarily virtuous and\ntrustworthy ; but the argument would be : It is\nsupremely necessary to keep out all but the vir-\ntuous and trustworthy from the secrets and\npowers of initiation. To that end it is neces-\nsary not only to set up all the ordeals, proba-\ntions, and tests we can think of, but also to\ntake no candidates except from the class which,\non the whole, by reason of its hereditary advan-\ntages, is likely to be the best nursery of fit can-\ndidates.\n\n222 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nLater experience is held on all hands now to\nhave gone far towards vindicating the Brah-\nmin apprehension, and the next incarnation of\nBuddha, after that in the person of Sankara-\ncharya, was a practical admission of this ; but\nmeanwhile, in the person of Sankaracharya,\nBuddha was engaged in smoothing over, before-\nhand, the sectarian strife in India which be saw\nimpending. The active opposition of the Brah-\nmins against Buddhism began in Asoka's time,\nwhen the great efforts made by that ruler to\nspread Buddhism provoked an apprehension on\ntheir part in reference to their social and polit-\nical ascendency. It must be remembered that\ninitiates are not wholly free in all cases from\nthe prejudices of their own individualities.\nThey possess some such god-like attributes that\noutsiders, when they first begin to understand\nsomething of these, are apt to divest them, in\nimagination, even too completely of human\nfrailties. Initiation and occult knowledge held\nin common is certainly a bond of union among\nadepts of all nationalities, which is far stronger\nthan any other bond. But it has been found\non more occasions than one to fail in obliterat-\ning all other distinctions. Thus the Buddhist\nand Brahmin initiates of the period referred to\nwere by no means of one mind on all questions,\nand the Brahmins very decidedly disapproved\n\nBUDDHA. 223\n\no^ the Buddhist reformation in its exoteric as-\npects. Chandragupta, Asoka's grandfather, was\nan upstart, and the family were Sudras. This\nwas enough to render his Buddhist policy unat-\ntractive to the representatives of the orthodox\nBrahmin faith. The struggle assumed a very\nembittered form, though ordinary history gives\nus few or no particulars. The party of primi-\ntive Buddhism was entirely worsted, and the\nBrahmin ascendency completely reestablished\nin the time of Vikramaditya, about 80 B. c.\nBut Sankaracharya had traveled all over India\nin advance of the great struggle, and had estab-\nlished various mathams, or schools of philoso-\nphy, in several important centres. He was\nonly engaged in this task for a few years, but\nthe influence of his teaching has been so stu-\npendous that its very magnitude disguises the\nchange wrought. He brought exoteric Hindu-\nism into practical harmony with the esoteric\n\" wisdom religion,\" and left the people amus-\ning themselves still with their ancient mytholo-\ngies, but leaning on philosophical guides who\nwere esoteric Buddhists to all intents and pur-\nposes, though in reconciliation .with all that\nwas ineradicable in Brahmanism. The great\nfault of previous exoteric Hinduism lay in its\nattachment to vain ceremonial and its adhesion\nto idolatrous conceptions of the divinities of the\n\n224 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nHindu pantheon. Sankaracharya emphasized,\nby his commentaries on the Upanishads, and by\nhis original writings, the necessity of pursuing\ngnyanam in order to obtain mohsha ; that is\nto say, the importance of the secret knowledge\nto spiritual progress, and the consummation\nthereof. He was the founder of the Vedantin\nsystem, — the proper meaning of Vedanta being\nthe final end or crown of knowledge, — though\nthe sanctions of that system are derived by\nhim from the writings of Vyasa, the author of\nthe \" Mahabharata,\" the \" Puranas,\" and the\n\" Brahmasntras.\" I make these statements,\nthe reader will understand, not on the basis of\nany researches of my own, — which I am not\nOriental scholar enough to attempt, — but on the\nauthority of a Brahmin initiate who is himself a\nfirst-rate Sanskrit scholar as well as an occultist.\nThe Vedantin school at present is almost co-\nextensive with Hinduism, making allowance, of\ncourse, for the existence of some special sects\nlike the Sikhs, the Vallabacharyas, or Mahara-\njah sect, of very unfair fame, and may be di-\nvided into three great divisions, — the Adwai-\ntees, the Vishishta Adwaitees, and the Dwaitees.\nThe outline of the Adwaitee doctrine is that\nbrakmum or purush, the universal spirit, acts\nonly through prakriti, matter ; that everything\ntakes place in this way through the inherent\n\nBUDDHA. 225\n\nenergy of matter. Brahinum, or Parabrahm, is\nthus a passive, incomprehensible, unconscious\nprinciple, but the essence, one life, or energy\nof the universe. In this way the doctrine is\nidentical with the transcendental materialism of\nthe adept esoteric Buddhist philosophy. The\nname Adwaitee signifies not dual, and has\nreference partly to the non-dualit}^ or unity\nof universal spirit, or Buddhist one life, as\ndistinguished from the notion of its operation\nthrough anthropomorphic emanations ; partly\nto the unity of the universal and the human\nspirit. As a natural consequence of this doc-\ntrine, the Adwaitees infer the Buddhist doctrine\nof Karma, regarding the future destin}7 of man\nas altogether depending on the causes he him-\nself engenders.\n\nThe Vishishta Adwaitees modify these views\nby the interpolation of Vishnu as a conscious\ndeity, the primary emanation of Parabrahm,\nVishnu being regarded as a personal god, capa-\nble of intervening in the course of human des-\ntiny. They do not regard yog, or spiritual\ntraining, as the proper avenue to spiritual\nachievement, but conceive this to be possible\nchiefly by means of Bhakti, or devoutness.\nRoughly stated in the phraseology of European\ntheology, the Adwaitee may thus be said to be-\nlieve only in salvation by works, the Vishishta\n\n226 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nAdwaitee in salvation by grace. The Dwaitee\ndiffers but little from the Vishishta Adwaitee,\nmerely affirming, by the designation he as-\nsumes, with increased emphasis, the duality of\nthe human spirit and the highest principle of\nthe universe, and including many ceremonial\nobservances as an essential part of Bhakti.\n\nBut all these differences of view, it must be\nborne in mind, have to do merely with the ex-\noteric variations on the fundamental idea, intro-\nduced by different teachers with varying im-\npressions as to the capacity of the populace for\nassimilating transcendental ideas. All lead-\ners of Vedantin thought look up to Sankara-\ncharya and the Mathams he established with\nthe greatest possible reverence, and their inner\nfaith runs up in all cases into the one esoteric\ndoctrine. In fact, the initiates of all schools in\nIndia interlace with one another. Except as\nregards nomenclature, the whole system of cos-\nmogony as held by the Buddhist-Arhats, and as\nset forth in this volume, is equally held by in-\nitiated Brahmins, and has been equally held\nby them since before Buddha's birth. Whence\ndid they obtain it? the reader may ask. Their\nanswer would be, From the Planetary Spirit, or\nDhyan Chohan, who first visited this planet at\nthe dawn of the human race in the present\nround period, — more millions of years ago than\n\nBUDDHA. 227\n\nI like to mention on the basis of conjecture,\nwhile the real exact number is withheld.\n\nSankaracharya founded four principal Math-\nams : one at Sringari, in Southern India, which\nhas always remained the most important ; one\nat Juggernath, in Orissa ; one at Dwaraka, in\nKathiawar ; and one at Gungotri, on the slopes\nof the Himalayas in the North. The chief of\nthe Sringari temple has always borne the desig-\nnation Sankaracharya, in addition to some in-\ndividual name. From these four centres others\nhave been established, and Mathams now exist\nall over India, exercising the utmost possible\ninfluence on Hinduism.\n\nI have said that Buddha, by his third in-\ncarnation, recognized the fact that he had, in\nthe excessive confidence of his loving trust in\nthe perfectibility of humanity, opened the doors\nof the occult sanctuary too widely. His third\nappearance was in the person of Tsong-ka-pa,\nthe great Tibetan adept reformer of the four-\nteenth centuty. In this personality he was\nexclusively concerned with the affairs of the\nadept fraternity, by that time collecting chiefly\nin Tibet.\n\nFrom time immemorial there had been a cer-\ntain secret region in Tibet, which to this day\nis quite unknown to and unapproachable by\nany but initiated persons, and inaccessible to\n\n228 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthe ordinary people of the country as to any\nothers, in which adepts have always congre-\ngated. But the country generally was not in\nBuddha's time, as it has since become, the\nchosen habitation of the great brotherhood.\nMuch more than they are at present were the\nMahatraas in former times distributed about\nthe world. The progress of civilization, en-\ngendering the magnetism they find so trying,\nhad, however, by the date with which we are\nnow dealing — the fourteenth century — al-\nready given rise to a very general movement\ntowards Tibet on the part of the previously\ndissociated occultists. Far more widely than\nwas held to be consistent with the. safety of\nmankind was occult knowledge and power then\nfound to be disseminated. To the task of put-\nting it under the control of a rigid system of\nrule and law did Tsong-ka-pa address himself.\n\nWithout reestablishing the system on the\nprevious unreasonable basis of caste exclusive-\nness, he elaborated a code of rules for the guid-\nance of the adepts, the effect of which was to\nweed out of the occult body all but those who\nsought occult knowledge in a spirit of the most\nsublime devotion to the highest moral prin-\nciples.\n\nAn article in the \" Theosophist \" for March,\n1882, on \" Re-incarnations in Tibet,\" for the com-\n\nBUDDHA. 229\n\nplete trustworthiness of which in all its mystic\nbearings I have the highest assurance, gives a\ngreat deal of important information about the\nbranch of the subject with which we are now\nengaged, and the relations between esoteric Bud-\ndhism and Tibet, which cannot be examined too\nclosely by any one who desires an exhaustive\ncomprehension of Buddhism in its real signifi-\ncation.\n\n\" The regular system ,\" we read, \" of the\nLamaic incarnations of ' Sangyas ' (or Buddha)\nbegan with Tsong-kha-pa. This reformer is\nnot the incarnation of one of the five celestial\nDhyans, or heavenly Buddhas, as is generally\nsupposed, said to have been created by Sakya\nMuni after he had risen to Nirvana, but that of\nAmita, one of the Chinese names for Buddha.\nThe records preserved in the Gon-pa (lamasery)\nof Tda-shi Hlum-po (spelt by the English Teshu\nLumbo) show that Sangyas incarnated himself\nin Tsong-kha-pa, in consequence of the great\ndegradation his doctrines had fallen into. Until\nthen there had been no other incarnations than\nthose of the five celestial Buddhas and of their\nBuddhisatvas, each of the former having cre-\nated (read overshadowed with his spiritual wis-\ndom) five of the last named. ... It was be-\ncause, among many other reforms, Tsong-kha-pa\nforbade necromancy (which is practiced to this\n\n230 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nday, with the most disgusting rites, by fbe\nBhons, — the aborigines of Tibet, with whom\nthe Red Caps, or Shammars, had always fra-\nternized) that the latter resisted his authority.\nThis act was followed by a split between the\ntwo sects. Separating entirely from the Gya-\nlukpas, the Dugpas (Red Caps), from the first\nin a great minority, settled in various parts of\nTibet, chiefly its borderlands, and principally\nin Nepaul and Bhootan. But, while they re-\ntained a sort of independence at the monastery\nof Sakia-Djong, the Tibetan residence of their\nspiritual (?) chief, Gong-sso Rimbo-chay, the\nBhootanese have been from their beginning the\ntributaries and vassals of the Dalai Lamas.\n\n\" The Tda - shi Lamas were always more\npowerful and more highly considered than the\nDalai Lamas. The latter are the creation of\nthe Tda-shi Lama, Nabang-lob-sang, the sixth\nincarnation of Tsong-kha-pa, himself an incar-\nnation of Amitabha, or Buddha.\"\n\nSeveral writers on Buddhism have enter-\ntained a theory, which Mr. Clements Mark-\nham formulates very fully in his \" Narrative of\nthe Mission of George Bogle to Tibet,\" that\nwhereas the original scriptures of Buddhism\nwere taken to Ceylon by the son of Asoka, the\nBuddhism, which found its way into Tibet\nfrom India and China, was gradually overlaid\n\nBUDDHA. 231\n\nwith a mass of dogma and metaphysical spec-\nulation. And Professor Max Miiller says :\n\" The most important element in the Buddhist\nreform has always been its social and moral\ncode, not its metaphysical theories. That moral\ncode, taken by itself, is one of the most perfect\nwhich the world has ever known ; and it was\nthis blessing that the introduction of Buddhism\nbrought into Tibet.\"\n\n\" The blessing,\" says the authoritative article\nin the \" Theosophist,\" from which I have just\nbeen quoting, \" has remained and spread all\nover the country, there being no kinder, purer-\nminded, more simple or sin-fearing nation than\nthe Tibetans. But for all that, the popular la-\nmaism, when compared with the real esoteric\nor Arahat Buddhism of Tibet, offers a contrast\nas great as the snow trodden along a road in\nthe valley, to the pure and undefiled mass\nwhich glitters on the top of a high mountain\npeak.\"\n\nThe fact is that Ceylon is saturated with\nexoteric, and Tibet with esoteric, Buddhism.\nCeylon concerns itself merely or mainly with\nthe morals, Tibet, or rather the adepts of Tibet,\nwith the science, of Buddhism.\n\nThese explanations constitute but a sketch of\nthe whole position. I do not possess the argu-\nments nor the literary leisure which would be\n\n232 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nrequired for its amplification into a finished pic-\nture of the relations which really subsist between\nthe inner principles of Hinduism and those of\nBuddhism. And I am quite alive to the pos-\nsibility that many learned and painstaking stu-\ndents of the subject will have formed, as the\nconsequences of prolonged and erudite research,\nconclusions with which the explanations I am\nnow enabled to give may seem at first sight to\nconflict. But none the less are these expla-\nnations directly gathered from authorities to\nwhom the subject is no less familiar in its schol-\narly than in its esoteric aspect. And their\ninner knowledge throws a light upon the whole\nposition which wholly exempts them from the\ndanger of misconstruing texts and mistaking\nthe bearings of obscure symbology. To know\nwhen Gautama Buddha was born, what is re-\ncorded of his teaching, and what popular leg-\nends have gathered round his biography is to\nknow next to nothing of the real Buddha, so\nmuch greater than either the historical moral\nteacher or the fantastic demi-god of tradition.\nAnd it is only when we have comprehended the\nlink between Buddhism and Brahmanism that\nthe greatness of the esoteric doctrine rises into\nits true proportions.",
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