The truly great is always seen from a distance. As regards the Russian philosopher and writer Helena Roerich’s creative heritage, this was exactly the case. Much of what was created by this outstanding woman in the first half of the XX century entered the cultural and spiritual life of Russia comparatively recently, and aroused deep and sincere interest from many of our compatriots, who were trying to find answers to urgent questions concerning existence.

1 : Foundations of Buddhism

In the foundations of Buddhism, one cannot pause over the later complications and ramifications. It is important to know that the idea of the purification of the Teaching is always alive in the Buddhist consciousness. Soon after the Teacher's death the celebrated councils took place in Rajagriha, and after in Vaishali and Patna, restoring the Teaching to its original simplicity. The principal existing schools of Buddhism are: the Mahayana (Tibet, Mongolia, the Kalmucks, the Buriats, China, Japan, Northern India) and the Hinayana (Indo-China, Burma, Siam, Ceylon, and India). But both of these schools remember equally well the qualities of the Teacher himself.

The qualities of Buddha are: Muni-the wise, from the clan of Shakya; Shakya Simha-Shakya, the Lion; Bhagavat-the Blessed One; Sadhu-the Teacher; Jina-the Conqueror; the Ruler of the Benevolent Law.

Of unusual beauty is the coming of the King in the image of a mighty mendicant. "Go, ye mendicants, bring salvation and benevolence to the peoples." In this command of Buddha, in this term mendicants all is contained.

Understanding the Teaching of Buddha, you realize whence emanates the assertion of the Buddhists-"Buddha is a man." His teaching of Life is above all and every prejudice. The temple does not exist for him, but there is a place of assembly and a home of knowledge-the Tibetan du-khang and tsug-lag-khang.

Buddha disputed the conventional conception of God. Buddha denied the existence of an eternal and immutable soul. Buddha gave the teaching for every day. Buddha struggled forcefully against possessions. Buddha fought personally against the fanaticism of castes and the privileges of the classes. Buddha affirmed experienced, trustworthy knowledge and the value of labor. Buddha bade the study of the life of the Universe in its full reality. Buddha laid the foundations of the community, foreseeing the victory of the World Community.

Hundreds of millions of worshippers of Buddha are scattered throughout the world and each of them affirms: "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Teaching, I take refuge in the Sangha."

The Buddhist written traditions and our contemporary researches have established a series of details of the life of Gotama Buddha. Buddha's death is ascribed by some of the investigators to the year 483 B.C. According to Singhalese chronicles, Buddha lived from 621 to 543 B.C. But Chinese chronicles have fixed the birth of Buddha in the year 1024 B.C. The age of the Teacher at his death is given as about eighty years. The place of the birth of the Teacher is known as Kapilavastu, situated in the Nepalese Terai. The royal line of Shakyas, to which Gotama belonged, is known.

Undoubtedly all biographies of the great Teacher have been greatly elaborated by his contemporaries and followers, especially in the most recent writings, but in order to preserve the coloring and the character of the epoch, we must to a certain extent refer to the traditional exposition.

According to the traditions of the sixth century B.C. the domain of Kapilavastu existed in North India in the foothills of the Himalayas and was populated by numerous tribes of Shakyas, descendants of Ikshvaku of the solar race of Kshatriyas. They were ruled by the Elder of the clan who resided in the city of Kapilavastu, of which no traces are now left; during Buddha's time it was already destroyed by a hostile neighboring king. At that period, Shuddhodana, the last direct descendant of Ikshvaku, reigned at Kapilavastu. Of this king and Queen Maya was born the future great Teacher, who received the name of Siddhartha, which means "He who fulfilled his purpose."

Visions and prophecies preceded his birth and the event itself, on the full-moon day of May, was attended with all propitious signs in heaven and on earth. Thus the great Rishi Asita dwelling in the Himalayas, having learned from the Devas that a Bodhisattva, the future Buddha, had been born to the world of men in the Lumbini Park and that he would turn the Wheel of the Doctrine, immediately set out on a journey to pay homage to the future Teacher of men. Reaching the palace of King Shuddhodana, he expressed the desire to see the newborn Bodhisattva. The King ordered the child to be brought to the Rishi, expecting his blessing. But the Rishi on seeing the child, first smiled and then wept. The King anxiously asked the reason of his sorrow and whether he saw an ill omen for his son. To this the Rishi replied that he saw nothing harmful for the child. He rejoiced because the Bodhisattva would achieve full enlightenment and become a great Buddha; and he grieved because his own life was short and he would not live to hear the great Doctrine preached.

Queen Maya, after giving birth to the great Bodhisattva, departed life, and her sister Prajapati took the child and reared it. In Buddhist history she is known as Buddha's first female disciple and the foundress and head of a Sangha for bhikshunis.

On the fifth day, one hundred and eight Brahmins, versed in the Vedas, were invited by King Shuddhodana to his palace. They were to give a name to the newborn Prince and read his destiny by the position of the luminaries. Eight of the most learned said: "He who has such signs as the Prince will become either a Universal Monarch, Cakravartin, or, if he retires from the world, will become a Buddha and remove the veil of ignorance from the sight of the world."

The eighth, the youngest, added, "The Prince will leave the world after seeing four signs: an old man, a sick man, a corpse and an anchorite."

The King, desiring to retain his son and heir, took all measures and precautions to assure this. He surrounded the Prince with all the luxuries and pleasures which his royal power could afford. There are many facts indicating that the Prince Siddhartha received a brilliant education, since knowledge as such was in great esteem in those days, and according to a remark in the Buddhacarita by Ashvaghosha, the city of Kapilavastu received its name in honor of the great Kapila-the founder of Sankhya philosophy.

Echoes of this philosophy can be found in the Teaching of the Blessed One.

For greater conviction, in the Canon the narrative about his luxurious life at the court of Shuddhodana is put in the words of Buddha himself.

"I was tenderly cared for, bhikshus, supremely so, infinitely so. At my father's palace, lotus pools were built for me, in one place for blue lotus flowers, in one place for white lotus flowers, and in one place for red lotus flowers, blossoming for my sake. And, bhikshus, I used only sandal oil from Benares. Of Benares fabric were my three robes. Day and night a white umbrella was held over me, so that I might not be troubled by cold, heat, dust, chaff, or dew. I dwelt in three palaces, bhikshus; in one, during the cold; in one, in the summer; and in one, during the rainy season. While in the palace of the rainy season, surrounded by musicians, singers, and female dancers, for four months I did not descend from the palace. And, bhikshus, although in the domains of others only a dish of red rice and rice soup would be offered to the servants and slaves, in my father's house not only rice, but a dish with rice and meat was given to the servants and slaves."[1]

But this luxurious and happy life could not appease the great spirit. And in the most ancient traditions we see that the awakening of consciousness to the sufferings and misery of men and to the problems of existence, occurred much earlier than is stated in later writings.

Thus the Anguttara-Nikaya, seemingly in Buddha's own words, quotes, "Endowed with such wealth, reared in such delicacy, the thought came 'Verily, the unenlightened worldling, subject himself to old age, without escape from old age, is oppressed when he sees another grown old. I, too, am subject to old age and cannot escape it. If I, who am subject to all this, should see another, who is grown old, oppressed, tormented and sickened, it would not be well with me.' [The same is repeated of sickness and death.] Thus as I reflected on it, all elation in youth utterly disappeared."

From his earliest childhood the Bodhisattva exhibited an unusual compassion and keen mind toward surrounding conditions. According to the Mahavastu, the Bodhisattva was taken to the park by the King and his attendants. In this version he was old enough to walk about, and came to a rural village where he saw a serpent and a frog turned up by the plough. The frog was taken away for food and the serpent thrown away. This roused the Bodhisattva to great distress. He was filled with deep sorrow; he felt extreme compassion. Then, desiring complete solitude for his thoughts, he went to a rose-apple tree in an isolated spot; there, seated on the ground, covered with leaves, he fell into thought. His father, not seeing him, became anxious. He was found by one of the courtiers under the shade of the rose-apple tree, deeply engrossed in thought.

Another time he saw the laborers, with hair unkempt, with bare hands and feet, their bodies grimy and bathed with sweat; and the work-oxen goaded with iron prods, their backs and rumps streaming blood, gasping, with fast-beating hearts, burdened by their yokes, bitten by flies and insects, gashed by the ploughshare, with bleeding and festered wounds. His tender heart was touched with compassion.

"To whom do you belong?" he asked the ploughmen.

"We are the King's property," they answered.

"From today you are no longer slaves, you shall no longer be servants. Go wherever you please and live in joy."

He freed the oxen also and said to them, "Go! From today eat the sweetest grass and drink the purest water and may the breezes from the four hemispheres visit you." Then seeing a shady jambu tree, he sat at its foot and gave himself to earnest meditation.

Devadatta seeing a goose flying overhead shot it, and it fell in the garden of the Bodhisattva, who took it and drawing out the arrow, bound up its wound. Devadatta sent a messenger to claim the bird, but the Bodhisattva refused to relinquish it, saying that it belonged not to him who had attempted to take its life, but to him who had saved it.

When the Prince reached his sixteenth birthday, in conformity with the customs of his country he had to choose a consort, after proving himself victor of the Svayamvara contest of arms. The chosen one was the Princess Yashodhara of the same Shakya clan. She became mother of Rahula, who later became his father's disciple and attained Arhatship.

But personal happiness, great as it was, could not satisfy the ardently striving spirit of the Bodhisattva. His heart continued to respond to each human sorrow and his mind, perceiving the transitoriness of all that existed, knew no rest. He roamed through the halls of his palace like a lion stung by some poisoned dart and in pain he groaned, "The world is full of darkness and ignorance; there is no one who knows how to cure the ills of existence!"

This state of his spirit is symbolically described in the four preordained encounters, after which he left his kingdom seeking to deliver the world of its misery. In an ancient biography in verse, following the third encounter, there is the remark that only the Bodhi sattva and his charioteer saw the corpse carried across the road. According to this Sutra the Prince was then completing his twenty-ninth year.

One day the Prince told Chandaka, his charioteer, that he wanted to drive in the park. While there he saw an old man, and the charioteer explained what old age was and how all were subject to it. Deeply impressed, the Prince turned back and returned home.

A short time after, while out driving, he met a sick man gasping for breath, his body disfigured, convulsed and groaning with pain, and his charioteer told him what disease was and how all men were subject to it. And again he turned back. All pleasures appeared faded to him, and the joys of life became loathsome.

Another time, he came upon a procession with lighted torches bearing a litter with something wrapped in a linen sheet; the women accompanying it had dishevelled hair and were weeping piteously-it was a corpse and Chandaka told him all must come to this state. And the Prince exclaimed: "O worldly men! How fatal is your delusion! Inevitably your body will crumble to dust, yet carelessly, unheedingly, you live on." The charioteer, observing the deep impression these sights had made on the Prince, turned his horses and drove back to the city.

Then another incident happened to the Prince, which seemed to indicate to him the solution of his quest. When they passed by the palaces of the nobility, a Shakya Princess saw the Prince from the balcony of her palace and greeted him with a stanza wherein the word Nibutta (Nirvana) recurred in each line, which means:

"Happy the father that begot you,
"Happy the mother that nursed you,
"Happy the wife that calls husband this lord so glorious.
"She has gone beyond sorrow."

The Prince, hearing the word Nibutta, loosened from his neck a precious pearl necklace and sent it to the princess as a reward for the instruction she had given him. He thought:

"Happy are they that have found deliverance. Longing for peace of mind I shall seek the bliss of Nirvana."

On the same night Yashodhara dreamt that the Prince was abandoning her and she awoke and told him of her dream. "O, my Lord, wherever thou goest, there let me also go."

And he, thinking of going where there was no sorrow (Nirvana), replied, "So be it, wherever I go, there mayest thou go also." After Buddha's return, Yasodhara, together with his foster mother Prajapati, became his first female disciples.

It was night. The Prince could not find peace on his couch. He arose and went forth into the garden. He sat down beneath the great jambu tree and gave himself to thought, pondering on life, on death, and the evils of decay. He concentrated his mind, became free from confusion, and perfect tranquillity came over him. In this state his mental eye opened and he beheld a lofty figure endowed with majesty, calm and dignified. "Whence comest thou and who mayest thou be?" asked the Prince. In reply the vision said: "I am a Shramana. Troubled at the thought of old age, disease, and death, I have left my home to seek the path of salvation. All things hasten to decay; only the truth abideth forever. Everything changes, and there is no permanency; yet the words of the Buddhas are immutable."

Siddhartha asked: "Can peace be gained in this world of sorrow? I am overcome with the emptiness of pleasure and have become disgusted with lust. All oppresses me, and existence itself seems intolerable."

The Shramana replied: "Where heat is, there is also a possibility of cold. Creatures subject to pain possess the faculty of pleasure. The origin of evil indicates that good can be developed. For these things are correlatives. Thus where there is much suffering, there will be much bliss, if thou but open thine eyes to behold it. Just as a man who has fallen into a heap of filth should seek the nearby pond covered with lotuses, just so seek thou the great deathless lake of Nirvana to cleanse the defilement of sin. If the lake is not sought, it is not the fault of the lake, just so, when there is a blessed road leading the man bound by sin to the salvation of Nirvana, it is not the fault of the road, but of the man, if the road be not trod. And when a man burdened with sickness does not avail himself of the help of a physician who can heal him, it is not the fault of the physician; so, when a man oppressed by the malady of wrong-doing does not seek the spiritual guide of enlightenment, it is not the fault of the sin-destroying guide."

The Prince listened to the wise words and said: "I know that my purpose will be accomplished but my father tells me that I am still too young, that my pulse beats too full to lead a Shramana's life."

The venerable figure replied: "Thou shouldst know that for seeking truth no time can be inopportune."

A thrill of joy pierced Siddhartha's heart. "Now is the time to seek the truth. Now is the time to sever all ties that would prevent me from attaining perfect enlightenment."

The celestial messenger heard the resolution of Siddhartha with approval: "Go forth, Siddhartha, and fulfill thy purpose. For thou art Bodhisattva, the Buddha-elect; thou are destined to enlighten the world. Thou art the Tathagata, the Perfect One, for thou shall fulfill all righteousness and be Dharma-raja, the King of Truth. Thou art Bhagavat, the Blessed One, for thou art summoned to become the saviour and redeemer of the world.

"Do thou fulfill the perfection of Truth. Though the thunderbolt descend upon thy head, never yield to the allurements that beguile men from the path of truth. As the sun at all seasons pursues its own course nor seeks another, just so if thou forsake not the straight path of righteousness, thou shall become a Buddha.

"Persevere in thy quest and thou shall find what thou seekest. Pursue thy aim unswervingly and thou shall conquer. The benediction of all deities, of all that seek light is upon thee, and heavenly wisdom guides thy steps. Thou shall be the Buddha, thou shall enlighten the world and save mankind from perdition."

Having thus spoken, the vision vanished, and Siddhartha's soul was filled with ecstacy. He said to himself: "I have awakened to the Truth and I am resolved to accomplish my purpose. I will sever all ties that bind me to the world, and I will go out from my home to seek the way of salvation. Verily, I shall become a Buddha."

The Prince returned to the palace for a last glance of farewell upon those whom he loved above all treasures of Earth. He went to the abode of the mother of Rahula and opened the door of Yashodhara's chamber. There burnt a lamp of scented oil. On the bed, strewn with jasmine, slept Yashodhara, the mother of Rahula, with her hand on the head of her son. Standing with his foot at the threshold, the Bodhisattva looked at them and his heart grieved. The pain of parting smote him. But nothing could shake his resolution and with a courageous heart he suppressed his feelings and tore himself away. He mounted his steed Kanthaka, and finding the castle gates wide open he passed out into the silent night accompanied only by Chandaka his faithful charioteer. Thus Siddhartha, the Prince, renounced worldly pleasures, gave up his kingdom, severed all ties, and went into homelessness. [2], [3]

Up to now, four sites in India have drawn the pilgrimages of devotees to the Teaching of the Blessed Buddha. His birthplace, Kapilavastu, was a city situated in the north of India, on the foothills of the Himalayas, at the source of the river Gandak, and was destroyed even during the life of Buddha. The place of his enlightenment, Buddhagaya, where was Uruvela, the often- mentioned grove, under the shade of which Gotama united all his attainments in illumination. The place of his first sermon, Sarnath (near Benares), where, according to the legend, Buddha set in motion the Wheel of the Law, still shows traces of ruins of most ancient communities. The place of his death-Kushinara (Nepal).

In the notes of the Chinese traveler Fa-Hsien (A.D. 392-414), who visited India, we find a description of the domain of Kapilavastu as well as of other revered spots.

Despite these facts, despite the ancient columns of King Ashoka, there are those who love to make of the Buddha a myth, and to separate this high Teaching from life. The French writer Senart, in a special work, affirms that Buddha was a solar myth. But here, also, science has restored the human personality of the Teacher, Gotama Buddha. The urn with part of the ashes and bones of Buddha, found in Piprawa (Nepalese Terai) bearing a date and inscription, as well as an historical urn with some relics of the Teacher, buried by King Kanishka and found near Peshawar, bear definite testimony to the death of the first Teacher of the World Community, Gotama Buddha.

One should not think that the life of Gotama Buddha was spent in universal acknowledgment and quiet. On the contrary, there are indications of slander and all kinds of obstacles, through which the Teacher, as a true fighter, only strengthened himself, thus augmenting the significance of his achievement. Many incidents speak about the hostility which he encountered from ascetics and Brahmins, who hated him. The former for his reproval of their fanaticism, the latter for his refusal to admit their rights to social privileges and to the knowledge of truth by right of birth.

To the first, he said: "If only through the renunciation of food and human conditions one could attain perfection and liberation from the bonds which tie man to Earth, then a horse or a cow would have reached it long ago."

To the second: "According to his deeds a man becomes a pariah; according to his deeds he becomes a Brahmin. The fire kindled by a Brahmin, and the fire kindled by a Shudra have an equal flame, brightness, and light. To what has your isolation brought you? In order to procure bread you go to the general market, and you value the coins from the purse of a Shudra. Your isolation may be termed merely plunder. And your sacred implements are merely instruments of deception.

"Are not the possessions of the rich Brahmin a desecration of the Divine Law? You consider the south as light and the north as darkness. A time will come when I shall come from the midnight and your light shall be extinguished. Even the birds fly north to bear their young. Even the gray geese know the value of earthly possession. But the Brahmin tries to fill his girdle with gold and to hoard his treasures under the threshold of his house. Brahmin, you lead a contemptible life and your end shall be pitiable. You shall be the first to be visited with destruction. If I go northward, then shall I also return from there." (Taken from oral traditions of Buddhists in India.)

There are established cases when, after his discourses, a great many of the listeners deserted him and the Blessed One said: "The seed has separated from the husk; the remaining community, strong in conviction, is established. It is well that the conceited ones have departed."

Let us remember the episode when his nearest disciple and relative, Devadatta, conceived the thought of throwing a stone at the passing Teacher and even succeeded in injuring his toe.

Let us remember the cruel destiny which visited his clan and country through the vengeance of the neighboring king. The legends relate that Buddha, being far from the city with his beloved disciple Ananda at the time of the attack on his country, felt a severe headache and lay down on the ground, covering himself with his robe, in order to hide from the only witness the sorrow which overcame his stoical heart.

Neither was he exempt from physical ailments. Severe pains in his back are often mentioned and even his death was the result of poisonous food. All these details make his image verily human and close to us.

The word Buddha is not a name, but indicates the state of a mind which has reached the highest point of development; literally translated, it means the "enlightened one," or the one who possesses perfect knowledge and wisdom.

According to the Pali Suttas, Buddha never claimed the omniscience which was attributed to him by his disciples and followers: "Those who told thee, Vaccha, that the Teacher Gotama knows all, sees all, and asserts his possession of limitless powers of foresight and knowledge and says, 'In motion or immobility, in vigilance or sleep, always and in all, omniscience dwells in me,' those people do not say what I said, they accuse me despite all truth."[4]

The powers possessed by Buddha are not miraculous, because a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature. The supreme power of Buddha coordinates completely with the eternal order of things. His superhuman abilities are miraculous, inasmuch as the activities of a man must appear miraculous to the lower beings. To self-sacrificing heroes, to fighters for true knowledge, it is as natural to manifest their unusual achievements as for a bird to fly or for a fish to swim.

Buddha, according to one text, "is only the elder of men, differing from them no more than as the hatched chick differs from later chicks of the same hen." Knowledge uplifted him to a different order of beings, because the principle of differentiation lies in the depth of consciousness.

The humanness of Gotama Buddha is especially underlined in the most ancient writings, where the following expression is met, "Gotama Buddha, the most perfect of bipeds."

The Pali Suttas contain many vivid definitions of the high qualities of Gotama, the Teacher, who indicated the path. Let us mention some of them: "He is the leader of the caravan, the founder, the teacher, the incomparable trainer of men. Humanity was rolling like a cartwheel on the way to its destruction, lost without guide and protector. He indicated to it the right path. He is the Lord of the Wheel of Benevolent Law. He is the Lion of the Law." [5]

"He is a wondrous physician; by compassionate means he cures dangerously sick people."[6]

"The venerable Gotama is a ploughman. His field is immortality."[7]

"He is the light of the world. He it is who lifts one from Earth. He it is who unveils that which is concealed. He it is who carries the torch in the darkness, in order that those who have eyes may see; thus Gotama illumined his Teaching from all sides."

"He is the Liberator. He liberates, because he himself has been liberated." His moral and spiritual perfection testifies to the Truth of his Teaching, and the power of his influence upon those who surrounded him rested on the example of his personal labor.

Ancient writings always emphasize the vital applicability of his teaching. Gotama did not avoid life, but took part in the daily life of the workers. He tried to direct them toward the Teaching, offered them participation in his communities, accepted their invitations and did not fear to visit courtesans and rajas, the two centers of social life in the cities of India. He tried not to offend unnecessarily the traditional customs; furthermore he sought the possibility of giving them his Teaching, finding support for it in an especially revered tradition not conflicting with the basic principles.

There was no abstraction in his Teaching. He never opposed the ideal of mystic and transcendental life to existing reality. He stressed the reality of all existing things and conditions for the current moment. And as his activities and thoughts were concerned mostly with the circumstances of life, he drew the contents of his speeches and parables out of daily life, using the simplest images and comparisons.

Starting from the concept of the parallel between nature and human life, Hindu thinkers believe that the manifestations of nature can explain many things to us in the manifestations of life. Using this method, Buddha, fortunately for his Doctrine, retained the experience of this old tradition. "I shall show thee by comparison, because many rational people understand by comparison"-such was the usual formula of Buddha. And this simple, vital approach lent to his Teaching vividness and conviction.

His influence upon people was proportionate to his faith in himself, in his power, and in his mission. He always adapted himself to the situation of each pupil and listener, giving to them the most needed, in accordance with their understanding. He did not burden the disciples and listeners, who were unprepared to absorb the highest knowledge, with intricate intellectual processes. Nor did he encourage those who sought abstract knowledge, without applying in life his highly ethical Teaching. Once, when one such questioner, named Malunkya, asked the Blessed One about the origin of all things, the Blessed One remained silent, because he considered the most important task lay in affirmation of the reality of our surroundings; this meant to see things as they exist around us, and try first to perfect them, to prompt their evolution and not to waste time on intellectual speculation.

Certainly his knowledge was not limited to his Doctrine, but caution prompted by great wisdom made him hesitant to divulge conceptions which, if misunderstood, might be disastrous.

Once the Blessed One was staying at Kausambi in the Simsapa Grove. And the Blessed One, taking a few simsapa leaves in his hand, said to his disciples, "What think you, my disciples, which are more, these few leaves I hold in my hand, or the remaining leaves in the Simsapa Grove above?

"The leaves that the Blessed One holds in his hand are few in number; far more are the leaves in the Simsapa Grove above. "Just so, disciples, what I have perceived and not communicated to you is far more than what I have communicated to you. And why, O disciples, have I not revealed this to you? Because it would be of no advantage to you, because it does not contribute to the higher life, because it does not lead to disgust with the world, to annihilation of all lust, to the ceasing of the transitory, to peace, to higher knowledge, to awakening, to Nirvana. Therefore I have not communicated it to you. And what have I communicated to you? That which is suffering, the source of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path that leads to the cessation of suffering."

And so individual and practical was his Teaching in each separate case, that the tradition of three circles of the Teaching was established: for the chosen ones, for the members of the Sangha, and for all.

In founding his Sanghas, Buddha strove to create the best conditions for those who had firmly determined to work upon the expansion of their consciousness for the attainment of higher knowledge. Then he sent them into life as teachers of life, as heralds of a World Community.

The constant discipline of words, thoughts, and deeds demanded of his disciples, without which there can be no success on the way to perfection, is almost unattainable for those in the midst of the usual conditions of life, where a thousand outer circumstances and petty obligations constantly divert the striving one from his aim. But life among people united by the same aspiration, by common thoughts and habits, was a great aid, because without loss of energy it provided possibilities to develop in the desired direction.

Buddha-who taught that in the whole Universe only correlatives exist; who knew that nothing exists without cooperation; who understood that the selfish and conceited one could not build the future because, by the cosmic law, he would be outside the current of life which carries all that exists toward perfection-patiently planted the seeds, establishing the cells on a community basis, foreseeing in the distant future the realization of the great World Community.

Two rules were necessary for admission into the community: complete renunciation of personal possession, and moral purity. The other rules were concerned with severe self-discipline and obligations to the community. Each one entering the community pronounced the formula: "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Teaching, I take refuge in the Sangha,' as the destroyers of my fear." The first with his Teachings, the second by its immutable truth, and the third by its example of the great law expounded by Buddha.

The renunciation of property was austerely carried into life. Besides, the renunciation of property had to be shown not so much externally as accepted in consciousness.

Once a pupil asked the Blessed One, "How should one understand the fulfillment of the Covenant regarding the renunciation of property? One disciple renounced all things but his Teacher continued to reproach him for possession. Another remained surrounded by objects but did not merit reproach."

"The feeling of possession is measured not by objects but by thoughts. One may have objects and still not be a possessor." Buddha always advised the possession of as few objects as possible in order not to devote too much time to them.

The entire life of the community was strictly disciplined, for the foundation of Buddha's Teaching was iron self-discipline, in order to bridle uncontrolled feelings and thoughts and to develop indomitable will. Only when the disciple mastered his senses did the Teacher slightly raise the veil and assign a task. Only thereafter was the pupil gradually admitted to the depth of knowledge. Out of such men, disciplined and trained by austere renunciation of everything personal and consequently virile and fearless, did Gotama Buddha desire to create workers for the common welfare, creators of the people's consciousness and forerunners of the World Community.

Valor was cemented into the foundation of all achievements in the Teaching of Gotama. "There is no true compassion without valor; no self-discipline can be achieved without valor; patience is valor; one cannot fathom the depth of true knowledge and acquire the wisdom of an Arhat without valor." Gotama demanded from his disciples complete annihilation of any sense of fear. Fearlessness of thought, fearlessness of action were ordained. The very appellation of Gotama Buddha, "Lion," and his personal summons to walk through all obstacles like a rhinoceros or elephant, shows what depths of fearlessness he ordained. Hence, the Teaching of Gotama may be called first of all the Teaching of Fearlessness.

"Warriors we call ourselves, O disciples, because we wage war.

"We wage war for lofty virtue, for high endeavor, for sublime wisdom. "Therefore we are called warriors."

[1] Anguttara-Nikaya

[2] Ashvaghosha, Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsun-King, A Life of Buddha, the Chinese version of Buddhacarita

[3] Buddhist Birth Stories, or Jataka Tales

[4] Majjhima-Nikaya

[5] Sikshasamuccaya, compiled by Santideva

[6] Santideva, Bodhicaryavatara

[7] Sutta-Nipata

Copyright: Agni Yoga Society