Buddhism: Its Essence and Development

227 Pages·1980·5.935 MB·English

by  Edward Conze

BUDDHISM
the text of this book is printed
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BUDDHISM
Its Essence and Development
by
E C
dward onze
WITH A PREFACE BY ARTHUR WALEY
HARPER TORCHBOOKS
Harper & Row, Publishers
New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco, London
BUDDHISM : ITS ESSENCE AND DEVELOPMENT
Printed in the United States of America
Reprinted by arrangement with Bruno Cassirer Limited,
Oxford, which published the original edition in 1951.
First harper colophon edition published 1975.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 59—10345
ISBN: 0-06-130058-6
79 80 20 19
CONTENTS
PREFACE
/
by Arthur Waley
INTRODUCTION
Budhism as a Religion n
Budhism as a Philosophy 15
Self-extinction 18
‘ Radical Pessimism ’ 21
Immortality 23
Survival Value 25
COMMON GROUND
The Flavour of Dharma 27
The Documents 28
The Buddha 34
Is Buddhism atheistic ? 38
The Four Holy Truths 43
Cosmology0 48
II
MONASTIC BUDDHISM
The Samgha 53
Poverty 54
Celibacy 58
Tnojfensiveness 61
Main Currents of Monastic Thought 66
III
POPULAR BUDDHISM
The Place of the Laity 70
The Temporal Power 72
The Services of the Samgha 77
The Influence of the Laity 85
IV
THE OLD WISDOM SCHOOL
Sects 89
Sariputra
Arhats 93
Practices 95
Moral Discipline
Trance 99
Wisdom
Decline
THE MAHAYANA, AND THE NEW
WISDOM SCHOOL
The Mahasanghikas 119
Hinayana and Mahayana 121
Literary Development 123
Bodhisattvas 125
Emptiness 13°
Salvation 135
Parallels 140
VI
BUDDHISM OF FAITH AND DEVOTION
The Reception of Bhakti 144
Literary History 146
The Agent of Salvation 147
The Aims of the Faithful 152
Methods 157
Self-extinction and Faith 159
VII
THE YOGACARINS
Wisdom and Trance 161
Literary History 163
“ Mind-only ” 166
“ Store-consciousness ” 168
Further Doctrines 171
VIII
THE TANTRA, OR MAGICAL BUDDHISM
The Problem of the Tantra 174
History of the Tantra 176
Tantric Practices, 180
Tantric Philosophy 188
Tantric Mythology 189
Left-handed Tantra 191
The Control of the Body 197
IX
NON-INDIAN DEVELOPMENTS
Survey 200
Ch* an 201
Amidism 205
Rnyin-ma-pa 207
European Buddhism 210
APPENDICES
TABLE OF DATES
DIAGRAM
New Wisdom School, Togacarins, Tantra

PREFACE
by
ARTHUR V7ALEY
✓
HERE is not at present in English or any other
T
language so comprehensive and at the same time so
easy and readable an account of Buddhism as is to be
found in Dr. Conze’s book.
You probably know the story of the king who asked the
blind men what an elephant was like. One, feeling its
trunk, said ‘ Like a chariot-shaft ’ ; another, feeling its
ear, said 4 Like a winnowing-fan ’, and so on. The parable
might well be applied to European attempts to write the
history of Buddhism. Not that the historians were to
blame. Early in the 19th century the only accessible
documents were those representing medieval Buddhism
in Nepal. So great was the sensation created by the
subsequent recovery of a much earlier Canon in Ceylon
that the Pali scriptures (those found in Ceylon) were taken
as embodying the whole of early Buddhism. Even as
recently as 1932 Mrs. Rhys Davids, in her Manual of
Buddhism for Advanced Students (a rather ambitious title)
makes little use of anything but the Pali scriptures. A
year later a more comprehensive account was given by
E. J. Thomas in his History of Buddhist Thought ; but
his work is addressed to specialists rather than to the
general public. Other books, such as Keith’s Buddhist
Philosophy, are simply lists of views held by people felt to
be wholly remote and “ lacking in both system and
maturity.” To Dr. Conze the questions that Buddhism
asks and answers are actual, living, questions, and he con­
stantly brings them into relation both with history and
with current actuality.
Books are, to my mind, valueless unless they express a
point of view, and they must do this not by distorting the
facts, but by making apparent to the reader the Author’s
emotional and intellectual reaction to these facts.
Dr. Conze’s book, more than any of its kind that I have
read for a long time, succeeds in doing this.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
HE idea of this book originated with friends of
T
mine in 1941, when I lived in Godshill in Hampshire,
and attempted to find out how much of Buddhist
meditation could actually be practised in this present age.
The first chapters represent lectures which I gave some
years ago in Oxford at St. Peter’s Hall, and some traces
of the spoken word still cling to them. In 1948, Dr. William
Cohn, of Oxford, suggested to me that a work covering
the whole range of Buddhist thought would be much
appreciated, and encouraged me to complete the book.
Dr. Cohn, and, at a later stage, Mr. Arthur Waley and
Mr. Christmas Humpheys, have eliminated many errors.
Mr. Claud Sutton and Mr. Arthur Southgate have
watched over the English style. Discussions with various
scholars have, I hope, put me right on a number of diffi­
cult and controversial points. In this connection, I must
mention, with gratitude, Prof. F. W. Thomas, Dr. E. J.
Thomas, Prof. Murti of Colombo, Prof. Lamotte of
Louvain, Prof. Demieville of Paris, Prof. Tucci of Rome,
and Dr. Pott of Leyden. Many of the texts on which
my account is based have never been translated into
English. It may one day be possible to offer the reader a
Selection from the main Documents of Buddhist thinking,
which would substantiate much that is merely stated here.
Saffron close, EDWARD CONZE
E .
welme
January, 1951.