IN Texts from the Buddhist Canon, Love or Compassion for all living beings is thus inculcated by Buddha, in a sermon addressed to a number of women (belonging to a class of hunters) whose husbands were then engaged on one of their predatory excursions:—
“He who is humane does not kill; he is ever able to preserve [his own?] life. This principle is imperishable. Whosoever observes it, no calamity shall betide that man. Politeness, indifference to worldly things, hurting no one, without place for annoyance—this is the character of the Brahma Heaven. Ever exercising love towards the infirm; pure, according to the teaching of Buddha; knowing when sufficient has been had; knowing when to stop.
“There are eleven advantages which attend the man who practises compassion, and is tender to all that lives: his body is always in health (happy); he is blessed with peaceful sleep, and when engaged in study he is also composed; he has no evil dreams, he is protected by Heaven (Devas) and loved by men; he is unmolested by poisonous things, and escapes the violence of war; he is unharmed by fire or water; he is successful wherever he lives, and, when dead, goes to the Heaven of Brahma.”
When he had uttered these words, both men and women were admitted into the company of his disciples, and obtained rest.
There was, in times gone by, a certain mighty King, called Ho-meh (love-darkness), who ruled in a certain district where no tidings of Buddha or his merciful doctrine had yet been heard; but the religious practices were the usual ones of sacrifice and prayer to the gods for protection. Now it happened that the King’s mother, being sick, the physicians having vainly tried their medicine, all the wise men were called to consult as to the best means of restoring her health.... On the King asking them [the Brahman priests] what should be done, they replied ... sacrifices of a hundred beasts of different kinds should be offered on the four hills (or to the four quarters), with a young child, as a crowning oblation to Heaven. [Here follows a description of the King ordering a hundred head of Elephants, Horses, Oxen, and Sheep to be driven along the road from the Eastern Gate towards the place of sacrifice, and how their piteous cries rang through heaven and earth.—Editor’s Note.] On this Buddha, moved with compassion, came to the spot, and preached a sermon on “Love to all that Live,” and added these words:—
“If a man live a hundred years, and engage the whole of his time and attention in religious offerings to the gods, sacrificing Elephants and Horses, and other life, all this is not equal to one act of pure love in saving life.”
See Texts from the Buddhist Canon, commonly known as Dhammapada—with accompanying Narratives—Translated from the Chinese, by Samuel Beal, Professor of Chinese, University College, London—Trübner, 1878: and the similar scene in The Light of Asia, where Buddha interposes at the moment of a religious sacrifice:—
See also the annexed extracts from the Buddhist Sacred Scriptures, written probably about the third century B.C.:—
“The Short Paragraphs on Conduct.”—The Kûla Sîlam.
1. “Now wherein, Vâsettha, is his [the true disciple’s] Conduct good? Herein, O Vâsettha, that putting away the Murder of that which lives, he abstains from Destroying Life. The cudgel and the sword he lays aside; and, full of Modesty and Pity, he is compassionate and kind to all beings that have life.
“This is the kind of Goodness that he has.
[After strict prohibitions of Robbery and Unchastity, Gautama Buddha proceeds.]
4. “Putting away Lying, he abstains from speaking Falsehood. He speaks Truth. From the Truth he never swerves. Faithful and trustworthy, he injures not his fellow-men by deceit.
“This is the kind of Goodness that he has.
5. “Putting away Slander, he abstains from Calumny. What he learns here he repeats not elsewhere, to raise a quarrel against the people here. What he learns elsewhere, &c. Thus he lives as a binder together of those who are divided, an encourager of those who are friends, impassioned for Peace, a speaker of words that make for Peace.
“This, too, &c.
6. “Putting away Bitterness of Speech, he abstains from harsh language. Whatever word is humane, pleasant to the ear, lovely, reaching to the heart, urbane—such are the words he speaks.
7. “Putting away Foolish Talk, he abstains from Vain Conversation, &c.
8. “He abstains from Injuring any Herb [uselessly] or any Animal. He takes but one meal a day, abstaining from food at night-time, or at the wrong time, &c.
10. “He abstains from Bribery, Cheating, Fraud, and Crooked Ways.
“This, too, &c.
11. “He refrains from Maiming, Killing, Imprisoning, Highway-Robbery, Plundering Villages, or obtaining money by threats of Violence.
1. “And he lets his mind pervade one quarter of the World with thoughts of Love, and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole Wide World above, below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart of Love—far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure.
2. “Just, Vâsettha, as a mighty Trumpeter makes himself heard, and that without difficulty, in all the four directions, even so, of all Things that have Shape or Life, there is not one that he passes by or leaves aside; but he regards them all with mind set free, and deep-felt love.
“Verily this, Vâsettha, is the way to a state of union with Brahmâ.
3. “And he lets his mind pervade all parts of the World with thoughts of Pity, Sympathy, and Equanimity.
9. “When he had thus spoken, the young Brâhmans, Vâsettha and Bhâradvâga, addressed the Blessed One, and said:—
‘Most excellent, Lord, are the words of thy mouth, most excellent! Just as if a man were to set up that which is thrown down, or were to reveal that which is hidden away, or were to point out the right road to him who has gone astray, or were to bring a Lamp into the Darkness, so that those who have eyes can see eternal forms—just even so, Lord, has the Truth been made known to us, in many a figure, by the Blessed One. And we, even we, betake ourselves, Lord, to the Blessed One, as our Refuge, to the Truth and to the Brotherhood. May the Blessed One accept us as disciples, as true believers from this time forth, so long as life endures!’”—Buddhist Suttas, Translated from Pâli, by T. W. Rhys Davids. Sacred Books of the East. Ed. by Max Müller, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1881.
As for the older (sacerdotal) religionism of the Peninsula—that of Brahma—the force of Truth obliges us here to remark that, while the great mass of the Hindus continue to shrink with disgust and abhorrence from the Slaughter-house and from the sanguinary diet of their conquerors and rulers, Mohammedan and Christian, the richer classes, and even many of the Brahmins and priests have long conformed, in great measure at least, to Western dietetic practices; and (the flesh of the Cow or Ox excepted), no more than other religionists do they scruple to violate the laws of their Sacred Books—the Vedas—which, however, are not so humane as the teaching of the great Founder of Buddhism, as preserved in the Buddhist Sacred Scriptures, the Tripataka, being more essentially ritual and ceremonial than its popular off-shoot. Yet there are traces in the sacred writings of Hinduism of a strong consciousness of the irreligionism of feeding upon slaughtered animals, as in the Laws of Manu, their Sacred Legislator, where it is laid down that:—
“The man who forsakes not the Laws, and eats not flesh-meat like a blood-thirsty demon, shall attain good-will in this world, and shall not be afflicted with Maladies.”—(Quoted in the Works of Sir Wm. Jones, vol. iii., 206.)
“The man who perceives in his own soul the Supreme Good present in all beings acquires equanimity towards them all, and shall be absorbed, at last, in the highest Essence—even in that of the Almighty himself.”—Conclusion of the Laws of Manu.
It is superfluous to insist upon the fact that inhabitants of the hotter and, in particular, of the tropical regions of the globe have, as a matter of course, even less valid pretexts for resorting to butchering than have the natives of colder climates; and that proportionally, therefore, is the reprobation to which they are obnoxious. (See, among other recent testimony, that of Shib Chunder Bose in his interesting book—The Hindus as they Are. London: Ed. Stanford, 1881). The writer has usefully exposed the yearly-increasing evils to India from the example of English dietetic habits.