SCIENCE ANI) BUDDHISM
257
And so for all the Eight Stages; as re-
gards their obvious meaning on the moral
plane, I can do no better than quote my
friend Bhikkhu Ananda Maitriya, in his
‘ Four Noble Truths.”
‘¢He who has attained, by force of pure
understanding, to the realisation of the Four
Noble Truths, who has realised the fact that
depends from that understanding, namely
that all the constituents of being are by
nature endowed with the Three Character-
istics of Sorrow, Transitoriness, and Absence
of any immortal principle or Atma—such a
one is said to be Sammaditthi, to hold right
views, and the term has come to mean one
of the Buddhist Faith. We may not have
taken the other and higher steps on the
Noble Eightfold Path; but must have rea-
lised those Four Truths and their sequential
three Characteristics. He who has attained
Sammaditthi has at least entered upon the
Holy Way, and, if he but try, there will
come to him the power to overcome the
other fetters that restrict his progress. But
first: of all he must abandon all those false
hopes and beliefs; and one who has done
this is called a Buddhist. And this holding
of Right Views, in Pali Sammaditthi, is the
first step upon the Noble Eightfold Path.
The second stage is Right Aspiration—
Sammasankappo. MHaving realised the woe
and transitoriness and soullessness of all
life, there rises in the mind this Right Aspi-
ration. When all things suffer, we at least
will not increase their burden, so we aspire
to become pitiful and loving, to cherish ill-
will toward none, to retire from those
pleasures of sense which are the fruitful
cause of woe. The will, we all know, is
ever readier than the mind, and so, though
we aspire to renounce the pleasures of sense,
to love and pity all that lives, yet perhaps
we often fail in the accomplishment of our
aspiration. But if the desire to become
pitiful and pure be but honest and earnest,
we have gained the Second Step upon the
Path-—Sammasankappo, Right Aspiration.
He whose motives are pure has no need
VOL. II,
to conceal the Truth—he who truly loves
and who has a malice towards none, will
ever speak only fair and soft words. By a
man’s speech do we learn his nature, and
that one whose Right Aspirations are bearing
fruit attains to the Third Step, Right Speech,
Sammavaca. Speaking only the Truth in
all things, never speaking * harshly or un-
kindly, in his speech realising the love and
pity that is in his heart—that man _ has
attained to Stage the Third.
And because of the great power of a man’s
thoughts and words to change his being,
because by thinking of the pitiful our acts
grow full of mercy, therefore is Stage the
Fourth called Right Conduct. To him who
has gained this Fourth Stage, his intense as-
piration, his right understanding, his care-
fully guarded speech—perhaps for many years
of self-control—
have at last borne outward
fruit, till all his acts are loving, and pure, and
done without hope of gain, he has attained
the Fourth Step, called Sammakammanto.
And when, growing yet holier, that habit
of Right Action grows firm and inalienable,
when his whole life is lived for the Faith
that is in him, when every act of his daily
life, yea, of his sleep also, is set to a holy
purpose, when not one thought or deed that
is cruel or unpitiful can stain his being—
when, not even as a duty, will he inflict
pain by deed, word, or thought—then he
has gained the Fifth High Path, the Living
of the Jife that’s Right
— Samma aijivo.
Abstaining from all that can cause pain, he
has become blameless, and can live only by
such occupations as can bring no sorrow in
their train,}
To him who has lived so, say the Holy
Books, there comes a power which is unknown
to ordinary men. Long training and restraint
have given him conquest of his mind, he can
1 From my point of view, this is of course
impossible. See Sec. IIT. If wilful infliction
of pain only is meant, our state becomes moral,
or even worse !—mystical. I should prefer to
cancel this sentence. Cf. Appendix L.,
supra.—A, C, )
R