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Buddha as a Revolutionary Force in Indian Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

Extract

Few people would care to deny, whether within India or without, that Buddha is the greatest Indian of all times. Whether from the standpoint of the purity of his life, the daring originality and novelty of his thought, or the extent of his influence in shaping the culture of the world, it would be hard to beat the record of Buddha. Even making every allowance for the common idea that no man is a prophet in his own land, it is difficult to believe that for the last thousand years Buddha has been practically an exile from the land of his birth. It is nothing short of an irony of history, and nothing short of a tragedy for India, that the great unifying force that he represented in his time and does represent even to-day has been allowed to run waste and the great moral stamina that he sought to supply failed in its historic mission.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1948

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References

page 118 note 1 As abridged by Pratt, on p. 15 of his Pilgrimage of BuddhismGoogle Scholar.

page 119 note 1 Buddhist Essays, p. 358.

page 122 note 1 Max-Müller's translation.

page 123 note 1 Dasgupta, 's History of Indian Philosophy, p. 93Google Scholar.

page 123 note 2 Ibid., p. 94.

page 123 note 3 It should perhaps be explained to the European reader that “karma” is the Indian (Hindu as well as Buddhist) technical term for the sum total of the individual's actions plus their particular and general consequences. It is a collective term, properly used only in the singular in this sense. When the plural is used at all (Sanskrit karmāns) it refers to any actions of an individual without the specific impute of fateful actions.—Ed.

page 124 note 1 Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. i, p. xxi.

page 126 note 1 Pratt, 's Pilgrimage of Buddhism, p. 11Google Scholar footnote.

page 128 note 1 Nibbāna is the Pālin form of Saskrit Nirvāna.

page 129 note 1 This passage is interesting from the comparative-religion point of view as illustrating the opposite of Christ's practice as mentioned at Mark vi, 7: “He began to send them forth by two and two.”—Ed.

page 129 note 2 Burlingame, 's Buddhist Parables, p. 68Google Scholar.

page 130 note 1 Quoted on p. 162 in Coomarswamy's Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism.

page 131 note 1 Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. i, p. xxii.

page 131 note 2 Dahlke, 's Buddhist Essays, p. 59Google Scholar.

page 131 note 3 Dhammapada, translated by Müller, Max, pp. 62–3Google Scholar.

page 132 note 1 The Life and Teachings of Buddha (G. A. Natesan & Co.), p. 7Google Scholar.

page 133 note 1 Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. ii, pp. 112–13.

page 133 note 2 Ibid., p. 119.

page 133 note 3 Ibid., p. 120.

page 133 note 4 Ibid., p. 120.

page 134 note 1 SirEliot, Charles's Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. ii, p. 123Google Scholar.

page 135 note 1 Concealed.

page 135 note 2 Relating to the ultimate soul.

page 135 note 3 Relating to the world.

page 135 note 4 Personal God.

page 135 note 5 Appearance.

page 136 note 1 Rebirth.

page 137 note 1 Quoted in Söderblom, 's The Living God, p. 145Google Scholar.

page 138 note 1 Quoted in Söderblom, 's The Living God, pp. 151–2Google Scholar.