Chapter IX: Appendix

The following text of the fourteen items of belief which have been accepted as fundamental principles in both the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were submitted by me personally, have so much historical importance that they are added to the present edition of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an Appendix. It has very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that having had the document translated to them, the Chief Lamas of the great Mongolian Buddhist monasteries declared to him that they accept every one of the propositions as drafted, with the one exception that the date of the Buddha is by them believed to have been some thousands of years earlier than the one given by me. This surprising fact had not hitherto come to my knowledge. Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse the real epoch of Sakya Muni with that of his alleged next predecessor? Be this as it may, it is a most encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic world may now be said to have united to the extent at least of these Fourteen Propositions.

H. S. O.

FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS

I Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.

II The universe was evolved, not created; and its functions according to law, not according to the caprice of any God.

III The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by certain illuminated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA meaning "Enlightened".

IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sakya Muni, or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500 years ago. He is an historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Gautama.

V Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.

VI Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.

VII The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the persevering practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct, development of intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower personal pleasures.

VIII The desire to live being the cause of rebirth, when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected individual attains by meditation that highest state of peace called _Nirvana_.

IX Sakya Muni taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four Noble Truths, _viz._:

1. The miseries of existence;

2. The cause productive of misery, which is the desire ever renewed of satisfying oneself without being able ever to secure that end;

3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of oneself from it;

4. The means of obtaining this destruction of desire. The means which he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path, _viz._: Right Belief; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Means of Livelihood; Right Exertion; Right Remembrance; Right Meditation.

X Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment, or the development of that Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.

XI The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Tathagatha (Buddha) himself, as:

To cease from all sin,
To get virtue,
To purify the heart.

XII The universe is subject to a natural causation known as "Karma". The merits and demerits of a being in past existences determine his condition in the present one. Each man, therefore, has prepared the causes of the effects which he now experiences.

XIII The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed by the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the moral code of Buddhism, _viz._: (1) Kill not; (2) Steal not; (3) Indulge in no forbidden sexual pleasure; (4) Lie not; (5) Take no intoxication or stupefying drug or liquor. Five other precepts which need not be here enumerated should be observed by those who would attain, more quickly than the average layman, the release from misery and rebirth.

XIV Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity. Gautama Buddha taught it to be the duty of a parent to have his child educated in science and literature. He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accord with reason.

Drafted as a common platform upon which all Buddhists can agree.

H. S. OLCOTT, P.T.S.

Respectfully submitted for the approval of the High Priests of the nations which we severally represent, in the Buddhist Conference held at Adyar, Madras, on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th of January, 1891 (A.B. 2434).

Japan . . . . . ( Kozen Gunaratana
( Chiezo Tokuzawa
Burmah . . . . . U. Hmoay Tha Aung
Ceylon . . . . . Dhammapala Hevavitarana.
The Maghs of
Chittagong . . . Krshna Chandra Chowdry, by
his appointed Proxy, Maung
Tha Dwe.

BURMAH

Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Burmah, this 3rd day of February, 1891 (A. B. 2434):

Tha-tha-na-baing Saydawgyi; Aung Myi Shwebon Sayadaw; Me-ga-waddy Sayadaw; Hmat-Khaya Sayadaw; Hti-lin Sayadaw; Myadaung Sayadaw; Hla-Htwe Sayadaw; and sixteen others.

CEYLON

Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Ceylon this 25th day of February, 1891 (A.B. 2434); Mahannwara upawsatha pusparama viharadhipati Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sobhitabhidhana Maha Nayaka Sthavirayan wahanse wamha.

(Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sabhitabhidhana, High Priest of the Malwatta Vihare at Kandy).

(Sd.) HIPPOLA.

Mahanuwara Asgiri viharadhipati Yatawatte Chandajottyabhidhana Maha Nayaka Sthavirayan wahanse wamha--(Yatawatte Chandajottyabhidhana, High Priest of Asgiri Tihare at Kandy).

(Sd.) YATAWATTE

Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Sripadasthane saha Kolamba palate pradhana Nayaka Sthavirayo (Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, High Priest of Adam's Peak and the District of Colombo).

(Sd.) H. SUMANGALA

Maligawe Prachina Pustakalayadhyakshaka Suriyagoda Sonuttara Sthavirayo (Suriyagoda Sonuttara, Librarian of the Oriental Library at the Temple of the Tooth Relic at Kandy).

(Sd.) S. SONUTTARA

Sugata Sasanadhaja Vinaya chariya Dhammalankarabhidhana Nayaka Sthavira.

(Sd.) W. DHAMMALANKARA

Pawara neruttika chariya Maha Vibhavi Subhuti of Waskaduwa.

(Sd.) W. SUBHUTI

JAPAN

Accepted as included within the body of Northern Buddhism.

Shaku Genyu (Shingon Shu)
Fukuda Nichiyo (Nichiren " )
Sanada Seyko (Zen " )
Ito Quan Shyu ( " " )
Takehana Hakuyo (Jodo " )
Kono Rioshin (Ji-Shu " )
Kiro Ki-ko (Jodo Seizan " )
Harutani Shinsho (Tendai " )
Manabe Shun-myo (Shingon " )

CHITTAGONG

Accepted for the Buddhists of Chittagong.

Nagawa Parvata Vihaaradhipati
Guna Megu Wini-Lankara,
Harbing, Chittagong, Bengal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Buddhist Catechism has been compiled from personal studies in Ceylon, and in part from the following works:

_Vinaya Texts_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Davids and Oldenberg.
_Buddhist Literature in China_ . . . . . . Beal.
_Catena of Buddhist Scriptures_ . . . . . Do.
_Buddhaghosa's Parables_ . . . . . . . . . Rogers.
_Buddhist Birth Stories_ . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Davids.
_Legend of Gautama_ . . . . . . . . . . . Bigandet.
_Chinese Buddhism_ . . . . . . . . . . . . Edkins.
_Kalpa Sutra and Nava Patva_ . . . . . . . Stevenson.
_Buddha and Early Buddhism_ . . . . . . . Lillie.
_Sutta Nipata_ . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Coomara Swami.
_Nagananda_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broyd.
_Kusa Jataka_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steele.
_Buddhism_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhys-Davids.
_Dhammapada_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Max Müller.
_Romantic History of Buddha_ . . . . . . . Beal.
_Udanavarga_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rockhill.
_Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects_ . . . . . B. Nanjio.
_The Gospel of Buddha_ . . . . . . . . . . Paul Carus.
_The Dharma_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do.
_Ancient India_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. C. Dutt.
_The "Sacred Books of the East" Series_ . Max Müller's Edition.
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_

Printed by
Annie Besant
Vasanta Press
Adyar Madras

* * * * * * * * *

[Note: the version of this book that follows contains many macron-ized characters, vowels with a horizontal bar above them. The macron indicates that the vowel is pronounced long, e.g. a-macron is pronounced as in "way". Since these characters are Unicode, they cannot be displayed in a Latin1/ISO-8859 file. They have been indicated as in the line below. In the UTF8 version of this file, the actual characters have been used. The HTML file uses entities to display the characters.]

_Nam[=o] Tass[=a] Bhagavat[=o] Arahat[=o] Samm[=a] Sambuddhassa_

THE

BUDDHIST CATECHISM

BY

HENRY S. OLCOTT

PRESIDENT-FOUNDER OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

_Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist schools by H. Sumangala, Pradhana Nayaka Sthavira, High Priest of Sripada and the Western Province and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena_

FORTY-FOURTH EDITION. (Corrected)

Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras

LONDON AND BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

1915

DEDICATION

In token of respect and affection I dedicate to my counsellor and friend of many years, Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Pradh[=a]na N[=a]yaka Sthav[=i]ra and High Priest of Adam's Peak (Sripada) and the Western Province, THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM, in its revised form.

H. S. OLCOTT

_Adyar_, 1903.

CONTENTS

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE

THE SANGHA

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE

APPENDIX--The Fourteen Propositions accepted by the Northern and
Southern Buddhists as a Platform of Unity

CERTIFICATE TO THE FIRST EDITION

VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,

_Colombo_, 7_th July_, 1881.

I hereby certify that I have carefully examined the Sinhalese version of the Catechism prepared by Colonel H. S. Olcott, and that the same is in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church. I recommend the work to teachers in Buddhist schools, mid to all others who may wish to impart information to beginners about the essential features of our religion.

H. SUMANGALA,

_High Priest of Sripada and Galle, and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena._

VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,

_April_ 7, 1897.

I have gone over the thirty-third (English) edition of the Catechism, with the help of interpreters, and confirm my recommendation for its use in Buddhist schools.

H. SUMANGALA.