DIMENSIONS OF BUDDHIST T HOUGHT Essays and Dialogues Contributed to the Serial Publications The Wheel and Bodhi Leaves Collected Writings Volume III Francis Story BUDDHIST P UBLICATION S OCIETY KANDY • S RI L ANKA Buddhist Publication Society 54 Sangharaja Mawatha PO Box 61 Kandy Sri Lanka http://www.bps.lk First edition: 1976 Reprinted: 1985 Second edition: 2011 Copyright (©) Kandy; Buddhist Publication Society. National Library and Documentation Service Board - Cataloguing-In-Publication Data Story, Francis Dimensions of Buddhist Thought: Essays and Dialogues / Francis Story.- Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society Inc., 2011 BP 403S.- 394p.; 22cm. ISBN 978-955-24-0366-8 i. 294.392 DDC 22 ii. Title 1. Theravada Budddhsim ISBN: 978-955-24-0366-8 Typeset at the BPS in URW Palladio Pali Printed by Ajith Printers, 85/4, Old Kesbewa Road, Gangodawila, Nugegoda. EDITOR’S P REFACE The Buddha once said that his Teaching has only one taste, that of liberation. Yet, being a Teaching of Actuality, Buddhism has also dimensions extending to wide fields of human life and thought. Some of them are mirrored in the essays of this volume. These wide-ranging and penetrative writings offer, therefore, many stimulating approaches to Buddhist thought and its application to problems of our time. This publication is the third and concluding volume of the Collected Writings of the late Francis Story (The Anágárika Sugatánanda). It comprises his contributions to the two serial publications The Wheel and Bodhi Leaves, issued by the Buddhist Publication Society of Kandy. Some of these essays belong to his best and most mature writing. It was, therefore, felt that a reprint of these writings should not be missing in this edition of the author's collected work. It was as early as 1959, the second year after the foundation of the Buddhist Publication Society, that the author contributed his first essay to the Wheel series, i.e., “The Case for Rebirth.” This essay, however, in view of its subject, has been included in Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience, the second volume of the Collected Writings. As will be seen from the Table of Contents, several articles in this present volume were taken from the Wheel Publications, Gods and the Universe in Buddhist Perspective and Dimensions of Buddhist Thought. Both of these are posthumous compilations gathered from magazine articles (difficult of access now), unpublished (and partly incomplete) manuscripts, etc. These sources of the articles have caused some minor duplication of subject matter in the material taken from Gods and the Universe. But as these parallel passages appear in different contexts and contain new formulations, they have been retained in this reprint. Issuing this volume, the Buddhist Publication Society, including the Editor, wish to express their deep and affectionate gratitude to the late author, Mr. Francis Story, who for many years, had been a loyal friend and devoted helper of the Society. His help was not limited to the excellent literary contributions which this Society was privileged to publish. When coming regularly to Kandy from his residence in suburban Colombo, he assisted in the evaluating and editing of manuscripts submitted for iv publication, in replying to readers' questions on the Dhamma and in many other ways, including office work and designing book covers. Being convinced that the dissemination of the Buddha Word was a noble and important cause, he never stinted the time and labour devoted to it. His death, aged 61, has been a deeply felt loss, to us personally and to the common cause. Francis Story's literary work, we are sure, will find growing appreciation in times to come. The Editor and the publishers have been happy to present it to those who wish to study the Buddha's liberating message and apply it in their lives. Nyanaponika Thera Forest Hermitage Kandy, Sri Lanka September, 1976. CONTENT Editor’s Preface . iii Content . v 1. Hymn for Vaishakha . 1 2. The Buddha—a Unique Teacher . 3 3. The Supreme Conqueror. 12 4. The Appeal of Buddhism . 32 5. The Uniqueness of Buddhism . 37 6. The Four Noble Truths . 42 7. Dialogues on the Dhamma . 51 8. The Scientific Approach to Buddhism . 112 9. The Buddhist World View in the Age of Science . 123 10. A Larger Rationalism . 163 11. Of Gods and Men. 175 12. Prayer and Worship. 185 13. Gods and their Place in Buddhism . 208 14. Cosmological Thought in Buddhism and Modern Science 227 15. Expanding Universe and Steady-States Universe. 245 16. The Magic Mountain . 248 17. Is there a Beginning? . 254 18. Buddhism and the Origin of Life. 257 19. Divine Creation or Lawful Genesis? . 266 20. Buddhist Meditation . 273 21. Buddhist Mental Therapy. 284 22. Buddhist Lay Ethics. 297 23. The Place of Animals in Buddhism . 304 24. Action. 314 25. Kamma and Causality. 321 26. Kamma and Freedom . 331 27. Collective Karma . 336 28. Beauty and the Buddhist. 339 29. Omniscience and the Buddha . 343 31. Saísára . 360 32. The Way of Dispassion . 365 33. Nibbána . 369 1. H YMN FOR V AISHAKHA In the midst of the world's tumult we seek Thy Peace from clamour of many voices and the clash of conflict. Thou alone are the Silence where all things cease where suffering entereth not, and the pain of being findeth no sustenance. Here in the dark ocean of time strange currents bear us, bewildered and unseeing— only through Thee we know of the Further Shore, the unchanging clime. Long have we known the scant mercies of night and day: burned in the self-created fire and restless longing of the uneasy heart, the season's play has cooled with brief winds our fever, fleeting joy beckoned our wayward steps and wrapped us round with flowery snares of passion — made us pain's toy even to the last tear helpless and bound. Upon this day let us remember Thee; call up the still-abiding mercy Thou has left us who came with compassionate eyes to view man's bondage and see beyond the proud glitter of Thy earthly state. No stranger Thou, but one who all things had shared, a fellow-wanderer encompassed by love and hate even as we—no human fear unknown, no sorrow spared. Upon this day let us remember Thy Birth, when the heavens poured forth their music and the world of gods 2 Dimensions of Buddhist Thought stood hushed. The broad firmament throughout its girth quickened in wonder, for a Prince was come, a Chakravartin, a Master of gods and men, a righteous Charioteer of the rich-teeming sum of nations, and a Seer beyond human ken. Let us remember Thine Illumination— the keen sword of the Kshatriya's will that cut the bonds of Mára: Thy pitying heart that lifted man's degradation. Thou wert He who stood alone against the hosts, vanquished the phantom ranks, cleaving a way for lesser men. Baleful and beautiful, the ghosts of lust and passion melted in Thy holy Ray. Upon this day let us remember Thy Passing: Name and Form to the last vestige cast aside never to be renewed, the multitudinous worlds outclassing, Thou from the transient to the Eternal leapt. No more the swing of the stars nor the cycle of craving, no more the tongue that spoke nor the eyes that wept— only the Peace beyond thought, and Thy Law for our saving. In the midst of the world's tumult we seek Thy Way: the world is weary yet drugged with the madness of getting, and sick with the frenzy of things that cannot stay. But in the darkness still we behold Thy Light, and as a dreamer waking throws off the tangle of fear, so man beholds his refuge, measures the thread of night, and in the dawning feels his release is near. First published in “The Maha Bodhi,” 1946. 2. T HE B UDDHA—A U NIQUE T EACHER History has produced many great figures, but none in this present cycle or time as impressive and memorable as that of Siddhattha Gotama, the Sakyan prince who became the world’s greatest spiritual guide. He was unique as a personality, and unique as a teacher. There have been countless Enlightened Ones before him and there will be more, as long as saísára endures, but he is the only one of whom we have actual historical knowledge, and his life has been a source of wonder and inspiration for more than twenty centuries. It continues to be so today. Every Buddhist is familiar with the miraculous stories connected with Prince Siddhattha’s birth and early manhood. The traditional tales handed down from generation to generation of Buddhists are full of marvels, some of which are difficult for the modern mind to accept as literally true. In this, Buddhism is no different from other creeds. All of them have their accretions of the supernatural, the legends that time and the devotion of the faithful have woven about the lives of their founders. But whereas in most other religions the supernatural events are an essential part of the faith, to be held as proof that the founder was a divine personage, an incarnation of God or a prophet especially singled out to be God’s spokesman on earth, in Buddhism they have no importance at all, because the Buddha did not claim to be any of these things. A Buddhist may believe the stories literally, or he may regard them as fiction. The uniqueness of the Buddha does not rest upon miracles, but upon the plain, un-garlanded facts of his life and, above all, on the realizable truth of his teaching.