Werk:Monistic Metaphysics of the Sakya disciples/The collective wisdom-seekers

What is the Order or Brotherhood of the Elect?

It is the assemblage of all those true disciples and followers of the Buddha who have withdrawn from the world and entered the sublime eightfold path of Perfection by

wisdom's exertion, are Exalted warriors who are now savakas that possess holy insight into the deathless, penetrating the great matter by exercising Sati and Samadhi.

Who is entitled to admission to the Order?

Every one, without distinction of rank or sex, who by given testimony of his resolute determination to enter the path, provided he is free from those impediments which

exclude from admission into the Brotherhood. This person must possess the vision of the hypostatic pith of Samma-perefection.

What applicants are refused admittance into the Order?

All those suffering from infectious or incurable diseases; all children below the age of fifteen; all slaves and bondsmen not yet freed; all debtors and persons answerable

to the lama and not yet acquitted; all officials and soldiers engaged is attics service; and all minors who have not obtained the consent of their parents and guardians and

those puthujjana fools that are unable to grasp the sublime message as so stated in sutta.

What are the preliminaries to reception into the Brotherhood?

The novice first enters the Order as a pupil (Samanera) and has to pass through a time of probation under the superintendence of a Master, chosen by the pupil himself

from amongst the brethren.

Can a brother leave the Order after once having been admitted into it?

Yes, at any time. The Buddhist doctrine and the rules of the Brotherhood forbid any compulsion. If any one wishes to return into the world, he has merely to confess his

want of self-control to the Superior. He is not detained by the Order, but free to retract his vows without incurring any disgrace or dishonor. That Samana, however,

who disgraces the robe he wears and the Brotherhood he belongs to by some grave transgression of the vows, is liable to the severest punishment, expulsion from the

Order.

Are the brethren free to live wherever they like?

Yes, but they are enjoined to live in monasteries, or as hermits or any place conducive to the practice of Samadhi-conjoinment.

How are the Laymen to behave towards the Brotherhood?

They are to show the members of the Order due respect and reverence, and provide for their daily sustenance, clothing and the like. By so doing they are doing what is

proper, and they are promoting their own happiness.

Does the Order possess any spiritual power over the Laity?

No, the Buddhist knows of no excommunication, no ecclesiastical laws and penances, no rigorous disciplinary system. But the Order repudiates all communion with an

Upasaka who has been guilty of some grave offence, or who has spoken contemptuously of the Buddha, the doctrine, or the Order, in token of his being henceforth

unworthy to provide for the wants of the brethren, they upset before him the alms bowl they are in the habit of carrying about with them.

What in the words of the doctrine should the true Bhikshu be?

If a Bhikshu should desire, so the Holy Scripture says, to attain the state of perfect bliss within Samma-Perfection within Nirvana let him be without guile, upright and

conscientious, gentle-spoken, kind, modest, content and having few wants, not overanxious, keeping repose of heart, without presumption, without desire. Let him do

nothing unworthy, let him live in thought, word, and deed in the spirit of the doctrine and the precepts; let him strengthen himself in the knowledge of the Four Noble

Truths, and walk without blame in the sublime eightfold path, Let him not rejoice in good fortune, nor despond in calamity; let him not be elated by approbation, nor

cast down by dishonor and disgrace; but let him ever keep that equanimity which results from the cessation of all desire. Let him be penetrate and disembody himself by

Sati and Samadhi immersions that it is not the dress which makes the Samana, not the outward observance of the vows and precepts; not a life of retirement, poverty

and lowliness, nor any amount of learning: but that he alone, who is pure of heart and free from all concupiscence and desire, is a true disciple of the Tathagata.

Therefore, let him pursue knowledge, increase in holiness and self-control, and in charity. Let him be kind and merciful towards all living beings, far and near, the

strong and the weak. Let him not deceive nor hurt, nor threaten, nor despise any one. Like a mother pitying her own child, so let him look with pity and on every being

who is lost in ignorance. Serene and unruffled, like a deep Alpine lake, must be the mind of him who walks in the sublime eightfold path. For he who has overcomeerror and delusion, hope and fear, passion and desire, love and hatred, who lives in purity, who has got rid of the lust of life and the gaining or merit or the accumulation

of deeds which lead woefully only to rebirth, and obtained supreme wisdom intuition, he has reached the end of suffering and rebirth, has entered on Samma-dwelling-

Perfection within Nirvana.

What is left as summation regarding the woeful decline of Buddhism?

The savakan monk was soon to give way to the puthujjana monk and, moreover, to one frequently of bad behavior, since as non-savakan he lacked otherworldly vision

that was possessed by and dear to the Exalteds. Such monks were, given the Buddha's criteria above, no better than the Brahmins before them. The true Brahmin was to

be followed by a monk as spiritually sterile as his former Brahmin counterpart, no more knowing the supermundane path than the Brahmin had known. Having lost

contact with the Dhamma as the sound of the deathless he turned increasingly to the Dhamma as formulated in the sutta commentary which was false and just as the

Brahmin had vacuously chanted the mantras of old without understanding their true meaning, so did the puthujjana monk misunderstand the collected utterances,

addressed originally to savakas with vision, coming to believe that anyone who could see as it really was that the cessation of becoming, falsely, was Nibbana and that

must be an Arahant. That is, he came to believe that the revelation of Samma-Perfection lay at the end of the path rather than at its beginning and in his search for the

means of acquiring this he resorted, in time, to the scholastic analysis of the sectarian Abhidhamma as had the Brahmin, in his search for a substitute for the lost Soma,

resorted to an intricate analysis of the sacrifice in such Vedic texts. The truth seekers of the Buddha have gone from the Earth and very little is left outside of the suttas

than trite oriental ritualism and Bramanic ritualism which Buddhism rejects. But the Buddha said that as long as his doctrine remained preserved accurately and those

who had the wisdom to see deeply into its truth and follow his teachings, then his message for the attainment of the deathless would remain and be used by those with

vision to penetrate and cultivate it to fruition.