🧚 Names of Incense Used., part 2 · page 2

An early stage of that degeneration would be represented by total incapacity to help ourselves;—then we should begin to lose the use of our higher sense-organs;—later on, the brain would shrink to a vanishing pin-point of matter;—still later we should dwindle into mere amorphous sacs, mere blind stomachs.73 Such would be the physical consequence of that kind of divine love which we so lazily wish for.74 The longing for perpetual bliss in perpetual peace might well seem a malevolent inspiration from the Lords of Death and Darkness.75 All life that feels and thinks has been, and can continue to be, only as the product of struggle and pain,—only as the outcome of endless battle with the Powers of the Universe.76 And cosmic law is uncompromising.77 Whatever organ ceases to know pain,—whatever faculty ceases to be used under the stimulus of pain,—must also cease to exist.78 Let pain and its effort be suspended, and life must shrink back, first into protoplasmic shapelessness, thereafter into dust.79

Buddhism—which, in its own grand way, is a doctrine of evolution—rationally proclaims its heaven but a higher stage of development through pain, and teaches that even in paradise the cessation of effort produces degradation.80 With equal reasonableness it declares that the capacity for pain in the superhuman world increases always in proportion to the capacity for pleasure.81 (There is little fault to be found with this teaching from a scientific standpoint,—since we know that higher evolution must involve an increase of sensitivity to pain.)82 In the Heavens of Desire, says the _Shōbō-nen-jō-kyō_, the pain of death is so great that all the agonies of all the hells united could equal but one-sixteenth part of such pain.83 [1]84

[1] This statement refers only to the Heavens of Sensuous Pleasure,—not to the Paradise of Amida, nor to those heavens into which one enters by the Apparitional Birth.85 But even in the highest and most immaterial zones of being,—in the Heavens of Formlessness,—the cessation of effort and of the pain of effort, involves the penalty of rebirth in a lower state of existence.86

The foregoing comparison is unnecessarily strong; but the Buddhist teaching about heaven is in substance eminently logical.87 The suppression of pain—mental or physical,—in any conceivable state of sentient existence, would necessarily involve the suppression also of pleasure;—and certainly all progress, whether moral or material, depends upon the power to meet and to master pain.88 In a silkworm-paradise such as our mundane instincts lead us to desire, the seraph freed from the necessity of toil, and able to satisfy his every want at will, would lose his wings at last, and sink back to the condition of a grub….89

III90

I told the substance of my revery to Niimi.91 He used to be a great reader of Buddhist books.92

“Well,” he said, “I was reminded of a queer Buddhist story by the proverb that you asked me to explain,—_The silkworm-moth eyebrow of a woman is the axe that cuts down the wisdom of man.93 _ According to our doctrine, the saying would be as true of life in heaven as of life upon earth….94 This is the story:—95

“When Shaka[2] dwelt in this world, one of his disciples, called Nanda, was bewitched by the beauty of a woman; and Shaka desired to save him from the results of this illusion.96 So he took Nanda to a wild place in the mountains where there were apes, and showed him a very ugly female ape, and asked him: ‘Which is the more beautiful, Nanda, —the woman that you love, or this female ape?’97 ‘Oh, Master!’ exclaimed Nanda, ‘how can a lovely woman be compared with an ugly ape?’98 ‘Perhaps you will presently find reason to make the comparison yourself,’ answered the Buddha;—and instantly by supernatural power he ascended with Nanda to the _San-Jūsan-Ten_, which is the Second of the Six Heavens of Desire.99 There, within a palace of jewels, Nanda saw a multitude of heavenly maidens celebrating some festival with music and dance; and the beauty of the least among them incomparably exceeded that of the fairest woman of earth.100 ‘O Master,’ cried Nanda, ‘what wonderful festival is this?’101 ‘Ask some of those people,’ responded Shaka.102 So Nanda questioned one of the celestial maidens; and she said to him:—‘This festival is to celebrate the good tidings that have been brought to us.103 There is now in the human world, among the disciples of Shaka, a most excellent youth called Nanda, who is soon to be reborn into this heaven, and to become our bridegroom, because of his holy life.104 We wait for him with rejoicing.’105 This reply filled the heart of Nanda with delight.106 Then the Buddha asked him: ‘Is there any one among these maidens, Nanda, equal in beauty to the woman with whom you have been in love?’107 ‘Nay, Master!’ answered Nanda; ‘even as that woman surpassed in beauty the female ape that we saw on the mountain, so is she herself surpassed by even the least among these.’108

[2] Sâkyamuni.109

“Then the Buddha immediately descended with Nanda to the depths of the hells, and took him into a torture-chamber where myriads of men and women were being boiled alive in great caldrons, and otherwise horribly tormented by devils.110 Then Nanda found himself standing before a huge vessel which was filled with molten metal;—and he feared and wondered because this vessel had as yet no occupant.111 An idle devil sat beside it, yawning.112 ‘Master,’ Nanda inquired of the Buddha, ‘for whom has this vessel been prepared?’113 ‘Ask the devil,’ answered Shaka.114 Nanda did so; and the devil said to him: ‘There is a man called Nanda,—now one of Shaka’s disciples,—about to be reborn into one of the heavens, on account of his former good actions.115 But after having there indulged himself, he is to be reborn in this hell; and his place will be in that pot.116 I am waiting for him.’”117 [3]118

[3] I give the story substantially as it was told to me; but I have not been able to compare it with any published text.119 My friend says that he has seen two Chinese versions,—one in the _Hongyō-kyō_ (?), the other in the _Zōichi-agon-kyō_ (Ekôttarâgamas).120 In Mr. Henry Clarke Warren’s _Buddhism in Translations_ (the most interesting and valuable single volume of its kind that I have ever seen), there is a Pali version of the legend, which differs considerably from the above.—This Nanda, according to Mr. Warren’s work, was a prince, and the younger half-brother of Sâkyamuni.121