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Birth and plaited hair do not make a true Brahman any more than a shaven head makes a Bhikkhu, but he who has renounced the world, who is pure in thought, word and deed, who follows the eight-fold path, and perfects himself in knowledge, he is the true Brahman . Men of such aspirations are commoner in India than elsewhere and more than elsewhere they form a class, which is defined by each sect for itself.
The postulant, who must be at least twenty years old, is examined in order to ascertain that he is sui juris and has no disqualifying disease or other impediment. If this formula is repeated three times without calling forth objection, the upasampadâ is complete. The newly admitted Bhikkhu must have an Upajjhâya or preceptor on whom he waits as a servant, seeing to his clothes, bath, bed, etc.
Such men have just the virtues of the patient Bhikkhu and like Christ the Buddha praised the merciful and the peacemakers. Money and taxes are the affair of those who put their heads on coins; God and the things which concern him have quite another sphere. When the Buddha preached his first sermon to the five monks at Benares the topics he selected were the following.
The nearer a layman can approximate to the life of a monk the better for his spiritual health, but still the aims and ideals, and consequently the methods, of the lay and religious life are different. The Bhikkhu is not of this world, he has cut himself loose from its ties, pleasures and passions; he strives not for heaven but for arhatship.
The Mahâsanghikas probably represent the elements which developed into the Mahâyâna. It is not possible to formulate their views precisely but, whereas the Theravâda was essentially teaching for the Bhikkhu, they represented those concessions to popular taste from which Buddhism has never been quite dissociated even in its earliest period.
Would Christ, had he lived longer, have created something analogous to the Buddhist sangha, a community not conflicting with national and social institutions but independent of them? The question is vain and to Europeans Christ's sketch of the Christian life will appear more satisfactory than the finished portrait of the Bhikkhu.
Europeans are inclined to call both of them priests, but this is inaccurate for a Bhikkhu rarely deserves the title and nowadays Brahmans are not necessarily priests nor priests Brahmans. He is not a professional man in the sense that lawyers, doctors and clergymen are, but rather an aristocrat.
And further we hear that a learned Bhikkhu was expected to know not merely the precepts of the Pâtimokkha but also the occasion when each was formulated. The place, the circumstances and the people concerned had been in each case handed down. There is here all the material for a narrative. The reciter of a sutta simply adopts the style of a village story-teller. "Thus have I heard.
Thus in the procedure known as the earth Kasina the Bhikkhu who wishes to enter into the Jhâna makes a small circle of reddish clay, and then gazes at it fixedly. After a time he can see it as plainly when his eyes are closed as when they are open . This is followed by entry into Jhâna and he should not continue looking at the circle.
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