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widespread manifestations, if not of primitive worship, at any rate of that stage in which it passes into
something which can be called personal religion and at least three causes contribute to their formation. First,
early institutions were narrower and more personal than those of to-day. In politics as well as religion such
relatively broad designations as Englishman or Frenchman, Buddhist or Christian, imply a slowly widening
horizon gained by centuries of cooperation and thought. In the time of the Buddha such national and religious
names did not exist. People belonged to a clan or served some local prince. Similarly in religious matters they
followed some teacher or worshipped some god, and in either case if they were in earnest they tended to
become members of a society. Societies such as the Pythagorean and Orphic brotherhoods were also common
in Greece from the sixth century B.C. onwards but the result was small, for the genius of the Greeks turned
towards politics and philosophy. But in India, where politics had strangely little attraction for the cultured
classes, energy and intelligence found an outlet in the religious life and created a multitude of religious
societies. Even to-day Hinduism has no one creed or code and those who take a serious interest in religion are
not merely Hindus but follow some sect which, without damning what it does not adopt, selects its own
dogmas and observances. This is not sectarianism in the sense of schism. It is merely the desire to have for
oneself some personal, intimate religious life. Even in so uncompromising and levelling a creed as Islam the
devout often follow special tariqs, that is, roads or methods of the devotional life, and these tariqs, though
differing more than the various orders of the Roman Catholic Church, are not regarded as sects distinct from
ordinary orthodoxy. When Christ died, Christianity was not much more than such a tariq. It was an incipient
religious order which had not yet broken with Judaism.
This idea of the private, even secret religious body is closely allied to another, namely, that family life and
worldly business are incompatible with the quest for higher things. In early ages only priests and consecrated
persons are expected to fast and practise chastity but when once the impression prevails that such observances
not only achieve particular ends but produce wiser, happier, or more powerful lives, then they are likely to be
followed by considerable numbers of the more intelligent, emotional and credulous sections of the population.
The early Christian Church was influenced by the idea that the world is given over to Satan and that he who
would save himself must disown it. The gentler Hindus were actuated by two motives. First, more than other
races, they felt the worry and futility of worldly life. Secondly, they had a deep-rooted belief that miraculous
powers could be acquired by self-mortification and the sensations experienced by those who practised fasting
and trances confirmed this belief.
The third cause for the foundation and increase of religious orders is a perception of the influence which they
can exercise. The disciples of a master or the priests of a god, if numerous and organized, clearly possess a
power analogous to that of an army. To use such institutions for the service and protection of the true faith is
an obvious expedient of the zealot: ecclesiastical statecraft and ambition soon make their appearance in most
orders founded for the assistance of the Church militant. But of this spirit Buddhism has little to show; except
in Tibet and Japan it is almost absent. The ideal of the Buddha lay within his order and was to be realized in
the life of the members. They had no need to strive after any extraneous goal.
The Sangha, as this order was called, arose naturally out of the social conditions of India in the time of
Gotama. It was considered proper that an earnest-minded man should renounce the world and become a
CHAPTER XI. MONKS AND LAYMEN 149
Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I.
wanderer. In doing this and in collecting round him a band of disciples who had a common mode of life
Gotama created nothing new. He merely did with conspicuous success what every contemporary teacher was
doing. The confraternity which he founded differed from others chiefly in being broader and more human, less
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