________________
BUDDHISM
known to Brahmā) was not to be revealed. He descended from the zenith and with prayer implored the Buddha to become the teacher of mankind, the teacher of the gods, the teacher of the created world. All were en wrapped in the womb of sleep, dreaming a dream known as the waking life of created beings. Brahmā implored that the truly Awake should open his path to all. For there might be some, the god urged, some liappy few among these deluded beings, whose eyes would not be blinded by the dust of passion, and these would understand. As lotus flowers arising from the dark waters of a lake are to be found in various stages of maturity-some with buds still deep under water, some nearing the surface, some already open, prepared to drink the rays of the sun-just so, there might be among mankind and the gods a few prepared to hear.
The Buddha was moved, thus, to tcach the path. Disciples came, an Order assumed shape, and the Buddhist tradition was brought into existence. Nevertheless, from the beginning, by the nature of the problem, the doctrine had been meant only for those prepared to hear. It was never intended to interfere with either the life and habits of the multitude or the course of civilization. In time it might even vanish from the world, becoming incomprehensible and meaningless-for the lack of anyone capable of treading the path to understanding; and this, too, would be right. In contrast, in other words, to the other great teachers of mankind (Zarathustra preaching the religious law of Persia; Confucius commenting on the restored system of early Chinese thought; Jesus announcing Salvation to the world) Gautama, the prince of the royal sākya clan, is known properly as sāk ya-muni: the "silent sage (muni) of the Sākyas”; 48 for in spite of all that has been said and taught about him, the Buddha remains the symbol of something beyond what can be said and taught.
In the Buddhist texts there is no word that can be traced with 4a Cf. supra, p. 451, note 202.
466
