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BUDDHISM
The Great Buddhist Kings
By far the most original and daring traits of Buddhism are the negative oncs-what it has succeeded in omitting. There is no display of encyclopedic omniscience such as we find in the systems of the Jaina and Ajīvika. There is no doctrine of a substantial Self in man or of a cosmic Self as the ultimate worldreality, such as we find, variously, in the Sāņkhya, in Veda and Vedānia, and in the disciplines of blakti. There is no description or definition of any blissful state after release and deathin contrast to the rich delineations in the Upanişads. And we find no metaphysical inferences proposed, no ontological conclusions; for the Buddha's method was strictly psychological. The traditional schemes of macromicrocosmic comparison (whereby the structures of the universe and the human organism were aligned as parallel manifestations of divine cosmic forces), the Enlightened One ignored as not conducing to lumination, leaving behind him the entire load, or treasure, of precious and intricate insights. In a land where debates and endless hairsplitting discussions, inental tournaments, and metaphysical demonstrations had been for centuries the very entertainment of the educated classes, where the heroes even of the populace were the wise, the doctors in theology and metaphysics (who, indeed, were rewarded to such a degree that they had become a little spoiled and dull with vain self-conceit), and where a contest in the rhetorical stadium before an audience of the learned was a delight to courtiers and townsfolk alike (bringing considerable material wealth, incidentally, to the victor) Gautama Säkyamuni-when at last he had determined to
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