Buddha and Brahma

THE Buddha, known to men by many names --

Siddartha, Sakya, Muni, Blessed One,--

Sat in the forest, as had been his wont

These many years since he attained perfection;

In silent thought, abstraction, purity,

His eyes fixed on the Lotus in his hand,

He meditated on the perfect Life,

While his disciples, sitting round him, waited

His words of teaching, every syllable

More and more precious as the Master gently

Warned them how near was come his day of parting.

In silence , as the Master gave example,

They meditated on the Path and Law,

Till one, Malunka, looking up and speaking,

Said to the Buddha: "O Omniscient One,

Teach us, if such be in the Perfect Way,

Whether the World exists eternally."

The Buddha made no answer, and in silence

All the disciples bent their contemplation

On the perfection of the Eight-fold Way,

Until Malunka spoke again: "O Master,

What answer shall we offer to the Brahman

Who asks us if our Master holds the World

To be, or not, Eternal?"

                           Still the Buddha sat

As though he heard not, contemplating

The pure white Lotus in his sacred hand,

Till a third time Malunka questioned him:

"Lord of the World, we know not what we ask;

We fear to teach what thou hast not made pure."

Then gently, still in silence, lost in thought,

The Buddha raised the Lotus in his hand,

His eyes bent downward, fixed upon the flower.

No more! A moment so he held it only,

Then his hand sank into its former rest.

Long the disciples pondered on the lesson

Much they discussed its mystery and meaning,

Each finding something he could make his own,

Some hope or danger in the Noble Way,

Some guide or warning to the Perfect Life.

Among them sat the last of the disciples,

Listening and pondering, silently and still;

And when the scholars found no certain meaning

In Buddha's answer to Malunka's prayer,

The young man pondered: I will seek my father,

The wisest man of all men in the world,

And he with one word will reveal the secret,

And make me in an instant reach the light

Which these in many years have not attained

Though guided by the Buddha and the Law.

So the boy sought his father - an old man

Famous for human wisdom, subtle counsel,

Boldness in action, recklessness in war -

Gautama's friend, the Rajah of Mogadha.

No follower of Buddha, but a Brahman,

Devoted first to Vishnu, then to caste,

He made no sign of anger or remonstrance

When his son left him at Siddartha's bidding

To take the vows of poverty and prayer -

If Vishnu willed it, let his will be done!

The Rajah sat at evening in his palace,

Deep in solitude of his own thought,

When silently the young man entering

Crouched at a distance, waiting till his father

Should give some sign of favor. Then he spoke:

"Father, you are wise! I come to ask you

A secret meaning none of us can read;

For, when Malunka three times asked the Master

Whether the world was or was not eternal,

Siddartha for a moment lifted up

The Lotus, and kept silence."

The Rajah pondered long, with darkened features,

As though in doubt increasing. Then he said:

"Reflect, my son! The Master had not meant

This last and deepest lesson to be learned

From any but himself - by any means

But silent thought, abstraction, purity,

The living spirit of his Eight-fold Way,

The jewels of his Lotus. Least of all

Had he, whose first and easiest lesson taught

The nothingness of caste, intended you

To seek out me, a Warrior, Kshatriya,

Knowing no duties but to caste and sword,

To teach the Buddha and unveil his shrine.

My teaching is not his; mine not his way;

You quit your Master when you question me."

Silent they say, and long. The slowly spoke

The younger: "Father, you are wise.

I must have Wisdom." "Not so, my son.

Old men are often fools, but young men always.

Your duty is to act; leave thought to us."

The youngest sat in patience, eyes, cast down,

Voice low and gentle as the Master taught;

But still repeated the same prayer: "You are wise;

I must have wisdom. Life for me is thought,

But, were it action, how, in youth or age,

Can man act wisely, leaving thought aside?"

The Rajah made no answer, but almost

His mouth seemed curving to a sudden smile

That hardened to a frown; and then he spoke:

"If Vishnu wills it, let his will be done!

The child sees jewels on his father's sword,

And cries until he gets it for a plaything.

He cannot use it but to wound himself;

Its perfect workmanship wakes no delight;

Its jewels are for him but common glass;

The sword means nothing that the child can know;

But when at last the child has grown to man,

Has learned the beauty of the weapon's art,

And proved its purpose on the necks of men,

Still must he tell himself, as I tell you:

Use it, but ask no questions! Think not! Strike!

This counsel you reject, for you want wisdom.

So be it! I swear to you in truth

That all my wisdom lies in these three words.

"You ask Gautama's meaning, for you know

That since his birth, his thoughts and acts alike

Have been to me a mirror, clearer far

Than to himself, for no man sees himself.

With the solemnity of youth, you ask

Of me, on whom the charm of childhood still

Works greater miracles than magicians know,

To tell, as though it were a juggler's trick

The secret meaning which himself but now

Could tell you only by a mystic sign,

The symbol of a symbol - so far-thought,

So vagues and vast and intricate its scope.

And I, whom you compel to speak for him,

Must give his thought through mine, for his

Passes your powers -- yours and all your school.

"Your Master, Sakya, Muni, Gautama,

Is, like myself and you, a Kshatriya,

And in our youths we both, like you, rebelled

Against the priesthood and their laws of caste.

We sought new paths, deperate to find escape

Out of the jungle that the priest had made.

Gautama found a path. You follow it.

I found none, and I stay here, in the jungle,

Content to tolerate what I cannot mend.

I blame not him or you, but would you know

Gautama's meaning, you must fathom mine.

He failed to cope with life; renounced its cares;

Fled to the forest, and attained the End,

Reaching the End by sacrificing life.

You know both End and Path. You, too, attain.

I could not. Ten years older, I;

Already trained to rule, to fight, to scheme,

To strive for objects that I dared not tell,

Not for myself alone, but for us all;

Had I thrown down my sword, and fled my throne,

Not all the hermits, priests, and saints of Ind,

Buddhist or Brahman, could have saved our heads

From rolling in the dirt; for Rajahs know

A quicker that the Eight - fold Noble Way

To help their scholars to attain the End.

Renounce I could not, and could not reform.

How could I battle with the Brahman priests,

Or free the people from the yoke of caste,

When, with the utmost aid that priests could give,

And willing service from each caste in turn,

I saved but barely both my throne and them.

So came it that our paths were separate,

And his led up to so supreme a height

That from its summit he can now look down

And see where still the jungle stifles me.

Yet was our starting-point the same, and though

We now seem worlds apart - hold fast to this! --

The Starting-point must be the End-point too!

You know the Veda, and need not be taught

The first and last idea of all true knowledge:

One single spirit from which all things spring;

One thought containing all thoughts possible;

Not merely those that we, in our thin reason,

Hold to be true, but all their opposites;

For Brahma is Beginning, Middle, End,

Matter and Mind, Time, Space, Form, Life and Death.

The Universal has no time limit. Thought

Travelling in constant circles, round and round,

Muist ever pass through endless contradictions,

Returning on itself at last, till lost

In silence.

        "This is the Veda, as you know,

The alphabet of all philosophy,

For he who cannot or who dares not grasp

And follow this necessity of Brahma,

Is but a fool and weakling; and must perish

Among the follies of his own reflection.

"Your Master, you and I, and all wise men,

Have one sole purpose which we never lose:

Through different paths we each seek to attain,

Sooner or later, as your paths allow,

A perfect union with the single Spirit.

Gautama's way is best, but all are good.

He breaks a path at once to what he seeks.

By silence and absorption he unites

His soul with the great sould from which it started.

But we, who cannot fly the world, must seek

To live two separate lives; one, in the world

Which we must ever seem to treat as real;

The other in ourselves, behind a veil

Not to be raised without disturbing both.

"The Rajah is an instrument of Brahma,

No more, no less, than sunshine, lightning, rain;

And when he meets resistance in his path,

And when his sword falls on a victim's neck,

It strikes as strikes the lightning -- as it must;

Rending it way through darkness to the point

It needs must seek, by no choice of its own.

Thus in the life of the Ruler, Warrior, Master,

The wise man knows his wisdom has no place,

And when most wise, we act by rule and law,

Talk to conceal our thought, and think

Only within the range of daily need,

Ruling our subjects while ourselves rebel,

Death always on our lips and in our act.

"This is the jungle in which we must stay,

According to the teachings of the Master,

Never can we attain the Perfect Life.

Yet in this world of selfishness and striving

The wise man lives as deeply sunk in silence,

As conscious of the Perfect Life he covets,

As the recluse in his forest shadows,

As any Yogi in his mystic trances.

We need no Noble Way to teach us Freedom

Amid the clamor of a world of slaves.

We need no Lotus to love purity

Where life is else corruption.

So read Siddartha's secret! He has taught

A certain pathway to attain the End;

And best and simplest yet devised by man,

Yet still so hard that every energy

Must be devoted to its sacred law.

Then, when Malunka turns to ask for knowledge,

Would seek what lies beyond the Path he teaches,

What distant horizon transcends his own,

He bids you look in silence on the Lotus.

For you, he means no more. For me, this meaning

Points back and forward to that common goal

From which all paths diverge; to which,

All paths must tend -- Brahma, the only Truth!

"Gautama tells me my way too is good;

Life, Time, Space, Thought, the World, the Universe

End where they first begin, in one sole Thought

Of Purity in Silence."

Henry Adams

Written in 1891 aboard ship while on trip with John La Farge. On 26 April 1895 Adams sent the above to his friend John Jay. It was published in the Yale Law Review in Oct. 1915.