Page:The Development of Mahayana Buddhism - The Monist 1914.pdf/17

Rh of imagination as conceived by the Mahâyâna was a very difficult thing to realize. Moral responsibility implies a strict observance of the law of karma; what is done cannot be undone. Good or bad, one has to suffer its consequence; for nobody can interfere with it. Arhatship alone, therefore, could be made the goal of those self-disciplining moralists. With the Mahâyâna Buddhists, however, it was different. They came to look at the import of our moral action more from the point of its cosmic relations, or from that of the most intimate interdependence that obtains among all sentient beings in their moral, intellectual, and spiritual activities. With this change of the point of view, they could not but come to the conception of a Bodhisattva whose religion was the realization of the doctrine of parimânaná.

In point of fact, there are not two Buddhisms. The Mahâyâna and the Hînayâna are one; the same spirit of the founder of Buddhism breathes through both. Only each has developed in its own way, according to the different surroundings in which it has thrived and grown-understanding by surroundings all those various factors of life that make up the peculiarities of an individual or a nation. Lack of communication has hitherto prevented the bringing together of Buddhists and the effecting of a complete understanding of each other. But the time is coming nearer when each will fully realize and candidly admit its own shortcomings, though not oblivious of its advantages, and earnestly desire to cooperate with the other in order to bring about a perfect assimilation into one uniform system of Buddhist thought and Buddhist practice, and to contribute to the promotion of peace and goodwill towards all beings, regardless of racial or national differences.

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

University of Tokyo.