LECTURES ON SOME POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF INDIAN BUDDHISM (The Hibbert Lectures)

The author reveals that it would be a hopeless task to attempt in six Lectures, that is to say, in six hours, to give any adequate account of that great movement which has influenced the greater portion of the human race during the lapse of so many centuries. It is therefore matter for congratulation that the task allotted to them is a much lighter one, to discuss those points in the history of Buddhism which appear likely to throw light on the origin and growth of religious belief. This means, as he understands it, the origin and growth of religion outside, as well as inside, the circle of the Buddhist beliefs themselves. What we have to do is, in a word, to apply a particular method, the comparative method, to the study of the facts revealed to us by the history of Buddhism. There is indeed a way of comparing religions one with another which leads to mere truisms, or even to erroneous conclusions. It is not uncommon, even now, to find such comparisons made with the object of evoking interest in other religions than their own, by showing that they teach some things which are also held among us. There are ideas in Buddhism, no doubt, with which we can heartily sympathize; but the most instructive points in the history of that, or of any other religion, are often those with which we can least agree. The fact that truth can be found among all peoples and in all creeds, has been acknowledged through so many centuries by men eminent in the Church and out of it, that it has become almost a truism, and needs scarcely to be stated, certainly not to be proved.