BUDDHA OR KARL MARX 447
These rules are far more rigourous than are to be found in communism in Russia.
V THE MEANS
We must now come to the means. The means of bringing about Communism which the Buddha propounded were quite definite. The means can be decided into three parts.
Part I consisted in observing the Pancha Silas.
The Enlightenment gave birth to a new gospel which contains the key to the solution of the problem which was haunting him.
The foundation of the New Gospel is the fact that the world was full of misery and unhappiness. It was fact not merely to be noted but to be regarded as being the first and foremost in any scheme of salvation. The recongnition of this fact the Buddha made the starting point of his gospel.
To remove this misery and unhappiness was to him the aim and object of the gospel if it is to serve any useful purpose.
Asking what could be the causes of this misery the Buddha found that there could be only two.
A part of the misery and unhappiness of man was the result of his own misconduct. To remove this cause of misery he preached the practice of Panch Sila.
The Panch Sila comprised the following observations:
(1) To abstain from destroying or causing destruction of any living thing; (2) To abstain from stealing i.e. acquiring or keeping by fraud or violence, the property of another; (3) To Abstain from telling untruth;
(4) To abstain from lust; (5) To abstain from intoxicating drinks.
A part of the misery and unhappiness in the world was according to the Buddha the result of man’s inequity towards man. How was this inequity to be removed ? For the removal of man’s inequity towards man the Buddha prescribed the Noble Eight-Fold Path. The elements of the Noble Eight-Fold Path are:
(l) Right views i.e. [-] freedom from superstition; (2) Right aims, high and worthy of the intelligent and earnest men; (3) Right speech i.e. kindly, open, truthful; (4) Right Conduct i.e. peaceful, honest and pure; (5) Right livelihood i.e. causing hurt or injury to no living being;
(6) Right perseverence in all the other seven; (7) Right mindfulness i.e. with a watchful and active mind; and (8) Right contemplation i.e. earnest thought on the deep mysteries of life.