Buddhism & science / by Paul Dahlke; translated from the German by the Bhikkhu Sīlācāra.
- Paul Dahlke
- Date:
- 1913
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Buddhism & science / by Paul Dahlke; translated from the German by the Bhikkhu Sīlācāra. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![infinitely large number of combustion processes. Every being burns in virtue of a purely individual in-force, Kamma. This his world - conception is given by the Buddha in that famous “ Fire Sermon ” which, shortly after the inauguration of his career of activity as a teacher, he delivered to his followers on a hill in the neighbourhood of Gaya. It is the “ Sermon on the Mount ’’ of Buddhism. “ All things, O monks, is a burning. And why, O monks, is all a burning ? The eye, O monks, is a burning. Visual consciousness [that is, the con- scious representation that results in virtue of visual impressions] is a burning. Visual contact [i.e. the act of the encountering of eye and objects] is a burning. That which arises in virtue of visual con- tact, be it a pleasant, be it an unpleasant sensation, be it a neither pleasant nor unpleasant sensation, is a burning.” 1 Following the like scheme, the ear and the audible, the nose and the olfactory, the tongue and the gustatory, the body and the tangible, thought and concepts are then dealt with. The place of the Buddha between and above the opposites, faith and science, may be briefly formu- lated as follows :— Faith says, “ Everything stands,”—namely, in the place in which it has been set by that “force in itself,” God. Science says, “ Everything falls, which means that she neglects actual forces in general. The Buddha says, “ Everything foirns, meaning that every process exists in virtue of a single inforce, peculiar to itself. 1 Mahavagga, i. 21.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24876112_0061.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
