Buddhist philosophy i want to make clear the position of Buddhism as well as that i mean by philosophy. It has become a fashion to call Buddhism a philosophy pure and simple or to identify it with one or the other of its branches : psychology and ethics. But Buddhism is something more, otherwise it would have remained merely a matter of aesthetic pleasure for a few belesprits, philosophers, and historians, and-in the most favourable case-the rule of conduct for a small group of puritans. Philosophies and scientific systems of psychology have never been able to exercise a dominating influence on the life of humanity,-not because there was something wrong with them as systems, nor because they were lacking in truth, but because the truth contained in them was only of theoretical value, born by the brain and not by the heart, thought out by the intellect and not realized in life.
Buddhist philosophy we should be conscious that this is only the theoretical side of Buddhism, not the whole of it. The psychology consists in the analysis of the forces and conditions that favour or hinder the progress on that way. But before we consider the direction towards which the way leads, we have to look back from where it came. |
