Arthur Osborne - I become a writer...(8)

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The next book was Buddhism and Christianity in the Light

of Hinduism and was published by Riders. Although refuting

Guenon’s condemnation of Buddhism (by implication but

without actually referring to his statements) it was considerably

influenced by his teaching, as was my whole outlook.

Outwardly there is an extraordinary parallel between

Buddhism and Christianity. Each in its own way relaxes the

rigor and simplifies the complexity of the law, instituting

instead a new form of religion based on the love or

compassion of the founder. Both, as originally propounded,

were religions of renunciation, favoring celibacy and leading

naturally to monasticism. Both proved unacceptable to the

people among whom they were proclaimed but provided a

sort of ‘export variety’ of the older religion for adoption by

the neighboring peoples who had lost the spiritual plenitude

of their own religions.

 

In doctrine, on the other hand, they appear so mutually

exclusive that one might be tempted to suppose that if one is

true the other must be false, were it not for the sight of both

types of doctrine existing side by side in Hinduism, both

recognized as orthodox. Buddhism teaches non-duality and the

dissolution of the individual being in Nirvana; Christianity,

duality and the perpetuation of the purified individual being in

a formal heaven. Actually, I had first envisaged the book simply

as a comparison of Buddhism and Christianity; only later it

occurred to me that reference to the co-existence of the two

types of doctrine in Hinduism, non-dualism and dualism,

knowledge and worship, both recognized as valid and sometimes

even taught by the same guru, according to the needs and

understanding of the disciples, would make it much easier to

explain how both alike could be valid paths.

 

In this book some reference to the doctrine of avatars was a

necessary part of the theme. The word is used rather loosely

nowadays, but technically there are ten avatars in the whole course

of the manvantara, that is, of the Adamic cycle. The seventh is

Rama, whose story is told in the Ramayana. The eight is Krishna

and its gospel the Bhagavad Gita. The function of the tenth, who

is still to come, is the consummation of this cycle and inauguration

of the next, which means that he is equivalent to the Second

Coming of Christ. The ninth is described traditionally as the

‘Foreign Avatar’. It is generally agreed he has already appeared,

and he is sometimes identified with Buddha, sometimes with

Christ. My thesis was that the ninth avatar consists of the twofold

establishment of a proselytizing religion based on the love or

compassion of the founder, in the form of Buddhism and nonduality

for the East, Christianity and the dualistic worship of a

personal God for the West.

 

Having finished Buddhism and Christianity, I decided that

I would not write another book unless the time came when I

should be able to write one purely of guidance on the quest and

should feel that it was legitimate for me to do so. As I have

already explained, outer activity is useful on Bhagavan’s path,

but it should be aloof activity which keeps the mind working

smoothly on the surface while underneath the current of

meditation can continue. Emotionally involved activity, on the

other hand, is harmful, since it turns the mind outwards,

absorbing it in the activity and thereby impeding spiritual

progress. Such activity may be of various kinds, but three of

them are particularly dangerous, and also particularly alluring.

Two of these I have mentioned already: reading and acting the

guru; writing is the third.

 

 

It is not reading itself that is harmful but absorption in it —

unless, of course, it is the sort of reading that serves as a spiritual

reminder, turning the mind in the right direction. The sort of

aloof, critical reading that I was doing remained a surface activity

and could do no harm.

 

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* Arthur Osborne: My Life & Quest *

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