Note 9 — Chapter II

The particulars of the apparition of the evil one, or the tempter, related by Buddha himself to the faithful and amiable Ananda, show the incessant efforts made by Manh to render abortive, to a certain extent, the benevolent mission undertaken by Buddha to procure deliverance to numberless beings, and supply others with adequate means for entering into, and steadily following, the way that leads to it. He had been defeated in his endeavours to prevent Phra from leaving the world and obtaining the Buddhaship. He had been thwarted in his wicked designs to weaken the effects of Buddha’s preachings. Heretics of all sorts had been summoned to his standard, to carry on a most active warfare against his opponents, but he had failed in all his attempts. Buddha had now almost completed the great and beneficial work he had undertaken: his religious institutions, known over a vast extent of territory, and zealously propagated by fervent and devoted disciples, seemed to be now firmly established. The edifice, indeed, was raised, but it required the action of a finishing hand; the key-stone was yet wanting in the vault to render it complete and durable. Manh was aware of all that; hence his last and wily effort for impeding the finishing and perfecting of a work he had vainly opposed in its beginning and during its progress.

The line of distinction between the members of the assembly and the mass of those who merely believed in the doctrines of Buddha, without leaving the world, is plainly drawn by Buddha himself; therefore, there can be no doubt that, from the origin of Buddhism, there existed a marked difference between the body of laymen and that of Rahans. Again, the body of the perfect, or those who formed what may emphatically be termed the assembly, was composed of men and women, living, as a matter of course, separately, in a state of continence, and subjected to the disciplinary regulations which we find embodied in the Wini. In Burmah, vestiges of female devotees, living secluded from the world, are to be met with in many places, but, as already noticed in a foregoing remark, the order of religious females has much fallen off. Its professed members are few in number, and the exterior observance of the regulations is much neglected. The comprehensiveness of Buddhism, its tendency to bring all men to the same level, and allow of no difference between man and man but that which is established by superiority in virtue, its expansive properties, all those striking characteristics have mightily worked in elevating the character of the woman, and raising it to a level with that of man. Who could think of looking upon the woman as a somewhat inferior being, when we see her ranking, according to the degrees of her spiritual attainments, among the perfect and foremost followers of Buddha? Hence in those countries where Buddhism has struck a deep root and exercised a great influence over the manners of nations, the condition of the woman has been much improved and placed on a footing far superior to what she occupies in those countries where that religious system is not the prevalent one, or where it has not formed or considerably influenced the customs and habits of the people.