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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
you that - quite independently of the question whether the Buddha did or did not deny the existence of a self - no one has yet claimed, on the basis of the early Buddhist texts, that knowledge of the true nature of the self was the method preached by him.
Buddhism, then, accepted the doctrine of karma. Moreover, like the other religious currents that accepted this doctrine, and which constituted together what might be called the śramaņa movement, Buddhism looked upon the ongoing cycle of rebirths as thoroughly unsatisfactory, and accepted escape from this cycle as the highest religious aim. But the Buddha did not accept either of the two methods which most naturally fitted the problem connected with this doctrine. Buddhism preached an own method, different from those two. For my present purposes it is not essential that we know exactly what the Buddha's message consisted in.17 The Buddhist texts present, in fact, various methods, which are sometimes in contradiction with each other. The confused appearance of the early Buddhist texts is most easily explained by the circumstance that, from an early date, the Buddhists themselves were embarrassed by the fact that the solution presented by their tradition did not, or not clearly, fit the problem. This circumstance, in its turn, made Buddhism particularly vulnerable to the influence of the other methods, which fitted the problem admirably.
The three examples given at the beginning of this article illustrate this. They all concern the restriction of the mind, of the sense organs, or quite simply of all bodily and mental activities. The other examples which can be found in my book The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India concern this same theme, and illustrate the attraction which this particular theme exerted on the early Buddhists. However, there is another theme which should be expected to have left its traces in the ancient Buddhist texts. This is the theme of the inactive self, knowledge of which will liberate one from the cycle of rebirths.
Let me here, in order to avoid misunderstandings, point out that the Buddhist texts contain no indication whatsoever suggesting that the Buddha or his early followers looked upon knowledge of the true nature of the self as a method to obtain freedom from rebirth. It is even open to doubt whether
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17 This question will be addressed in my contribution to the first volume on Buddhism
in Die Religionen der Menschheit, now under preparation.