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150 OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY have been caused, it follows from the same that it must admit of being destroyed. According to the principle underlying the view, the removal of the cause removes the effect. So when ignorance is dispelled by right knowledge, the succeeding links of the chain snap one after another automatically. The process which gives rise to suffering, no doubt, involves a necessity; but the necessity, as we have stated already, is not absolute.
(3) The way to remove suffering.-The path of selfdiscipline which leads man to the desired goal is eight-fold: right faith, right resolve, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right thought, right concentration. It will suffice to refer here to a simpler scheme which also is found in old Buddhistic works and which may be said to consist of the essence of the more elaborate one. According to this scheme, prajñā or right knowledge of the four-fold truth is the basis of the whole discipline. But if it is to result in a sense of freedom, it should be more than mere intellectual conviction, however strong it may be. It should be knowledge that has been transformed into our own experience and prajñā more strictly means this intuitive experience. Buddha insists that his hearers should not borrow their views from him, but should make them their own. He often declares that we must accept only what we ourselves have realized to be right. 'Then, monks, what you have just said is only what you yourselves have recognized, what you yourselves have comprehended, what you yourselves have understood; is it not so?' 'It is even so, Lord.'In other words, every man should win his own salvation. It is salvation through self-reliance, not by the grace of God or under the guidance of any external authority. Even the guru can only show the way. For knowledge to become an internal certainty, śīla and samādhi are necessary. There an be no perception of truth without control of thought ind action. Sila means right conduct which includes virtues ike veracity, contentment, and non-injury or ahirnsā. Samadhi is meditation upon the four verities. It is an aid in
See Oldenberg: op. cit., p. 288; BP. p. 115. 1 Majjhima-mikaya, 38th Discourse.
