s the four
truths of the nature of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the
method of bringing about that cessation. This method is no other than
the eightfold path. Then his hearers understood that whatever has a
beginning must have an end. This knowledge is described as the pure and
spotless Eye of Truth. The Buddha then formally admitted them as the
first members of the Sangha. He then explained to them that there is no
such thing as self. We are not told that they received any further
instruction before they were sent forth to be teachers and missionaries:
they were, it would seem, sufficiently equipped. When the Buddha
instructs his sixth convert, Yasa, the introduction is slightly
different, doubtless because he was a layman. It treats of "almsgiving,
of moral duties, of heaven, of the evil, vanity and sinfulness of
desires, of the blessings which come from abandoning desires." Then when
his catechumen's mind was prepared, he preached to him "the chief
doctrine of the Buddhas, namely suffering, its cause, its cessation and
the Path." And when Yasa understood this he obtained the Eye of Truth.

It is clear, therefore, that the Buddha regarded practice as the
foundation of his system. He wished to create a temper and a habit of
life. Mere acquiescence in dogma, such as a Christian creed, is not
sufficient as a basis of religion and test of membership. It is only in
the second stage that he enunciates the four great theorems of his
system (of which one, the Path, is a matter of practice rather than
doctrine) and only later still that he expounds conceptions which are
logically fundamental, such as his view of personality. "Just as the
great ocean has only one taste, the taste of salt, so has this doctrine
and discipline only one taste, the taste of emancipation[403]." This
practical aim has affected the form given to much of the Buddha's
teaching, for instance the theory of the Skandhas and the chain of
causation. When examined at leisure by a student of to-day, the dogmas
seem formulated with imperfect logic and the results trite and obvious.
But such doctrines as that evil must have a cause which can be
discovered and removed by natural methods: that a bad unhappy mind can
be turned into a good, happy mind by suppressing evil thoughts and
cultivating good thoughts, are not commonplaces even now, if they
receive a practical application, and in 500 B.C. they were not
commonplaces in any sense.

And yet no one