e political administration of their
country. Something similar may be found in Lamaism, but it forms no part
of Gotama's original institution nor of the Buddhist Church as seen
to-day in Burma, Siam and Ceylon. The members of the Sangha are not
priests or mediators. They have joined a confraternity in order to lead
a higher life for which ordinary society has no place. They will teach
others, not as those whose duty it is to make the laity conform to their
standard but as those who desire to make known the truth. And easy as is
the transition from this attitude to the other, it must be admitted that
Buddhism has rarely laid itself open to the charge of interfering in
politics or of seeking temporal authority. Rather may it be accused of a
tendency to indolence. In some cases elementary education is in the
hands of the monks and their monasteries serve the purpose of village
schools. Elsewhere they are harmless recluses whom the unsympathetic
critic may pity as useless but can hardly condemn as ambitious or
interfering. This is not however altogether true of Tibet and the Far
East.

It is sometimes said that the only real Buddhists are the members of the
Sangha and there is some truth in this, particularly in China, where one
cannot count as a Buddhist every one who occasionally attends a Buddhist
service. But on the other hand Gotama accorded to the laity a definite
and honourable position and in the Pitakas they notify their conversion
by a special formula. They cannot indeed lead the perfect life but they
can ensure birth in happy states and a good layman may even attain
nirvana on his death-bed. But though the pious householder "takes his
refuge in the law and in the order of monks" from whom he learns the
law, yet these monks make no attempt to supervise or even to judge his
life. The only punishment which the Order inflicts, to turn down the
bowl and refuse to accept alms from guilty hands, is reserved for those
who have tried to injure it and is not inflicted on notorious evil
livers. It is the business of a monk to spread true knowledge and good
feeling around him without enquiring into the thoughts and deeds of
those who do not spontaneously seek his counsel. Indeed it may be said
that in Burma it is the laity who supervise the monks rather than _vice
versa_. Those Bhikkhus who fall short of the accepted standard,
especially in chastity, are compelled by popular opinion to leave the
monastery or village where th