llect. The other view of mystic
experiences regards them as a remaking of character, the evolution of a
new personality and in fact a new birth. This of course need not be a
denial of the other view: the emergence of the latent self may effect a
transformation of the whole being. But Buddhism, at any rate early
Buddhism, formulates its theory in a polemical form. There is no
ready-made latent self, awaiting manifestation when its fetters and
veils are removed: man's inner life is capable of superhuman extension
but the extension is the result of enlargement and training, not of
self-revelation.

CHAPTER XV

MYTHOLOGY IN HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM

1

The later phases of Buddhism, described as Mahayana, show this feature
among many others, that the supernatural and mythological side of
religion becomes prominent. Gods or angels play an increasingly
important part, the Buddha himself becomes a being superior to all gods,
and Buddhas, gods and saints perform at every turn feats for which
miracle seems too modest a name. The object of the present chapter is to
trace the early stages of these beliefs, for they are found in the Pali
Canon, although it is not until later that they overgrow and hide the
temple in whose walls they are rooted.

It may be fairly said that Buddhism is not a miraculous religion in the
sense that none of its essential doctrines depend on miracles. It would
seem that such a religion as Mormonism must collapse if it were admitted
that the Book of Mormon is not a revelation delivered to Joseph Smith.
But the content of the Buddha's teaching is not miraculous and, though
he is alleged to have possessed insight exceeding ordinary human
knowledge, yet this is not exactly a miracle and it is a question
whether an unusual intelligence disciplined by meditation might not
attain to such knowledge. Still, though the essence of the doctrine may
be detachable from miracles and even be scientific, one cannot read very
far in the Vinaya or the Sutta Pitaka without coming upon unearthly
beings or supernatural occurrences.

The credibility of miracles is to my mind simply a question of evidence.
Any extraordinary event, such as a person doing a thing totally foreign
to his character, is improbable _a priori_. But the law does not allow
that the best of men is incapable of committing the worst of crimes, if
the evidence proves he did. Nor can the most extraordinary violation of
nature's laws be pronounced i