y he wants it to be understood what is a
real Brahman: 'A certain Brahman once asked Buddha how one becomes a
Brahman,--what are the characteristics that make a man a Brahman. And
the Blessed One said: "The Brahman who has removed all sinfulness, who
is free from haughtiness, free from impurity, self-restrained, who is
an accomplished master of knowledge, who has fulfilled the duties of
holiness,--such a Brahman justly calls himself a Brahman."'[52] "The
_Mah[=a]vagga_, from which this is taken, is full of such sentiments.
As here, in i. 2, so in i. 7: "The Blessed One preached to Yasa, the
noble youth, 'in due course,'" that is to say, "he talked about the
merit obtained by alms-giving, the duties of morality, about heaven,
about the evils of vanity and sinfulness of desire," and when the
Blessed One saw that the mind of Yasa, the noble youth, was prepared,
"then he preached the principal doctrine of the Buddhists, namely,
suffering, and cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, the
Path;" and "just as a clean cloth takes the dye, thus Yasa, the noble
youth, even while sitting there, obtained the knowledge that
whatsoever is subject to birth is also subject to death."[53]

The "spirit and not the letter of the law" is expressed in the formula
_(Mah[=a]vagga_, i. 23): "Of all conditions that proceed
from a cause, Buddha has explained the cause, and he has explained
their cessation." This is the Buddhist's _credo_.

In several of the sermons the whole gist is comprised in the
admonition not to meddle with philosophy, nor to have any 'views,' for
"philosophy purifies no one; peace alone purifies."[54]

Buddha does not ignore the fact that fools will not desire salvation
as explained by him: "What fools call pleasure the noble say is pain;
this is a thing difficult to understand; the cessation of the existing
body is regarded as pleasure by the noble, but those wise in this
world hold the opposite opinion" (_Dvayat[=a]nup. sutta_, 38).[55] But
to him the truly wise is the truly pure: "Not by birth is one a
Brahman, not by birth is one an outcast; by deeds is one a Brahman, by
deeds is one an outcast" (_Vasala-sutta_); and not alone in virtue of
_karma_ of old, for: "The man who knows in this world the destruction
of pain, who lays aside the burden and is liberated, him I call a
Brahman; whosoever in this world has overcome good and evil, both
ties, who is free from grief and defilement, and is pure,--him I call
a