A. The true Buddhist should be ever ready and anxious to see the false purged away from the true, and to assist, if he can. Three great Councils of the Sangha were held for the express purpose of purging the body of Teachings from all corrupt interpolations.

192. Q. When?

A. The first, at Sattapanni cave, just after the death of the Buddha; the second at Valukarama, in Vaisali; the third at Asokarama Vihara, at Pataliputra, 235 years after the Buddha's decease.

193. Q. In what discourse does the Buddha himself warn us to expect this perversion of the true Doctrine?

A. In the Sanyutta Nikaya.

194. Q. Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which we are required to accept on faith?

A. No: we are earnestly enjoined to accept

nothing whatever on faith; whether it be written in books, handed down from our ancestors, or taught by the sages.

195. Q. Did he himself really teach that noble rule?

A. Yes. The Buddha has said that we must not believe in a thing said merely because it is said; nor in traditions because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor rumours, as such; nor writings by sages, merely because sages wrote them; nor fancies that we may suspect to have been inspired in us by a deva (that is, in presumed spiritual inspiration); nor from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption we may have made; nor because of what seems an analogical necessity; nor on the mere authority of our own teachers or masters.

196. Q. When, then, must we believe?

A. We are to believe when the writing, doctrine or saying is corroborated by our own reason and consciousness. "For this," says he in concluding, "I taught you not to believe merely because you have heard, but when you believed of your own consciousness, then to act accordingly and abundantly." (See the Kalama Sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya, and the Maha Pari Nirvana Sutta.)

197. Q. What does the Buddha call himself?

A. He says that he and the other Buddhas are only "preachers" of truth who point out the way: we ourselves must make the effort.

198. Q. Where is this said?

A. In chapter xx. of the Dhammapada.

199. Q. Does Buddhism countenance hypocrisy?

A. The Dhammapada says: "Like a beautiful flower full of color without scent, the fine words of him who does not act accordingly are fruitless."

200. Q. Does Buddhism teach us to return evil for evil?

A. In the Dhammapada the Buddha said: "If a man foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me." This is the path followed by the Arhat. [**] To return evil for evil is positively forbidden in Buddhism.

201. Q. Does it encourage cruelly?