14. Eastern Pessimism and Renunciation

But the charge of pessimism against Eastern religions is so important that we must consider other aspects of it, for though the charge is wrong, it is wrong only because those who bring it do not use quite the right word.  And indeed it would be hard to find the right word in a European language.  The temperament and theory described as pessimism are European.  They imply an attitude of revolt, a right to judge and grumble.  Why did the Deity make something out of nothing?  What was his object?  But this is not the attitude of Eastern thought:  it generally holds that we cannot imagine nothing:  that the world process is without beginning or end and that man must learn how to make the best of it.

The Far East purged Buddhism of much of its pessimism.  There we see that the First Truth about suffering is little more than an admission of the existence of evil, which all religions and common sense admit.  Evil ceases in the saint:  nirvana in this life is perfect happiness.  And though striving for the material improvement of the world is not held up conspicuously as an ideal in the Buddhist scriptures (or for that matter in the New Testament), yet it is never hinted that good effort is vain.  A king should be a good king.

Renunciation is a great word in the religions of both Europe and Asia, but in Europe it is almost active.  Except to advanced mystics, it means abandoning a natural attitude and deliberately assuming another which it is difficult to maintain.  Something similar is found in India in the legends of those ascetics who triumphed over the flesh until they become very gods in power[56].  But it is also a common view in the East that he who renounces ambition and passion is not struggling against the world and the devil but simply leading a natural life.  His passions indeed obey his will and do not wander here and there according to their fancy, but his temperament is one of acquiescence not resistance.  He takes his place among the men, beasts and plants around him and ceasing to struggle finds that his own soul contains happiness in itself.

Most Europeans consider man as the centre and lord of the world or, if they are very religious, as its vice-regent under God.  He may kill or otherwise maltreat animals for his pleasure or convenience:  his task is to subdue the forces of nature:  nature is subservient to him and to his destinies:  without man nature is meaningless.  Much the same view was held by the ancient Greeks and in a less acute form by the Jews and Romans.  Swinburne’s line

  Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things

is overbold for professing Christians but it expresses both the modern scientific sentiment and the ancient Hellenic sentiment.