ABSTRACT
THE training of the disciple through the stages of morality, concentration, full knowledge, and release shows little of any metaphysical considerations. But such principles are implicit in certain doctrines assumed, doctrines already established in popular beliefs—a theory of the structure of the universe, the belief that the individual transmigrates through it unceasingly unless he wins knowledge, and that his life is happy or wretched in his various existences according to the sum of his previous actions. These are general Indian beliefs which Buddhism accepted, while systematizing and generalizing them, and which are presupposed in all its peculiar dogmas. The fact that these theories underlie the special dogmatic and philosophical superstructure of Buddhism makes it necessary to consider both the antecedents of Buddhism as well as the state of contemporary thought at the time when the new religion was becoming established. The questions are more easily asked than answered, for the evidence at hand is both incomplete and to a great extent indirect.
