Page 87 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

A moral obligation or moral rule is something laid upon man by

God. This is very well illustrated by the biblical account of the
origin of the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai
and there, amidst thunder and lightning, he receives the Ten

Commandments from God. On coming down from Mount Sinai
with — according to Christian art — the two stone tablets on

which they were inscribed tucked under his arm like a couple of
tombstones, Moses in turn gives the Ten Commandments to the
Children of Israel. This illustrates the idea of ethics as something

imposed on man, almost against his will, by a power or an
authority external to himself. According to the Old Testament

God has created man, has formed him out of the dust of the
earth and breathed life into his nostrils. So man is God's creature,
almost God's slave, and his duty is to obey. To disobey is a sin.

This attitude is again illustrated by the story of the Fall. Adam and

Eve were punished, as we all know, for disobeying an apparently
arbitrary order. God said, of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.' but he did not give them any

reason for the prohibition. Nowadays we know that stories of this
sort are only myths, but though few people any longer believe

them to be literally true the attitudes which they represent still
persist. The word 'commandment' itself is significant. It is
significant that a moral law or moral rule should be

commandment, i.e. something you are commanded to do,
obliged to do, almost coerced into doing, by some power or

authority external to yourself.

The two illustrations I have given are both from the Old

Testament, and Christianity certainly goes beyond this
conception

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