| Show 1 I BUDDHA tho the religion of buddha has probably more moie vota ries nes than any other in in the w world ald it is is said to be embraced by some four hund hundred red millions of human beings or about half the population of the globe yet very little lias has been known of it until recently recen tl and the public is indebted for foi what knowledge it possesses of that extraordinary religion leh gion to a work w ork published only a short time ago on the subject by R spence hardy a learned m bambei aber of tha ceylon branch Bianc hof of the asiatic society there seems to be no redson reason to doubt doub t that the founder of the religion was gotanda buddha th the 3 son of a petty prince who lived on the borders border of nepaul about seven seen centuries before christ the date of Go tamas tamus birth was B C six six hundred and four at the age of sixteen he married and iii in the hyarm warm countries of the east cast sixteen is is by no means considered an early eaily age at twenty his wife nife was delivered of a son and having beheld the mother and child and alid seen the succession to the dynasty dyn sty provided for he dep departed arLd us never u more to return to his palce 1 I 1 the th e circumstances which are supposed to have we ai given ven use rise to this cours of conduct on the part of kotama Go taina wire were these the monstrous mont rous worship of obbra bra 1 mah n ailed all over india at that time juggernaut 11 widow burning self tortures beastly hn cipun puri i ties of all kinds exorcized exorcised their depta depraving influx influences upon to cape Coi conform roria G kotama otama was a youth of virtuous feelings strong intelligence and great determination looking around liim hiat ul at tho mass of iniquity which flourished under the guise of religion he be resolved by a life of self denial study and teaching to protest a against r ains t it all he might haab led the life of a prince been n fl flattered atred and indulged and spent pent his 1 ihne hile in sensual enjoyments enjoy ments like the rest but lie felt that he had a great mission to perform he did it casting one glance at his wife and child he gave up all the worlds honors and went into tile the wilderness or the forest where under the shadow of a bo tree trec lie he meditated deeply upon life fife its duties and obligations irions its 0 objects bj acts and alms aims and there ros rose a up lip ill in his heart great thoughts of a better life higher aspirations purer worship and the issue undying lia happiness PP i for the unhappy millions who were now perishing around liim him he persevered li ia this cours of ascetic ti discipline for six years passing through various stages of the siftings wiil ings of his followers since since avow until he at length reached the or highest possible state of being while in the forest trudi ion relates that he was attacked by a formidable host of demons whom he determinedly resisted until at length after a desperate struggle the demons cassad away like the thundercloud thunder cloud returning from the orb of tho dio moon causing it to appear in greater splendor this encounter with the demons most ably means the desperate human struggle with we worldly adly passions and temptations related in iii the usual it highly lily figurative style of eastern writers irs ue he now appeared b babore forc the world as a preacher and proselytizer announcing hini himself self as tai alie e greatest of existences came into the world word to restore truth and destroy error his followers relate of ht him n that he be preached countless discourses performed numerous extraordinary miracles and converted multitudes of disciples who followed in in from place to place adopting tin his knets and conforming to the rules he laid I 1 down for their 1 guidance in tile the chirse of his preach i I 1 digs lie he encountered dangers da the brahmins Brah mins his sworn enem T and pursued ed him hila and anahis hb disei disciples files with rele relent oleO fes persecution tion ills his followers were bete bel el 1 I 1 zed and tortured perse 7 with w thu all a 11 the refinement that priestly cruelty could devise himself owes his ei cape from bealli partly to t his hia being a princes son i partly to the deserf places in which be preached but chiefly to the vigilance and the devotion of his foltos ers this last auw wa enthusiastic in the extreme immense numbers of people took the vows of po find and i which he imposed upon all who like himself were seeking nir nirvana wana or the destiny of purified I 1 spiris s the brahmins I 1 raged arid stormed in his hia I 1 path but he held ori on his way if they drove him from one district lie he reappeared preaching to his bis follo folio I 1 ivers ers in another I 1 the brahmins Brah mins at up arms arms to destroy buddha and his followers but lie he auld coldins tol dIns IA peola that the shedding of blood was a great evil and that those who prepared for arwana by the greatest victory of i ull all that over themselves need not fear the sword I 1 buddha even taught the extreme peace doctrine of i modern times that the destruction of life under an any circumstances was a crime and jhb doctrine look toz rot root and spread rapidly detring bring his lifetime buddha saw the faith which he pretta preached lied professed in nepaul and behar in ceylon and si southern buth brn india preaching in the neighborhood of benares at one time ia nepaul at another in ceylon at a third he be thus pee pas sed red a long life before his bis deathie death he waff ahta welcomed as the greatest of existences by thousands of enthusiastic disciples and over extensive districts his mild and bloodless system had taken the place of one of tha ilia most horrible and foulest superstitions that of the hindmo brahmins Brah mins kotama buddha died at Kus inara near delhi ix ia the eightieth year offis of his age his remains were burned r by his disciples and the ashes which remained were treasured by them as the most valuable of earthly possessions portions efthem of them were subsequently entombed in those enormous hell bell shaped monuments which are characteristic of buddhism in every country where it has prevailed from burmah and ceylon to china and they are called pagodas in siam and china dag dago bahs in ceylon aad fayab in southern india such is a brief sketch of the probable able fats fit ther life of this great man as nearly as they can be gather c ed from the literary remains of his disciples which bec be c gan to be courted into I 1 books about after his eath death d and which chich vh ich still exist ex is t in tle the sacred books book s of buddha of chui coui course arse as with ever 1 ireat greatrex re legious reformer of bf early ages agai his disciples a number of miracles into his life and history the better to secure the credi credibility bili ty of the mul multitude tf ti f db 0 kotama ota m a wrote nothing himself but his followers committed his sayings to memory and handed them down dowa to fo their successors who at length embodied them in written record notwithstanding the incredible cirar cles worked up into this history b no doubt whatever that the record is that of a strong valiant true minded self denying liaa man who n those r remote ages long before the christian Christia Vl era ra up jup to td bear testimony teo to external truths which do de snot fait fail frony time to time to burst upward through the thick crua of human error and his diso discourses disc purses wies though doubtless mixed up with much interposition inter 16 on i comment ownien t and vague tradition beard urdu marks of an individual mind of high i order thee the may be regarded as so many poems for in the easa east nearly all writing is full of ima imagery gery a and fid ass assumes es the poetic form yet there ilni r much uch that Is eminently practical in these clo upon human character and xion duct take a few pea bences by way of example I 1 he is a more noble conqueror who than the lie he 0 wife who in the field of battle thousands of thousands I 1 conquer evil by goodri goodness eps anger by gentleness in malace alace by benevolence beney olence and lust last by temperate tempe living for so caught the sages of old ij I 1 As the solid rock remains unshaken b by tho t of the waves even so is the truly wise vise man by the applause or contempt of the ignorant the conduit in maker ak or guides id es the stream of water the shipbuilder ship builder bends beads the stubborn teak the fletcher directs the aft ltv but the good man does what is infinitely more diffin difficult alt he be guides A and d c controls 0 jimr 01 pi a ard aad rd directs I 1 I 1 As straws are whirled along by the rapid stream to the depths of the whirlpool even so is iii the foolish man swept into the sea of lust by the river of desire de aire these examples be multiplied almuly t any extant ext t nt from the sacred jacded books but what we abe selecta d is quite sufficient to indicate the general moral z cy of his discourses self control 9 contempt for the world an enthusiasm for virtue and a conquest ater I 1 lust are the themes upon which he be mo most loves av a ta di die late and from which he be evidently considers W t mat k the berehe greatest test blessings blessing flow I 1 I 1 I 1 the faith bea bequeathed bathed to bis race by kotama 0 tama buddha was not allowed to propagate itself quietly it has endured the storms of frightful persecution for hundreds of aws we give the su sequent history in the words of a writer in the dublin nation I two centuries after Go tamas death the faith he had established had spread from the to cape comoria Co morin embraced the entire island of ceylon had penetrated into china and was preached in distant ni ciphon phou one of the japan Ish rids brahmanism Brahma nisin the horrible he eibl old 0 ld giant was tottering to his tall in india the peaceful system s tent of the gentle prophet was undermining mir I 1 aing his bulwarks bulwa and caves aies were nvere hollowed out in every part of the country whose ar architecture aud and sculpture I 1 ture astonish at the present day the le un believers of the west but brahmanism was not dead the grisly blood foul old giant shook prepa a new struggle cju if was leaone on odthe of the tenets of buddhism that the destruction destruct io oalif of life under uder n any circumstance was a drime and buddhism gin WEIS was consequently in this early age of its purity no match fior for we the monster who now reared himself make lag ing hid bi is influence fluence in be felt in every part afindia of 04 India A frightful a ruggle or rather butch butchery ar co commenced brahmanism became again victorious 8 abid its difiore more worthy rival was drwey to nepaul in the north and ceylon in the south to make inake amends for this loss however the vast pattern eastern usula including sum siam burmah lao aud cochin china was converted thabet aud and china became almost wholly the vast regions of central asia and mongolia embraced a modified form of the faith and in this the year of our lorap lord eighteen hundred and fifty two kotama Go tama under various names name is worshiped us as the being by three hundred and sixty nine idne millions of the tae humin race I 1 I 1 such stich y 4 the extensive sway of the religion of buddha a system unquestionably mixed up w lih a vast deal of error and superstition but as ion ably in all respects to the horrible faith 0 of brahmanism which it subverted iu ia all those extensive si ve regions above named who knows but that the mild doctrine of buddha may thus have been permit permuted ed to prevail in order to pave the way for a better religion still even christianity itself the elders will read the above history of buddhism with interest and when they have read it say when shall these hear the gospel |
