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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Lt. Col. George "White 
 

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SAKYA BUDDHA: 
 A Narrative of his Life and Teachings. 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 
 60, 
 
 7tli line, for changes, read ranges. 
 
 63, 
 
 9tli ' 
 
 ' " kernelike, 
 
 ' kern-like. 
 
 73, 
 
 IStli ' 
 
 ' '' Llama, 
 
 ' Lama. 
 
 92, 
 
 9th ' 
 
 ' " thorough. 
 
 ' thoroughly. 
 
 103, 
 
 1st ' 
 
 " best. 
 
 ' least. 
 
 105, 
 
 2d ' 
 
 ' " bones. 
 
 ' bows. 
 
 127, 
 
 18th ' 
 
 ' " Delia-Llama, 
 
 ' Delai-Lama 
 
 162, 
 
 6tli ' 
 
 ' " ribbing, 
 
 ' rubbing. 
 
8AKYA BUDDHA: 
 
 Versified, Annotated Narrative 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 LIFE AND TEACHINGS; 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN EXCURSUS, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 Citations from tlie Dliaininapafta, or Biiiliist Canon. 
 
 By E. D. KOOT, 
 
 AN AMERICAN BUDDHIST. 
 
 "The more I learn to know Buddha, the more I admire h'm, and 
 the sooner all mankind shall have been made acquainted with his 
 doctrines the better it will be, for he is certainly one of the heroes 
 of humanity."— Dk. Fausboll. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 CHARLES P. SOMERBY, 
 
 iS Bond Street. 
 
 1880. 
 
Copyrightod, 
 
 By C. P. Somerby, 
 
 1880. 
 
 C. P. Somerby, 
 
 Elcctrotyper aucl Printer, 
 
 18 Bond-st, N. Y. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 In" presenting this unpretentious poem to 
 the world, I am not certain that the ca- 
 dence of its numbers will strike favorably 
 the public-ear. Should it fail, through its 
 dearth of afflatus, to arrest the attention of 
 American scholars, I am prone to believe 
 that in India, where the grand ethical teacher 
 gifted his birth-land with fame's proud lau- 
 rels, it will live in the liearts of many of 
 his followers, and, peradveiiture, be enstamped 
 with the sigil of immortality. 
 
 The volumes containing the Life and Teach- 
 ings of Buddha, from which the material that 
 girds the poem has been gleaned, are ex- 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 pensive, and beyond the reach of the mass 
 of readers. 
 
 I have epitomized, and brought within 
 the scope of the masses (to M^hom those vol- 
 umes are inaccessible) all that is needed to 
 form a correct biographical narrative of the 
 keenest-minded of all religious, Heaven-sent 
 Ariels. 
 
 I have endeavored with copious annota- 
 tations to render plain many incidents inter- 
 Woven with the career of Buddha which could 
 not have been easily wrought in rythmic num- 
 bers. 
 
 In launching my epical poem upon the 
 bournless sea of literature, I offer no apol- 
 ogy, and make no cringing appeal to the 
 mercy of critical reviewers ; and should my 
 humble effort fail to meet their approval, or 
 be rejected by them as unmeritorious, let 
 their censuring frowns forever rest upon the 
 ill-starred narrative of the all-adored Founder, 
 
Preface, vii 
 
 wlio has borne betimes the struggling author 
 over life's storm- vexed surges, when fate-girded 
 Hope was whelmed 'neath affliction's dark 
 waters. 
 
 Deep-roused by true missionary zeal to 
 blazon far and wide the incomparable Law of 
 the gentle Lord Buddha, and knowing be- 
 yond a shadow of uncertainty, accompanied 
 by an overwhelming cogency of evidence, 
 that my earth -flown friends, hovering near 
 the fringe of supernal spheres, are swaying 
 and shaping my anomalous career, I am lifted 
 tower ingly above the narrow judgment of the 
 daintified, cynical reviewer, who will find it 
 easier^to demolish a fortress than to erect one 
 that will be impregnable. 
 
 The reader will please accept my assur- 
 ance with all confidence that the poem con- 
 tains nothing dispraising th.e Christian reli- 
 gion, nor the sublime teachings of the God- 
 man Nazarene. 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 Hoping that this candid avowal will dis- 
 arm all unreasonable prejudice, and prepare 
 the mind for a careful perusal of my truth- 
 founded narrative, I remain, kind reader, yours 
 in mortal bonds, striving to attain that glori- 
 ous, spiritual life, which blooms beyond the 
 
 grave with ineffable grandeur. 
 
 E. D. K. 
 
 FORESTVILLE, CoUU., 
 
 October, 1879. 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 It was the gifted poet Goethe who *gave 
 to the world the following paradoxical apo- 
 thegm : " He who knows only one language 
 knows none." To tliis the lettered Max 
 Mtiller adds : " He who knows only one re- 
 ligion knows none. As a true knowledge of 
 a langnage requires a knowledge of languages, 
 thus a true knowledge of a religion requires 
 a knowledge of religions ; and however bold 
 the assertion may sound, that all languages 
 have an Oriental origin, true it is that all 
 religions, like the suns, have risen from the 
 East." 
 
 In the elucidation of this paradox, the 
 
10 Preliminary Observations. 
 
 distinguished philologist relevantly queries : 
 "Could Goethe have meant that Homer did 
 not know Greek, ox that Shakspeare did 
 not know English, because neither of them 
 knew more than his own mother-tongue ? 
 No ! What was meant was that neither Ho- 
 mer nor Shakspeare knew what that language 
 really was which he handled with so much 
 power and cunning. ... It becomes clear 
 at once that the most gifted poet and most 
 eloquent speaker, with all their command of 
 words and skillful mastery of expression, would 
 have but little to say if asked what language 
 really is ! The same applies to religion. He 
 who knows onlv one knows none. There are 
 thousands of people whose faith is such that 
 it could move mountains, who yet, if asked 
 what religion really is, would remain silent, 
 or would speak of outward tokens, rather 
 than the inward nature, or of the faculty of 
 faith." 
 
Preliminary Observations. 11 
 
 To these scholarly testimonies I humbly 
 subjoin : If the man who knows only the 
 English language cannot trace the etymologi- 
 cal derivations of its verbs, nouns and ad- 
 jectives, the believer who knows only the 
 Christian religion cannot trace its primitive 
 source without extending his inquiries into 
 all antedated Hevelations. 
 
 If it be true, as the late Michelet affirms, 
 that India was the original matrix of the 
 world, the source of races, ideas, languages, 
 and religions, it behooves all believers to ex- 
 tend their continual researches into the origin 
 of the Christian religion, which flings its sheen 
 along life's pathway, and unlocks the death- 
 barred tomb. 
 
 During many years of my checkered and 
 truth-searching career, I have been a schis- 
 matic, and an unyielding dogmatist, standing 
 upon creed - platforms so narrow that un- 
 
12 Preliminary Observations. 
 
 guarded mis-steps often plunged me into the 
 bewildering labyrinths of polemic theology. 
 
 In traversing the broad field of religious 
 credenda, I am borne toweringly above the 
 trammels of churlish bigotry, while my asperity 
 and love of disputation are subdued, so that I 
 now feel liberal in my views toward the mul- 
 tiform, contentious sectaries.* 
 
 When the underlying truth of Goethe's 
 paradox, with the well-versed Miiller's appli- 
 cation of it to religions, suggested its pro- 
 found significance, I at once betook myself 
 to investigating all ethnical and man-cherished 
 Kevelations. 
 
 Instead of accepting unaccredited material, 
 gleaned from ancient religions, by surface- 
 compilers, I, with great difficulty, and con- 
 siderable expense, procured literal English 
 
 * From the Book of all Religions^ by Hay ward, we 
 learn that more than two hundred sects have sprung 
 from the Christian religion. 
 
PveliiYiinary Observations. 13 
 
 translations of the works entitled as follows : 
 The Zend-Avesta^ containing the four 
 religious books of the Parsees, bequeathed to 
 the world by the old Iranian Prophet Zo- 
 roaster, the date * of whose writings reaches 
 a remote antiquity ; the Rig - Yeda, which 
 gives the earliest collocation of Brahminical 
 prayers and hymns to the Maruts, 'or storm- 
 gods ; the Bhaghavad- Gita^ or Hindu IN^ew 
 Testament, which reveals the discourses be- 
 tween Krishna, Arjuna, and Sanjaya ; the 
 Analects of Confucius ; the Works of Men- 
 cius; the Speculations of the old Chinese 
 philosopher Lan-tsze ; the Koran^ by Moham- 
 med. Also the Dha7nrnaj)ada, or Path of 
 Virtue^ by Sakya Buddha ; his Life and Teach- 
 ings from the Chinese San^rit, by Kev. Sam- 
 uel Beal; the same, by Alabaster, from Siamese 
 sources; also, the same, from the Birmese, by 
 
 * Elsewhere, in a note, the reader will find historic 
 evidence of the date of the Iran.ian Prophet^ 
 
14: Preliminary Observations, 
 
 Bishop BIgandet, who is a Catholic Apostolic 
 Yicar of Ava and Pegu.* 
 
 Anterior to the advent of the gentle Naz- 
 arene, there flourished in India successive gen- 
 erations who must have passed from earth- 
 life without hope — with no well - born Ariel 
 to guide them through death's dark windings, 
 unless we concede that Krishna of Mathnra, 
 and Buddha of Kapilavastu, were their Heaven- 
 ordained Kedeemers. Can the kind-hearted 
 Christian for a moment believe that myriads 
 of human beings, in that far, sunny clime, 
 will languish in Hell's drear dominions througli 
 limitless seons ? The heavens gather black- 
 ness over such a thought ! Tlie Seraphim 
 
 *"Abufazl, it is said, the minister of the Emperor 
 Akbar, could find no one to assist him in liis inquiries 
 respecting Buddhism. We possess the whole sacred 
 canon of the Buddhists in various languages — in Pali, 
 Sanskrit, Birmese, Siamese, Thibetan, Mongolian and 
 Chinese — which Akbar could not obtain by threats or 
 bribery,"— 7^. JLr<z« MiiUer. 
 
PreliTninaTy Observations. 15 
 
 retire in tears from the scene ! Yet, high- 
 throned o'er the world, God smiles through the 
 gloom ! 
 
 The theory, posited by theologians, that 
 the so-called heathen will be saved through 
 the vicarious, retroactive atonement of Christ, 
 is shorn of its significance when we consider 
 the fact that there are now four hundred 
 millions of beings throughout the vast Asian 
 realms who have never heard his name. If 
 the atonement is retroactive in its efi:ects, it can 
 only reach those who lived prior to the ad- 
 vent of Jesus, and held to the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures, containing God-given promises of the 
 coming of a spiritual, sin-atoning Messiah. 
 
 As a poetic outcome of lofty odes, en- 
 souled with melodious cadences, have been 
 hymned in honor of the Heaven-sent l^aza- 
 rene, I have struck the Muse's lyre, to swell 
 with versual numbers " the tide of song " 
 for the wide -famed, holy Lord Buddha, son 
 
16 Prel'hninary. Observations. 
 
 of Suddliodana, Hajali of the royal realm of 
 Kapilavastu, India, who flourished 553 years 
 ere Bethlehem's star arose, and has (accord- 
 ing to a reliable statist's computation) over 
 four hundred millions of followers in the ex- 
 tended dominions of China, Birmah, Siberia, 
 Nepaul, Ceylon, Siam, Japan, Hindustan, Thi- 
 bet and Mongolia. 
 
 In versifying this difficult thesis, I have 
 traversed a field unpathed * by the poets, and 
 
 * Close upon tlie eve of my finisMng rtiis poem, 
 a Life of Buddlia {The Light of Asia, or the Great 
 BeiiuThciation), by Edwin Arnold, M.A., F.R.G.S., was 
 issued by the popular publishers of Oriental litera- 
 ture, Triibner & Co., London. It appears chiefly in 
 blank verse, and contains 238 pages, 12mo. An Amer- 
 ican edition has just been published by Roberts 
 Brothers, Boston. The following lines bespeak the 
 exuberant diction of its " stately march of numbers": 
 
 "Which reverence 
 Lord Buddha kept to all his schoolmasters. 
 Albeit beyond their learning taught ; in speech 
 Right gentle, yet so wise ; princely of mien, 
 
Prelitninary Observations. 17 
 
 summarized, within the purview of the fol- 
 lowing biographical narrative, a truthful de- 
 lineation of the life-work, ethics, and apho- 
 
 Yet softly-mannered ; modest, deferent, 
 
 And tender-hearted, though of fearless blood ; 
 
 No holder horseman in the youthful band 
 
 E 'er rode in gay chase the shy gazelles ; 
 
 No keener driver of the chariot 
 
 In mimic contest scoured the palace-courts ; 
 
 Yet in mid-play the boy would ofttimes pause ; 
 
 Letting the deer pass free ; would ofttimes yield 
 
 His half-won race because the laboring steeds 
 
 Fetched painful breath ; or if his princely mates_ 
 
 Saddened to lose, or if some wistful dream 
 
 Swept o 'er his thoughts. And ever with the years 
 
 Waxed this compassionateness of our Lord, 
 
 Even as a . great tree grows from two small leaves 
 
 To spread its shade afar ; but hardly yet 
 
 Knew the young child of sorrow, pain or tears, 
 
 Save as strange names for things not felt by kings, 
 
 Nor ever to be felt." 
 
 —(Am. Ed., p. 15.) 
 
 Among the multiform encomia so lavishly bestowed 
 upon this grand epical poem, I find none that de- 
 pictures the majesty of its diction so gracefully a? 
 
18 Preliminary Observations. 
 
 risms, which lie embosomed in the canonical 
 record of this Heaven-gifted, world-honored 
 Oriental. 
 
 the critique rendered by the scholarly American poet 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, which appears in the 
 October number of the International Revieio. 
 
 Of Mr Arnold's scholastic and linguistic attain- 
 ments the reviewer says: "He has long been known 
 as a writer of graceful verse, a translator from San- 
 skrit and other languages ; and, as connected with the 
 Deccan College and Univesity of Bombay, has natur- 
 ally become familiar with the internal as well as the 
 external life of India." 
 
SAKYA BUDDHA: 
 His Life and Teachings. 
 
 T.^t/^f^CSStSi— ?*«» M 
 
SAKYA BUDDHA: 
 
 A Narrative of his Life and Teachings. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Yon world-sown lieavens were reiided ! 
 
 The dream-wrapt kings uprose ! 
 A wild nproar was blended 
 
 With Nature's deep-heaved throes ! 
 Then bells in chime were ringing, 
 
 Feals rolled through surging air; 
 From thrones were rajahs bringing 
 
 Bright gems beyond compare, 
 To crown the new-born Savior, 
 
 Whose banner guards unfurled; 
 
22 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 The Heaven-sent cliild's behavior 
 Amazed a joy -flushed world. (1) 
 
 In Liimbine's bowers deep-shaded, 
 The famed Crown-prince was born ; 
 
 Night's queen tliat close pervaded 
 Till smiled the gold-hued morn ; 
 
 Then heard was joy-drum beating, 
 And lilting arias rare, 
 
 While Indra's hosts were meeting, 
 
 Their shrill - toned trumps to 
 blare. (2) 
 
 To the nmral-guarded harem. 
 
 Whose gairish tower loomed high. 
 
 The royal train did bear him, 
 While Devas circled nigh ; 
 
His Life and Teachings. 23 
 
 And flowers in rare profusion 
 From Flora's beds were flung. 
 
 Till staid was all intrusion 
 Of din from hosts among. 
 
 No minstrel's pen can blazon 
 
 That soul-transporting scene ; 
 The king did proudly gaze on 
 
 His Prince and consort-queen. 
 O'erflushed was sire Suddho'na 
 
 When cast was horoscope 
 Of one whom all would honor 
 
 When paths to life he'd ope, 
 And rive the woof the Brahmans 
 
 Had wove to thrall the mind, 
 By shriving priests, or Shamans, 
 
 Who victims strove to bind. 
 
^4 Sdkya Buddha i 
 
 Along his home-born pleasures 
 
 Time bore with noiseless tread; 
 
 The realm enhanced his treasm^es, 
 
 While Hope's phimed wings were 
 spread, 
 
 And soared to far-off regions, 
 To worlds where spirits roam — 
 
 Where dwell ano-elic les^ions, 
 
 Who guide earth's pilgrims home. 
 
 * * * * v5- * 
 
 With lore the Prince waxed stronger 
 
 When flown had childhood's days; 
 He brooked at length no longer 
 
 The siren voice of praise. 
 In bloom of youth's prime morning 
 
 He whiled the light-winged hours, 
 Till voice 'mid-space bore warning 
 
 To leave those sinful bowers. 
 
Mis Life and Teachings. ^5 
 
 Deep-versed in all the Shasters, 
 
 And sacred tomes of yore, 
 He baffled languaged masters 
 
 With words unknown before; 
 Outsoared in numbers stately 
 
 The Yedic bards of old, 
 And conned each page sedately — 
 
 The scroll of Fame unrolled. (3) 
 
 Embosomed long had fluttered 
 
 A hope earth's wilds to roam ; 
 But this he ne'er had uttered 
 
 To friends in palace-home. 
 When borne on servants' shoulders, 
 
 In gold-fringed palankeen, 
 He kenned the strange beholders, 
 
 Who marked his princely mien. (4) 
 
26 Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 A sire, whose locks were hoarj, 
 
 Uprose, while gazed the crowd; 
 Outpoured a plaintive story, 
 
 Then 'fore the Prince he bowed; 
 Alleged that pain and sorrow 
 
 Had burdened him for years. 
 That death might gloom the morrow — 
 
 Then flowed the trilling tears. 
 
 A losel, lorn, he noted. 
 
 Who reeled athwart his way; 
 With dire diseases bloated, 
 
 No antidote could stay; 
 Who 'd laws of life neglected, 
 
 Bj passion's sway o'erborne; 
 Beep-anguished and dejected, 
 
 Was all of virtue shorn. 
 
His Life and Teachings. - 27 
 
 On sable bier there slumbered 
 
 A pulseless, clay-cold form, 
 Whose days winged Time had numbered, 
 
 And kin were left to mourn : 
 A-near the Prince stood gazing 
 
 Long o 'er that thought-reft brow ; 
 But, what seemed more amazing, 
 
 Was, all to Death must bow. 
 
 Commoved with deep-roused pity, 
 
 The monarch-swain returned; 
 To leave that vice-plunged city 
 
 His heart intensely yearned. 
 This god-like Oriental, 
 
 Who wide the scepter swayed, 
 In mien was suave and gentle, 
 
 By foes was undismayed. 
 
)iS /Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 He left the tower-crowned palace. 
 
 The throne with gems inwrought; 
 With love unblent with malice, 
 
 The grandest truths he taught. 
 Fair maids in roseate beauty, 
 
 Whose soft-fringed eyes bright shone, 
 From sternest sense of duty 
 
 He left to pine alone. 
 
 Some plied their arts beguiling. 
 
 His love to still retain ; 
 To troll, they leered w^hen smiling ; 
 
 But glozing schemes were vain. 
 No woes their hearts had anguislied, 
 
 'Mong sylvan bowers they strayed ; 
 Anon, supinely languished. 
 
 While bickering streamlets played 
 
His Life and Teachings. 29 
 
 'Long blooming vales, gay-dancing, 
 High-hurled their water's sheen, 
 
 The ravished eye entrancing, 
 
 While grandeur crowned the scene. 
 
 This band of high-caste sirens 
 
 To love-wrought moods inclined, 
 Within great Kap'lar's 'vu'ons, 
 
 No more could joyance find. 
 From kin Siddartha parted. 
 
 Left crest-bowed nymphs to moan 
 Forlornly, dreary-hearted. 
 
 With hope forever flown. 
 
 His parting with Rahula 
 
 Brought many a grief - gloomed 
 hour ; 
 
30 Sakya Buddha : 
 
 Time crowned his son a ruler, 
 
 To reign with sceptered power. 
 His snow-white steed Kantaka 
 
 He soon bestrode in haste — (5) 
 Did then his queen forsake her, 
 
 l!^o more home joys to taste. 
 The grief-whelmed Tasodhara 
 
 Awoke when morn smiled round. 
 Was warned by "shrike-tongued Mara" (6) 
 
 The Prince could ne'er be found. 
 She swooning paled with sadness, 
 
 "While shone the cadent tear; • 
 In sooth no after-gladness 
 
 Her lonely heart could cheer. (7) 
 
 Soul-wrung was King Suddho'na 
 To learn his son had gone; 
 
His Life and Teachings. 31 
 
 Though millions him would honor, 
 
 Was rendered quite forlorn. 
 Though one would sure succeed him 
 
 As rightful heir to throne, 
 Yet sorely he did need him, 
 
 As Hope's fond dream had flown. 
 
Z2 Sakya Buddha : 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 "What time with argent splendor 
 
 Pale Luna graced yon dome, 
 She then sad thoughts did 'gender 
 
 In one foredoomed to roam. 
 He mused in silent sorrow, 
 
 While westward rolled Night's queen ; 
 But felt no glad to-morrow 
 
 His soul could wholly wean 
 From scenes of home beclouded, 
 
 O'ermantled deep with gloom. 
 And dreamland hopes enshrouded. 
 
 Which death could ne'er entomb. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 33 
 
 He stemmed the full-flowed Ganges 
 
 When darkly rolled its tide; (8) 
 Retired near mountain-ranges, 
 
 To roam their purlieus wide. 
 Long-ling'ring years he fasted 
 
 In Pansals drear, alone ; (9) 
 Meanwhile his thews had wasted, 
 
 The eye but dimly shone. 
 
 A rajah's well-born daughter 
 
 Then brought him viands rare; 
 ^ear purling rills of water, 
 
 Her dole the Prince did share ; 
 Which stilled the pangs of starving 
 
 When boding death-clouds lowered ; 
 Grand schemes he then was carving, 
 
 With Heaven's behests empowered. 
 
34 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 On swirls along that river 
 
 His "golden bowl" did float, 
 Suggesting that forever 
 
 'T would tides of life denote 
 Of souls on surges heaving, 
 
 Who towering rise and fall, 
 While stern-faced Death is weaving 
 
 A woof the scene to pall. 
 
 When ills most pestilential 
 
 Spread gloom both far and wide, 
 Forethought he deemed essential 
 
 To stay their darkling tide, 
 Which omened dire disaster, 
 
 O'erwhelmed the woe-doomed race. 
 Who fell forsooth the faster. 
 
 As strode grim Death apace. 
 
His -Life and Teachings, 35 
 
 Where gloom stretched wide through 
 'Wela, (10) 
 
 Long years the Prince abode ; 
 When prone 'neath lofty Sala, 
 
 Entranced in pensive mood, 
 Immersed was he in thinking 
 
 Of some device, or plan. 
 To lift the frail wliile sinking, 
 
 And ^ave the guilt-plunged man. 
 
 !Nor gear nor pageant fashions 
 
 Could sway his Heaven-touched soul ; 
 He knew low-thoughted passions 
 
 Did fiery torrents roll 
 Through tortured breasts while heaving. 
 
 Disporting there with glee — 
 Alas ! though never leaving, 
 
 O'erwhelm them 'neath a sea, 
 
36 Sdhya Buddha: 
 
 Whose surges, like the ocean's, 
 High -toss their death-foamed spray 
 
 On shores in wild commotion. 
 To fret life's sands awaj. 
 
 Through sylvan glades he wandered, 
 
 And bosky wilds did trace ; 
 In halcyon mood deep-pondered, 
 
 As rolled Time's wheels apace. 
 A voice from Heaven loud-sounding, 
 
 Soon smote the blue-tinged air; 
 While warders him surrounding, 
 
 Forth voiced a deep-felt prayer. 
 To rouse their Lord and Master, 
 
 From wolds to then withdraw ; 
 To blazon broad each Shaster, 
 
 Proclaim the Heaven-sent Law, (11) 
 
Ifis Life and Teachings* 37 
 
 SECTIOIST ni. 
 
 What time a soft-breathed murmur 
 
 From insects rose on air, 
 And smiled the green-clad Summer, 
 
 'Long bloomy dales most fair. 
 He pondered then with gladness 
 
 On scenes he highly prized; 
 But when emplunged in sadness, 
 
 He thus soliloquized : 
 
 " Within this leaf-fringed wildwood, 
 I'm reft of friends and home; 
 
 I mind me of my childhood. 
 Of dells I once did roam, 
 
38 " Sdkya Buddha: 
 
 Of fortunes left behind me, 
 Of mansions towering high, 
 
 Of regal tlirone to bind me — 
 Upswells the deep-drawn sigh 
 
 " These eerie hannts moonlighted 
 I've traced at star-gemmed eve; 
 
 No gruesome gnomes affrighted 
 No power can me bereave 
 
 Of new-formed hope uprising, 
 That souls forlorn I '11 save. 
 
 Who 're truth-born laws despising, 
 
 Though yawns the death-gloomed 
 grave. 
 
 " O 'erclojing and illusive 
 Is each fast-fading thing; 
 
His Life and Teachings. 39 
 
 Fond Hope will prove seclucive 
 
 Till life shall take its wing; 
 Unsphered shall be each spirit 
 
 From cumbrous shard of clay ; 
 Soul-rest will saints inherit, ' 
 
 'Mid bowers Elysian stray. 
 To Fame the sage it raises 
 
 Who delves for classic lore; 
 On him are lavished praises 
 
 When heart can pulse no more. 
 Awards at death are meted 
 
 To each self-cultured man ; 
 With plaudits he '11 be greeted 
 
 By Heaven's angelic clan. 
 
 " When man has ceased progressing, 
 And loses much he's learned, 
 
40 ' Sdkya Buddha: 
 
 A pang we feel distressing 
 
 To see his life-tide turned, 
 
 While on rude waves he's float- 
 ing 
 
 Bemazed and tempest-tost ; 
 To schemes most vague devoting 
 His mind distraught, till lost. 
 
 " Full many a swain hath lan- 
 guished. 
 
 And paled 'neath passion's blight; 
 Full many a heart is anguished, 
 
 Engloomed with rayless night. 
 Like surgeful swinge of ocean. 
 
 Is borne tlie sin-swayed man, 
 In passion's wild commotion, 
 
 Till death his course shall ban. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 4:1 
 
 * Earth's noblest souls have ever 
 
 Bowed low 'neath Fortune's frown, 
 Whose gyves no power can sever, 
 
 "While, grief-whelmed, sinking down. 
 Are some who 're oft neglected. 
 
 Fate-doomed to pine alone. 
 And stem life's tide dejected. 
 
 Then thi'id Death's maze unknown. (12) 
 
 " Sublime is man's great Teacher, 
 
 Yclept Dame Nature fair; 
 The thorn, the rose, the creature, 
 
 She guards with equal care. 
 In cold her arms we'll slumber 
 
 When earth-life blooms no more. 
 Though mortal flesh-forms cumber. 
 
 Yet death-freed souls shall soar. 
 
42 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 " From withered trunks uprising, 
 
 The sprays have bloomed with leaves ; 
 But, what seemed more surprising, 
 
 While tillers gleaned the sheaves, 
 The leaves from young trees dying 
 
 Were mantling o 'er the ground ; 
 A loom-gale then was sighing — 
 
 A truth new-born smiled round. 
 
 " To live in song or story 
 
 Must bards their ease forego, (13) 
 Aspire for well-earned glory,' 
 
 Breast darkling tides of woe; 
 J.ift burdened souls low-sinking 
 
 'Neath fell misfortune's blight: 
 By dint of high-aimed thinking. 
 
 One soars to realms of light. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 43 
 
 '' From friends wlio 've flown before us 
 
 The grandest truths we learn ; 
 While floats their love still o'er us, 
 
 The Heaven-touched heart doth yearn 
 For home in realms supernal, 
 
 Where gloom ne 'er drowns the light ; 
 Where dwells the King Eternal, 
 
 High-throned 'mid star-gems bright. 
 
 " A bard through inspiration 
 
 'Bove eyried hights can soar, 
 And scan the broad creation, 
 
 Learn truths unknown before; 
 See light-winged spirits floating 
 
 Through vasty realms above; 
 To earth-kin oft devoting 
 
 Their aid with ceaseless love. (14) 
 
M SdJcya Buddha: 
 
 "While siren strains so sweetly 
 
 Float 'neath. the gorgeous sky, 
 I fancy how completely 
 
 They hush the rising sigh. 
 As gay-plumed songsters cheer me, (15) 
 
 With wild-toned notes that trill, 
 Ko bodings darkle near me, 
 
 No dirge mine ear doth fill. 
 
 Wreaths wave from skies suspended, 
 
 Flowers bloom the emerald dale. 
 And odors rare are blended 
 
 Which load the sighing gale, 
 Outbreathed from roses blushing, 
 
 Whose tints enchant the eye; 
 Heaven's arch the sun is flushing ! 
 
 Clouds fringe the verge of sky \ 
 
His Life and Teachings. 45 
 
 " On wilding syrts of meadow, 
 
 While gathering light dews dance, 
 I roam 'twixt sun and shadow 
 
 Where scenes the soul entrance. 
 I love the full-flushed Summer, 
 
 To hear the murmuring rill. 
 To greet each glad new-comer, 
 
 While joys my bosom fill. 
 O 'erpowering is the splendor 
 
 The ambient skies reveal ; 
 Fond Hope in man they 'gender 
 
 When dole doth o'er him steal. 
 
 " Seem mirrored clear the Seasons 
 
 On fadiug, sentient life ; 
 Keveal they cogent reasons 
 
 Why man should e'er shun strife. 
 
46 Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 Spring emblems childhood's morning; 
 
 Youth blooms 'neath Summer's 
 breath ; 
 
 Crowned Autumn gives Age warning ; 
 
 Wan Winter bodeth Death. 
 
 " From chasmal deeps I've risen 
 
 Of passion's storm-roughed sea ; 
 Long years I've pined in prison, 
 
 I '11 set Sin's pris'ners free ! 
 While thralled are men by error, 
 
 They closely hug their chains ; 
 When e 'er o 'erborne by terror, 
 
 They cowering blench from pains. 
 
 "Impassioned Youth is goaded 
 By scenes of madding strife, 
 
His Life and Teachings. 47 
 
 While ermined Age is loaded 
 With cafe through waning life. 
 
 'Tis 'lone by self-denials 
 
 Immortal deeds are wrought; 
 
 Though gloomed is life by trials, 
 With guerdons big 'tis fraught. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 " Where light and warmth ne'er 
 reigneth, 
 
 To life the grave-worms spring, 
 
 And thrive while form remain- 
 eth. 
 
 And then their own take wing 
 Through earth's evolving changes, 
 
 True-wrought by Nature's scheme— 
 This thought-field man e'er ranges. 
 
 Till lost in pensive dream. 
 
48 Bdhya Buddha : 
 
 J 
 
 "With graves the land is billowed. 
 
 Ills lurk in every place ; 
 When earth our heads hath pillowed. 
 
 Light forms freed souls shall grace. 
 With woe man's life is surging, 
 
 Like ocean's foam-wreathed waves ; 
 To Yama's Maelstrom verging — 
 
 'Keath passion's fire he raves. 
 
 "Death's dark-palled couch is dinted 
 
 'By fairest .vestal forms, 
 Whose cheeks have bloomed rose-tinted, 
 
 Suffused with glowing charms; 
 Which clear reveals how fleeting 
 
 Is e'er all mundane life, 
 'Gainst wliich rude storms are beating. 
 
 And pains and ills are rife. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 40 
 
 " The death-god sports with mortals, 
 
 Dread evils trail behind ! 
 Unbarred are his Inige portals. 
 
 That pass must human-kind; 
 But I'll estop all sorrow, 
 
 Sill's tidal-surge of woes; 
 Should Hell-iiends arm to-morrow, 
 
 I'd front those dark- browed foes!" 
 
50 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 SECTION lY. 
 
 The storin-cloii Is soou did gatlier, 
 
 Wide-palled the \velkin'3 face, 
 Portending wildest weather, 
 
 "While thunders rolled apace. 
 The fitful blasts careering 
 
 Bowed low the Sala's crest ; 
 The heavens wide-flamed appearing — 
 
 The storm-gods laughed with zest ; 
 Anon, the swift-forked lightning 
 
 A-danced athwart the sky ; 
 No forces round him tightening 
 
 Did cause a deep-drawn sigh. 
 
ilis Life and Teachings. 51 
 
 In Pansal sought lie shelter, 
 
 While raved the cloud-wrapt storm ; 
 On moss-fringed couch did welter 
 
 Through long niglit-tide till mom ; 
 Then darkled on his vision 
 
 Weird scenes of coming strife, 
 Which mocked in wild derision, 
 
 As Mara sought his life; 
 But Indra him protected, 
 
 Repelled the puissant foes; 
 His life had been perfected 
 
 Through penance and repose. 
 
 When forth he stately sallied. 
 
 Hell's missiles straight were hurled; 
 
 With virile thews he rallied 
 
 To save a woe-doomed world. (16) 
 
52 Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 He met King Bimbasara 
 
 Sn route for famed Benares, 
 Who joined him as wayfarer, 
 
 Disbiird'ning him of cares. 
 When reached was that great city, 
 
 The eye full-flowed with tears ; 
 The Fakirs roused his pity 
 
 When flung they taunts and jeers; 
 But there the Master founded 
 
 His grand truth-gloried cause ; 
 Through realms his fame resounded, 
 
 Profound were all his laws ! 
 
 He 'leged that e'en repentance 
 From sin could none absolve; 
 
 That God's unbending sentence 
 In gloom would man involve. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 53 
 
 From which no shrive could save liim, 
 
 ItTor stay the tide of woes ; 
 That passion's surge would lave him, 
 
 Till whelmed 'neath lethal throes. 
 Unless by long abstention 
 
 A well- wrought life secured, 
 And ceased fore'er contention 
 
 With those to crime inured. 
 
 He oft was heard bemoaning 
 
 That sin enthralled the mind; 
 No blood for crimes atoning 
 
 He shed, to save mankind; 
 But voiced in lucid manner, 
 
 If passions were subdued, ' 
 The soul would reach Nirvana, (IT) 
 
 Where woe-wails ne'er intrude. 
 
54: Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 " Lend aid betime to others, 
 
 Your gifts 'mong poor bestrew; 
 Be kind to all as brothers, 
 
 In Friendship's bonds prove true. 
 When e'er an o'ergloomed mortal 
 
 Doth plain 'neath blighting care. 
 Fling wide the strong-hinged portal, 
 
 Your home then let him share. 
 
 "Ne'er mind if e'en thy neighbor 
 
 Of gold should have galore, 
 And thou art doomed to labor. 
 
 Depressed b}^ trials sore. 
 While shroffs are wealth amassing. 
 
 They dwarf the godlike mind; 
 But strange it seems surpassing 
 
 That gold should mortals blind. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 65 
 
 " To fragile, luring fashions 
 
 Tlie prideful swain e'er yields ; 
 "While lashed by fiery passions, 
 
 He treads o'er death-sown fields. 
 Ah, me ! what dire diseases 
 
 Blight fairest forms of clay ! 
 The gem the eye most pleases, 
 
 Time dims its sheen for aye. 
 
 "If man ignores provision 
 
 In youth for toil-worn age. 
 He '11 meet with cold derision 
 
 From e'en the stoic sage; 
 And bale will sure betide him, 
 
 O'erwhelm with deep despair, 
 Whrle purse-proud churls will chide him, 
 
 Misfortunes him o'erbear." (18) 
 
50 Sdhja Buddha : 
 
 He taught each staid believer 
 
 The lord to be of self; 
 To yield to no deceiver, 
 
 Nor strive for sordid pelf; 
 That man should be reflective, 
 
 Scan peerless truth-gems bright. 
 Till loom on his perspective 
 
 Hesplendent worlds of light. 
 
 He banned the nse of drinking 
 
 Of Soma e*en a draught; 
 Alleged that clearly thinking 
 
 To Heaven would incense waft. (19) 
 He oft dispraised all fashions 
 
 Which maidens daft decoy ; 
 The wild and sordid passions, 
 
 Wbicli base-souled lechers cloy. 
 
His Lifa and Teachings. 67 
 
 Ko marshaled, blood-smeared legions 
 
 His cause sublime e'er spread ; 
 Through earth's subastral regions, 
 
 Ko gore hath marked its tread. (20) 
 For all religions other, 
 
 Aggressive clans have fought; 
 Set brother 'gainst his brother, 
 
 Till vesture-shrouds were wrought. 
 
 He phrased sublime Commandments, 
 Ensouled with germ-thoughts great. 
 
 To guide his staid attendants. 
 And kings enthroned in state. 
 
 Through aeons they'll wax stronger. 
 Spread wide from shore to shore, 
 
 Till suns shall rise no longer ! 
 
 Moons roll through heaven no 
 more ! (21) 
 
58 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 sectio:n" y. 
 
 The Chandelali and Sooder 
 
 Were doomed by feudal caste 
 To bondage, but Lord Buddlia 
 
 Their fetters rived at last; (22) 
 But still the birth-proud Brahman 
 
 To transmigration clings ; 
 With this the wary Shaman 
 
 Oft sways the sceptered kings. 
 No torrid clime tribes color, 
 
 Scarce swarts a light-skinned race; 
 If proof you'd have still fuller. 
 
 We'll now their beings trace 
 
His -Life and Teachings. 59 
 
 Where black and white together 
 
 Bask 'neath a tropic sun — 
 'Gainst clime, or stress of weather, 
 
 His color holds each one. (23) 
 How long shall caste 'mong races 
 
 With gyves frail mortals bind ? 
 The serfs have left their traces 
 
 In blood-marks deep behind. 
 
 From ooze upheaved by ocean, 
 
 Perchance earth-life first sprung; 
 The theory false, or notion, 
 
 Of which have ancients sung. 
 That man was erst created. 
 
 And formed from dust of ground, 
 In sooth is now berated 
 
 By scholars most profound. 
 
60 Sdkya Buddha: 
 
 The bard was deemed nigh frantic 
 Who boldly once assumed, 
 
 " Where rolls the broad Atlantic, 
 Wide continents have bloomed." (24) 
 
 Earth reels 'neath shocks and changes ! 
 Upheaves a fiery spray ! (25) 
 
 Through vast creation's changes, 
 
 *^ God holds o'erpowering sway ! 
 
 Ere formed was man or nation 
 
 Of which famed Moses sings, 
 Or rose the vast creation, 
 
 Time waved his eyas wings. 
 When 'merged from deeps of quiet, 
 
 All power did God assume. 
 Forth issued then his fiat, 
 
 Made earth primordial bloom. 
 
His Life a7id Teachings. 61 
 
 Man copes with deatli-blanclied Winter, 
 
 When rave the wildest storms ; 
 Then Nature's powers concenter, 
 
 Engend'ring wondrous forms, 
 Which forth new-born come teeming, 
 
 When flowering Spring smiles round ; 
 Though life had long seemed dreaming 
 
 'Neath brumal blight o'er ground. 
 Where blooms the Orient Summer, 
 
 How changed the scene is there! 
 While floats a drowsy murmur 
 
 Of insect-life through air. 
 
 When Sung-Yun and Fah-Hian (26) 
 
 A pilgrimage once made, 
 From China's walls to Siam, 
 
 Where w^aved the Bo-tree's shade. 
 
62 - Sclhya Buddha : 
 
 Saw forms of footsteps molded, 
 
 "Where rose a towering mound ; 
 "Which fact they soon unfolded 
 
 To cloistered monks profound. 
 'T is 'leged by ethnic sages, 
 
 This Prince of giant-mind, 
 On firm-set rocks of ages. 
 
 Left footprints bold behind ; (27) 
 'Tis clear those pilgrims noted, 
 
 Who left their sea-laved strand, 
 Their lives to Buddh' devoted. 
 
 Whose cause o'erspread the lando 
 
 The wide-famed Zoroaster, 
 Whom Parsees all adore, 
 
 Was once a deep-versed Master, 
 And taught as none before ; 
 
His Life and Teachings. 63 
 
 Who long preceded Moses (28) 
 
 In founding liis great cause — 
 The mart-bred Jew opposes 
 
 His soul-inspiring laws. 
 'Mong Hindoos now are living 
 
 This famed archaic sect, 
 Whose code is Mobed's giving, 
 
 Forth calling high respect. (29) 
 
 When kernelike, vile marauders 
 
 Hobbed India long ago, 
 O'errunnuig her vast borders, 
 
 While trailed most direful woe, 
 The Moslems them abetted. 
 
 Like lions foraged bold; 
 To Hindoos they're indebted 
 
 For filching once their gold. (30) 
 
64 Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 Those heathen have been plundered 
 
 Bj e'en the Christian world, 
 "Whose cannons flamed and thundered, 
 
 Projectiles wildly hurled. (31) 
 As famines fell beset them, 
 
 Death smites with giant hand ; 
 May England ne'er forget them ! 
 
 "Woe glooms that wealth-famed land ! 
 
His -Life and Teachings. 65 
 
 SECTION YI. 
 
 Great Heber hymned in kindness 
 
 The ode that's world-wide known- 
 How " heathen in their blindness 
 
 Bow down to wood and stone." 
 Ne'er mortal more mistaken, 
 
 For none on India's shore 
 His God has e'er forsalien, 
 
 To idols false adore. (32) 
 How misconceived the notion 
 
 That Hindoos in tlieir zeal, 
 Or e'en in grave devotion, 
 
 Shonld holy rev'rence feel 
 
66 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 For idols man-created, 
 
 ■■> 
 
 Which bear no conscious sway — 
 Their love for God be sated 
 
 With crass- wrought forms of clay. 
 Such emblems clear betoken 
 
 That Bralim' is always nigh.; 
 Whene'er his laws they Ve broken, 
 
 Upheaves the soul-felt sigh. 
 
 That land whence all religions, 
 
 All dialects first sprung; 
 From thence to gelid regions 
 
 A dazing sheen they've flung. (33) 
 Such lore through vast dominions 
 
 Sets free the trammeled mind. 
 And borne on lightning's pinions, 
 
 Illumes all human-kind.. 
 
His Life ccnd Teachings. 67 
 
 We sing of Greenland's mountains, 
 
 Of India's coral strand, 
 Of Afric's golden fountains — 
 
 The paean ne'er will stand 
 The rigid test of reason, 
 
 Whose whelming stress we ply; 
 It 's pealed through fanes a season, 
 
 In Lethe's shade 't will die ! 
 
 Earth teems with countless billions, 
 
 Of Christ who 've never heard ; 
 To punish one, or millions. 
 
 Indeed 'twould be absurd! 
 Great Heaven! the good All-father 
 
 Will ne'er the heathen damn; 
 Believe had I much rather 
 
 All priest-wrought creeds are sham t 
 
68 Sctkya Biiddha : 
 
 This pride-puffed, all-wise nation 
 
 Boasts wondrous march of mind; 
 • Withholds all veneration 
 
 For ao^es left behind. 
 I've e'er in sooth regretted 
 
 That moderns weakness show ; 
 To pagans they 're indebted 
 
 For all of God they know! (34) 
 
 The tribal nomads sordid 
 
 Of ancient Jewish clans 
 Assume they first recorded 
 
 Grod's soul-redemptive plans. 
 In torrid climes then dwellino: 
 
 Were tribes who 'd never heard 
 Of seers 'gainst God rebelling, 
 
 Though taught 'tis in his Word. (35) 
 
His Life and Teachings. 69 
 
 Xo youth with zeal impassioned 
 
 Truth's banner e'er unfurled, 
 l^ov roused by schemes well-fashioned 
 
 A slumb'rous church, or world. 
 Long years, wdth wealth of learning 
 
 It needs creed-forms to scan ; 
 The self-taught sage while yearning 
 
 For light will lead the van. 
 
 He knows not one religion, 
 
 The man who knows but one ; 
 In thought's vast, bournless region 
 
 The search he 's just begun. 
 Though false to many a scholar 
 
 This paradox may seem. 
 But not to languaged Miiller, 
 
 With like whose volumes teem. 
 
YO ... 8dkya Buddha : 
 
 He's rendered close translations, 
 
 From Sanskrit obsolete, 
 The works of Orient nations. 
 
 Both matchless and complete. 
 His pond'rous tomes have brought me 
 
 From Error's mazy way; 
 Soul-rousing truths they've taught me, 
 
 Which glow with keenest ray ! 
 
Mis Life and Teachings. Tl 
 
 SECTION YIL 
 
 As Krislina of Mathura (36) 
 
 Had once grand ethics tanglit. 
 The Lord Biiddh' felt the surer - 
 
 His Laws with trntlis were fraught; 
 That oil the J 'd spread forever, 
 
 Leave deep their trace behind; 
 All mental gyves would sever, 
 
 Which long had thralled mankind. 
 
 I've conned Milesian fables, 
 Homaunts of olden times ; 
 
 With ease which me enables 
 To sketch with flowing rhymes 
 
72 Sdkya Buddha: 
 
 The Lord who ne'er was thwarted 
 In deep-laid schemes or plans — 
 
 His laws have been distorted, 
 Heviled by fleering clans. 
 
 He flourished long anterior 
 
 To the godlike Nazarene ; 
 Is deemed by some superior 
 
 In lore, if not in mien ; 
 The truth of which I'll never 
 
 Assume, or e'en decide; 
 They'll both live on forever — 
 
 In liearts they '11 sure abide ! 
 
 The "sheep" Christ once elected 
 In mansions dwell on high; 
 
His Life and Teachings. 73 
 
 The "goats" he then rejected 
 In gloom heave many a sigh — 
 
 O'erwhehned with lethal an Ornish, 
 O'erawed by hostile foes ; 
 
 In exile doomed to languish 
 
 With no surcease of woes. (37) 
 
 When mordant priests of Brahma 
 
 Assailed the Lord at length, 
 On thesis styled Nirvana 
 
 He coped with mental strength; 
 Averred that self-denial 
 
 Would lift the burdened soul, 
 Whene'er o'erborne by trial, 
 
 And surges o'er it roll. 
 The Llama throned at Thibet (38) 
 
 Spreads wide his Master's cause, 
 
74 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 And staidlj doth exhibit 
 His Heaven-inspired laws : 
 
 Which code of matchless morals 
 The Ethnics highly prize ; 
 
 It's won him Fame's proud laurels, 
 A home in astral skies. 
 
 Where smiled the banks of 'I^oma, 
 
 He whiled the swift-winged hours ; 
 Mandaras breathed aroma 
 
 In garths y-prankt with flowers. 
 His mind in self-wrought splendor 
 
 'Bove Fakirs' towering rose; 
 With flexile cadence tender 
 
 Did laws profound disclose, 
 
 Wliich bore the "wheel," slow-turn- 
 ing (39) 
 
 Througli all that caste swayed realm ; 
 
iris Life and Teachings. 7S 
 
 With love intensely burning 
 He seized tlie swajful helm 
 
 To guide the ship while tossing (^0) 
 
 On life's wide-weltering surge. 
 
 Which loomed while she was cross- 
 ing 
 
 Death's gulf near Heaven's verge. 
 
 Along that winding river 
 
 Whose marge was fringed with 
 trees, 
 Wide-roamed the great Law-giver, 
 
 Whose tenets seemed to please 
 The cowled monks world-secluded 
 
 Througli stormful scenes of life — 
 Saved foes who'd been deluded 
 
 By wild uproar of strife. 
 
7G Sdhya Buddha : 
 
 Regaled witli odors floating. 
 He culled ambrosial flowers; 
 
 To themes sublime devotirio^ 
 
 His wondrous godlike powers. 
 
 Tlie wind-swung bowers while thrid- 
 ding, 
 
 Life danced with pleasaunce gay ; 
 
 His eye naught smote forbidding, 
 
 As flung Hope's star its ray. 
 
 What time light mists were falling, 
 On rolled Night's wheels apace, 
 
 And gloom waxed most appalling, 
 Then veiled was Nature's face ; 
 
 A voice he lieard low-speaking 
 
 (While opening heavens dis- 
 pread) (41) 
 
Ills Life and Teachings. 77 
 
 Of truths he'd long been seeking 
 From earth's departed dead, 
 
 Who tidings bore, revealing 
 
 Things mortals ne'er had learned — 
 
 On volant vans swift- wheeling. 
 To radiant realms returned. 
 
 In life's wide, storm-vexed ocean. 
 
 Where death-foamed billows rise, 
 And sport in wild commotion, 
 
 A flowering island lies. 
 Where spirit-guides most timely 
 
 Uplift the care-bowed man; 
 Wldle heaven o'ertowers sublimely. 
 
 Yon star-sown vault he '11 scan. 
 Oft many a sage arises 
 
 By aid from spirit- world ; 
 
78 SdJcya Buddha : 
 
 Oft many a dolt despises 
 Till down to ruin hurled. 
 
 Ill-starred is that lorn being 
 
 Who'll stark close eyes and ears 
 
 His earth-flown friends from seeing. 
 And fling his railing sneers. 
 
 In realms that know no Summer, 
 
 I^or fields nor blossoms fair; 
 Engloomed like drear Gehenna, (42) 
 
 He '11 ffions languish there, 
 With fiends who truth once slighted. 
 
 Till Hope's star glowed in vain ; 
 Alas ! woe-plunged, benighted ! 
 
 In thrall he '11 e'er remain ! (43) 
 
His Ijifo dnd Taachingfi. 79 
 
 SECTION YIII. 
 
 In towering fanes of Krisl^na, (44) 
 That kissed the gorgeous clouds, 
 
 To swell the praise of Yishnu, 
 Once gathered saintly crowds. 
 
 Tlie Lord Buddh' him succeeded, 
 And sagely taught mankind ; 
 
 The world profoundly needed 
 
 His wealth of thought-throned mind. 
 
 Antique was his religion 
 Ere Beth'lem's star arose ; 
 
 Though zoned in tliat far region, 
 It still sublimely grows. (45) 
 
80 Sdhja Buddha : 
 
 Yast legions now adore him 
 With love that's most sublime; 
 
 In fanes they bow before him, 
 "Where blooms that floral clime. 
 
 A stance he held befitting, 
 
 Grand truths to teach mankind. 
 While brilliant thoughts were flitting 
 
 As lightning tln*ough the mind. 
 With Mara's cohorts figliting, 
 
 Won baj^s he t'^vo-score years ; 
 His life revealed through Avriting 
 
 To all sublime appears. 
 
 The world hath crowned Kedeem- 
 
 ers (46) H 
 
 Ere death did Ohrist betide ; 
 
iris Life and Teachings. 81 
 
 Unlike all puerile dreamers, 
 They've laws extended wide. 
 
 The Lord Buddh' was the true one, 
 The Ariel grand of jore ! 
 
 "With mind-wealth 'twill endue one 
 His tomes to scan for lore. 
 
 I '11 cling to . this All-savior, 
 
 While borne on life's* wide sea ! 
 And hope by staid behavior 
 
 From tlirall he'll set me free — 
 Bestow his promised guerdon 
 
 In Heaven's eternal day ; 
 I fain would bear a burden 
 
 His cause to spread for aye. 
 From life's lone vale he 's brought me 
 
 To blaze liis fame witli song ; 
 
82 Sakya Buddha : 
 
 Profound are laws lie's taught me, 
 In faith I 'm waxing strong ! (47) 
 
 When forth he strolled one ev'ning, 
 
 A youth o'ergloomed he met, (48) 
 
 Distraught with soul -pierced griev- 
 ing 
 
 For one she 'd ne'er forget. 
 
 "Earth's dead," he 'leged, "are 
 many, 
 
 The living are but few ; 
 Exempt from death aren't any, 
 
 Each bids dear frie^nds adieu. 
 In yon star-gloried Heaven 
 
 The loved and lost will meet; 
 Your anguished heart, though riven, 
 
 The child again you'll greet." 
 
His Life a7id TeacJmigs. 83 
 
 'MoDg graves embloomed I've wandered, 
 
 From life's ga-y scenes have fled ; 
 In sad-tuned mood deep-pondered 
 
 Long o'er the soul-flown dead. 
 When once most sorely worried, 
 
 At Night's deep noon, alone. 
 In hands with worn face buried, 
 
 What time the queen-moon shone, 
 I thought of his vast learning — 
 
 How world-wide famed was he. 
 And felt intensive yearning 
 
 His light-robed form to see. 
 In vine-wreathed bower while kneeling, 
 
 With mien surpassing fair. 
 
 Mine eye he passed swift-wheeling, 
 
 Then heavenward soared througli 
 air. (49) 
 
84 Sdkya Buddha : 
 
 In spire-crowned fanes where kneeling 
 
 The Hindoos oft were seen, 
 He there was heard reveah'ns: 
 
 The law with stately mien. 
 With voice soft-toned as Brahma's, 
 
 Of which have minstrels song ; 
 His most engaging manners 
 
 O'er all enchantment fluno-. 
 
 To realms tliis Sage ascended, (50) 
 
 "Where gloom ne'er drowns the day ; 
 By Indra's host attended, 
 
 Who winged their easy way. 
 While lono^ he there was living: 
 
 'Mid bloom of bowerj^ spheres, 
 His law he then was o-ivins: 
 
 To all the white-robed Seers. 
 
His Life and Teachings. 85 
 
 When 'gain to earth returning, 
 
 His last great work renewed ; 
 For souls felt deepest yearning, 
 
 With godlike gifts endued. 
 With eye serenely rolling, 
 
 He scanned the ways of men; 
 Bore tidings -most consoling 
 
 To lift one now and then 
 From deeps of drear desponding. 
 
 While laslied by passion's goad. 
 From virtue's path absconding. 
 
 Till lost on Deatli's wide road. 
 
 His fame now reaches Heaven ! 
 
 Hell's baleful bower beneath! 
 Soul-lifting truths he's given, 
 
 Quaint maxims did bequeath. 
 
 ^ 
 
% 
 
 86 Sakya Buddha: 
 
 Effete creed-forms are dying, 
 O'errolls them Lethe's wave; 
 
 For life are theorists sighing 
 
 Which blooms beyond the grave. 
 
 To limn this well-starred Ariel 
 
 Now fails my mortal pen; 
 To soar to worlds sidereal, 
 
 Beyond the scope of ken, 
 My Muse hath callow pinions. 
 
 And dares no lofty flight; 
 But gropes in earth's dominions, 
 
 'Neath Fortune's bloom or blio;ht. 
 
 Through flown decades he'd noted 
 Wild scenes of horrent strife; 
 
Mis Life and Teachings. 87 
 
 His storm-beat bark then floated 
 Down foam-flecked tides of life, 
 
 Which fretted shores were lashing 
 "With mantling drifts of spray; 
 
 In fiendish glee were dashing 
 With bold, gigantic sway. (51) 
 
 In rose-wreathed bowers of Malla, 
 
 'Mid weird-lit vistas rare. 
 While prone 'neath towering Sala, 
 
 He voiced a deep-toned prayer. 
 The death-god him was nearing, 
 
 The film-touched eye to close ; 
 When shorn of sight and hearing, 
 
 He swooned in life's last throes. 
 Soul-tranced this clay-robed mortal 
 
 On couch supine did lie, 
 
88 Sdkya Buddha. 
 
 Till wide was flung Death's portal, 
 Then soared to worlds most high. 
 
 A woe-bowed host assembled, 
 
 Whose wails through air forth pealed ; 
 
 Earth widly rocked and trembled, 
 Mount Meru tottering reeled ! (52) 
 
ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 The Grand Being's miraculous conception 
 and birth were accompanied by convulsions in 
 Nature, and prodigies in the skies. 
 
 When the auspicious babe was born of 
 Queen Maya, " a minister in state named Ba- 
 sita, in company with distinguished Brahmans, 
 visited the garden of Lumbini. While there 
 convened, Basita addressed the ministers and 
 said : ' Do you perceive how tlie great earth 
 is rocked like a ship borne over the waves? 
 See how the sun and moon are darkened of 
 their light ; just as the stars of night in their 
 appearance ! See how all the trees are blos- 
 soming, as if the season had come — listen ! 
 there is a roll of thunder ! and though there 
 
90 Buddha^s Life and Teachings. 
 
 be no clouds, yet the soft raiii is falling ; so 
 beautifully fertilizing in its qualities ! and the 
 air is moved by a gentle and cool breeze com- 
 ing from the eight quarters — and hark to the 
 sound of that music of Brahma, so sweetly 
 melodious in the air ! and all the Devas chant- 
 ing their hymns and praises ! while flowers 
 and sweet unguents rain down through the 
 void ! ' 
 
 " Such were some of the prodigies which 
 appeared when the King, the Descendant* of 
 Mighty Conquerors ; the Holy Grand Man, the 
 Highest Crown ; the Perfection of All Power ; 
 the Infinitely Meritorious Lord, excelling all — 
 descended from the Tushita heavens, and was 
 conceived in the world of men." — BeaVs and 
 Alabaster' s Life of Buddha^ conjoined. 
 
 (2-) 
 " Iiidra is the king of angels. His palace 
 
 is in the second tier of heavens, reckoning from 
 
Annotations. 91 
 
 the earth, called Dawadungsa. There the 
 thoiisand-eyed Lord, as he is called, is attended 
 by myriads of angels. His charger is the three- 
 headed elephant Erawan, and his great weapon 
 the disk Cliakra, with which he drives from 
 heaven the fallen angels Asura. Among other 
 treasures, he has for a trumpet a huge chank- 
 sliell, of the kind still held precious by East- 
 ern kings. 
 
 "Ko Hindoo deity, unless it be the great 
 Brahma himself, is so frequently introduced in 
 the Siamese legends as is Indra, to whose in- 
 spiration they attribute one of their oldest 
 books on the principles of the law." — Ala- 
 baster. 
 
 (3.) 
 
 The Prince on entering school confounded 
 his teacher Yisvamitra, the same as Jesus did 
 Zaccheus, the schoolmaster at Jerusalem. There 
 is a striking similarity in the account of Jesus 
 given in the Apochryphal New Testament and 
 
92 Buddha's Life and Teachings. 
 
 the one given by the biographers of Buddha.* 
 It is said that while Yisvamitra stood 
 abashed in the presence of the marvelous child, 
 there came from the Tusliita heavens a cer- 
 tain Deva, accompanied by comitless other 
 Devas, and chanted this song : 
 
 "Whatever arts there are in the world, 
 Whatever Sutras and Shasters, 
 This child is thorough acquainted with all, 
 And is able to teach them to others." 
 
 • ••••••• 
 
 The Deva having finished this hymn, show- 
 ered down on the Prince every sort of flower, 
 and returned to liis abode. Tlie historic record 
 of the early career of the Prince is so diffuse 
 that lack of space will only allow a summa- 
 rized account to be cited. I will add, en 
 
 * On this subject Bishop Bigandet says: *'In read- 
 ing the particulars of the life of the last Buddha, 
 Gautama, it is impossible not to feel reminded of 
 many circumstances relating to our Savior's life, such 
 as it has been sketched out by the Evangelists." 
 
Annotations. 93 
 
 passant^ that the youth, with his precocious 
 and prehensile mind, confounded his teachers 
 in all sciences and competitive exercises. 
 
 ■ (4-) 
 History informs us that when the Prince 
 
 first \dsited the pleasure-garden of Lumbini, 
 
 his stately majesty and exceeding beauty evoked 
 
 from the spectators the wildest enthusiasm. 
 
 (5.) 
 
 When the horoscope was cast by the Brah- 
 
 manical soothsayers on the destiny of the 
 Prince, it was alleged that if he should ever 
 learn that man was doomed to old age, sick- 
 ness, disease, and deatli, he would withdraw 
 from the palace, and become a religious ascetic. 
 Accordingly, King Suddhodana used every pre- 
 caution to prevent his ever coming in contact 
 with such dread evils; but when the Prince 
 was permitted to visit the pleasure-gardens, on 
 hia way he saw them all in thi ir direst forms. 
 
94 BuddhoCs Life and Teachings. 
 
 After returning to the palace, a voice came 
 from Space exhorting him to flee from that 
 high-viced city to some sylvan retreat. 
 
 " Before leaving the palace, a bevy of lovely 
 and fascinating girls surrounded him, striving, 
 by dancing, music and songs, to attract his 
 thoughts to pleasure ; but all their enticements 
 were vain. He now no longer found satisfac- 
 tion in such things, and, heeding them not, 
 he soon fell asleep. Then Indra, exerting his 
 miraculous powers, caused these ladies to sleep 
 in a most unseemly manner, quite different to 
 that usual with ladies of high birth and good 
 education. Some of them snored loudly ; oth- 
 ers lay with their mouths wide open; others 
 gnashed their teeth ; others rolled about in un- 
 graceful attitudes. When the Grand Being 
 awoke, and looked around, his heart sank 
 within him. He conceived a disgust for worldly 
 life, and regarded his royal palace full of lovely 
 women as a cemetery full of horrid corpses. 
 
Annotations. 95 
 
 Tlie more lie looked, the more sorrowful lie 
 became — the more his heart quaked for the 
 miseries of circling existence." 
 
 Moved bj such sights, he determined to 
 lead a religious life without delay. At mid- 
 night's deepening gloom, he mounted his royal 
 steed Kantaka, and was borne from the sinful 
 haunts of that grand emporium, whose massive 
 gates silently self-opened. 
 
 At dawn's first faint flush, he reached the 
 smiling banks of the l!Tairanjana river, whose 
 turbulent waters rolled near ihQ fringe of a 
 stately forest, where legions of angels greeted 
 him with songs of ravishing sweetness. 
 
 He then made the following resolution: 
 "Bather would I have my body crushed by a 
 rock, rather would I drink the deadliest poi- 
 son, or starve myself to death, than not to 
 fulfil my vow to save all flesh from tlie fear- 
 ful ocean of bii'th and death." 
 
9G BiiddhcCs Life and Teachings, 
 
 (6.) 
 " Mara is the god of love, and of death. 
 Though tills king plays the part of our Satan 
 the tempter, he and his hosts were formerly 
 great almsgivers, which led to their being in 
 the highest Deva heavens, there to live nine 
 thousand millions of years, suri-ounded by all 
 the luxuries of sensuality. From this heaven 
 the filthy one, as the Siamese describe him, 
 descends to the earth to tempt and excite to 
 evil." — A labaster. 
 
 (7.) 
 
 As a marked episode in the career of 
 Buddha transpired in connection with his part- 
 ing with Ins Princess-consort, I wdll state that 
 Yasodhara had borne him a son named Ra- 
 hul a. 
 
 Some writers have censured the Prince for 
 leaving home and kindred to become a reli- 
 gious teacher; but let it be remembered that 
 his family was dowered with the affluence of 
 
Annotations. 9Y 
 
 the kingdom. To accomplisli his great work 
 of founding his sublime religion, he was com- 
 pelled to withdraw from the sinful surround- 
 ings of the palace, and retire to the wilds of 
 a forest. 
 
 (8.) 
 In BeaPs Life of Buddha appears the fol- 
 lowing sketch of his once making an serial 
 flight over the sacred Ganges : " He said to 
 the boatman, ' Braj, take me over tlie river.' 
 To whom the boatman replied, ' If jou can 
 pay me the fare, I will willingly take you over 
 the river.' Buddha said, ' I have no money to 
 pay you.' To whom the boatman replied, 
 'This is the only mear.s I have of a liveli- 
 hood for my wife and children.' At this mo- 
 ment a flock of wild-geese flew over the 
 Ganges. Then said the world-honored one, 
 ' How did those geese cross the Ganges ? ' 
 The boatman replied, ' By their inlierent power 
 of flying.' ' So I, by my inherent, spiritual 
 
98 Buddha s Life and Teachings. 
 
 power, will cross tlie Ganges, though the south 
 bank tower higher than Mount Meru.' Then, 
 by inherent, spiritual power, he passed over 
 the Ganges. Continuing his flight to Benares, 
 he alighted among the Rishis, founded his reli- 
 gion, and thousands of the citizens espoused 
 
 his cause." 
 
 If the reader regards this miracle as im- 
 probable, or impossible, he should remember 
 that Jesus is represented as having once Avalked 
 upon the storm - roughed sea of Genesareth. 
 (Matt, xiv, 24-, ct seq.) 
 
 (9.) 
 A Pansal is a " leafy hut, or sheltered 
 abode." 
 
 (10.) 
 In the forest TTrnwela, near the banks of 
 the JSTairanjana river, the Prince Siddartha 
 !ived a hermit-like life, doing penance six 
 years amid bowery' shades, w^ithdrawn froui 
 society and endeared friends. 
 
Annotations. 99 
 
 (11.) 
 
 " Whilst the world-honored one has arrived 
 at perfect wisdom, he has acquired that un- 
 equaled Law ; he has become perfectly enlight- 
 ened, and yet he has suddenly resolved on 
 Aranya as a place of abode, and not to declare 
 his Law for the good of men ! Oh, let us ex- 
 hort him not to act thus ! be not thus, O 
 world-honored one ! but, for the sake of men 
 sunk in sin, declare thy Law ! " 
 
 (12.) 
 The struggle of a hard-moiling man with 
 overbearing Poverty, to reach " Fame's proud 
 Temple," is jBuely pictured in the following 
 Spencerian stanza: 
 
 '*Ah! who can tell liow hard it is to climb 
 The steep where Fame's proud Temple shines afar ; 
 Ah ! who can tell how many a soul sublime 
 Has felt the influence of malignant star, 
 And waged with Fortune an eternal war ; 
 
100 Buddha^ 8 Life and Teachings, 
 
 Checked by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown, 
 And Poverty's unconquerable bar ; 
 In life's lone vale remote has pined alone. 
 Then dropt into the grave, unpiticd and unknovrn ! " 
 
 —JDr. Beaitie. 
 
 (13.) 
 
 Tlie tlieory, posited by Goetlie and Car-, 
 lyle, that no great work was ever effected 
 without renunciation and self-elevation, is clearly- 
 revealed in the teacliings of Lord Buddha. 
 Nothing so demoralizes mankind as luxmy 
 and indolence : 
 
 "For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows. 
 Renown is not the child of indolent Repose." 
 
 — Thomson. 
 
 (U.) 
 An atheistic lady of considerable culture 
 was once bereft of an only daughter, who 
 bloomed in all tlie radiance of youth, whose 
 voice was as musical as the notes of a nightin- 
 gale. Once, at midnight's solemn repose, she 
 was awakened l)y the plaintive accents of her 
 
Annotations. 101 
 
 child, who had returned to her desoh\tc abode 
 to convince her skeptical mother of the con- 
 tinued existence of earth-flown mortals. After 
 stemming the sullen waters of cheerless atheism 
 (which offers no hope, but is an eternal nega- 
 tion), she reached the child at the door, where, 
 in the cold, she had lono; waited her comino*. 
 Then the true-hearted mother (in the vision) 
 bore the child in her loving arms to a cheerful, 
 well-lighted room, and was overpoweringly con- 
 vinced of her materialized ipseitj, or selfhood : 
 "In spirit-form complete, 
 
 Slie comes to meet her ; 
 She stays her hurrying feet, 
 
 Her whispers greet her ; 
 Touch of her shadowy palms 
 
 Stills all life's fever ; 
 Hinting what restful calms 
 Are hers forever." 
 
 (15.) 
 The most canorous and clear-toned song- 
 ster in India is the beautiful Kalibinka. It is 
 
102 Buddha's Life and Teachings. 
 
 regarded by the natives with as much favor 
 as the nightingale is in Europe, or the mavis 
 or song-thrush in America. 
 
 (16.) 
 This terrific thunder-storm took place in 
 the forest Uruwela. Mara and his host had 
 long striven to circumvent our Lord in his 
 struggles to obtain final deliverance from the 
 warring passions, and are represented as hav- 
 ing caused this tempestuous storm ; but they 
 were overpowered and discomfited by Indi'a's 
 mighty forces. 
 
 (17.) 
 I give the following views of some of the 
 most eminent Sanskrit scholars touching this 
 mooted, oft - perverted subject : '^ Numerous 
 writers on Buddhism, iu their lectures and 
 articles, tell us that Il^irvana means anni- 
 hilation, and the non-existence of the soul. 
 This statement is more easily made than proved. 
 
^jxniiotations. 103 
 
 It would be better, at best, if it was not so 
 frequently repeated in the face of contrary 
 statements made by those well able to judge 
 respecting the matter." — Beat. 
 
 " Whatever IN'irvana may be, the Siamese 
 Buddhists assume it to be more desirable than 
 any thing they can define as existence, and the 
 question they raise is not ' How shall it be de- 
 fined ? but how can it be obtained ? ' " — A la- 
 haster. 
 
 No writer has made this subject so clear 
 to me as the erudite Max Miiller : " I go even 
 farther, and maintain' that, if we look in the 
 Dhainma2)(ida^ at every passage where Nir- 
 vana is mentioned, there is not one word which 
 would require that its meaning should be an- 
 nihilation ; while most, if not all, would be- 
 come perfectly unintelligible if we assigned to 
 the word Nirvana the meaning which it has 
 in the metaphysical position of the canon. 
 AVhat does Buddha mean when he calls reflec- 
 
104 IBuddha's lAfe and Teachings. 
 
 tion the path to immortality, thoughtlessness 
 the path of death. Biiddhagosha does not hesi- 
 tate to explain immortality by Nirvana ; and 
 that the same idea was connected with it in 
 the mind of Buddha is clearly proved by a 
 passage immediately following (v, 237) : ' The 
 wise people, meditative, steady, always pos- 
 sessed of strong powers, attain to ISTirvana, the 
 highest happiness.' 
 
 " If the goal at which the followers of Bud- 
 dha have to aim had been in the mind of 
 Buddlia perfect annihilation, * amata,' i. e., im- 
 mortalit}^, would have been the very last word 
 he could have chosen as its name." 
 
 (18.) 
 
 " Men who have not observed proper dis- 
 cipline, and have not gained wealth in their 
 youth, tliey perish like old herons in a lake 
 without fish. 
 
 "Men who have not observed j)roper dis- 
 
Annotations. 105 
 
 cipliue, and have not gained wealth in their 
 youth, they lie like broken bones, sighing after 
 the past." — BuddhcCs Dhammajpada. 
 
 With the old Cliinese philosopher, Lau- 
 Tsze, economy was one of the three things he 
 most highly prized. He enounces the follow- 
 ing : " Three precious things I prize, and hold 
 fast — Humility, Compassion, and Economy^ 
 
 (19.) 
 
 The most logical points ever made against 
 the vice of intemperance are the following, by 
 the Lord Buddha, in his Sutras, or sermons, 
 translated by Alabaster, from the works of the 
 late Hajah of Siam : 
 
 " As to the sin of drinking intoxicating 
 things, consider ! It is the cause of the heart 
 becoming excited and overcome. By nature 
 there is already an intoxication in man caused 
 by desire, anger, and folly; he is ah-eady in- 
 clined to excess, and is not thoughtful of the 
 
106 Buddha's Life arid Teachings, ^ 
 
 impermanence, misery, and vanity of all things. 
 If we stimulate this natural intoxication by 
 drinking, it will become more daring; and if 
 the natural inclination is to anger, anger will 
 become excessive, and acts of violence and mur- 
 der will result. Similarly with the other in- 
 clinations : The drunken man neither thinks 
 of future retribution, nor present punishment. 
 Again, spirituous liquors cause disease, liver 
 disease, and short life ; and the use of them, 
 when it has become a fixed habit, cannot be 
 dispensed with without discomfort, so that men 
 spend all their money unprofitably in purchas- 
 ing them, and, when the money is spent, be- 
 come thieves and dacoits. The evil is both 
 future and immediate." 
 
 (20.) 
 
 Eev. W. H. H. Murray, the distinguished 
 Conerresational minister, in a lecture delivered 
 in Boston, not long ago, said: 
 
 " Christian civilization might profit from 
 
Annotaiwtis. 107 
 
 Buddhism : and New Eiio-land iiiiixht 2:0 to 
 school ill Cliina and India. The nnderlying 
 idea of Buddhism is a belief in the infinite 
 capacity of the human intellect ; a belief in the 
 availing of true merit, and in the development 
 of all the human faculties. It is not a heav}^, 
 sensual religion; but one purely rational, ap- 
 pealing to conscientiousness and intellect for 
 support. 
 
 " While Old England and Kew England 
 have used the rack, the cell, the dungeon, the 
 inquisition, and thousands of implements of tor- 
 ture, there have been twenty-three hundred 
 years of Buddhism with not a drop of blood 
 in its onward march ; not a groan along its 
 pathway. It has never persecuted ; never de- 
 ceived the people ; never practiced pious fraud ; 
 never appealed to prejudice; never, used the 
 sword. If Buddhists are heathen, are they not 
 civilized heathen?" 
 
 To the above pointed remarks of Mr. Mur- 
 
108 Buddha's .Life and Teachings. 
 
 raj I subjoin the following from a speecli 
 delivered a few years since by the late Hon. 
 Anson Bnrlingame : 
 
 " China is a land of scholars ana schools ; 
 a land of books, from the smallest pamphlet 
 up to voluminous encj'clopedias. It is a land 
 where privileges are common. It is a land 
 without caste, for they destroyed their feudal 
 system over two thousand j^ears ago ; and they 
 built their grand structure of civilization on the 
 great idea that the people are the source of 
 power. This idea was uttered by Mencius be- 
 tween two and three thousand j^ears since, and 
 it was old w^hen he uttered it. They make 
 scholarship a test of merit." 
 
 (21.) 
 
 The following Five Commandments are the 
 most concise and pointed of the Ten jri^en by 
 the Great Teacher : 
 
 1. "Not to destroy life. 
 
Annotations. 109 
 
 2. "Kot to obtain another's property by 
 unjust means. 
 
 3. "]^ot to utter falseliood. 
 
 4. "E"ot to indulge the passions, so as to 
 invade the legal, or natural, rights of othej- 
 men. 
 
 5. " Not to partake of anything intoxi- 
 cating." — Alabaster, 
 
 (22.) 
 
 In the Brahmanical system of Caste, tlie 
 Chandelah, in consequence of mixed marriage, 
 is doomed to be a wretched outcast. The Soo- 
 der, Yvdio is born from the foot of Brahma, is 
 fated to a state of perpetual bondage to the 
 high-caste, lordly Brahman. 
 
 This soul-enslaving system of servitude the 
 Lord Buddha most streiiuouisly opposed. A 
 similar system did Jesus encounter among the 
 stilted, crest-raised Pharisees. 
 
 The wretched fate of the unfortunate Chan- 
 delah, or Pariah, is fLuely povtxa-yed in the- 
 
110 BuddJicCs Life, and Teachings. 
 
 following lines from the scholarly poet Goethe. 
 
 "We are not of noble kind, 
 
 For with woe our lot is rife ; 
 And what others deadly find 
 
 Is our only source of life. 
 ^ Let this be enough for men, 
 
 Let them if they will desj)ise us ; 
 
 But thou, Brahma, thou shouldst prize us, 
 All are equal in thy ken." 
 
 (23.) 
 
 In the American Antiquities we find the 
 following touching the unchangeable eflfects of 
 climate on the complexions of dififerent races : 
 
 " In torrid climes, both the white and black, 
 with all the intermediate shades between the 
 two extremes, are found, as also the black 
 , \\'ith curled hair in the northern regions, and 
 in many countries of the Old World. The 
 dark - complexioned varieties of mankind are 
 found near the poles; as people of tlie same 
 complexion are found over the whole continent 
 pf America, under all its various climates." 
 
Annotations. Ill 
 
 (24.) 
 Beattie's Minstrel. 
 
 (25.) 
 Near Mount Hecla, in Iceland, there is a 
 marvelous column of boiling water thrown up- 
 ward, above ninety feet, by the force of a sub- 
 terranean fire. 
 
 (26.) 
 Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, 
 Buddhist Pilgrims, from China, to India (400- 
 518 A.D.), hy S. Beal. 
 
 (27.) 
 
 "Fah-Hian mentions two footprints in Cey- 
 lon. ' Buddah, by his spiritual power, planted 
 one foot to the north of the royal city, and 
 one on the top of a mountain ; the distance 
 between the two being fifteen yoganas (say a 
 hundred miles'). 
 
 " You have all heard of the two footprints 
 sculptured on the summit of Mount Olivet, 
 and worshiped by pilgrims as the marks left 
 
112 JBuddha's Life and Teachings. 
 
 when Jesus sprang into the sky at his ascen- 
 sion." 
 
 (28.) 
 Touching tJie date when the Iranian Pro- 
 phet flourished, I quote from the writings of 
 the well-known, scholarly author, Hudson Tnt- 
 
 tle: 
 
 " The eminent Oriental scholar, M. Hang, 
 places Zoroaster 4,800 B.C., thus antedating 
 Moses. Bat far better are the ancient Greek 
 writers. They agree in placing the era of Zo- 
 roaster more than 6,000 years B.C. 
 
 "Hermippus, who made the books and re- 
 ligion of th(3 Magi the study of his lifetime, 
 states, according to Pliny, on the authority of 
 Agonakes, his teacher, tliat Zoroaster lived 
 about 5,000 years before the Trojan war, 6,180 
 B.C." o . . 
 
 The erudite A. H. Bleeck, in his Prolego- 
 mena to his English translation of the Zend- 
 Avesta^ from Prof. Spiegle's German, says: 
 
Annotations. 113 
 
 "When we attempt to go farther, and fix the 
 date of the Iranian Prophet, we are met by 
 difficulties at present insuperable, and we can 
 neither deny nor confirm the statement of Aris- 
 totle, who places Zoroaster 6,000 years before 
 his own time, or, rather, that of Plato, about 
 360 B.C." 
 
 (29.) 
 
 A Mobed is the high-priest of the Parsees, 
 the followers of Zoroaster. 
 
 " A small remnant of them still cling to 
 the Persian soil; but the mass passed across 
 the Persian Gulf into Hindostan, where they 
 received welcome and protection from the Ea- 
 jah of Guzarat. 
 
 "The Parsees of Bombay are the richest, 
 and most prosperous, and most active, class of 
 merchants in India, the English at Calcutta 
 and Madras excepted. It is more due to them 
 than to any others that Bombay has become 
 that great center and emporium of the trade 
 
114 BuddhcCs Life and Teachings. 
 
 of Western India. Shrewd and industrious 
 
 they are far from being either over-reaching 
 or parsimonious. 
 
 "The merchants of European and Ameri- 
 can cities may well emulate the commercial 
 honesty of this race. They are also lavish on 
 occasion with their wealth. . . . Amons: 
 themselves they are rather a brotherhood than 
 a class or race. There is a genuine Freema- 
 sonry among the Parsees, each being always 
 ready to help his fellow, and. thus knit to- 
 gether, they possess that wide and strong influ- 
 ence which is the result of unity. It - is no 
 empty boast of theirs that throughout their 
 community there is not a single prostitute. 
 . . . It is rarely a Parsee is ever brouglit 
 into court, either on a criminal or civic charge. 
 Prompt in the payment of their debts, almost 
 invariably true to their engagements, they are 
 also quiet, orderly, and law-abiding." — Ajyple- 
 tons' Journal. 
 
Annotations. 115 
 
 (30.) 
 
 " Malimoiid, the Sultan of Gliuzni, on hear- 
 ing the astonishing accounts of the relics of 
 the pagoda of Sumnaut, whose roof was cov- 
 ered with plates of gold, and encircled with 
 precious stones, besieged the place, whose in- 
 habitants fell an easj j)rey before the victorious 
 Moslems. ... In the fury of liis Moham- 
 medan zeal against supposed idols, he smote 
 off the nose of the image. Though large sums 
 were offered for his desist an ce, he only pro- 
 ceeded with his soldiers to destroy it. He 
 found an infinite variety of diamonds, rabies, 
 and pearls,, of a water so pure and a magni- 
 tude so uncommon that the soldiers were over- 
 whelmed with astonishment. The accumulated 
 riches of this affluent region were so immense 
 that "they exceeded the power of imagination 
 to grasp them. 
 
 " Of this Moslem marauder, w^e read that 
 when he approached the scenes of dissolution. 
 
116 JBxiddha^s Life and Teachings. 
 
 he ordered Ins sacks of gold and jewels to 
 be bronglit before him, that he miglit gaze 
 for the last time upon his earthly treasm-es, 
 then burst into tears, probably from the dis- 
 mal reflection of the thousands of lives he had 
 sacrificed to obtain them ; and perhaps from 
 the thought that they would soon pass into 
 other hands, and lie to the doom of eternity." 
 — ^Y. Howitt. 
 
 (31.) 
 
 The great injustice and cruelty of England 
 toward those so-called heathen is most vividly 
 depicted by Goldwin Smith — an Englishman 
 of scholarly ability, now a resident of Canada 
 — in a scathing criticism of the British rule in 
 India, called out by the war with the Ameer 
 of Cabul. We make the following extracts 
 from Prof. Smith's criticism, as we find it quo- 
 ted by Mr. G. B. Stebbins in the Religio- 
 Philosophieal Journal : 
 
 , . . "In every country but one, the 
 
Annotations. 11 T 
 
 liearts of all who love justice and hate iniquity 
 will be on the side of the Ameer ; and, if 
 ho is beaten, he will be trodden down into 
 the general mass of spiritless and hopeless servi- 
 tude of the two hundred millions who owe 
 their allegiance to the Empress of India — 
 that is, to Queen Yictoria." 
 
 Of the late famine in Hindostan he saj^s: 
 " Whether it was four millions or only a mil- 
 lion and a quarter of these wretches who died 
 in the late famine, nobody can exactly tell. 
 
 " People wonder that Christianit}^ does ^lot 
 make more headway in Hindostan. The con- 
 verts are few. Yet the religion of Christ pros- 
 pers as much as it could be reasonably expected 
 to prosper in partnership with the pride of 
 conquest, the insolence of race, fiscal extor- 
 tion and massacre. The preacliers themselves 
 are imperial. Lord Elgin found reverend gen- 
 tlemen out-Heroding even lay terrorists in the 
 ferocity of their sentiments at the time of the 
 
118 Buddha* s Life and Teachings. 
 
 mutiny ; and he says that, if he were to pur- 
 sue a humane policy in China, the loudest 
 outcries against him would be raised by the 
 missionaries and the women." . 
 
 Miss Florence Nightingale has also writ- 
 ten a caustic article on the cruelty of her 
 mother - countrymen toward famine - stricken 
 India. 
 
 (32.) 
 Max Miiller reports the following extract 
 from a speech of a Hindoo at Benares, de- 
 livered before an audience of natives and Eng- 
 lish, which will show that Buddhists are not 
 
 idolaters : 
 
 " If by idolatry," says this Hindoo scholar, 
 
 "is meant a system of worship which coniines 
 
 our ideas of the Deity to a mere image of 
 
 clay or stone, which prevents our hearts from 
 
 being expanded and elevated witli lofty notions 
 
 of the attributes of God — if this is what is 
 
 meant by idolatry, "we disclaim and abhor 
 
A7i?wtatio?is. 119 
 
 idolatry, and deplore the ignorance or nnchari- 
 tableness of those who charge us with this 
 groveling system of worship. We really lament 
 the ignorance or uncharitableness of those who 
 confound our representative worship with the 
 Phoenician, Grecian, or Roman idolatry, as 
 represented by European writers, and then 
 charge us with polytheism, in the teeth of 
 the thousands of texts in the Puranas, declar- 
 ing in clear and unmistakable terms that there 
 is but one God, who manifests himself as Brah- 
 ma, Yishnu, and Siva, in his functions of crea- 
 tion, preservation and destruction." 
 
 Wong - Ching - Foo, a Buddhist missionary 
 priest, in a lecture delivered in New Haven, 
 said : " If Buddhists are idolaters, most surely 
 are the Christians. On entering a cathedral 
 in one of your cities, I was struck with aston- 
 ishment at the sight of so many images. I 
 asked the Catholic priest if Christians worshiped 
 those images : to which he replied, ' None but 
 
120 Buddha's Life and Teachings. 
 
 the grossly ignorant devotee worships them. 
 They are merely emblems of real personages 
 which intelligent Catholics adore.' " 
 
 I will add : As Catholics bow before im- 
 ages in their devotions, and as they largely 
 outnumber the Protestants, it follows by ila- 
 tive reasoning that the major part of Christians 
 are idolaters. 
 
 (33.) 
 
 Tlie spiritual dominions of Buddha extend 
 to Siberia, and even Swedish Lapland. 
 
 (34.) 
 
 For the behoof of all who fancy that the 
 ancients were inferior to moderns in genius 
 and literature, I cite the following from the 
 poet Alexander Pope : *' The ancients (to say 
 the least of them) had as much genius as we 
 have ; and to take more pains, and to employ 
 more time, cannot fail to produce more com- 
 plete pieces. They constantly applied them- 
 
Annotations. 12i 
 
 selves not only to that art, but to that single 
 branch of an art, to which their talent was 
 most powerfully bent ; and it was the business 
 of their lives to correct and finish their works 
 for posterity. If we can pretend to have used 
 the same industry, let us expect the same im- 
 mortality." 
 
 The writer has reference to the ancient 
 Greek poets and philosophers. 
 
 (35.) 
 
 In the American Antiquities w^e read that 
 " Cavigero supposes that the nations of Azta- 
 lan came from Asia, across the Pacific, along 
 the region of tlm coast of the Chinese sea and 
 islands, reaching America not far from Bher- 
 ing's Strait, and from thence followed along 
 the coast of the Pacific, till tliey came, in 
 process of time, to a milder climate. 
 
 " To this Mr. At water adds, and- supposes 
 them to have thence worked across the con- 
 
122 Buddlia^s Life and Teachings. 
 
 tiucnt, as well as in other directions, as far 
 as the regions of the Western States and Ter- i 
 ritories, where thej may have lived thonsands 
 of years, as tlieir works denote." 
 
 (36.) 
 
 This Hindoo Deity and Savior, who flour- 
 ished about 950 B.C. (tliough positive evi- 
 dence of the correctness of this epocli cannot 
 be established),* was miraculously engendered 
 by the god Yishnu, and born of a maiden 
 of vestal purity, named Devanaguy, in a prison 
 at Mathura. The canonic records of his ca- 
 reer and teachings may be found in the (Jpani- 
 shads of wbat is called the ^oly Bhagavad- 
 Gita, or Hindoo New Testatment. 
 
 His youtbful career was marked by lieroic 
 
 * " That the name of Krishna, and the general out- 
 iine of his stor}'," says the learned Sir William Jones, 
 ■'were long anterior to the birth of our Savior, and 
 probably to the time of Homer, ice know very ctrtainly.'''' 
 — Asiatic Researches^ vol. i, p. 259. 
 
Annotations. 123 
 
 deeds, in redressing tlio wrongs of liumanity, 
 while to free the oppressed never strove u 
 worthier paladin. 
 
 To give the reader an idea of the style 
 of this Sanskrit Philosophical Poem, I cite the 
 following : 
 
 Arjuna thns addresses Krishna: " The uni- 
 verse, O Krishna ! is jnstly delighted with thy 
 glory, and devoted to thee. The Pakshasas 
 flee affrighted to the divers quarters of heaven, 
 and all the multitudes of tlie Siddas salute 
 thee. And, indeed, why should they not adore 
 thee, O great one ! thee, the first creator, more 
 important even than Braiuna himself? O in- 
 finite king of gods ! habitation of the uni- 
 verse ! thoa art the one indivisible, the existing 
 and not existing, that which is supreme. Thou 
 art first of the gods, the most ancient person. 
 Thou art the supreme receptacle of this uni- 
 verse. Thou knowest all, and mayest be known, 
 and art the supreme mansion. By tlice is this 
 
124: BudclluCs Life and Teachings. 
 
 Universe caused to emanate, O thou of endless 
 forms ! Air, Tama, fire, Yarnna, the moon, the 
 progenitor, and the great-grandfather (of the 
 world) art thou. Hail ! hail . to thee a thou- 
 sand times ! and again, yet again, hail to thee! 
 Hail to thee from before ! Hail to thee from 
 behind ! Hail to thee from all sides, too ! 
 Thou All ! Of infinite power and immense 
 might, thou comprehendest all ; therefore thou 
 art All. As I took tliee merely for a friend, 
 I beseech thee without measure to pardon 
 whatever I may, in ignorance of tliis thy greats 
 ness, have said from negligence or affection, 
 such as, ' O Krishna ! O son of Tadu ! (!) 
 friend ! ' and every thing in which I may have 
 treated thee in a joking manner, in recreation, 
 repose, sitting, or at meals, whether in pri- 
 vate or in the presence of these. Eternal One ! 
 . . . . JSTow that I see what I have never 
 seen before, I am delighted, and my heart is 
 shaken with awe. Show me that other forv.i 
 
Annotations. 125 
 
 only, O god ! Be gracious, O king of gods ! 
 habitation of tlie universe ! With thy tiara, 
 thy staff, and thy discus in thy hand, thus 
 only do I desire to see thee. Invest thyself 
 with that four-armed form, thou of a thousand 
 arms, of every form ! " 
 
 The Holy One- spoke : " I have shown thee 
 tJiat supreme form, Arjuna ! in kindness to 
 thee by my own mystic virtue — that, which is 
 my splendid, universal, infinite, primeval form, 
 never yet beheld by other than thee. ]N"ot 
 by studying the Yedas, nor by almsgiving, nor 
 rites, nor severe mortification, can I be seen 
 in this form, in the world of man, by other 
 than thee, O best of the Kurus ! Be not 
 alarmed, or in a troubled condition, at hav- 
 ing seen this so terrible form of mine. But 
 look, free from fear, with happy heart, upon 
 that other form only of mine, namely, this." 
 
 Sanjaya spoke: "Yasudeva, liaving thus ad- 
 dressed Arjuna, showed him again his proper 
 
126 BuddhcCs Life and Teachings. 
 
 form, and the Great One consoled him who 
 was alarmed bj again assuming a pleasant 
 shape." 
 
 Arjuna spoke: "Now that I behold this 
 thy pleasant human shape, thou who art prayed 
 to by mortals ! I am composed in my right 
 mind, and brought back to -my natural con- 
 dition." 
 
 The Holy One spoke : " That form of mine 
 which thou hast seen is very difficult to be- 
 hold. Even the gods are always anxious to 
 behold that form. Neither by studying tlie 
 Yedas, nor mortification, nor almsgiving, nor 
 sacrifice, can I be seen in such a form as thou 
 hast seen me. But only by worship, of which 
 I alone am the object, can I really be known 
 and seen, Arjuna, and approached in this form, 
 O harasser of thy foes ! He who performs his 
 actions for me, intent on me, free from inter- 
 est, and from, enmity toward any being, comes 
 to me, O son of Pandu ! " 
 
Annotations. 127 
 
 ■ (37.) 
 The period denoted by tlie Second Com- 
 ing of Christ, and its associate events, is mis- 
 understood by the Christian world. He taught 
 his immediate disciples that his second comino* 
 would transpire during thei- lifetime — before 
 the then current generation should have passed 
 a^vaj. (Matt, xvi, 28, and xxiv, 34 ; Luke 
 xvii, 30.) In Matt, xxv, 31, et seq.^ the goats 
 represent the God-cursed Jews, who were tlien 
 doomed to everlasting punishment. They were 
 scattered earth-wide amono- all nations, ao;ree- 
 ably to Christ's prediction. They are a "taunt 
 and a curse '' ; hated and despised by the whole 
 civilized world. Limitation of space precludes 
 further dilation upon the fulfilment of Christ's 
 and their own prophet's veritable predictions. 
 (Jer. *xxiv, 9, et seq.) 
 
 (38.) 
 " The Delia- Llama is a name given to the 
 sovereign pontiff, or high-priest, of the Tlii- 
 
128 Buddha^ s Life and Teachings. 
 
 betan Tartars, who resides at Patoli, in a vast 
 palace on a mountain, on the banks of Bur- 
 hampooter, a few niihjs from Lahassa. 
 
 " This sovereign vicegerent of the Deity on 
 earth is never to be seen only in a secret 
 place in his palace, amid a great number of 
 lamps, sitting cross-legged npoii a cushion, and 
 decked with gold and precious stones ; where, 
 at a distance, tlie people bow themselves be- 
 fore him. He seldom speaks, even to the 
 greatest princes, but only lays his hands upon 
 their heads, and they are fully persuaded they 
 receive from thence a full forgiveness of all 
 their sins." — Ilayward. 
 
 I subjoin the following: The present cul- 
 tus of Buddhism bears but little similarity to 
 its primitive status, when founded by its im- 
 mortal Author. It has evidently been perverted 
 by an imperial high-priesthood. In a manuer 
 strikingly resemblant has the Christian reli- 
 
A nnotations. 129 
 
 gion been corrupted by tlie all-potent decretals 
 of the Komisli prelacy. 
 
 (39.) 
 
 " Wheel of the Laic. In this passage the 
 Siamese author speaks of the wheel as if it 
 was the quoit-like weapon (chakra) the emblem 
 of the power of Indra, king of the angels, 
 and of emperors of the world ; a few lines 
 farther on, the allusion seems to be the circle 
 of cause and effect. Buddha is said to ac- 
 count for continued existence in transmis-ra- 
 tion. The twelve causes and effects are called 
 
 the twelve constituent parts of the wheel." — 
 Alabaster. 
 
 (40.) 
 " The golden junk or ship. In the Life 
 of Buddha we read of ' the lustrous vessel of 
 the law,* by which Buddha would enable men 
 to cross the ocean of transmigrating existence, 
 and reach the other shore, i. e., Nirvana." — 
 Ibid, 
 
130 Buddha s I^fe arid Teachings. 
 
 (41.) 
 The Lord Buddha at this period was so 
 intensely spiritnallj-minded that he was con- 
 stantly en rapport with the spirit-world while 
 dwelling in his sequestered abode. Bishop 
 Bigandet represents him as then living upon 
 the verge of Heaven. 
 
 (42.) 
 A Greek phrase which is rendered Hell 
 twelve times in the Gospels of the New Tes- 
 tament, and is believed by theologians to de- 
 note tlie regions of the lost. 
 
 (43.) 
 
 The fleering corporealist, who denies the 
 immortality of the soul, might read with profit 
 the following argument in its favor by Socra- 
 tes, an Athenian philosopher, who flourished 
 about 470 B.C. 
 
 The first argument which he urges is, that 
 everything in Nature is produced or generated 
 
Annotations. 131 
 
 from its opposite. "TJnis, tlie worse proceeds 
 from the better, and tlie better from the worse. 
 From the state of wakefulness we pass to 
 sleep, and from sleep to wakefulness. And 
 as from being alive we go to the dead, and 
 so, from being dead, we enter into another 
 life. 
 
 " The soul must subsist after death, be- 
 cause it existed prior to the present life. The 
 soul will exist hereafter, because it is a svmple^ 
 unchanging substance. If it were a compound, 
 like the body, it must, like the body, be dis- 
 solved. But as it is not a compounded sub- 
 stance, it is not subject to mutations like the 
 body, and the conclusion is that it will never 
 be dissolved. It belongs to the soul to oovern 
 the body, and not the body tlie soul ; which 
 proves that the soul is allied to Divinity, and, 
 like that, is immortal. Into whatever tlie sonl 
 enters it introduces life ; which shows that 
 life is essential to it, and that it can never 
 
132 Buddha's Life and Teachings. 
 
 be subject to the opposite of life, which is 
 
 death." . . . 
 
 In all ages, have didactic bards verified 
 the iiiter-commmiion of the soul -flown dead 
 with earth-mortals; but none whose works I 
 have read, excepting Thomson, has more grace- 
 fully portrayed their mission to the denizens 
 of this mundane globe than has the polished 
 poet Rogers in his Pleasures of Memory : 
 
 "Oft may the spirits of the dead descend 
 To watch the silent slumbers of a friend ; 
 To hover round his evening-walk unseen, 
 And hold sweet converse on the dusky green ; 
 To hail the spot where once their friendship grew, 
 And Heaven and Nature opened to tlieir vie\v ! 
 Oft, when he trims the cheerful hearth, and sees 
 A smiling circle emulous to please ; 
 There may these gentle guests delight to dwell, 
 And bless the scenes they loved on earth so well." 
 
 (44.) 
 At Mathura and Siam can be seen fanes 
 and pag-orlas with lofty spires. Alabaster de- 
 
Annotations. 133 
 
 scribes one in Siam, wliose spire reaches an 
 altitude little less than the most towerina: in 
 our largest emporiums. 
 
 ^5 
 
 (45.) 
 
 The question is often raised by Christians 
 why Buddhism is coniined almost exclusively 
 to Asia, while the religion taught by the god- 
 like !Nazarene is widespread throughout Eu- 
 rope and America. 
 
 A solution of this question I give by affirm- 
 ing that the spread of the Christian religion 
 is due to the following circumstances : Had 
 Buddha been born in Judea, at the date of 
 the appearance of Jesus, it is evident at first 
 blush that his religion would have been founded 
 there ; and from thence through the prevail- 
 ing dialects it would have spread through Eu- 
 ropean nations, and subsequently have reached 
 this hemisphere. With the tide of emigra- 
 tion, its course would have been westward, 
 following the setting of the sun. Had Christ 
 
134 Buddha^ s Lif& and Teachings. 
 
 been born in India at the time of Buddha, bis 
 religion would liave been founded there ; and, 
 peradventure, I should have written his bio- 
 graphical narrative, instead of Buddha's. 
 
 It is a singular fact, and worthy of note, 
 that missionaries are being sent to Judea, to 
 proclaim to the benighted denizens the glories 
 of the religion of Jesus, in the land of his 
 nativity. 
 
 (46.) 
 
 The world had three Redeemers before the 
 advent of the humble J^azarene. They were: 
 Buddha of Kapilavastu, Krishna of Hindostan, 
 and Osiris of Egypt. 
 
 In the " Book of the Dead " (Bunsen's 
 Sgyj)t) we find an account of the crucifixion 
 of OL-iris, who flourished about 3,000 years 
 B.C. In this antique work are found religious 
 rituals most strikingly similar to those which 
 are observed by Christians. 
 
 In a book now before me, entitled The 
 
Annotations. 135 
 
 WorlcVs Sixteen Crucified Saviors, or Chris^ 
 tlanity Before Christ, I find this loose stater 
 inent : " Buddha, Hindoo Sakya, crucified 600 
 
 B.C." 
 
 I am neither prepared to confirm nor deny 
 the truthfulness of many of the author's state- 
 ments, yet I shall make an issue with him 
 touching t'he criTcifixion of Buddha. As the 
 last note to my poem contains y^^^Z ^particulars 
 touching the death of Buddha, I refer the 
 reader to the aforesai^ note to disprove his 
 allegation that he was crucified, and therein 
 show that he died a natural death in the 
 garden of the Malla Princes, hard by the city 
 of Kusinagara. 
 
 (47.) 
 
 Many years has the writer lived unfellowed, 
 in templed shades, within the purlieu of a 
 rural hamlet, withdrawn from society ; during 
 which period he investigated many ancient and 
 modern religions ; but none so fully meets his 
 
136 JBuddhas Life and Teachings. 
 
 approval as the one founded by the fame- 
 crowned Ascetic of Kapilavastu, whose teach- 
 ings he has endeavored to bring before the 
 American people. 
 
 (48.) 
 Heference is here h.ad to the story of Kisa- 
 gotimi, who bemoaned the loss of an only 
 child, the account of which may be found 
 in Buddhagosha^s Parables. This parable is 
 given in fall in the closing paragraph of the 
 Excursus. 
 
 (49.) 
 
 Oft has the writer, at night-tide's deepen- 
 ing hush, retired from the dinning haunts of 
 his fellow-villagers, for silent self-communing 
 in G od's hallowed " Acre " : 
 
 ** Where spirit-forms athwart the solemn dusk 
 Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep, along ; 
 And voices more than human, through the void 
 Deep-sounding, seize the enthusiastic ear ! " 
 
 — ThomsoTi. 
 
Annotations. 137 
 
 Oft, too, has he repeated the following, 
 from the same highly-gifted poet: 
 
 "Deep-roused, I f^el 
 A sacred terror, a severe delight 
 
 Creep tlirough my mortal frame ; and thus metliinks 
 A voice, than human more, the abstracted ear 
 Of fancy strikes: 'Be not of us afraid, 
 Poor kindred man ! thy fellow-creatures, "we 
 From the same Parent-Power our beings drew ; 
 The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit ; 
 Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life, 
 Toiled, tempest-beaten, ere "we could attain 
 This holy calm, this harmony of mind, 
 Where purity and peace immingle charms.' " 
 
 (50.) 
 "The Modern Buddhist" alleges that the 
 Lord Buddha disappeared for a period of three 
 months, and preached to the spirits of the 
 Dawadmigsa world, and afterward retm-ned to 
 earth. The miracle he regards as a well- 
 attested, accredited fact. He thinks the Lord 
 could not have concealed himself from liis im- 
 
138 Buddhas Life and Teachings, 
 
 mediate disciples, bat that lie really visited 
 the spirit- world. 
 
 How strongly this reminds us of Christ,- 
 when he preached to the spirits of tlie ISloa- 
 chian generation, who were in prison in the 
 time of Peter ; but '* were disobedient, when 
 once tlie long-suffering of God waited, in the 
 days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, 
 wherein few, that is, eight souls, were 'saved 
 by water." (I Peter, iii, 18, et seq.) 
 
 (51.) 
 " Buddha's teachings during many years 
 were not unopposed. Failing to equal him in 
 science and miracle-working, his opponents 
 tried to ruin his character. They leagued with 
 a woman to charge him with unchastity. . . 
 They bribed her to accuse him of misconduct 
 with her; and, when she had proclaimed her 
 story, was murdered by her bribers, in order 
 that Buddha might be suspected of the act. 
 
Annotations. 139 
 
 This plan failed, for the plotters, in a drunken 
 revel, boasted of their craft, and acknowledged 
 their villainy." — Alabaster. 
 
 ■ (52.) 
 
 The distinguished Oriental traveler, Dr. J. 
 M. Peebles, in his annotations on the Oral 
 Discussion between a Buddhist priest named 
 Migettuwatte and E.ev. P. Silva, '^an English 
 clergyman, held at Pantura, Ceylon, says : 
 
 " The general testimony of scholars, as well 
 as the histories of the Siamese, Birmese, and 
 Singhalese, unite in the opinion that Sakya- 
 muni Gautama Buddha died a natural deatli, 
 at the ao-e of about eiarhtv years, the event 
 occurring during the reign of Adazathat." 
 
 He gives Bishop Bigandet's account of the 
 final summation of his earth-career, and par- 
 ticulars touching his demise ; but I quote the 
 following from Alabaster's Life of Buddha: 
 
 " On reaching the city of Kusinagara, at- 
 
140 Buddha s Life arid Teachings. 
 
 tended by Ids immediate disciples, he gave 
 them final instructions. Reclining between two 
 lofty Sala-trees, in the garden of the Malla 
 Princes, he uttered his last words : ' All things 
 that are earth-born are perishable ; qualify your- 
 selves for the imperishable.' Absorbed in ec- 
 static meditation, he remained until the third 
 watch of the night, and then expired. 
 
 " Then there was a great earthquake ; and 
 the pious who had not tlie perfection of saints 
 wept aloud with uplifted arms, and reeled 
 about, exclaiming, ' Too soon has tlie blessed 
 one expired. Too soon has tlie eye closed on 
 the world.' But the more advanced in reli- 
 gion calmly submitted themselves, saying, ' Tran- 
 sitory things are perishable ; in this world there 
 is no permanence.' " * 
 
 * In tlie Life of Gautama Buddha, by Edwin Ar- 
 nold, we read the following touching the place and 
 date of his birth and death: "Buddha was born on 
 the borders of Nepaul, about 620 B.C., and died 543 
 B.C., at Kusinagara, in Oudh." 
 
Annotations, 14l 
 
 On the autlioritj of Max Miiller, I have placed the 
 epoch of his birth at about 553 B.C. Touching the 
 year of Buddlia's advent, there seems to be a diver- 
 sity of opinion among authors ; but nearly all agree 
 that his birth was between 550 and 600 B.C. 
 
 With Alabaster, Peebles, and Bigandet, IMr. Arnold 
 agrees that Buddha died a natural death. This cor- 
 roborative and consentient testimony disproves the 
 statement made by the author of the WorlcVs Sixteen 
 Crucified Saviors, that he was crucified near the Ke- 
 paul Mountains. 
 
EXCURSUS. 
 
 To GIVE the reader a correct view of Bud- 
 dha's ethical and religious codes, as taught by 
 him in his Dham^napada^ or Path of Yirtue,* 
 I make the following citations : 
 
 * Translated from the Pali, by F. Max Miiller. I 
 have not numbered, or arranged in consecutive order, 
 chapter and verse, my quotations from the Dhamma- 
 pada. I have adopted the present course to avoid seem- 
 ing repetitions, with slight variations, which plainly 
 appear. 
 
 Houghton, Osgood & Co., the well-known publish- 
 ers in Boston, have recently issued the DJiammapada, 
 or the Buddhist Canon, translated from the Chinese, 
 by Samuel Beal, B.A., Professor of Chinese in Uni- 
 versity College, London. 
 
 Although the phraseology varies considerably from 
 Max Miiller's translation from the Pali, yet the general 
 
144 Buddha s Teachings. 
 
 All that we are is the result of wliat we 
 have thought; it is made up of our thoughts. 
 If a man speaks or acts with au evil tliought, 
 pain follows, like a shadow that never leaves 
 him. 
 
 If a man does what is good, let him do 
 it again; let him not delight in sin; pain is 
 the outcome of evil. 
 
 Let us live happily, then, not hating those 
 who hate us ! let us dwell free from hatred 
 among men wdio hate us ! 
 
 identity of both is substantially indicated. Tlie fol- 
 lowing quotation exhibits the contrast : 
 
 "Although a man may have heretofore been care- 
 less, yet if afterward he is able to govern and restrain 
 himself, this man becomes illusXrious, or illuminates the 
 world, and the more he reflects the more resolved 
 will he become to use self-restraint, A man may have 
 done many things wrong, but if he recovers himself 
 and atones for the evil by doing good, this man be- 
 comes illustrious in the world, and the more he reflects 
 the more virtuous he will become. A man wiio in the 
 prime of life leaves his home and perfectly tutors him- 
 
Exciirsxis. 145 
 
 Healtli is the greatest of gifts, contented- 
 ness the best riches ; trust is the best of rela- 
 tives ; Nirvana, the highest happiness. 
 
 lie who walks in the company of fools 
 sniFers a long way ; company with fools, as 
 witli an enemy, is always painful ; company 
 with the wise is pleasure, like meeting with 
 kinsfolk. 
 
 Therefore, one ought to follow the wise, 
 the intelligent, the learned, the much-enduringj 
 the dutiful, the elect ; one ought to follow a 
 
 self in the doctrine of Buddlia, this man shines out 
 in the world as the moon when it hursts from the 
 cloud. The man M'ho in times past has done wickedly, 
 but afterward halts in his career and offends no more, 
 that man shines out in the world as the moon when 
 it emerges from the cloud." 
 
 It seems, by the wide-spread and growing interest 
 in this ancient religion, that God is especially moving 
 the hearts of men in Europe and America to render 
 in English the sublime doctrines of Buddhism, which 
 have lain buried for ages in the sand of an obsolete 
 language. 
 
146 Buddha^ s Teachings, 
 
 good and wise man, as the moon follows the 
 path of the stars. 
 
 He who does not rise when it is time to 
 rise, who, though young and strong, is full of 
 sloth, whose will and thoughts are weak, that 
 lazy and idle man will never find the way 
 to knowledge. 
 
 He who, by causing pain to others, w^ishes 
 to obtain pleasure himself, he, entangled in 
 the bonds of hatred, wuU never be free from 
 liatred. 
 
 What ought to be done is neglected, what 
 ought not to be done is done ; the sins of 
 unruly, thoughtless people are always increas- 
 ing. 
 
 The disciples of Gautama (Buddha) are al- 
 ways well awake, and their thoughts day and 
 night are alw^ays set on Buddha. 
 
 The hard parting, the hard living alone, 
 the uninhabitable houses, are painful; painful 
 
Excursus. 147 
 
 is tlie company with men who are not our 
 equals. . . * 
 
 Good people shine from afar, like the snowy 
 mountains; bad people are not seen, like ar- 
 rows shot by night. 
 
 He who, without ceasing, practices the duty 
 of eating alone and sleeping alone, he, sub- 
 duing himself, alone will rejoice in the de- 
 struction of all desires, as if living in a forest. 
 
 He who says what is not, goes to hell; 
 he also who, having done a thing, and says, 
 I have not done it. After death both are 
 equal; they are men with evil deeds in the 
 next world. 
 
 Four things does a reckless man gain who 
 
 covets his neighbor's wife: a bad reputation, 
 
 an uncomfortable bed ; thirdly, punishment ; 
 and lastly, hell. 
 
 Like a well-guarded. frontier fort, with de- 
 fenses within and witliout, so let a man guard 
 
14:8 Buddha's Teachings. 
 
 liimsolf. ISTot a moment should escape, for 
 they who allow the right moment to pass suf-^ 
 fer pain when they are in hell. 
 
 They who are ashamed of what they ought 
 not to be ashamed of, sucli men, embracing 
 false doctrines, enter the evil path. 
 
 The Bhikshu who controls liis mouth, who 
 speaks wisely and calmly, who teaches the 
 meaning and the Law, his word is sweet. 
 
 He who never identifies himself with liis 
 body and soul, and does not grieve over what 
 is no more, he indeed is called a Bhikshu. 
 
 O Bhikshu, empty this boat ! if emptied, it 
 will go quickly ; having cut off passion and 
 hatred, tliou wilt go to Nirvana. 
 
 This salutary word I tell you, as many as 
 are here .come together: Dig up the root of 
 thirst, as he who wants the sweet-scented Usira 
 root must dig up the Birna grass, that Mara 
 
Excursus. 149 
 
 (the tempter) may not cnisli you again and 
 again, as the stream crushes the reeds. 
 
 As a tree is firm as long as its root is 
 safe, and grows again even though it has been 
 cut down, thus, unless the yearnings of thirst 
 are destroyed, this pain (of life) will return 
 again and again. 
 
 He whose desire for pleasure runs strong 
 in the thirty-six channels, the waves will carry 
 away that misguided man, namely, his desires 
 which are set on passion. 
 
 The channels run everywhere, the creeper 
 (of passion) stands sprouting; if you see the 
 creeper springing up, cut its root by means 
 of knowledge. 
 
 A creature's pleasures are extravagant and 
 luxurious ; sunk in lust and looking for pleas- 
 ure, men undergo (again and again) birth and 
 decay. 
 
 Men, driven on by thirst, run about like a 
 
150 Buddha^ s Teachings, 
 
 snared hare; held in fetters and bonds, they 
 Undergo pain for a long time, again and again. 
 
 Men, driven on by thirst, run about like 
 a snared hare ; let, therefore, the mendicant 
 who desires passionlessness for himself drive 
 out thirst. 
 
 He who in a country without forests (i. e., 
 a,fter having reached Nirvana) gives himself 
 over to forest life (i. e., to lust), and who, 
 when removed from the forest (i. e., to lust), 
 runs to the forest (i. e., to lust), look at that 
 man ! though free, he runs into bondage. 
 
 Wise people do not call that a strong fet- 
 ter which is made of iron, wood, or hemp; 
 far stronger is the care for precious stones 
 and rings, for sons and a wife. 
 
 That fetter do wise people call strong w^hich, 
 drags down, yields, but is difficult to undo; 
 after having cut this at last, people enter upon 
 their pilgrimage, free from cares, and leaving 
 desires and pleasures behind. 
 
I^xcursus. 151 
 
 Let a man leave anger, let him forsake 
 pride, let him overcome all bondage ! No suf- 
 ferings befall the man Avho is not attached to 
 either body or soul, and who calls nothing his 
 own. 
 
 He who holds back rising anger like a roll- 
 ing chariot, him I call a real driver; other 
 people are but holding the reins. 
 
 Speak the truth, do not yield to anger ; 
 give, if thou art asked, from the little thou 
 hast ; by those steps thou wilt go near the 
 gods. _ . 
 
 He whose conquest is not conquered again, 
 whose conquest no one in this world escapes, 
 by what path can you lead him, the Awak- 
 ened, the Omniscient, into a wrong path ? 
 
 He whom no desire with its snares and 
 poisons can lead astray, by what path can j^ou 
 lead him, the Awakened, the Omniscient, into 
 a wrong path ? 
 
 Even the gods envy those who are awak- 
 
152 BuddhcCs Teachings. 
 
 ened and not forgetful, who are given to medi- 
 tation, wlio are wise, and who delight in the 
 repose of retirement (from the w^orld). 
 
 Hard is the conception of men, hard is the 
 life of mortals, hard is the hearing of the True 
 Law, hard is tlie birth of the Awakened (the 
 attainment of Buddhahood). 
 
 IN^ot to commit any sin ; to do good, and 
 to purify one's mind — that is the teaching of 
 the Awakened. 
 
 The Awakened call patience the highest 
 penance, long-suffering the highest Nirvana; 
 for he is not an anchorite who strikes others, 
 he is not an ascetic (Shramna) who insults 
 others. 
 
 Not to blame, not to strike, to live re- 
 strained under the law, to be moderate in eat- 
 ing, to sleep and eat alone, and to dwell on 
 the highest thoughts — this is the teaching of 
 the Awakened. 
 
Excursus, 153 
 
 Men driven by fear go to many a refuge — 
 to mountains and forests, to groves and -sacred 
 
 trees. 
 
 But tliat is not a safe refuge, that is not 
 tlie best refuge ; a man is not delivered from 
 all pains after having gone to that refuge. 
 
 He who takes refuge with Buddha, the 
 Law, and the Church ; he who, with clear un- 
 derstanding, sees the four holy truths : 
 
 Namely, pain, the origin of pain, the de- 
 struction of pain, and the eight-fold holy way 
 that leads to the quieting of pain — 
 
 That is the safe refuge, that is tlie best 
 refuge ; having gone to that refuge, a man is 
 delivered from all pain. 
 
 A supernatural person is not easily found ; 
 he is not born everywhere. Wherever such a 
 sage is born, that race prospers. 
 
 Happy is the arising of the Awakened, 
 happy is the teaching of the True Law, happy 
 
1-54: JBuddha's Teachings. 
 
 is the peace of the Church, happy is tlie de- 
 votiorF of those who are at peace. 
 
 He who pays homage to those who de- 
 serve homage, whether the Awakened (Buddha) 
 or his disciples ; those who have overcome the 
 host (of evils), and crossed the flood of sor- 
 row; he who pays homage to such as have 
 found deliverance and know no fear — his merit 
 can never be measured by anybody. 
 
 He who lives looking for pleasures only, 
 his senses uncontrolled, immoderate in his en- 
 joyments, idle and weak, Mara (the tempter) 
 will certainly overcome him, as the wind throws 
 down a weak tree. 
 
 As rain does not break through a well- 
 thatched house, passion will not break through 
 a well-reflecting mind. 
 
 The virtuous man is happy in this world, 
 and he is happy in the next; he is happy in 
 both. He is happy when he thinks of the good 
 
Excursus. 155 
 
 he has done ; he ' is still more happy when 
 going on the good path. 
 
 The thoughtless man, even if he can recite 
 a large portion (of the law), but is not a 
 doer of it, has no part in the priesthood, 
 but is like a cowherd counting the cows of 
 others. 
 
 Reflection is the path to immortalit}" ; 
 thoughtlessness, the path of death. Those who 
 reflect do not die ; those who are thoughtless 
 are as if dead already. 
 
 Follow not after vanity, nor after the enjoy-, 
 ment of love and lust ! He who reflects and 
 meditates obtains ample joy. 
 
 Not a mother, not a father, will do so much, 
 nor any other relative ; a well-directed mind 
 will do us greater service. 
 
 He who knows that his body is like froth, 
 and has learnt that it is as unsubstantial as a 
 mirao;e, will break the flower - pointed arrow 
 of Mara, and pever see the King of Deatli. 
 
156 Buddha^s Teachings. 
 
 Death carries off a man who is gathering 
 flowers, and whose mind is distracted, as a flood 
 carries off a sleeping village. 
 
 Hatred does not cease by hatred at any- 
 time; hatred ceases by love; this is an old 
 rule. 
 
 What is the use of platted hair, O fool ! 
 what of the raiment of goatskins ? Within 
 thee there is ravening, but the outside thou 
 makest clean.* 
 
 He whose evil deeds are covered by good 
 deeds brightens up this world like the moon 
 when she rises from behind the clouds. 
 
 As the bee collects honey and departs with- 
 out injuring the flower, so let the sage dwell 
 on earth. 
 
 *Most strikingly parallelistic are some of the 
 phrases in this passage with the following: "Ye 
 make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, 
 but within are full of extortion and excess." (Matt. 
 xxiii, 25.) 
 
Excursus. 157 
 
 Let no man tliink lightly of good, saying 
 in Ins heart, It will not benefit me. Even 
 by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is 
 filled. 
 
 Long is the night to him who is awake ; 
 long is a mile to him who is tired ; long is 
 life to the foolish, who does not know the 
 true law. 
 
 If a traveler does not meet with one who 
 is his better, or equal, let him firmly keep to 
 his solitary journey ; there is no companionship 
 with a fool. 
 
 If an intelligent man be associated for one 
 minute only with a wise man, he will soon per- 
 ceive the truth, as the tongue perceives the 
 taste of soup. 
 
 Fools of little understanding have them- 
 selves for their greatest enemies ; for they 
 do deeds which must bear bitter fruit. 
 
 If you see an intelligent man who tells 
 you where true treasures are to be found. 
 
158 Bxidd.Jia^s Teachings. 
 
 'who shows what is to be avoided, and who 
 administers reproof, follow that wise man; it 
 will be better, not worse, for those who fol- 
 low him. 
 
 There is no suffering for him who has aban- 
 doned grief, and finished his journey ; who has 
 freed himself from all desires, arid thrown off 
 all fetters. 
 
 They who have riches, who live on author- 
 ized food, who have perceived the void, the 
 Unconditioned, the Absolute, their way is difii- 
 cult to understand, like the birds of the ether. 
 
 Forests are delightful ; where the world finds 
 no delight; there the passionless find delight, 
 for they look not for pleasures. 
 
 Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by 
 good, the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth. 
 
 * 
 
 * How strikingly does the sentiment of this passage 
 remind us of its analogy with the one expressed b^"" 
 the Nazarene, viz., "Overcome evil with good." 
 
 Confucius enounces the same sentiment as the one 
 
Excursus. 159 
 
 Some people are born again ; evil-doers go 
 to Hell ; righteous people go to Heaven ; those 
 who are free from all worldly desires enter 
 Nirvana.* 
 
 All men tremble at punishment; all men 
 fear death ; remember that you are like unto 
 them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter. 
 
 taught in the "golden rule," although he expresses 
 it negatively. 
 
 "The Christian system and the Buddhistic one, 
 though differing from each other in their respective 
 objects and ends as much as truth from error, have, 
 it must be confessed, many striking features of an 
 astonishing resemblance. There are many moral pre- 
 cepts equally commanded and in common by both 
 creeds. It will not be considered rash to assert that 
 most of the moral truths prescribed by the Gospel 
 are to be met with in the Buddhistic Scriptures." — 
 Bishop Bigandei. 
 
 *In Annotation 17 I have cited the views of sev- 
 eral Sanskrit scholars on the meaning of Kirvana, 
 who distinctly declare their disbelief that the phrase 
 signifies annihilation. In confirmation of their views 
 
IGO Buddha's Teachings. 
 
 He who for his own sake punishes or kills 
 beings longing for life and happiness will not 
 find happiness after death. 
 
 Do not speak harshly to any body ; those 
 who are spoken to will answer thee in the same 
 way. Angry speech is painful ; blows for blows 
 will touch thee. 
 
 If like a trumpet trampled under foot, thou 
 utter not, thou hast reached Nirvana; anger 
 is not known in thee. 
 
 As a cowherd with his staff gathers cows 
 into the stable, so do Age and Death gather 
 the life of man. 
 
 that tlie word denotes immortality, I add the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 "The views indicated by 'Nirvana,' 'Dharma,' 
 'Karma,' and the other chief features of Buddhism, 
 are at least the fruits of considerable study, and 
 also of a firm conviction that a third of mankind 
 would never have been brought to believe in blank 
 abstractions or Nothingness as the issue and crown 
 of Beinff." — Edwin ArruM, 
 
Excursus, 161 
 
 Cut down the whole forest of lust, not the 
 tree ! When you have cut down every tree 
 and every shrub, then, Bhikshus, you will be 
 free ! 
 
 So long as the love of man toward women, 
 even the smallest, is not destroyed, so long is 
 his mind in bondage, as the calf that drinks 
 milk is to its mother.* 
 
 The fool does not know when he commits 
 his evil deeds ; but tlie wicked man burns by 
 his own deeds, as if burnt by fire. 
 
 He who inflicts pain on innocent persons 
 will soon come to one of these ten st^es : He 
 will have cruel suffering, loss, injury of the body, 
 heavy affliction, or loss of mind, or a misfortune 
 
 *The injunction given in this passage, to live down 
 all affection for women, was undoubtedly designed by 
 the Lord to apply to the ascetics, or the priesthood, 
 and not to believers indiscriminately. 
 
 The celibacy of the Romish priesthood, and the 
 same observed by tlie Shakers, the founders of these 
 sectaries have rigidly prescribed. 
 
162 Buddh as Teach Ings. 
 
 of the king, or a fearful accusation, or loss of 
 relatives, or destruction of treasures, or light- 
 ning-fire will burn his houses ; and when his 
 body is destroyed, the fool will go to Hell. 
 
 Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, 
 not fasting, or lying on the earth, not ribbing 
 with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a 
 mortal who has not overcome desires.* 
 
 Is there a man in this world so restrained 
 by humility that he does not mind reproof, as 
 a well-trained horse the whip ? 
 
 Like a well-trained horse when touched by 
 the whip, be ye active and lively, and by faitli, 
 by virtue, by energy, by meditation, by discern- 
 ment of tlie law, you will overcome this great 
 pain (of reproof), perfect in knowledge, and in 
 behavior, and never forgetful. 
 
 How is there laughter, how is there joy, as 
 
 *Tlie rigid austerities of the Yoga system of as- 
 ceticism the Lord Buddha did not commend to his 
 followers. 
 
Excursus. 163 
 
 this world is always burning ? Why do you 
 seek light, ye who are surrounded by darkness ? 
 
 Look at this dressed-up lump, covered with 
 wounds, joined together, sickly, full of many 
 thoughts, which has no strength, no hold ! 
 
 This body is wasted, full of sickness, and 
 frail ; this heap of corruption breaks to pieces, 
 the life in it is death. Those white bones, 
 like gourds tin-own away in Autumn, what 
 pleasure is there in looking at them ! 
 
 After a frame has been made of the house, 
 it is covered with flesh and blood, and there 
 dwell in it old age and death, pride and 
 deceit. 
 
 A man who has learnt little grows old 
 like an ox; his flesh grows, but his knowl- 
 edge does not grow. 
 
 Without ceasing, I shall run through a course 
 of many births, looking for the maker of tliis 
 tabernacle — and painful is birth again and again. 
 
164 Buddha^s Teachings. 
 
 But now, maker of this tabernacle, hast thou 
 been seen ; thou shalt not make up this tab- 
 ernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy 
 ridge-pole is sundered, and I have attained to 
 the extinction of all desires.* 
 
 Be not thoughtless ! your thoughts draw 
 yom'self out of the evil, like an elephant 
 sunk in mud. 
 
 If a man becomes fat and a great eater, 
 
 ***Many a House of Life 
 Hath held me — seeking ever him who wrought 
 These prisons of the senses, sorrow-fraught ; 
 
 Sore was my ceaseless strife ! 
 
 But now, 
 Thou builder of this tabernacle — Thou ! 
 I know Thee ! Never shalt Thou build again 
 
 These walls of pain, 
 Nor raise tlie roof-tree of deceits, nor lay 
 
 Fresh rafters on the clay ; 
 Broken thy house is, and the ridge-pole split ! 
 
 Delusion fashioned it ! 
 Safe pass I thence — deliverance to obtain." 
 
 — Edwin Arnold. 
 
Excursus. 165 
 
 if lie is sleepy and rolls himself about, that 
 fool, like a hog fed on wash, is born again and 
 again. 
 
 This mind of mine went formerly wandering 
 about as it listed, as it pleased ; but I shall now 
 hold it thoroughly, as the rider who holds the 
 hook holds in the furious elephant. 
 
 Self is the lord of self; who else could 
 be the lord ! With self well subdued, a man 
 finds a lord such as few can find. 
 
 If an occasion arises, friends are pleasant; 
 enjoyment is pleasant if it be mutual; a good 
 work is pleasant in the hour of death; the 
 giving up of all giief is pleasant. 
 
 The thirst of a thoughtless man grows 
 like a creeper; he runs hither and thither, 
 like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest. 
 
 If a man is tossed about by doubts, full 
 of strong passions, and yearning only for 
 what is delightful, his thiret will grow more 
 
166 BuddhcCs Teachings. 
 
 and more, and he will indeed make his fet- 
 ters strong.* 
 
 The fields are damaged by weeds; man- 
 kind, b}^ passion ; tlierefore a gift bestowed on 
 the passionless brings great reward. 
 
 Without knowledge there is no meditation ; 
 without meditation there is no knowledge; he 
 vvho has knowledge and meditation is near unto 
 Nirvana. 
 
 He who has traversed this mazy and imper- 
 vious world and its vanity, who is through, and 
 has reached tlie other shore, is thouglitt'ul, guile- 
 
 *Tlie following depiction of the plaj^ of the good 
 and evil passions over man is both powerfully and 
 artistically effected by the grandest poet Scotia ever 
 bore : "^ 
 
 "From Yiitue's fount the purest joys out-well, 
 Sweet rills of tliought that cheer the conscious soul ; 
 While Vice pours forth its troubled streams of Hell, 
 The which, howe'er disguised, at last ^vith dole 
 Will through the'iiortured breast their liery torrent roll." 
 
 — Thomson. 
 
Excursus, 167 
 
 less, free from doubts, free from attacliment, and 
 content, liim I call indeed a Bralimana. 
 
 He wlio calls nothing his own, whether it be 
 before, behind, or between, who is poor, and free 
 from the love of the world, him I call indeed a 
 Bralimana. 
 
 He who knows his former abodes, who sees 
 Heaven and Hell, has reached the end of births, 
 is perfect in knowledge, and a sage ; he whose 
 perfections are all perfect — liim I call indeed a 
 Brahmana. 
 
 The manly, the noble, the hero, the great 
 sage, the conqueror, the guileless, the master, 
 the Awakened, him indeed I call a Brahmana.* 
 
 * It is a noteworthy coincidence that while the 
 writer was versifying the Life of Buddha, Mr. James 
 Kinnersly Lewis, of London, England, was rendering 
 in verse the DJiammapada, or Path of Virtue. 
 
 The following passage from the Dhammapada, 
 
 which he versifies, exhibits his style of rhythmical 
 
 numbers : 
 
 "Thy life has come to.au end; thou art come 
 
168 Buddha's Teachings, 
 
 I will close these summarized citations from 
 the teachings of the Great Teacher with the 
 following beautiful parable from the works 
 of Buddhagosha, who most touchingly depic- 
 tures the Lord Buddha's interview with the 
 bereaved Kisagotimi : * 
 
 "This girl, who had lost an only child, 
 went to Buddha, and, doing him homage, said: 
 'Lord and Master, do you know what medi- 
 cine will cure my boy?' Buddha rephed, 'I 
 know some.' She asked, 'What medicine do 
 you require?' He said, 'I want a handful of 
 mustard- seed.' The girl promised to procure 
 
 near to Death (Yama), there is no resting-place for 
 thee on the road, and thou hast no provision for thy 
 journey." 
 
 "Thine earthly pilgrimage is now complete — 
 The road to Death hath now no resting-seat ; 
 (Through Yama's waters deep thou soon Avilt wade), 
 And for thy journey no provision made." 
 
 *I cite this parable from Max Muller's Lecture on 
 "Buddhist Nihilism." 
 
Excursus. 169 
 
 it for him ; but Buddha continued : ' I require 
 some mustard-seed taken from a house where 
 no son, husband, parent, or slave, has died.' 
 The girl said, ' Yery good,' and went to ask 
 for some at dift'erent liouses. Tlie people said, 
 ' Here is some mustard-seed ; take it.' Then 
 she asked, ' In m}^ friend's house has there died 
 a son, a husband, a parent, or a slave?' Thej 
 replied, ' Lady, what is this tliat you say ? 
 The living are few^ but the dead are inany!' 
 Then she went to other houses ; but one said, 
 ' I liave lost a son ' ; another, ' I have lost a 
 daughter ' ; another, ' I have lost my parents ' ; 
 another, ' I liave lost my slave.' 
 
 '' At last, not being able to lind a single 
 house where no one had died, from which to 
 procure the mustard-seed, slie began to think, 
 * This is a heavy task that I am engaged in. 
 I am not the only one whose son is dead. 
 In the w^iole Savathi country, everywhere, chil- 
 dren are dying, parents are dying.' Thinking 
 
170 Buddha's Teachings, 
 
 thus, she was seized with fear, and, putting 
 away lier affection for her cliild, she summoned 
 up resohition, and left the dead body in a 
 forest ; then she went to Buddha, and paid him 
 homage. He said to her, ' Have you procured 
 tlie handful of mustard-seed?' 'I have not,' 
 she replied ; ' the people of the village told 
 me. The living are few^ but the dead are 
 many^ Buddha said to her, ' You thought 
 that you alone had lost a son ; the law of 
 death is that, among all living creatures, there 
 is no permanence.'. 
 
 "AYhen Buddha had finished preacliing the 
 Law, Kisagotimi was established in the re- 
 ward of the novitiate; and all the assembly 
 who heard the Law were established in the 
 same reward. 
 
 "Some titne afterward, when Kisagotimi 
 was one day engaged in the performance of 
 her religious duties, she observed tlie lights (in 
 the houses) now shining, now extinguished, and 
 
Excursus. 171 
 
 she began to reflect, 'My state is like these 
 
 lamps.' Buddha, who was in the Gaudhaknti 
 
 building, sent his sacred appearance to her, 
 
 just as if he himself was preaching, 'All living 
 
 beings resemble the flame of these lamps, one 
 
 moment lighted, the next extinguished ; those 
 
 only wdio have arrived at Nirvana are at 
 
 rest.' " 
 
 INYOCATION. 
 
 To thee, Lord Buddli\ I voice this soul-felt prayer! 
 
 Oh, hear thy servant plain 'neath sins bowed low! 
 The lowliest lot with thee he'd gladly share, 
 
 In bowery spheres, dis'thralled from earth's dread 
 woe ! 
 
 Thy servant save, whene'er dire ills betide ! 
 
 No more henceforth he'll seek inglorious ease ! 
 Thy matchless code he'll blaze both far and wide! 
 
 Beyond the bourne of vasty realms and seas! 
 
 Yon stars may fall ! fierce flames enwrap the world ! 
 
 Adance in fiendish glee midst wild uproar I 
 Mount Meru's mighty mass to ruin hurled ! 
 
 Still o'er vast realms thou 'It heign forcvermore I 
 
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