No
One Who Has Come Into The World Has Escaped From Affliction.
It
is vain to fix one's affections on it, and therefore it is best to
cultivate and practise religion.
" And so, as a remedy for the evil
which he has discovered to exist upon the earth, and to work out a
successful escape from it, he sits himself down in dust and ashes,
and, mistaking the sign-post, adopts the path which leads him furthest
from the point he wishes to arrive at.
As the Hindoo is the most ancient of religions, so the Buddhist
is the one which is professed by the largest portion of the human
race. It is the religion of Burmah, Ceylon, China, Siam, Thibet, and
Russian Tartary, and is computed to claim as many as three hundred
and sixty-nine millions among its Votaries.[36] "Gautama," or "Sakya
mounee," its founder, was born in Bengal about the seventh century
before Christ. Yet India at present contains no modern temples of its
worship, and no native of India, that I have ever met, knew anything
of its founder, or was even acquainted with the term "Buddha," or
"Buddhist." Its doctrines are the most curious of those that have
ever been promulgated, and appear even now to be scarcely understood
in all their ramifications. According to original Buddhism, there is
no Creator, nor being that is self-existent and eternal. The great
object is the attainment, in this life, of complete abstraction from
all worldly affairs and passions, and the ultimate result, of entire
annihilation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 243 of 303
Words from 65655 to 65914
of 82277
