Buddha alludes to an interview with several former Buddhas. Sceptics question
his statement: ''• Only forty years ago you left your native town : how can you
claim to have seen all those saints of old ? " Buddha explains it by the pre-
existence of his soul.
Buddha walks on the River Ganges. He heals the sick by a mere touch of his hand
; and, according to Wassiljew, the Mayana-Sutra relates the miracle of the
loaves and fishes. Buddha repeatedly has a miraculous escape from the snares of
his adversaries. " But he, going through the midst of them, went his way."
Once, when riding on his horse, Kantaka, his path was strewn with flowers
thrown down by Devas. Buddha remains homeless and poor, and instructs his
disciples to travel without money, trusting to the aid of Providence. At one
time having no money to pay a boatman who refuses to carry him without pay,
Buddha floats through the air across the stream.
To convert certain sceptical villagers he showed them a man walking across a
deep and rapid river, without immersing his feet. A disciple had his feet
hacked off by an unjust king, and Buddha cured him. At his appearance the sick
were healed, the deaf cured, and the blind had their sight restored.
Even his disciples performed miracles. The brother of one of them being in
imminent danger of shipwreck, in a "black storm," the fact was made known to
the disciple by spirits, and he at once performed the miracle of transporting
himself to the deck of the ship, when immediately the black tempest ceased.
Several of Buddha's disciples received power to exorcise evil spirits. They
also had the gift of speaking in foreign tongues.
Some of the followers of Buddha being imprisoned by an unjust emperor, an
angel, or spirit, came and opened the prison-door, and liberated them.
It is related of one of his followers that his eye offended him, and that he
plucked it out and cast it away.
One day Buddha's disciple, Ananda, after a long walk in the country, meets with
a woman of the low caste of the Kandalas, near a well, and asks her for some
water. She tells him what she is, and that she must not come near him. He
replies, *' My sister, I ask not for thy caste or thy family ; I ask only for a
draught of water." She afterwards becomes a disciple of Buddha.
It is said that towards the end of his life Buddha was transfigured on Mount
Pandava, in Ceylon. Suddenly a flame of light descended upon him, and encircled
the crown of his head with a circle of light. His body became "glorious as a
bright, golden image," and shone as the brightness of the Sun and moon. " His
body was divided into three parts, from each of which a ray of light issued
forth."
It is recorded, in the sacred canon of the Buddhists, that the multitude
required a sign from Buddha, that they might believe. Buddha delighted in
representing himself as merely a link in a long chain of teachers.
He taught his disciples to hide their good deeds, and confess their sins before
the world, to love truth and hate the lie. He also taught that all men are
brothers, that charity should be extended to all, even to enemies, and that the
motive of all actions should be pity or love for one's neighbor. His dis
ciples were told that they must renounce the world, give up all their riches,
and embrace poverty.
In the Buddhist Somadeva is the following: "To give away our riches is
considered the most difficult virtue in the world ; he who gives away his
riches is like a man who gives away his life ; for our very life seems to cling
to our riches. But Buddha, when his mind was moved by pity, gave his life like
grass, for the sake of others."
Buddha is reported to have said : " I now desire to turn the wheel of the
excellent law. For this purpose am I going to the city of Benares, to give
light to those shrouded in darkness, and to open the gates of immortality to
man."
When his career on earth was about coming to a close, he, " foreseeing the
things that would happen in future times," said to his disciple Ananda : " When
I am gone, you must not think there is no Buddha ; the discourses I have
delivered, and the precepts I have enjoined, must be my successors, or
representatives, and be to you as Buddha."
Again he said : " Though the heavens were to fall to earth, and the great world
be swallowed up and pass away ; though Mount Sumera were to crack to pieces,
and the great ocean be dried up, yet, Ananda, be assured the words of Buddha
are true."
At the death of Buddha, the earth trembled, the rocks were split and phantoms
and spirits appeared. He descended to hell and preached to the spirits of the
damned.
When Buddha was buried, tne coverings of the body unrolled themselves, the lid
of his coffin was opened by supernatural powers, and he ascended bodily to the
celestial regions. Marks on the rocks of a high mountain are shown, which are
believed to be the last imprint of his footsteps in this world.
He was called the Lion of the Tribe of Sakya, the King of Righteousness, the
Great Physician, the God among Gods, the Only Begotten, the Word, the All-wise,
the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Intercessor, the Prince of Peace, the Good
Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Anointed, the Christ, the Messiah, the
Saviour of the World, the Way of Life and Immortality. Indeed in Ceylon the
name of Buddha has twelve thousand synonyms.
When the time came for him to depart, he told his disciples to no longer remain
together, but to go out in companies, and proclaim the doctrines he had taught
them, to found schools and monasteries, build temples, and perform acts of
charity, that they might obtain merit, and gain access to the blessed abode
of Nigban, which he told them he was about to enter.
The ever-faithful women were to be found at the last scene in the life of
Buddha. At his death one of his disciples found the master's feet soiled and
wet, and, asking the cause of it, was told that a weeping woman had embraced
Gautama's feet shortly before his death, and that her tears had fallen on his
feet and left the marks there.
After his death Buddha was exalted to the rank of deity. He was made equal to
Brahma ; Demons were powerless against his word ; angels and arhats ministered
unto him.
Buddha taught the efficacy of vicarious atonement ; a hell of fire and
ceaseless torment ; the existence of a prodigious number of malevolent demons ;
the virtue of celibacy; the merit of seclusion and a retired life; the
rejection of ancient rites and ceremonies ; the utility of self-sacrifice ;
the vanity of earthly joys ; the demerit of wealth ; the depreciation of
industry and the pursuit of worldly advantages ; the merit of mendicancy ;
the merit of abandoning wife and children ; love of enemies ; patience,
submission, and self-denial ; submission to injustice and tyranny ; the
sinfulness of scepticism ; auricular confession of sin, and the worship of
saints.
Buddha's mercy is compared to a rain-cloud, which showers blessings upon the
just and unjust. Earthly joys are compared to the grass which blooms to-day,
and to-morrow is cast into the fire.
True believers are advised to gather treasures which neither thieves can steal
nor fire and water can spoil. Ignorant teachers are likened to the blind
leading the blind. The repentant sinner is described in a parable of a
prodigal son, who wastes his substance in foreign countries, but at last
returns to the house of his father, where, after serving as a common day-
laborer, the son is pardoned, and becomes his father's chief heir.
The new religion spread extensively all over the vast continent of Hindostan;
and finally, about three hundred years after Buddha's death, found an
enthusiastic and powerful convert in the person of a king called Asoka. This
ruler was imbued with a missionary spirit, and under his influence some eighty
thousand missionaries went throughout India, and into China, Japan, Ceylon,
Persia, Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, to that very populous and
important emporium, Alexandria. Indeed, they seem to have gone into every
country to which ships, caravans, and the flow of commerce gave them access.
Buddha's representative on earth is the Grand Lama, the high-priest of the
Tartars, who is regarded as the vicegerent of God. The Tartars have
oecumenical councils, monasteries, nunneries, the division of temples into a
nave and transept, pulpits, dalmaticas, bell-ringing, incense, the censor
suspended from five chains, chalices, chaplets, rosaries, chanted services,
litanies, aspersions with consecrated water, priests with shaven polls and bare
heads, confession of sins, prayers for the sick, extreme unction, masses and
sacrifices for the dead, worship of relics, weekly and yearly fasts, feast of
the Immaculate Conception, Candlemas, Baptism, the Eucharist, worship of one
God in Trinity and a belief in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.
Buddhism is supposed to have been more extensively adopted than any other
religion. For nearly two thousand four hundred years it has been the
established religion of Burmah, Siam, Laos, Cambodia, Thibet, Japan, Tartary,
Ceylon, Loo-Choo, and many neighboring islands, besides about twothirds of
China and a large portion of Siberia ; and at the present day no inconsiderable
number of the peasantry of Lapland are to be found among its adherents.
Its votaries are computed at four-hundred-millions, more than one-third of
the entire population of the world, while Hindooism and Buddhism together
have become the faiths of more than onehalf the human race, and have spread
Aryan theology and culture throughout Asia, to the utmost limits of China and
Japan.
The Aryan sun-myths, as has been mentioned, went with the Aryans when they
peopled Persia, and became the religion of the ancient Parsees. Mithras was the
name which the Persians gave to the Sun. After ages had passed, it was utterly
forgotten that Mithras was the Sun, and it was believed that he was the. Only
Begotten Son of God, who had come down from Heaven to be a mediator between God
and man, to save men from their sins. The twenty-fifth of December was said to
be the day on which this God-man was born, and it was celebrated with great
rejoicings. The legend was that the wondrous infant was visited soon after his
miraculous birth, by wise men called magi, who brought gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. It was customary for the magi to ascend a high
mountain, at early dawn on the twenty-fifth of December, and there, with their
faces turned to the east, to wait anxiously for the first rays of the Sun,
which they hailed with incense and prayer. The shepherds, also, were in the
habit of prostrating themselves and praying to their god, the Sun. (See Note
4.)
Mithras was said to be the Logos, also the Anointed, or the Christ, and was
called the Lamb of God. His worshippers addressed him in their litany,
constantly repeating the words : O Lamb of God! that taketh away the sins of
the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us thy peace. It was believed by the
inhabitants of Persia, Asia Minor, and Armenia that Mithras had been put to
death, been three days in Hell, and had risen again from the dead. In their
mysteries was exhibited the body of a young man, apparently dead, who was pres
ently restored to life. His disciples watched his sepulchre till midnight, on
the twenty-fourth of March, with wailings and in darkness, when suddenly the
place would be brilliantly illuminated, and the priest would cry : Rejoice, O
sacred Initiated; your God is risen. His death, his pains, his sufferings,
have worked our salvation. Mithras's symbol was a serpent.
The Mithrians had their mysterious meetings, their chapels, and their ceremony
of initiation, which included Baptism and the Eucharist. The forehead of the
initiate was marked, at the time of baptism, with the sign of the cross.
Infants also were baptized, for the purification of the soul, sin having been
inherited, a name being given to the child at that time. The ancient Persians
believed that they were tainted with original sin, owing to the fall of their
first parents, who were tempted by the Evil One, in the form of a serpent.
Indeed, their legends of the Creation of Heden.^ the original abode of man
and the River of Life, are almost identical with the account of the Creation
and Garden of Eden, contained in Genesis. They had a legend of a Deluge, and
also a legend that is similar to the Hebrew story of Jonah. (See Appendix D.)
