ABOUT BUDDHISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 30 April 1891, Page 4

ABOUT BUDDHISM.

I / The religious system of Buddhism is the most widely spread of all the various religions of the East, raid its followers amount [to about 450,000,000, or nearly one third of I the., whole human race. According to the traditions of the Buddhists, the founder of their religion was a young Indian prince mamed Gautama, or Sakyamuni, who lived afibut 543 b.c. In his early youth he gave 'such signs of a contemplative disposition ' k that his father, afraid lest he should wish to jembrace a religious life, caused him to marry ( at an early age a beautiful princess. For a time Gautama settled down, but, when he jyvas about twenty-nine years of age, the sigh? of a man in extreme old age, another 'suffering from leprosy, of a corpse, and after tthese of a religious mendicant, caused him to think deeply upon the unsatisfying and [fleeting character of all human enjoyment. ►His former questionings concerning the problems of human life now returned with renewed force, and, after a severe mental [struggle, he determined to solve the mystery, [even at the cost of all that ambition, affection, or pleasure could offer. To effect this resolve he fled from his home by night, and 'for more than six years lived in the jungle as 'a religious recluse, practising such rigid penances as almost cost him his life. . At last, while one day in earnest meditation, the clouds rolled away from his mind, and in an.ecstacy- of joy he felt he had discovered the secret of human suffering, and the way to escape from it. It was then, in the belief of his followers, that he became the "Buddha," or " Enlightened One," and was fitted for his mission among men. Filled with this inspiration, he took up his begging howl, and set forth to show to men the way of. salvation. He soon formed a little company, which gradually increased until sixty disciples looked up to him as master. Having instructed them in his doctrines, he sent them out as missionaries of the new faith, and set out himself upon a similar journey, and in this manner he spent the rest of his life. His mission lasted forty-five years, and was attended with such great success that when his deachtook place, at eighty yearn of age, the new religion was firmly established in the land. Immediately after his death, his disciples resolved to reduce his teaching to willing, while it was fcesh in their memories. The missionary zeal of his disciples, instead of subsiding at his death, appears to have been considerably intensified, for it soon became the chief religion in several countries ; and in Ceylon, Eiumah, Siam, China, Japan, Cashmere, Thibet, and Nepaul it has remained until the present day. The Buddhists believe in the existence of innumerable worlds scattered throughout space, over each of which there is a series of heavens, and under each of which there is a series of hells. They believe in the existence of gods, but have no trace of any belief in a Supreme Deity. The belief in transmigration the founder accepted in the most extreme form. The four great truths which became the corner-stones df-Buddhism were : — I. — That misery always accompanies existence. r ll.— That all modes of existence result from desire. 111. — In Nirvana all pain and sorr,ow cease. IV. — There is a four-fold way leading to Nirvana. The iirst stage of this fourfold way is a knowledge of the evils arising from a separate state of existence, and the desire tc obtain deliverance from it. The second stage is reached when the believer has got rid of all lusts and feelings of anger or revenge against others. He has entered the third path who is free from all evil desires, from ignorance, doubt, wrong belief, and hatred. The fourth path is that reached when the believer becomes free from the lusts of the flesh, the defilements of wrong belief and ignorance, and the desire of existence ; he has then attained to the possibility of Nirvana. These four paths have been divided by the Buddhist teachers into eight steps, viz. : — right faith, right judgment, truthfulness, purity of purpose, right practice, right obedience, right memory, and right meditation. Fifteen classes of sins have beGn defined, viz.-: — murder, theft, adultery, untruthfulness, slander, the use of angry a,nd foolish words,- covetousness, malice, scepticism; intemperance, gambling, idleness, evil company, and improper amusements. Patience, resignation, and humility are enforced upon all men, while of all the virtues possible to man the highest place is given ta ctiaVHy, which is extended" to animals as well as man. Of the outpouring of blood as a sacrifice for-sin, the religion 'of Buddhism knows nothing, and the sinner is exhorted, if he would be freed from sin, to practice humiliation, repentance, and confession. The Buddhist priests are dressed in robes of yellow cloth, have their heads shaven, go barefooted and bareheaded, live in monasteries, and perform regular daily services in their temples ; they are also aworn to poverty and wlibacy, and jwjjgiiljip«n alms* . :. x *&.-