New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-02-26
THE FOUNDER OF BUDDHISM.
BY L. r. wHIPPLE.

Seven centuries before the Christian era.
a prince of one Of the royal families Of India,
having exhausted, in his twenty ninth year,
all the pleasures of the world. and having
in him one of the deepest, most cOmprehen-
sive, and most creative of human intellects,
suddenly abandoned in disgust his palace.
his family, his treasury, and his State; took
the name Of GOtama, which means, The
who kills the senses" became a religious
mendicant; walked about in a shroud taken
from the dead body Of female slave;
taught, preached, and gathered about him
body of enthusiastic disciples, bound to-
gether by the most efficient of all ecclesias
teal organizations; dictated or inspired
works which. as now published by the
Chinese government in four languages. Oc-
cupy eight hundred volumes, and died at
the age Of eighty, the founder Of the Bud
dhistFeligion.
Compared with this man, Mahomet was
an ignorant and ferOciOus barbarian and
the proudest names in Western philosophy
lose little Of their lustre when placed by
the side Of this thinker, who grappled with
the greatest problems Of existence with the
mightiest force of conception and reasoning.
As philosopher, he anticipated both the
idealism of Berkeley and the positivism of
COmte as political thinker. he anticipa-
ted the nOblest truth of our 'Declaration of
Independence" and twenty-five hundred
years ago taught, against the caste system
OF India. the doctrine of the equality of men i,
and, in that region Of influence. higher than
that in which either philosophy or states
manship works, he founded a religion which
is now prOfessed by twO-tifths of the human
race, and which thus exceeds in the number
of its vOtaries, that of any other religion in
the world.
Buddhism has been corrupted by fan
tastic mythology, but its essential prin-
ciple. derived from it's founders disgust Of
existence, is, that life is not worth living.
and that the extinction Of life is the highest
reward of virtue. To pass. in the next
world, through various penal or purifying
transmigratiOns, until you reach the bliss of
Nirwana, or mere nOthingness and nonen-
tity. that is the Buddhist religion. We
have said that it was prOfessed by two
tifths Of the human race, out its fundamen-
tai principle, that life is not worth living, is
believed, if not professcd, by a large major
ity of mankind. Not to speak of the hun
.dreds of wailing books which, misanthropic
genius has contributed to all modern litera
lures. not to remind the reader that the
Buddhist Byron is the most popular British
poet Of the century, that person must have
been singularly blessed with cheerful CON-
paniOns who has not met followers of
Gotama among the nominal believers in
Christ.
The infection of the doctrine as an inter-
probation Of human experience is SO great
that comparatively few have altogether
escaped its influence. In basing his religion
on this disease Of human nature. Gotama
showed profounder ssgacity than that
evinced by any founder Of a false religion;
and in the East this disease presented its
most despairing phase, for there WEAKNESS
of life was associated both with the safety
of the rich and the Indebtedness of the poor.
But whence comes this disgust of life
We answer, from the comparative absence
of life. No man feels it who feels the
Astounding reality of spiritual existence
glowing within him; for rightly sings the
poet:
Whatever crazy sorrow saith
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death.
'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant.
D life, not death, for which pant;
More life, and fuller that we want"