The record-union., 1893-12-08
oOaDENq TURNING TO ORIENT.
Professor Adler Explains the Impulse
Given to Buddhism


Professor Adler Explains the Impulse
Given to Buddhism.
To-day" says Professor Adler, when
creeds are breaking up and men are look
ing everywhere for the doctrines which
will best suit them, the Occident turns to
the Orient for reading of the riddle.
That is one of the reasons why an i'm
pulse has been given to Buddhism. That
is why it is claimed that in Paris alone
there are 10000 Buddhists. That is why
Buddhism Is claiming the interest of
England and America
Buddhism is the first great missionary
religion OF the world. Ii is 2,400 years
old. In point Of number it outranks
every other religion. The number OF its
followers is now estimated at 450,000,000.
buddhism is the religion of pity. The
one problem that Buddha sought to solve
was how to lessen, how essentially to
abolish pain. To his teachings there is a
metaphysical and humanitarian side.
Born Prince and enjoying all the
pleasures of LIE, he found that pleasure
clogs, that the joy and beauty of this life
are transitory. He tried extreme self
modification, self-infiicted pain, and
came to the conclusion that it did not
lead TO holiness. Then he preached
against extremes, either of pleasure or of
pain.
HE taught the believers in transcend
entaIlsm that whatever is born is born to
pain. He sought not to be saved in a
hereafter, where there might be contin-
uation of this pain, but to be saved from
hereafter. His first and highest teach
Ing was self-conquest. He believed that
TO avoid the hereafter men should kill in
themselves desire, which is the principle
of life. His whole object was to kill de-
sire.
From love. he said, came grief From
love came fear. Who loves not has
neither grief nor fear. Self-conquest, as
the Bible teaches it, is the avoidance of
sensuality, because it kills the higher
parts of man. AS Buddha taught it, it
was nothing less than self-annihilation.
The humanitarian side of his religion
was the diminishing of pain. He had
nVe commandments-thou shalt not kill,
thou shall not steal, thou shalt not COM
NIT adultery, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt
not drink Intoxicating liquor.
ITO abolish pain, he advocated the care
OF the sick. He declared against war.
His was a religion without prayer.
Buddha's religion would be beneficent
one II worldIlness had not been put into
1t. His efforts were paralyzed by the
narcotic influence OF transcendentaiism.
Hls was, 1t Is, an agnostic religion.
Buddha never declared his belief in
God. He said it was best for men not to
ponder on such question, and that they
would better mind their own business
the extinction Of pain.
He refused to organize priesthood.
Every body, he declared, must be his own
priest. Now, his simplicity has been COR
rupted into religion with the most elab-
crate hierarchy in the world. The point
OF contact between Buddhism and our
modern life is that there exists to-day
desire for the knowledge of foreign re-
ligions. Thousands of persons are seek
ing a religion. Buddhism, too has
vein of pessimism which meets the SYM
pathy Of the people of to-day, and in it
there is an atmosphere of tranquility and
repose"