The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-27

Rangoon in company with native Christian whose father was half Chi- nese To my surprise the first priest whom I met was an Engifshman, who turned Buddhist five years ago and donned the yellow robe. While walt ed for the native priest, to whom I had a letter, this Englishman gave me some thing of his history and brief defense of his new faith. He came from Lon- don six years ago as ship carpenter and a year after adopted Buddhism, which, he explained to me, does not require one to believe anything. While his parents were members of the Church of England he had never connected himself with any church, and, being an agnostic, the doctrines of Buddha ap- pealed to him. He described his adopt ed religion as one of works rather than of faith, and declared that the slums of | C'hristendom had no counterpart in Bur | ma The visitor. however, sees every where poverty and squalor which can only be paralleled in the most desti- | tute portions of our great cities, and nowhere the comfort and refinement which are general in the United States. Buddhism is reformed Hinduism and | in its teachings presents a higher sys- tenn of ethics than the religion from which 1t sprung. Gautama, called the Buddha or the Enlightened, was born between 500 and 500 years before Christ. and was of the Brahm!n caste. Not sat- isfied with the teachings of the Hindu philosopher concerning life, he went into seclusion at the age of 29 and de- voted himself to meditation. Six years later he announced his doctrines, des- tined to Impress so profoundly the thought of the Orient Accepting the Hindu theory that the soul passes from person to person. and even from the
 
 he offered Nirvana as q final release from this tiresorle and, endless change -Nirvana, a state of inconsistencies which follows the absorption of the in dividual soul in the soul of the uni verse. This was the end to be sought, and no wonder it came as a relief to those whose philosophy taught perpet- ual transition of the soul through man and beast and bird and reptile. The means of reaching Nirvana was through the renunciation of self. Life he con- ceived to be prolonged misery, infin- | itely drawn out and love of self he de- clared to be the root of all evil. So | long as one loves life, he cannot escap | from the bondage of existence. In the entire elimination of self by the re- | linouishment of a desire for separate existence here or hereafter-in this | alone could he find a path to Nirvana. The next forty-flve years of his life | he spent in expounding and elaborating his doctrines, in formulating rules and In perfccting the details of his system.
 Many of his precepts are admirable.
 For instance, he divides progress to"
 ward the blissful state into three
 stages In the first, he puts those who abstain from evil through fear of pun ishment: these he commends. though
 he considers the motive comparatively
 low Tn the second stage are those who, passing from negative harmless
 ness to helpfulness. do good from hope
 of reward: these he praises as acting from a higher motive than the first Tn the third state the seeker after Mir
 vana does good, not for hope of reward | but for the sake of love alone. The
 last gift love has to give is to give up | love of life itself and pass from further | change 10 chang gelessness.
 At one time Buddhism spread over
 India and promised the conquest of | Asia. Two hundred years after the
 Buddhists' death a great king, Asoka, sent out 4000 missionaries and the | doctrines of Gatuama were accepted | as far east as China and Japan and as | far south as Java. But the wave re- ceded; India returned to Hinduism, Chi na to Confucianism and Japan to Shin toism and Mohammadanism now out numbers Buddhism on the Ganges. The