Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-14
. the Eator Of the Telecreeh !:

To The Editor of the Telegraph:
An interesting editorial in the Tele-
graph recently on TaEore. the Indian
poet and philosopher, now in this
country. is bound to recall to many
a thought of the Buddha, the greatest
of Indian thinkers and reformers,
whose system of morals once counted
among its adherents half the human
race, and which has even now more
followers than the Roman Church, the
Greek Church, and all other sects of
Christians put together.
His name was Siddartha Guatame,
his father being the chief of tribe
IN the Aryan clan living some 100
miles north OF the city OF Benares,
near the foot of the Himalaya noun
tains. About the age of thirty he
come to the conclusion that material
pleasures and worldly goods did not
mean real happiness, and so leaving
his life of luxury and ease, even his
wife and children, he became penni-
less, despised student and homeless
wanderer. This occurred five hundred
years before the Christian era.
Among the Yery oldest records of
the Buddhist belief is a sermon of the
Buddha, which has been likened to
Christ's sermon on the mount. In it
he says: There are two extremes
which the man who has devoted him
self to the higher life ought not to
follow. They are the habitual practice,
on the one hand. of those things whose
attraction depends upon the passions,
and especially of sensuality "a low
and Pagan way of seeking gratifica-
ton, unworthy. Improbable, and fit
only for the worldly minded), and the
habitual practice. on the other hand,
of asceticism, or Standardization
which is not only painful. but as un-
worthy and improbable as the other.
HiGnnWarpA
middle path which avoids these two
eXtremities, path which opens the
eyes and bestows understanding,
which leads to peace of mind. to the
higher wisdom, to full enlightenment
in word, to Nirvana. And this path
is the noble eight-fold path of right
views, high aims, kindly speech, up
light conduct, a harmless livelihood,
perseverance in well-doing, intellec-
tual activity and earnest thought"
IT is rather strange fact that such
a scheme of salvation should have been
propounded at SO early period in the
history of our race. 1t is a painful
fact that the followers of Buddha have
distorted his simple philosophy with
silly legends, wars, prosecutions and
dogmas. Nevertheless, it has been the
source of the support of all that is
good within its realm, and its history
is not yet done, albeit Christianity is
beginning to replace it.
GiSt of Buddhism
The last part of Buddha's sermon
on the mount contains the gist of
Buddhism. He said: Birth is at
tended with pain, and so are decay and
disease and death. Union with the
unpleasant is painful. likewise separa-
ton from the pleasant: and any crav-
ing that is unsatisfied is a condition of
sorrow. Now, all this amounts, in
short, to this, that wherever there are
the conditions of individuality, there
are the conditions of sorrow. This is
the First Truth.
The cause of sorrow is the. thirst
or craving which causes the renewal
of individual existence. is accompan-
led by evil. and is ever seeking salts
faction, now here, now there-that is