,,adyar ,,pamphlets                     
,no4 #ae                         ,the   
,life of ,buddha and ,its               
,lessons                                
,,by                               ,h4  
,s4 ,,olcott                            
,,theosophical ,,publishing ,,house     
,,adyar1 ,,madras1 ,,india              
,first ,edition3 ,may #aiab             
,second ,edition3 ,sept4 #aiai     ,the 
,life of ,buddha and ,its ,lessons      
,the thoughtful student1 in scanning the
 religious history of the race1 has one 
fact continually forced upon his notice1
 viz41 that there is an invariable      
tendency to deify whomsoever shows      
himself superior to the weakness of our 
common humanity4 ,look where we will1 we
 find the saint-like man exalted into a 
divine personage and worshipped for a   
god4 ,though perhaps misunderstood1     
reviled and even persecuted while       
living1 the apotheosis is almost sure to
 come after death3 and the victim of    
yesterday's mob1 raised to the state of 

an ,intercessor in ,heaven1 is besought 
with prayer and tears1 and placatory    
penances1 to mediate with ,god for the  
pardon of human sin4 ,this is a mean and
 vile trait of human nature1 the proof  
of ignorance1 selfishness1 brutal       
cowardice1 and a superstitious          
materialism4 ,it shows the base instinct
 to put down and destroy whatever or    
whoever makes men feel their own        
imperfections2 with the alternative of  
ignoring and denying these very         
imperfections by turning into gods men  
who have merely spiritualised their     
natures1 so that it may be supposed that
 they were heavenly incarnations and not
 mortal like other men4  ,this process  
of euhemerisation1 as it is called1 or  
the making of men into gods and gods    
into men1 sometimes1 though more rarely1
 begins during the life of the hero1 but
 usually after death4 ,the true history 
of his life is gradually amplified and  
decorated with fanciful incidents1 to   
fit it to the new character which has   

been posthumously given him4 ,omens and 
portents are now made to attend his     
earthly avatra3 his precocity is        
described as superhuman3 as a babe or   
lisping child he silences the wisest    
logicians by his divine knowledge3      
miracles he produces as other boys do   
soap-bubbles3 the terrible energies of  
nature are his playthings3 the gods1    
angels1 and demons are his habitual     
attendants3 the sun1 moon1 and all the  
starry host wheel around his cradle in  
joyful measures1 and the earth thrills  
with joy at having borne such a prodigy3
 and at his last hour of mortal life the
 whole universe shakes with conflicting 
emotions4  ,why need ,i use the few     
moments at my disposal to marshal before
 you the various personages of whom     
these fables have been written8 ,let it 
suffice to recall the interesting fact  
to your notice1 and invite you to       
compare the respective biographies of   
the ,brhmanical ,krshna1 the ,persian   
,zoroaster1 the ,egyptian ,hermes1 the  

,indian ,gautama1 and the canonical1    
especially the apocryphal1 ,jesus4      
,taking ,krshna or ,zoroaster1 as you   
please1 as the most ancient1 and coming 
down the chronological line of descent1 
you will find them all made after the   
same pattern4 ,the real personage is all
 covered up and concealed under the     
embroidered veils of the romancer and   
the enthusiastic historiographer4 ,what 
is surprising to me is that this        
tendency to exaggeration and hyperbole  
is not more commonly allowed for by     
those who in our days attempt to discuss
 and compare religions4 ,we are         
constantly and painfully reminded that  
the prejudice of inimical critics1 on   
the one hand1 and the furious bigotry of
 devotees1 on the other1 blind men to   
fact and probability1 and lead to gross 
injustice4 ,let me take as an example   
the mythical biographies of ,jesus4 ,at 
the time when the ,council of ,nicea was
 convened for settling the quarrels of  
certain bishops1 and for the purpose of 

examining into the canonicity of the    
three hundred more or less apocryphal   
gospels that were being read in the     
,christian churches as inspired         
writings1 the history of the life of    
,christ had reached the height of absurd
 myth4 ,we may see some specimens in the
 extant books of the apocryphal ,new    
,testament1 but most of them are now    
lost4 ,what have been retained in the   
present ,canon may doubtless be regarded
 as the least objectionable4 ,and yet we
 must not hastily adopt even this       
conclusion1 for you know that ,sabina1  
,bishop of ,heracha1 himself speaking of
 the ,council of ,nicea1 affirms that   
except ,constantine and ,sabinus1       
,bishop of ,pamphilus1 these bishops    
were a set of illiterate1 simple        
creatures that understood nothing2 which
 is as though he had said they were a   
pack of fools4 ,and ,pappus1 in his     
,synodicon to that ,council of ,nicea1  
lets us into the secret that the ,canon 
was not decided by a careful comparison 

of several gospels before them1 but by a
 lottery4 ,having1 he tells us1         
promiscuously put all the books that    
were referred to the ,council for       
determination under a ,communion table  
in a church1 they 7the bishops7 besought
 the ,lord that the inspired writings   
might get up on the table1 while the    
spurious writings remained underneath1  
and it happened accordingly4  ,but      
letting all this pass and looking only  
to what is contained in the present     
,canon1 we see the same tendency to     
compel all nature to attest the divinity
 of the writer's hero4 ,at the nativity 
a star leaves its orbit and leads the   
,persian astrologers to the divine      
child1 and angels come and converse with
 shepherds1 and a whole train of like   
celestial phenomena occurs at various   
stages of his earthly career1 which     
closes amid earthquakes1 a pall of      
darkness over the whole scene1 a        
supernatural war of the elements1 the   
opening of graves and the walking about 

of their tenants1 and other appalling   
wonders4 ,now1 if the candid ,buddhist  
concedes that the real history of       
,gautama is embellished by like absurd  
exaggerations1 and if we can find their 
duplicates in the biographies of        
,zoroaster1 ,shankarchrya and other real
 personages of antiquity1 have we not   
the right to conclude that the true     
history of the ,founder of              
,christianity1 if at this late date it  
were possible to write it1 would be very
 different from the narratives that pass
 current8 ,we must not forget that      
,jerusalem was at that time a ,roman    
dependency1 just as ,ceylon is now a    
,british1 and that the silence of       
contemporary ,roman historians about any
 such violent disturbances of the       
equilibrium of nature is deeply         
significant4  ,i have cited this example
 for the sole and simple purpose of     
bringing home to the non-,buddhistic    
portion of my present audience the      
conviction that1 in considering the life

 of ,skya ,muni and the lessons it      
teaches1 they must not make his         
followers of to-day responsible for any 
extravagant exuberances of past         
biographers4 ,the doctrine of ,buddha   
and its effects are to be judged quite  
apart from the man1 just as the doctrine
 ascribed to ,jesus and its effects are 
to be considered quite irrespectively of
 his personal history4 ,and--as ,i hope 
,i have shown--the actual doings and    
sayings of every founder of a ,faith or 
a school of philosophy must be sought   
for under a heap of tinsel and rubbish  
contributed by successive generations of
 followers4  ,approaching the question  
of the hour in this spirit of           
precaution1 what do we find are the     
probabilities respecting the life of    
,skya ,muni8 ,who was he8 ,when did he  
live8 ,how did he live8 ,what did he    
teach8 ,a most careful comparison of    
authorities and analysis of evidence    
establishes1 ,i think1 the following    
data3  #a4 ,he was the son of a king4   

#b4 ,he lived between six and seven     
centuries before ,christ4  #c4 ,he      
resigned his royal state and went to    
live in the jungle1 and among the lowest
 and most unhappy classes1 so as to     
learn the secret of human pain and      
misery by personal experience3 tested   
every known austerity of the ,hind      
ascetics and excelled them all in his   
power of endurance3 sounded every depth 
of woe in search of the means to        
alleviate it3 and at last came out      
victorious1 and showed the world the way
 to salvation4  #d4 ,what he taught may 
be summed up in a few words1 as the     
perfume of many roses may be distilled  
into a few drops of attar3 ,everything  
in the world of ,matter is unreal2 the  
only reality is in the world of ,spirit4
 ,emancipate yourselves from the tyranny
 of the former2 strive to attain the    
latter4 ,the ,rev4 ,samuel ,beal1 in his
 ,catena of ,buddhist ,scriptures from  
the ,chinese puts it differently4 ,the  
idea underlying the ,buddhist religious 

system is1 he says1 simply this3 'all is
 vanity'4 ,earth is a show1 and ,heaven 
is a vain reward4 ,primitive ,buddhism  
was engrossed1 absorbed1 by one         
thought--the vanity of finite existence1
 the priceless value of the one         
condition of ,eternal ,rest4  ,if ,i    
have the temerity to prefer my own      
definition of the spirit of ,buddha's   
doctrine1 it is because ,i think that   
all the misconceptions of it have arisen
 from a failure to understand his idea  
of what is real and what is unreal1 what
 worth longing and striving for and what
 not4 ,from this misconception have come
 all the unfounded charges that         
,buddhism is an atheistical1 that is to 
say1 a grossly materialistic1 a         
nihilistic1 a negative1 a vice-breeding 
religion4 ,buddhism denies the existence
 of a personal ,god--true3              
therefore--well1 therefore1 and         
notwithstanding all this1 its teaching  
is neither what may be called properly  
atheistical1 nihilistic1 negative1 nor  

provocative of vice4 ,i will try to make
 my meaning clear1 and the advancement  
of modern scientific research helps in  
this direction4 ,science divides the    
universe for us into two                
elements--matter and force2 accounting  
for their phenomena by their            
combinations1 and making both eternal   
and obedient to eternal and immutable   
law4 ,the speculations of men of science
 have carried them to the outermost     
verge of the physical universe4 ,behind 
them lie not only a thousand brilliant  
triumphs by which a part of ,nature's   
secrets have been wrung from her1 but   
also more thousands of failures to      
fathom her deep mysteries4 ,they have   
proved thought material1 since it is the
 evolution of the gray tissue of the    
brain1 and a recent ,german             
experimentalist1 ,professor ,dr4 ,jger1 
claims to have proved that man's soul is
 a volatile odoriferous principle1      
capable of solution in glycerine4       
,psychogen is the name he gives to it1  

and his experiments show that it is     
present not merely in the body as a     
whole1 but in every individual cell1 in 
the ovum1 and even in the ultimate      
elements of protoplasm4 ,i need hardly  
say to so intelligent an audience as    
this1 that these highly interesting     
experiments of ,dr4 ,jger are           
corroborated by many facts1 both        
physiological and psychological1 that   
have been always noticed among all      
nations2 facts which are woven into     
popular proverbs1 legends1 folk-lore    
fables1 mythologies and theologies1 the 
world over4 ,now1 if thought is matter  
and soul is matter1 then ,buddha1 in    
recognising the impermanence of sensual 
enjoyment or experience of any kind1 and
 the instability of every material form1
 the human soul included1 uttered a     
profound and scientific truth1 ,and     
since the very idea of gratification or 
suffering is inseparable from that of   
material being--absolute ,,spirit alone 
being regarded by common consent as     

perfect1 changeless and                 
,eternal--therefore1 in teaching the    
doctrine that conquest of the material  
self1 with all its lusts1 desires1      
loves1 hopes1 ambitions and hates1 frees
 one from pain1 and leads to ,nirvna1   
the state of ,perfect ,rest1 he preached
 the rest of an untinged1 untainted     
existence in the ,spirit4 ,though the   
soul be composed of the finest          
conceivable substance1 yet if substance 
at all--as ,dr4 ,jger seems able to     
prove1 and ages of human intercourse    
with the weird phantoms of the shadow   
world imply--it must in time perish4    
,what remains is that changeless part of
 man1 which most philosophers call      
,spirit1 and ,nirvna is its necessary   
condition of existence4 ,the only       
dispute between ,buddhist authorities is
 whether this ,nirvnic existence is     
attended with individual consciousness1 
or whether the individual is merged in  
the whole1 as the extinguished flame is 
lost in the air4 ,but there are those   

who say that the flame has not been     
annihilated by the blowing out4 ,it has 
only passed out of the visible world of 
matter into the invisible world of      
,spirit1 where it still exists and will 
ever exist1 as a bright reality4 ,such  
thinkers can understand ,buddha's       
doctrine and1 while agreeing with him   
that soul is not immortal1 would spurn  
the charge of materialistic nihilism1 if
 brought against either that sublime    
teacher or themselves4  ,the history of 
,skya ,muni's life is the strongest     
bulwark of his religion4 ,as long as the
 human heart is capable of being touched
 by tales of heroic self-sacrifice1     
accompanied by purity and celestial     
benevolence of motive1 it will cherish  
his memory4 ,why should ,i go into the  
particulars of that noble life8 ,you    
will remember that he was the son of the
 king of ,kapilavastu--a mighty         
sovereign whose opulence enabled him to 
give the heir of his house every luxury 
that a voluptuous imagination could     

desire3 and that the future ,buddha was 
not allowed even to know1 much less     
observe1 the miseries of ordinary       
existence4 ,how beautifully ,edwin      
,arnold has painted for us in ,the      
,light of ,asia the luxury and languor  
of that ,indian ,court1 where love was  
gaoler and delights its bars4 ,we are   
told that3      ,the king commanded that
 within those walls       ,no mention   
should be made of age or death          
,sorrow or pain1 or sickness 444        
,and every dawn the dying rose was      
plucked1     ,the dead leaves hid1 all  
evil sights removed3       ,for said the
 king1 ,if he shall pass his youth      
,far from such things as move to        
wistfulness       ,and brooding on the  
empty eggs of thought1     ,the shadow  
of this fate1 too vast for man1         
,may fade1 belike1 and ,i shall see him 
grow     ,to that great stature of fair 
sovereignty1       ,when he shall rule  
all lands--if he will rule--     ,the   
king of kings and glory of his time4    

,you know how vain were all the         
precautions taken by the father to      
prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy  
that his beloved son would be the coming
 ,buddha4 ,though all suggestions of    
death were banished from the royal      
palace1 though the city was bedecked    
with flowers and gay flags1 and every   
painful object removed from sight when  
the young ,prince ,siddrtha visited it1 
yet the decrees of destiny were not to  
be baffled1 the voices of the spirits1  
the wandering winds and the devas1      
whispered the truth of human sorrows    
into his listening ear1 and when the    
appointed hour arrived1 the ,suddha     
,devas threw the spell of slumber over  
the household1 steeped in profound      
lethargy the sentinels 7as we are told  
was done by an angel to the gaolers of  
,peter's prison71 rolled back the triple
 gates of bronze1 strewed the sweet     
moghra-flowers thickly beneath his      
horse's feet to muffle every sound1 and 
he was free4 ,free8 ,yes--to resign     

every earthly comfort1 every sensuous   
enjoyment1 the sweets of royal power1   
the homage of a ,court1 the delights of 
domestic life3 gems1 the glitter of     
gold3 rich stuffs1 rich food1 soft beds3
 the songs of trained musicians1 and of 
birds kept prisoners in gay cages1 the  
murmur of perfumed waters plashing in   
marble basins1 the delicious shade of   
trees in gardens where art had contrived
 to make nature even lovelier than      
herself4 ,he leaps from his saddle when 
at a safe distance from the palace1     
flings the jewelled rein to his faithful
 groom1 ,channa1 cuts off his flowing   
locks1 gives his rich costume to a      
hunter in exchange for his own1 plunges 
into the jungle1 and is free3      ,to  
tread its paths with patient1 stainless 
feet1       ,making its dusty bed1 its  
loneliest wastes     ,my dwelling1 and  
its meanest things my mates3       ,clad
 in no prouder garb than outcasts wear1 
,fed with no meals save what the        
charitable       ,give of their will1   

sheltered by no more pomp1     ,than the
 dim cave lends or the jungle-bush4     
,this will ,i do because the woeful cry 
,of life and all flesh living cometh up 
,into my ears1 and all my soul is full  
,of pity for the sickness of this world3
       ,which ,i will heal1 if healing  
may be found     ,by uttermost          
renouncing and strong strife4  ,thus    
masterfully does ,sir ,edwin ,arnold    
depict the sentiment which provoked this
 ,great ,renunciator4 ,the testimony of 
thousands of millions who1 during the   
last twenty-five centuries1 have        
professed the ,buddhistic religion1     
proves that the secret of human misery  
was at last solved by this divine       
self-sacrifice1 and the true path to    
,nirvna opened4  ,the joy that he       
brought to the hearts of others1 ,buddha
 first tasted himself4 ,he found that   
the pleasures of the eye1 the ear1 the  
taste1 touch and smell are fleeting and 
deceptive3 he who gives value to them   
brings only disappointment and bitter   

sorrow upon himself4 ,the social        
differences between men he found were   
equally arbitrary and illusive2 caste   
bred hatred and selfishness2 riches     
strife1 envy and malice4 ,so in founding
 his ,faith he laid the bottom of its   
foundation-stones upon all this worldly 
dirt1 and its dome in the clear serene  
of the world of ,spirit4 ,he who can    
mount to a clear conception of ,nirvna  
will find his thought far away above the
 common joys and sorrows of petty men4  
,as to one who ascends to the top of    
,chimborazo or the ,himlayan crags1 and 
sees men on the earth's surface crawling
 to and fro like ants1 so equally small 
do bigots and sectarians appear to him4 
,the mountain climber has under his feet
 the very clouds from whose sun-painted 
shapes the poet has figured to himself  
the golden streets and glittering domes 
of the materialistic ,heaven of a       
personal ,god4 ,below him are all the   
various objects out of which the world's
 pantheons have been manufactured3      

around1 above--,immensity4 ,and so also1
 far down the ascending plane of thought
 that leads from the earth towards the  
,infinite1 the philosophic ,buddhist    
describes1 at different plateaux1 the   
heavens and hells1 the gods and demons1 
of the materialistic creed-builders4    
,what are the lessons to be derived from
 the life and teachings of this heroic  
prince of ,kapilavastu8 ,lessons of     
gratitude and benevolence4 ,lessons of  
tolerance for the clashing opinions of  
men who live1 move and have their being1
 think and aspire1 only in the material 
world4 ,the lesson of a common tie of   
brotherhood among all men4 ,lessons of  
manly self-reliance1 of equanimity in   
breasting whatsoever of good or ill may 
happen4 ,lessons of the meanness of the 
rewards1 the pettiness of the           
misfortunes of a shifting world of      
illusions4 ,lessons of the necessity for
 avoiding every species of evil thought 
and word1 and for doing1 speaking and   
thinking everything that is good1 and   

for the bringing of the mind into       
subjection so that these may be         
accomplished without selfish motive or  
vanity4 ,lessons of self-purification   
and communion1 by which the illusiveness
 of externals and the value of internals
 are understood4  ,well might ,st4      
,hilaire burst into the panegyric that  
,buddha is the perfect model of all the 
virtues he preaches 444 his life has not
 a stain upon it4 ,well might the sober 
critic ,max ,mller pronounce his moral  
code one of the most perfect which the  
world has ever known4 ,no wonder that in
 contemplating that gentle life ,edwin  
,arnold should have found his           
personality the highest1 gentlest1      
holiest and most beneficent 444 in the  
history of thought1 and been moved to   
write his splendid verses4 ,it is       
twenty-five hundred years since humanity
 put forth such a flower3 who knows when
 it did before8  ,gautama ,buddha1 ,skya
 ,muni1 has ennobled the whole human    
race4 ,his fame is our common           

inheritance4 ,his ,law is the law of    
,justice1 providing for every good      
thought1 word and deed its fair reward1 
for every evil one its proper           
punishment4 ,his law is in harmony with 
the voices of ,nature1 and the evident  
equilibrium of the universe4 ,it yields 
nothing to importunities or threats1 can
 be neither coaxed nor bribed by        
offerings to abate or alter one jot or  
tittle of its inexorable course4 ,am ,i 
told that ,buddhist laymen display      
vanity in their worship and ostentation 
in their almsgiving2 that they are      
fostering sects as bitterly as ,hinds8  
,so much the worse for the laymen3 there
 is the example of ,buddha and his ,law4
 ,am ,i told that ,buddhist priests are 
ignorant1 idle fosterers of             
superstitions grafted on their religion 
by foreign kings8 ,so much the worse for
 the priests3 the life of their ,divine 
,master shames them and shows their     
unworthiness to wear his yellow robe or 
carry his beggar's bowl4 ,there is the  

,law--immutable--menacing2 it will find 
them out and punish4  ,and what shall we
 say to those of another caste of       
character--the humble-minded1           
charitable1 tolerant1 religiously       
aspiring hearts among the laity1 and the
 unselfish1 pure and learned of the     
priests who know the ,precepts and keep 
them8 ,the ,law will find them out also2
 and when the book of each life is      
written up and the balance struck1 every
 good thought or deed will be found     
entered in its proper place4 ,not one   
blessing that ever followed them from   
grateful lips throughout their earthly  
pilgrimage will be found to have been   
lost2 but each will help to ease their  
way as they move from stage to stage of 
,being       ,,unto ,,nirv,n,a ,,where  
,,the ,,silence ,,lives4         99     
99       99       99       99     ,,the 
,,adyar ,,pamphlets  ,vol4 ,,ix4   #ig4 
,occultism4                             
,annie ,besant  #ih4   ,brotherhood4    
,dr4 ,th4 ,pascal  #ii4   ,life ,after  

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,clairvoyance4               ,c4 ,w4    
,leadbeater  #aja4  ,is ,belief in the  
,masters ,superstitious           or    
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,annie ,besant  #ajb4  ,the ,case for   
,reincarnation4                 ,b4     
,douglas ,fawcett  #ajc4  ,memory4      
,annie ,besant  #ajd4  ,spiritualism and
 ,theosophy4                 ,h4 ,s4    
,olcott  #aje4  ,the ,kabalah and the   
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