"Thus from the thought of one man's brain a religion has arisen which may be said to have covered the globe with its rock temples, and statues, and pillars, and mounds. This has been effected by moral means alone; for Buddhism is the one religion virgin of coercion."* Whether or not this tremendous claim can be sustained, there can be no doubt that Buddhism has been and is a mighty power, and I need make no apology for attempting to introduce some of Mr. Lillie's facts and theories to my readers. I feel greatly indebted to him for much light thrown on very difficult problems. I have read his work with great pleasure and with much profit; and I desire to do what I can to present in a popular manner some things which have struck me, in reading his book, as to the inter-relation of Buddhism and various modern forms of thought. If in so doing, if I touch but lightly on the more abstruse questions that Mr. Lillie discusses with so much careful erudition, it is because I am fully aware of my own incompetency to handle them at all suitably. I could not hope to treat them fairly in the space I can command; nor could I reasonably hope that what is still somewhat obscure to me after three or four careful perusals of Mr. Lillie's book should be intelligible to those who have yet to make its acquaintance.

THE HISTORICAL AND THE LEGENDARY BUDDHA.

The oldest life of Buddha, according to the view of Max Müller and his school, is the Sanskrit Lalita Vistara: according to Rhys Davids, the Cingalese Life is the best authority. Mr. Lillie favours the former view, but considers that the oldest Buddhism is to be found in the Tibetan version translated by Foucaux. From it we gather the legendary story of the Buddha. We have the usual account of the seeking out a pure virgin of whom the great prophet should be born. Queen Mâya, pure as a heavenly spirit, is selected; and the question is put in heaven, under what form does a Buddha descend to earth for the last time? A wise spirit answers that "he must select the body of the most beautiful of elephants, armed with six defences, and covered with a spangled netting of gold." In this form, then, he appeared, “entered the right side of his mother, and she, by means of a dream, was conscious of the fact." More marvels are related. "During the time that Buddha was in his mother's womb her body was transparent. He sat in a framework of immense splendour, which had been used by the gods to bring him down from heaven." Of this, its gold and diamonds, we have elaborate descriptions, mystical in meaning, as all the story is.

Lillie. Introd. pp. v. vi. vii.

Queen Mâya, it is not surprising to find, is endued with miraculous powers. She exorcises demons, heals the sick, and communicates mysterious properties to "a handful of grass,” as Paul did to the handkerchiefs and aprons which had touched his body.

Among the thirty-two signs that indicate the mother of a Buddha, the fifth is that she should be on a journey at the time of her expected labour. Accordingly, as the Christ is born in a wayside inn, the Buddha is born under a sacred tree as Queen Maya journeys to her father's house. 'She seizes a branch in her hand, yawns (shudders?) like one about to be possessed of a spirit, and the Buddha comes forth from a gap in her right side. No sooner has the infant touched the earth than a lotus springs up. He sits on it and proclaims his Divinity. Angels hymn his glory, and proclaim the blessings that he brings. Earth rocks, scented winds blow. All flesh is filled with peace and joy. The sick are healed, the prisoners released, the hungry fed, the naked clothed. Flowers and scents fall from the skies. A shudder of strange ecstasy is in each individual.

The parallel which must suggest itself between the Christian and Buddhistic legends is even more marked as we go on. In those days there dwelt on the rugged side of the Himalayas a holy man named Asita. He recognised the signs for which he had long waited, and knew that the Buddha was born. He journeyed to the place where the young child was, and asked to be permitted to see it. Admitted to the chamber where it slumbered, the holy man took the child in his arms, gazed upon it for a time, and then burst into tears. What means this, O Rishi, that you sigh and sob?" "I weep," he answered, "because I am old and stricken in years, and shall not see all that is about to come to pass. This bright boy will be Buddha. For the salvation of the world he will teach the law. He will succour the old, the sick, the afflicted, the dying. He will release those who are bound in the meshes of natural corruption. He will quicken the spiritual vision of those whose eyes are darkened by the thick darkness of ignorance. Hundreds of thousands of millions of beings will be carried by him to the other shore. And I shall not see this perfect Buddha-that is why I weep." Thus this prototype of Simeon chants his Nunc Dimittis.

When he is

Miracles accompany the infant prodigy. presented in the temple, the idols do him homage: the spirits of the air are subservient to him: the very sun casts a miraculous shadow when he sits under a tree at noon-day. He distances all competitors in manly games. He lives in unheard of

luxury and splendour, until one day, as he left the city where he lived, he came upon an old decrepit man whom "one of the spirits of the pure abode had prepared, a phantasm for the edification of the prince." He questioned, and found that this weakness of age was no peculiarity, but the common lot of man. 'If this body," he moralised, "is to be the abode of old age, what have I to do with pleasure!" Again, as he left the city on another day by the south gate, he saw a man afflicted with loathsome disease, and found that this too was common to man. A third time, as he left the city by the west gate, he encountered a corpse with mourners weeping and tearing their hair. He learned that this was Death, the universal issue of life, and he was sad at the contemplation of Age, Sickness, Death. Once more, leaving the city by the north gate, he saw a Brahmin novice. A spirit of the pure abode* had assumed this form. The Buddha was told that this man had abandoned the desires of the flesh, and leads an austere life. Serene, passionless, pious, he goes about begging his food." The prince was greatly impressed, and determined to lead such a life himself. In vain were temptations put in his way, his guardian spirits cause him to overcome them all. They show him the beautiful women of the zenana at a time when they have thrown them into a deep sleep. Everything is in disorder, repulsive, tawdry, unattractive. Of a verity I am in a graveyard," he exclaims, and his chief temptation is gone. He determines to leave his palace, and his attendant spirits miraculously open the gates which his father had caused to be locked and guarded, so that his son might not escape. The same kindly aid supplies him with suitable clothes in place of his royal garments. "A spirit of the pure abode appears as a huntsman, wearing a coarse dress of ochre-red," and exchanges clothes with him.

For six years he practised the terrible austerities of the Brahmin Yogis. "He stopped completely his breathing, either inwardly or outwardly. Sweat in great drops fell from his body to the ground. He fasted, some versions say for fortyseven days. The Devil-Mâra-now comes to tempt him, and our minds revert at once to the Fasting and Temptation of the Christ before the commencement of his public ministry. Two of the temptations are identical with those of Jesus. Mâra offers universal dominion, and appeals to his bodily

*These "spirits of the pure abode " (Suddhâvasa Devis), the guardian spirits of Buddha, are the spirits of certain persons who do not possess the quality of sanctification, which would emancipate them from return to this world. They live in Brahmaloca, and act as the guardians and spiritual teachers of men."

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appetite. The reply is a fine one. "Death, demon, is the inevitable end of life. Why should I dream of avoiding it? Who falls in battle is noble; who is conquered is as good as dead. Demon, soon shall I triumph over thee. Lust is thy first army, ennui thy second, hunger and thirst are thy third. Passions, idleness, fears, rage, and hypocrisy are amongst thy troops. Backbitings, flatteries, false renown, these are thy inky allies, soldiers of the Fallen Angel."

Then, to complete the parallel, comes the mystic Baptism. He plunges into the stream saying, "I vow from this moment to deliver the world from the thraldom of death and the wicked one. I will procure salvation for all men, and conduct them to the other shore! But his strength has been reduced by the six years' penance, and he would sink, when lo! a spirit of the tree stretches forth a hand and assists him.” A last great temptation, "the thirty-two sorceries of women" awaits him, and he triumphs finally. Mark what follows: "When the demons had left him, it is recorded that bright spirits came and comforted him." So, when Jesus had resisted the Tempter, "the Devil leaveth him, and lo! angels came and ministered to him."

Space forbids me to follow out every detail of this most remarkable parallel. I can but hastily note from the historical life of Buddha the many miracles that he performed, between which and those recorded of the Christ a striking similarity exists. The multiplication of food: walking on the water: reading men's inmost thoughts: these recur more than once. A disciple of Buddha's has a brother in danger of shipwreck. "The spirits that are favourable to Pûrna the Arya" apprise him, and he transports himself to the deck of the ship, and calms the tempest. He is superior to the laws of gravitation, floating in the air, passing through material obstacles, and changing his personal appearance. He is transfigured on a

mountain. With him are seen the Buddhas or Saints of old, the Moseses and Eliases of India. He prophesies that he will appear after his death, and is actually seen many times, probably in the subtle or apparitional form, more familiarly known to us as the Spirit-body. These are some of the most

striking parallels that lie on the surface.

In reading them, none can fail to be struck with the singular similarity of the legends that cluster round the Buddha and the Christ, nor to note the constant recurrence of spiritual intervention, and the simple belief in the action of departed spirits of humanity as guardians of mankind. The narrative is pervaded throughout with the purest Spiritualism. I do not say with a belief in the miraculous, with supernaturalism,

with mysticism. I repeat, with the reiteration, as of a wellknown thing of that which is the peculiar note of Spiritualism -the presence and guardianship of departed spirits.

BUDDHISTIC AND CHRISTIAN TEACHING.

The similarity extends to the teaching of these "prophets sent from God"; each with the message most suited to the age which he came to instruct. I commenced this paper by quoting from Mr. Lillie a remarkable summary of the effects traceable to the life of the Buddha. His precepts bear, in many points, a strong likeness to the most authentic teaching of the Christ, as preserved in the Sermon on the Mount—

"By love alone can we conquer wrath."

"Do to others that which ye would have them do to you. Kill not. Cause no death."*

"Religion is nothing but the faculty of love."

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Beauty and riches are like a knife smeared with honey. The child sucks and is wounded."

"Abstain from evil! Do good! Purify thy heart! This is the teaching of the Buddhas."

"Few are there amongst men who arrive at the other shore [i.e., heaven]. Many run up and down the shore."

"He who performs his duty to his neighbour lives happily in this world and in the next."

"The man who causes joy now shall rejoice hereafter."

"Oh! the happiness of seeing the Holy One! Oh! the happiness of being able to rely on him as present!"

Such precepts might be multiplied indefinitely. Considering the date at which these words were uttered, and the influence they have exerted, they must be deemed as occupying a first rank among the precepts of wisdom. The quickening of pure spiritual life, and the lessening of human suffering as the result of evil deeds were ever on his tongue. He never tired of pointing out that man must save himself by individual effort. Ceremonial, sacrifice, the exertions of others could not take the place of personal active holiness. Against the bloody sacrifice of the Brahmins he was especially remorseless. He would have no bloodshed on any consideration.

In another direction his theology was a tremendous advance on all that had preceded it. Mr. C. C. Massey pointed out, in a paper recently published in this magazine,† that the Buddhist Dhammapada teaches the inexorable moral sequence of M. Léon Feer gives

* Sutra of the Forty-Two Sections, V. 129. here the very words of Luke 6:31.

Karma. August, 1881.