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204 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES had ever come out of Nazareth (35) and here was a young Nazarene, scarcely thirty years of age, virtually pulling down the Temple about their ears. A greater battle than that between David and Go- liath is to be fought. Jesus stands there teaching the doctrine, "love thy neighbor, do good unto others," and he wants that published to all nations. (36) The uncharitable Jew would brand every man as a heathen who was not of his clan. This contest has been going on now for nineteen hundred years ; and the Jews are a scattered, unlovely race. That young Nazarene, though not a God, is devoutly worshiped by an hun- dred and fifty millions of people. (35) John 1, V. 46. (36) Mark 13, v. 10. CHAPTER XVIII The Heaven and Hell of Buddha and Jesus. Section i. "Shall I exist during the ages of the future, or shall I not ? What shall I be, and how shall I be, in that distant time?" asked a questioning Hindu 500 years B. C. (i) Job, in a beautiful line, asks: "If a man die, shall he live again ?" Shakespeare says : "To die, to sleep, and in that sleep of death, perchance to dream — aye, there's the rub." Socrates said : "The soul is uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, indissolu- ble, immutable, and therefore immortal," But how did Socrates know that the soul was uncompounded, indissoluble and immortal? (2) "The body," he adds, "serves, the soul commands, therefore it is akin to the divine." The Upanishads, a philosophical Hindu work composed about three thousand years ago, says the body is mortal and always held by death, but it is the abode of self, or soul, which is immortal, and without body. The Hindus went so far as to claim that if the (1) Buddha told that Bikkhu he was still bound by the fetters of delusion. (Vol. 11, p. 299, S. B. E.) Asava: love of life. The Bhikkhu was told he must do good for its own sake alone. (2) Socrates must have used the vford "soul" in the senia of "mind." See Plato's Phaedo, vol. 19, Br. Ency., p. 199. 205 2o6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES soul chiefly practiced virtue (and vice only in a small degree), it obtained bliss in heaven, (3) Buddha changed that plan, and had seven heavens and ten hells : a saint or a guilty culprit, on the other side, reached a place exactly fitting his merits or de- merits. Moreover, his conversion was vastly different from St. Paul's. We have been told that Paul, on his journey to Damascus to persecute the Christians, saw at midday a great light from Heaven, and from the clouds Jesus (who had been crucified some years be- fore) spoke to him in the Hebrew tongue (4) and told Paul that he had come to make him a minister unto the heathen. (5) Paul forgot, when he made that statement, that Jesus never spoke Hebrew — he spoke Aramaic. Buddha, when he commenced his life work, devoted six years to strenuous penance and fasting, as we have heretofore seen, so that at times he was wasted to al- most a shadow. During those six years he carefully contemplated the woes and the mysteries of the human soul. Penance, fasting, mortification of the body, he felt certain would not win Heaven. At last in wander- ing about, as already mentioned, he reached the banks of the Narangana river, (6) and sat himself down (3) Laws of Mami, ch. 12, v. 20.; Upanishads, vol. 1, p. 140. (4) Jesus while on earth spoke Aramaic. He then did Tiot understand Hebrew. Revelations punishes the wicked with fire and brimstone, forever and ever — that is, eternally. (Ch. 14, v. 10 and 11.) (5) Acts 26, V. 14 and 15. (6) It is now called the Phalgu, and is in Behar. That tree ia called the Bodhi tree. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 207 under a tree to consider how the salvation of the race might be accomphshed. Briefly told, he saw that a three-fold thirst, or lust, enveloped the world : the thirst or lust of pleasure, the thirst or desire of existence, the thirst or desire for prosperity; and he marked out an eight- fold path, which, if followed, would surely lead to the bliss of heaven, namely : right belief, right speech, right aspira- tion, right conduct, right means of livelihood, right memory, right effort, right meditation. The turning point in his life is yet to come. With this insight into the miseries and mysteries of life, he is about to hide his new-found light under a bushel when lo, we are told that Brahma Shampati, from the world of spirits, appeared before him and said : "May the blessed one preach the doctrine. There are beings whose mental eyes are darkened, and if they do not hear this doctrine, they cannot obtain salvation. The law of Magadha is contaminated. Thou, O wise one, hast ascended the temple of truth. Thou hast freed thyself; look now upon the people in bonds, O leader of the pilgrim band ! Wander through the world. (7) Preach the doc- trine." Paul on the road to Damascus had a similar experience. But both of these stories are exceedingly beyond sober fact. Section 2. But when Shampati had three times repeated this request, Buddha consented, and forth- with announced that the door of immortality was wide (7) Vol. 13, S. B. E., p. 36. Shampati precedes Paul by five hundred years. 2o8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES open to all who had ears to hear. Thereupon he com- posed his sermon on "The foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness." (8) It is not as beautiful as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, but if any one will follow, with- out faltering, either Buddha or Jesus, he will — if there be such a place as heaven or Nirvana — even if the gate thereto is narrow, be very certain to gain admission. The man, he said, who has given up the world, must avoid the extremes — sensuality on one hand and asceti- cism on the other. There is a middle path : right thoughts, right conduct, etc., which will lead one surely to heaven. Craving must be rooted out. Craving or desiring a future life in Heaven is not to be considered. Craving for success in this life must also be put aside. (9) Good must be done for its own sake only. Reliance on rites and ceremonies will not avail. Hatred and ill feeling must be cast aside. Ignorance, pride, self- righteousness, doubt, delusions, are all fetters which must be broken. In short, man must be pure in heart, he must hunger and thirst after righteousness. (10) To the Jews who would lead such spotless lives, Jesus promised a place in the kingdom of Heaven. (11) If a man in India, twenty-three hundred and fifty years ago, embraced Buddhism and led a self-re- strained, pure life; in other words, if he wrapped holi- ness about him as a man wraps a mantle round his (8) Vol. 11, p. 146, Sacred Books of the East. (9) Vol. 11, Sacred Booka of the East, pp. 148 and 130. (10) Matt. 5, V. 6. (11) Matt. 5, V. 6 to 16. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 209 body, and that man was holy in deed and in word and in thought, will he, who never heard of Moses, or Jesus or Bethlehem — will he be left in outer darkness ? There are millions of pious Buddhists in India who never heard of Jesus; yet they habitually follow the noble eight-fold path. (12) Will they be shut out of the kingdom? How is this? We are told that when the royal chariot-wheel of truth had been set rolling onwards by the Blessed One, the Gods of earth gave forth a shout, saying: "The empire of truth has been set rolling, and no being in the universe can turn it back." And the Gods of each of the heavens, it is said, heard the shout of the inhabitants of the Heaven be- neath, and they took up the cry, until the Gods in the highest heavens answered back that "the wheel of the empire of truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One, and neither Mara (the devil) nor any God in the uni- verse can turn it back." (13) This ten thousand world system, it is said, quaked and trembled, and an immeasurable bright light ap- peared, lighting up the universe. Thus was Buddhism launched, as we are told, upon the world. Now it has been asserted that while Buddha said (12) P. 147, vol. 11, S. B. E. (13) Paul tells us that he was caught up to the third heaven. (2nd Corin., ch. 12, v. 1 to 4.) But the Buddhists have seven heavens, and their names are as follows: 1, Bhumma; 2, Katu- maharagika; 3, Yama; 4, Tusita; 5, Nimaurati; 6, Paranimitavi ; 7, Brahmakayika. Buddha has a chapter on the Foundation of the Kingdom of Eighteousness. (P. 143 to 155, vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East.