English
(38) Jesus made the open promise, often repeated, that a righteous Hfe, unspotted, would win heaven. But when he told his disciples that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom, they were amazed ; and Peter anxiously inquired, "Who then can be saved?" "We have forsaken all," he said, "and fol- lowed thee, and what shall we have therefor?" Jesus replied : "When the son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ;" and he would let them eat and drink at his table. (39) Yet even among the twelve there was some strife for precedence, and Salome, Zebedee's wife, took up the contest for James and John, her two sons. She visited Jesus on the sly and made the petition that her two sons might sit, one on his right hand and the other on his left, in his kingdom. (40) Buddha says that even the uncharitable do not go to the world of the gods, and he adds : "The first step in holiness is better than sovereignty over the earth" (41) (38) The ten fetters were: The delusion of self, ceremonies, doubt, bodily lusts, desire for a future life in the world of form, pride, self-righteousness, desire for a future life in the formless worlds, ignorance, etc. (39) Matt. 19: v. 24 to 30. Luke 22: v. 29 and 30. (40) Matt. 2, V. 20 to 34. (41) Vol. 10, Sacred Books of the East, pp. 48 and 49. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 233 But this much can truly be said of the rehgions of Jesus and of Buddha ; that, if there be another world and a life beyond the grave, their doctrines, though severe, if truly lived up to, will surely carry one safely past the pit, the furnace and the fiery lake and will land him safely on the eternal shores. CHAPTER XX The Miracles at the Death of Buddha. Section i. Buddha and Jesus, if the records be true, were both transfigured. Upon the body of Bud- dha there had been placed a robe of burnished cloth of gold ; but his face and skin, it is said, outshone the splendor of the robe. Ananda, his disciple, amazed, exclaimed: "How wonderful a thing it is, Lord, and how marvelous, that the skin of the Blessed One should be so clear, so exceedingly bright that the robe of gold has lost its splendor." "Your body," said An- anda, "appears like a shining flame. It is white and beautiful beyond all expression." Buddha replied that "there are two occasions when the skin of a Tathagata becomes exceedingly bright; first, when he attains supreme and perfect insight; and, again, the night on which he passes finally away." "To attain supreme and perfect insight," said Buddha, "the four noble truths must be mastered." Sin, if it confronts one, must be thrown aside ; it must be over- come. The mind, through earnest meditation, must continually struggle against it. Faith and works and high aims must go hand in hand in an earnest con- tinued struggle to banish sin. ( i ) (1) Who wrote this transfiguration story (Vol. XI, S. B. E., 234 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 235 In short, Buddha told his followers that "they must work out their salvation with diligence." They must be earnest, steadfast, holy, keeping watch over their hearts; they must hold fast to the truth and the law. If they did this, they would make an end of grief. Paul, five hundred years later, told the Jews that noth- ing ought to be done through strife or vainglory, and that "each one must work out his own salvation with fear and trembling." (2) It must be noticed, also, that both Buddha and Jesus forecast their own deaths. But this forecasting was not marvelous in either case. Gotama, as we have seen, commenced, when twenty-nine years old, his great life work, and for fifty-one years he had wandered up and down India, teaching that slander and falsehood and anger should be abandoned; and that justice, love and mercy ought to prevail. He was now eighty years old and he realized that his sands of life were running low. Jesus, although he was scarcely thirty-three, yet must have known that his days were numbered, for the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees were diligently seeking his life. Yet, to the immortal honor of both p. 81) I am unable to state. Ananda does not say that he wrote it. But it is probably as true as that mentioned in Matt. 17, v. 2, and Mark 9, v. 3. Peter, James and John mention it, but it is doubtful if Sd Peter is good authority. (Vol. 8, Br. Ency. page 534.) Possibly Matthew copied from India, as the Hindu story is the first and oldest by centuries, and it is very doubtful whether Peter mentions it. (2) The gospels of Buddha and Paul here travel the same road. Either is surely safe. Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 61. Philippians ch. 2, V. 3 and 12. Eusebius Hist. Eccl., B. 3, ch. 25, says 2nd Peter ia doubtful authority, Jude the same. 236 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES these men, they labored to the last for the uplifting of the race. The face of Jesus, five hundred years after Buddha's transfiguration, it is said, "did shine as the sun." (3) Gotama desired to die in Kusinara, and thither he bent his footsteps, but the Ganges intervened. On reaching it he found it flooded and out of its banks. (4) People were there building basket rafts, and some had boats which they had decorated, and they invited him to cross. But it is said that, by virtue of his great spiritual power, he vanished from sight, and, as quickly as a strong man might stretch out his bent arm, he and his followers appeared on the further shore. The reader will observe that this foolish statement surpasses in its audacity, if possible, the Red Sea fable. (5) And as that supposed Red Sea afifair pre- ceded Gotama's day by more than nine hundred years, the Hindus had probably heard of it and determined to outdo it, which they surely did. Buddha did not have to even walk on the water, as (3) Matt. 17, V. 2. (4) Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 21. Vol. S. B. E., p. 104. (5) Vol. XI, Sacred Book of the East, p. 21. Vol. 17, S. B. E., p. 104. Exodus, ch. 14, v. 13 to 23. The Hebrews had a strong East wind to blow a hole through the Red Sea. But it would have been more marvelous if Moses had taken Gotama's plan. There is probably no truth in either story. They both contradict, or set at defiance, a law — a plain law of nature. There seems to have been no excuse for this Hindu story, as Gotama wa3 offered a safe passage on a raft. But is it any more fabulous than to tell us "that the waters were a wall on the right hand, and the left," as in Exodus 14, v. 13 to 23. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 237 Jesus did. (6) Moreover, we are told that Moses and Miriam, after the passage of the Red Sea, broke forth into song. Buddha, on crossing the Ganges, only reached blank verse : ''They who cross the ocean drear, Treading a sure path to the farther shore, While the vain world builds its basket boats — Those are the zvise, they are the surely saved." (7) Now, if Buddha and his followers really did cross the Ganges, as above stated, then it is no wonder that the people on the farther bank, with one voice, shouted out "Marvelous ! Miraculous!" (8) But all religions seem to be filled with the miraculous, and with the unbelievable. That of India is only as incredible as that of Palestine. Buddha, when forecasting his death, told his disciples that, should he desire it, he could remain in the same birth for a Kalpa. (9) On Buddha's rejecting to live, there arose, we are told, (6) Mark 6, v. 48. (7) "The ocean drear," that is, they pass this life, not cross- ing to another one. ' ' To the farther shore ' ' of existence. The vain world holds to rites and gifts to the gods; the wise do not tie to ceremonies, as a means of salvation. "The surely saved" are those who follow the eight-fold path, and struggle against sin. (8) Jonah and the whale myth are of the same piece of cloth. (9) A kalpa, as we have seen, is millions and millions of years, yet is his statement any more startling than that of Jesus, who Baid: "Destroy this body and I will raise it up again in three days?" (John, ch. 2, v. 19 to 21.) Could he have done that if his head had been chopped off? 238 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES a mighty earthquake, and the thunders of heaven broke forth.