Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 82

45. "And as Jesus pa.s.sed by, he saw a man which was _blind from his birth_. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind."[297:4]

46. Buddha knew the thoughts of others: "By directing his mind to the thoughts of others, he can know the thoughts of all beings."[297:5]

46. Jesus knew the thoughts of others. By directing his mind to the thoughts of others, he knew the thoughts of all beings.[297:6]

47. In the _Somadeva_ a story is related of a Buddhist ascetic whose eye offended him, he therefore plucked it out, and cast it away.[297:7]

47. It is related in the New Testament that Jesus said: "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee."[297:8]

48. When Buddha was about to become an ascetic, and when riding on the horse "Kantako," his path was strewn with flowers, thrown there by Devas.[297:9]

48. When Jesus was entering Jerusalem, riding on an a.s.s, his path was strewn with palm branches, thrown there by the mult.i.tude.[297:10]

Never were devotees of any creed or faith as fast bound in its thraldom as are the disciples of Gautama Buddha. For nearly two thousand four hundred years it has been the established religion of Burmah, Siam, Laos, Pega, Cambodia, Thibet, j.a.pan, Tartary, Ceylon and Loo-Choo, and many neighboring islands, beside about two-thirds of China and a large portion of Siberia; and at the present day no inconsiderable number of the simple peasantry of Swedish Lapland are found among its firm adherents.[297:11]

Well authenticated records establish indisputably the facts, that together with a n.o.ble physique, superior mental endowments, and high moral excellence, there were found in Buddha a purity of life, sanct.i.ty of character, and simple integrity of purpose, that commended themselves to all brought under his influence. Even at this distant day, one cannot listen with tearless eyes to the touching details of his pure, earnest life, and patient endurance under contradiction, often fierce persecution for those he sought to benefit. Altogether he seems to have been one of those remarkable examples, of genius and virtue occasionally met with, unaccountably superior to the age and nation that produced them.

There is no reason to believe that he ever arrogated to himself any higher authority than that of a teacher of religion, but, _as in modern factions_, there were readily found among his followers those who carried his peculiar tenets much further than their founder. These, not content with lauding during his life-time the n.o.ble deeds of their teacher, exalted him, within a quarter of a century after his death, to a place among their deities--wors.h.i.+ping as a G.o.d one they had known only as a simple-hearted, earnest, truth-seeking philanthropist.[298:1]

This wors.h.i.+p was at first but the natural upgus.h.i.+ng of the veneration and love Gautama had inspired during his n.o.ble life, and his sorrowing disciples, mourning over the desolation his death had occasioned, turned for consolation to the theory that he still lived.

Those who had known him in life cherished his name as the very synonym of all that was generous and good, and it required but a step to exalt him to divine honors; and so it was that Gautama Buddha became a G.o.d, and continues to be wors.h.i.+ped as such.

For more than forty years Gautama thus dwelt among his followers, instructing them daily in the sacred law, and laying down many rules for their guidance when he should be no longer with them.[299:1]

He lived in a style the most simple and unostentatious, bore uncomplainingly the weariness and privations incident to the many long journeys made for the propagation of the new faith; and performed countless deeds of love and mercy.

"When the time came for him to be perfected, he directed his followers no longer to remain together, but to go out in companies, and proclaim the doctrines he had taught them, found schools and monasteries, build temples, and perform acts of charity, that they might 'obtain merit,'

and gain access to the blessed shade of Nigban, which he told them he was about to enter, and where they believe he has now reposed more than two thousand years."

To the pious Buddhist it seems irreverent to speak of Gautama by his mere ordinary and human name, and he makes use therefore, of one of those numerous epithets which are used only of the Buddha, "the Enlightened One." Such are _Sakya-sinha_, "the Lion of the Tribe of Sakya;" _Sakya-muni_, "the Sakya Sage;" _Sugata_, "the Happy One;"

_Sattha_, "the Teacher;" _Jina_, "the Conqueror;" _Bhagavad_, "the Blessed One;" _Loka-natha_, "the Lord of the World;" _Sarvajna_, "the Omniscient One;" _Dharma-raja_, "the King of Righteousness;" he is also called "the Author of Happiness," "the Possessor of All," "the Supreme Being," "the Eternal One," "the Dispeller of Pain and Trouble," "the Guardian of the Universe," "the Emblem of Mercy," "the Saviour of the World," "the Great Physician," "the G.o.d among G.o.ds," "the Anointed" or "the Christ," "the Messiah," "the Only-Begotten," "the Heaven-Descended Mortal," "the Way of Life, and of Immortality," &c.[299:2]

At no time did Buddha receive his knowledge from a human source, that is, from flesh and blood. His source was the power of his divine wisdom, the spiritual power of Maya, which he already possessed before his incarnation. It was by this divine power, which is also called the "Holy Ghost," that he became the Saviour, the Kung-teng, the Anointed or Messiah, to whom prophecies had pointed. Buddha was regarded as the supernatural light of the world; and this world to which he came was his own, his possession, for he is styled: "The Lord of the World."[300:1]

"Gautama Buddha taught that all men are brothers;[300:2] that charity ought to be extended to all, even to enemies; that men ought to love truth and hate the lie; that good works ought not be done openly, but rather in secret; that the dangers of riches are to be avoided; that man's highest aim ought to be purity in thought, word and deed, since the higher beings are pure, whose nature is akin to that of man."[300:3]

"Sakya-Muni healed the sick, performed miracles and taught his doctrines to the poor. He selected his first disciples among laymen, and even two women, the mother and wife of his first convert, the sick Yasa, became his followers. He subjected himself to the religious obligations imposed by the recognized authorities, avoided strife, and ill.u.s.trated his doctrines by his life."[300:4]

It is said that eighty thousand followers of Buddha went forth from Hindostan, as missionaries to other lands; and the traditions of various countries are full of legends concerning their benevolence, holiness, and miraculous power. His religion has never been propagated by the sword. It has been effected entirely by the influence of peaceable and persevering devotees.[300:5] The era of the Siamese is the death of Buddha. In Ceylon, they date from the introduction of his religion into their island. It is supposed to be more extensively adopted than any religion that ever existed. Its votaries are computed at four hundred millions; more than one-third of the whole human race.[300:6]

There is much contradiction among writers concerning the _date_ of the Buddhist religion. This confusion arises from the fact that there are several Buddhas,[301:1] objects of wors.h.i.+p; because the word is not a name, but a t.i.tle, signifying an extraordinary degree of holiness. Those who have examined the subject most deeply have generally agreed that Buddha Sakai, from whom the religion takes its name, must have been a real, historical personage, who appeared many centuries before the time a.s.signed for the birth of Christ Jesus.[301:2] There are many things to confirm this supposition. In some portions of India, his religion appears to have flourished for a long time side by side with that of the Brahmans. This is shown by the existence of many ancient temples, some of them cut in subterranean rock, with an immensity of labor, which it must have required a long period to accomplish. In those old temples, his statues represent him with hair knotted all over his head, which was a very ancient custom with the anchorites of Hindostan, before the practice of shaving the head was introduced among their devotees.[301:3]

His religion is also mentioned in one of the very ancient epic poems of India. The severity of the persecution indicates that their numbers and influence had became formidable to the Brahmans, who had everything to fear from a sect which abolished hereditary priesthood, and allowed the holy of all castes to become teachers.[301:4]

It may be observed that in speaking of the pre-existence of Buddha in heaven--his birth of a virgin--the songs of the angels at his birth--his recognition as a divine child--his disputation with the doctors--his temptation in the wilderness--his transfiguration on the Mount--his life of preaching and working miracles--and finally, his ascension into heaven, we referred to Prof. Samuel Beal's "History of Buddha," as one of our authorities. This work is simply a translation of the "_Fo-pen-hing_," made by Professor Beal from a Chinese copy, in the "Indian Office Library."

Now, in regard to the antiquity of this work, we will quote the words of the translator in speaking on this subject.

First, he says:

"_We know_ that the _Fo-pen-hing_ was translated into Chinese from _Sanscrit_ (the ancient language of _Hindostan_) so early as the eleventh year of the reign of Wing-ping (Ming-ti), of the Han dynasty, _i. e._, 69 or 70 A. D. _We may, therefore, safely suppose that the original work was in circulation in India for some time previous to this date._"[302:1]

Again, he says:

"There can be no doubt that the present work (_i. e._ the Fo-pen-hing, or Hist. of Buddha) contains as a woof (so to speak) some of the earliest verses (Gathas) in which the History of Buddha was sung, _long before the work itself was penned_.

"These Gathas were evidently composed in different Prakrit forms (during a period of disintegration) _before the more modern type of Sanscrit_ was fixed by the rules of Panini, and the popular epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana."[302:2]

Again, in speaking of the points of resemblance in the history of Buddha and Jesus, he says:

"These points of agreement with the Gospel narrative naturally arouse curiosity _and require explanation_. If we could prove that they (the legends related of Buddha) were unknown in the East for some centuries _after_ Christ, the explanation would be easy. _But all the evidence we have goes to prove the contrary._

"It would be a natural inference that many of the events in the legend of Buddha were borrowed from the Apocryphal Gospels, if we were quite certain that these Apocryphal Gospels had not borrowed from it. How then may we explain the matter? It would be better at once to say that in our present state of knowledge there is no complete explanation to offer."[302:3]

There certainly is no "complete explanation" to be offered by one who attempts to uphold the historical accuracy of the New Testament. The "Devil" and "Type" theories having vanished, like all theories built on sand, nothing now remains for the honest man to do but acknowledge the truth, which is, _that the history of Jesus of Nazareth as related in the books of the New Testament, is simply a copy of that of Buddha, with a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations_. Ernest de Bunsen almost acknowledges this when he says:

"With the remarkable exception of the death of Jesus on the cross, and of the doctrine of atonement by vicarious suffering, which is absolutely excluded by Buddhism, the _most ancient_ of the Buddhistic records known to us contain statements about the life and the doctrines of Gautama Buddha which correspond in a remarkable manner, _and impossibly by mere chance_, with the traditions recorded in the Gospels about the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ. It is still more strange that these Buddhistic legends about Gautama _as the Angel-Messiah_ refer to a doctrine which we find only in the Epistles of Paul and in the fourth Gospel. This can be explained by the a.s.sumption of a common source of revelation; but then the serious question must be considered, why the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah, supposing it to have been revealed, and which we find in the East and in the West, is not contained in any of the Scriptures of the Old Testament which can possibly have been written before the Babylonian Captivity, nor in the first three Gospels. _Can the systematic keeping-back of essential truth be attributed to G.o.d or to man?_"[303:1]

Beside the work referred to above as being translated by Prof. Beal, there is another copy originally composed in verse. This was translated by the learned Fonceau, who gives it an antiquity of _two thousand years_, "although the original treatise must be attributed to an earlier date."[303:2]

In regard to the teachings of Buddha, which correspond so strikingly with those of Jesus, Prof. Rhys Davids, says:

"With regard to Gautama's teaching we have more reliable authority than we have with regard to his life. It is true that none of the books of the Three Pitakas can at present be satisfactorily traced back before the Council of Asoka, held at Patna, about 250 B. C., that is to say, at least one hundred and thirty years after the death of the teacher; but they undoubtedly contain a great deal of much older matter."[303:3]

Prof. Max Muller says:

"Between the language of Buddha and his disciples, and the language of Christ and his apostles, there are strange coincidences. Even some of the Buddhist legends and parables sound as if taken from the New Testament; _though we know that many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian Era_."[303:4]

Just as many of the myths related of the Hindoo Saviour Crishna were _previously current_ regarding some of the Vedic G.o.ds, so likewise, many of the myths _previously current_ regarding the G.o.d _Sumana_, wors.h.i.+ped both on Adam's peak, and at the cave of Dambulla, _were added to the Buddha myth_.[303:5] Much of the legend which was transferred to the Buddha, had previously existed, and had cl.u.s.tered around the idea of a _Chakrawarti_.[303:6] Thus we see that the legend of _Christ_ Buddha, as with the legend of _Christ_ Jesus, _existed before his time_.[303:7]

We have established the fact then--_and no man can produce better authorities_--that Buddha and Buddhism, which correspond in such a remarkable manner with Jesus and Christianity, were long anterior to the Christian era. Now, as Ernest de Bunsen says, this remarkable similarity in the histories of the founders and their religion, could not possibly happen by chance.

Whenever two religious or legendary histories of mythological personages resemble each other so completely as do the histories and teachings of Buddha and Jesus, the older must be the parent, and the younger the child. We must therefore conclude that, since the history of Buddha and Buddhism is very much older than that of Jesus and Christianity, the Christians are incontestably _either sectarians or plagiarists of the religion of the Buddhists_.

FOOTNOTES:

[289:1] Maya, and Mary, as we have already seen, are one and the same name.

[289:2] See chap. xii. Buddha is considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu, although he preached against the doctrines of the Brahmans. The adoption of Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu was really owning to the desire of the Brahmans to effect a compromise with Buddhism. (See Williams' Hinduism, pp. 82 and 108.)

"Buddha was brought forth not from the matrix, but from the right side, of a virgin." (De Guignes: Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 224.)

"Some of the (Christian) heretics maintained that Christ was born from the side of his mother." (Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.)

"In the eyes of the Buddhists, this personage is sometimes a man and sometimes a G.o.d, or rather both one and the other, a divine incarnation, a man-G.o.d; who came into the world to enlighten men, to redeem them, and to indicate to them the way of safety. This idea of redemption by a divine incarnation is so general and popular among the Buddhists, that during our travels in Upper Asia, we everywhere found it expressed in a neat formula. If we addressed to a Mongol or Thibetan the question, 'Who is Buddha?' he would immediately reply, 'The Saviour of Men.'" (M.

L'Abbe Huc: Travels, vol. i. p. 326.)

"The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions, contain a great number of the moral and dogmatic truths professed in Christianity." (Ibid. p. 327.)