" Let us, then, inquire for a moment what claim Gautama Buddha 

 has to this title, ' the Light of Asia.' 



" Now, in the first place, those who give him this name forget that 

 his doctrines only spread over Eastern Asia, and that Mohammed 

 has as much right as Buddha to be called ' the Light of Asia.' But 

 was the Buddha, in any true sense, a Light to any part of the 

 world ? It is certainly true that the main idea implied by 

 Buddhism is intellectual enlightenment. Buddhism, before all 

 things, means enlightenment of mind, resulting from intense self- 

 concentration, from intense abstract meditation, combined with the 

 exercise of a man's own reasoning faculties and intuitions. It was 

 only after such a course of meditation that the so-called Light of 

 Knowledge burst upon the man Gautama. It was only then that 

 he became Buddha, the Enlightened One. We read in the Lalita 

 Vistara that, at the supreme moment of this enlightenment, actual 

 flames of light issued from the crown of the Buddha's head. Of 

 what nature, then, was this so-called Light of Knowledge that 

 radiated from the Buddha ? Was it the knowledge of his own deep 

 depravity of heart, or of the origin of sin ? No ; the Buddha's 

 light was in this respect profound darkness. He confessed himself 

 a downright Agnostic. The origin of the first evil act was to him 

 an inexplicable mystery. Was it, then, a knowledge of the good- 

 ness, justice, and holiness of an Omnipotent Creator ? Was it a 

 knowledge of the Fatherhood of God ? No ; the Buddha's light 

 was in these respects also absolute darkness. Here, too, he 

 acknowledged himself a thorough Agnostic. He knew nothing of 

 the existence of any Supreme Being of any Being higher than 

 himself. What, then, was the light that broke upon the Buddha ? 

 What was this enlightenment which has been so much written about 

 and extolled ? All that he claimed to have discovered was the 

 Origin of suffering and the remedy of suffering. All the light 

 of knowledge to which he attained came to this : that suffering 

 arises from indulging desires ; that suffering is inseparable from 

 life ; that all life is suffering ; and that suffering is to be got rid 

 of by the suppression of desires, and by the extinction of personal 

 existence. You see here the first great contrast. When the 

 Buddha said to his converts, 'Come, follow me,' he bade them 

 expect to get rid of suffering, he told them to stamp out suffering 

 by stamping out desires. When the Christ said to His disciples, 

 ' Come, follow me,' He bade them expect suffering, He told them 

 to glory in their sufferings, to rejoice in their sufferings, nay, to 



