BUDDHISM 



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BUDGET 



have been greatly changed during the passing 

 centuries, and modern Buddhists rear temples, 

 offer prayers and hold formal religious services. 

 Though Buddha is not worshiped as a god, 

 the adoration of his statues and of his relics 

 is a very important feature of the worship of 

 his followers. In the modern Buddhist temple 

 the central object is an image of the great 

 teacher or a shrine containing his relics, and 

 before this flowers, fruit and incense are offered 

 each day. 



In Hindustan, the birthplace of the Buddhist 

 faith, this religion has now but a feeble hold, 

 but it prevails in Ceylon, Burma, Java, Cochin- 

 China, Laos, Nepal, Tibet, where it takes the 

 form of Lamaism (which see), Mongolia, 

 China and Japan, and its followers are esti- 

 mated to number 500,000,000. See RELIGIONS, 

 subhead Religions of the World. 



Buddha, bood'ah, the sacred name of a great 

 reformer and teacher of early India, who be- 

 came the founder of the religion known as 

 Buddhism. His name was Siddhartha, and his 

 family name Gautama; Buddha, acquired by 

 him as the founder of a great religious system, 

 is the Sanskrit for the Wise or the Enlightened. 

 He was born in the sixth century before Christ, 

 in the town of Kapilavastu, a few days' journey 

 north of Benares. Tradition says that he was 

 a prince of royal blood. Of his youth little is 

 known except what has come down in legendary 

 form; the many tales that sprang up about 

 his early life and achievements have been 

 picturesquely woven together by Sir Edwin 



then entered upon a period of meditation, fast- 

 ing and self-torture, and while seated under 

 the sacred bo-tree, the light of the truth was 

 declared to have dawned upon his troubled 

 spirit. To him it was revealed that the one 



At left : Chinese many-armed Buddha. At 

 right : Buddha of India. 



Arnold in his romantic poem, The Light oj 

 Asia. 



It is told that he married, and that in his 

 thirtieth year, shortly after the birth of his 

 son, he left his father's court and his wife and 

 child, and wandered forth to seek the path of 

 salvation, as taught by the Brahmans. He 



THE GREATEST BUDDHIST TEMPLE 



The great Temple of Maha Bodha, at Buddha 

 Gaya, 100 miles from Benares, is Buddhism's 

 most sacred shrine. The tree in the right fore- 

 ground is the sacred bo-tree, lineal descendant 

 of the bo-tree under which Buddha sat when the 

 principles of his faith were unfolding. 



way to find deliverance from suffering was by 

 crushing all desires of the heart. Commencing 

 at Benares, Buddha began to teach his new 

 faith, in opposition to Brahmanism, winning 

 thousands of converts by his pure life and 

 gentle and earnest spirit. During his lifetime 

 he saw his doctrines carried to all parts of 

 India. B.M.W. 



Consult Carus's Buddhism and Its Christian 

 Critics; Hopkins's The Religions of India. 



BUDGET, buj'et, as usually defined, is the 

 official summary of a country's finances, includ- 

 ing a forecast of the receipts and expenditures 

 of the coming year. But this is a compara- 

 tively new meaning. The word was derived 

 from bougette, an old French word meaning 

 bag, pouch or wallet. In England the name 

 was applied to a wallet or box in which legal 

 and official documents were carried, and espe- 

 cially to the tiny trunk in which the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer kept his papers. Therefore 

 when he appeared in the House of Commons 

 he "opened his budget" to read the statement 

 of the country's financial condition. About 



