738 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



For fort3 T -five years Buddha went about from place to place in the 

 valley of the Ganges, proclaiming- his good - tidings and gathering 

 around him a small band of faithful followers, the earliest members 

 of his afterwards famous order. He died peacefully in the midst of 

 his disciples in his eightieth year at Kusinagara, the modern Kasia 

 in the district of Gorakhpur. 



BUDDHA'S DOCTRINES (DHARMA). 



The substance of the teaching of Buddha is expressed in the "Four 

 Noble Truths' 1 : (1) Existence is bound up with sorrow; (2) the causes 

 of sorrow are our affections and passions; the craving for life and its 

 pleasures, which result in new birth; old age, sickness, and death. For 

 the present life of the individual is not the first one. Innumerable 

 births have preceded it in previous ages. The attachment to life and 

 its pleasures produces a new being, and the moral character of the 

 actions of the former existences fixes the condition of the new being. 

 This is called the law of cause and effect, or Karma. It is the aggre- 

 gate result of all previous acts, in unbroken succession from the 

 beginning of existence, which, in the Buddhist conception of man, 

 constitutes his character, his real self, his soul, as it were. This alone 

 endures when an individual existence has come to an end, tending to 

 form, as a kind of transmigration of character, a new sentient being, 

 whose nature, condition, and fortune it determines. Individuals are 

 merely the present and temporary links in a long chain of cause and 

 effect. Each link is the summarized result of the various activities of 

 all that have gone before, and is, in its turn, part and parcel of all 

 that will follow. By the theory of Karma, Buddhism explains the 

 mystery of fate in the apparent unequal distribution here of happiness 

 and woe, entirely independent of moral qualities. What a man reaps, 

 Buddhism teaches, that he must himself have sown, as whatsoever a 

 man sows that shall he also reap. (3) The cessation of sorrow b} r 

 suppression of desire and passion; (-1) the way to deliverance by the 

 Eightfold Path: (1) Right views, (2) right resolutions, (3) right speech, 

 (•f) right conduct, (5) right way of earning a livelihood, (6) right 

 endeavor, (7) right thoughts, and (8) right meditation. 



The moral code of Buddhism is comprised in the following ten pro- 

 hibitions: (1) Not to kill or even injure any sentient being, (2) not to 

 steal, (3) not to commit adultery, (4) not to lie or use an}^ manner of 

 improper speech, (5) not to use intoxicating drinks, (6) not to take 

 repasts at improper times (i. e., after midday), (7) not to attend dances, 

 plays, and public spectacles, (8) not to wear costly raiment and gar- 

 lands or use perfumes, (9) not to use large seats and beds, and (10) not 

 to receive gold or silver. 



The goal is the Nirvana. In this life a passionless calm, beyond 

 reach of temptation, through the extinction of the great passions, such 



