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WALKING ON THE WATER.
Certain villagers, hard of belief, were listening to Buddha on the
shore of a mighty river. Suddenly by a miracle the great teacher
caused a man to appear walking on the water from the other side,
without immersing his feet. *
"AND, LO! THERE WAS A GREAT CALM."
Pűrna, one of Buddha's disciples, had a brother in danger of
shipwreck in a "black storm." But the guardian spirits of Pűrna
informed him of this. He at once transported himself through the air
from the distant inland town to the deck of the ship.
"Immediately the black tempest ceased as if Sumeru had arrested
it." †
"WHY EATETH YOUR MASTER WITH PUBLICANS AND
SINNERS?"
(Matt. ix. 11).
The courtesan Amrapalî invited Buddha and his disciples to a
banquet in the mango grove at Vaisâli. Buddha accepted. Some rich
princes, sparkling in emeralds, came and gave him a similar
invitation. He refused. They were very angry to see him sit at meat
with Amrapalî. He explained to his disciples that the harlot might
enter the kingdom of Dharma more easily than the prince. ‡
THE PENITENT THIEF.
Buddha confronts a terrible bandit in his mountain retreat and
converts him. §
"THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN."
Professor Beal, in his "Catena of Buddhist Scriptures"
(p. 52), tells us that, in the "Saddharma Prâkasa Sasana Sűtra,"
a great war in heaven is described. In it the "wicked
dragons" assault the legions of heaven. After a terrible conflict
they are driven down by Indra and the heavenly hosts.
"THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO A
MERCHANTMAN SEEKING GOODLY PEARLS, WHO, WHEN HE HAD FOUND ONE PEARL OF
GREAT PRICE, WENT AND SOLD ALL THAT HE HAD AND BOUGHT IT"
(Matt. xiii. 45).
The most sacred emblem of Buddhism is called the maṇi
(pearl), and in the Chinese biography a merchant seeking goodly pearls
finds it, and unfortunately drops it into the sea. Rather than lose it
he tries to drain the sea dry. *
THE VOICE FROM THE SKY.
This sounds often in the Buddhist narratives. †
FAITH.
"Faith is the first gate of the Law." ‡
"All who have faith in me obtain a mighty joy." §
"THOU ART NOT YET FIFTY YEARS OLD, AND HAST
THOU SEEN ABRAHAM?"
In the "White Lotus of Dharma" (chap. xiv.), Buddha is
asked how it is that,
having sat under the bo-tree only forty years
ago, he had been able, according to his boast, to see many Buddhas and
saints who died hundreds of years previously. He answers that he has
lived many hundred thousand myriads of Kotis, and that though in the
form of a Buddha, he is in reality Swayambhu, the Self-Existent, the
Father of the million worlds. In proof of this statement he causes two
Buddhas of the Past, Prabhűtaratna and another, to appear in the sky.
The first pronounces loudly these words: "It is well! It is
well!" These Buddhas appear with their sepulchral canopies (stűpas)
of diamonds, red pearls, emeralds, etc. Peter, at the scene of the
Transfiguration, said to Christ:—
"Let us make here three tabernacles—one for Thee, one for
Moses, and one for Elias." Why should Peter want to adopt a
Buddhist custom and build tabernacles for the dead Moses and the dead
Elias? Why, also, should Moses come from the tomb to support a teacher
who had torn his covenant with Yahve to shreds?
"HE WAS TRANSFIGURED BEFORE THEM."
Buddha, leaving Maudgalyâyana and another disciple to represent
him, went off through the air to the Devaloka, to the Heaven Tuśita,
to preach to the spirits in prison and to convert his mother. When he
came down from the mountain (Mienmo), a staircase of glittering
diamonds, seen by all, helped his descent. His appearance was
blinding. The "six glories" glittered on his person. Mortals
and spirits hymned the benign Being who emptied the hells. *
In the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" is a curious
passage which Baur and Hilgenfeld hold to be the earliest version of
the Transfiguration narrative. "Just now my mother, the Holy
Spirit, took me, by one of my hairs and bore me up on to the great
mountain of Tabor."
This is curious. Buddha and Jesus reach the Mount of
Transfiguration, each through the influence of his mother. But perhaps
the Jewish writer did not like the universalism inculcated in the
Buddhist narrative.
"HE BEGAN TO WASH THE DISCIPLES’ FEET"
(John xiii. 5).
In a vihâra at Gândhâra was a monk so loathsome and stinking, on
account of his maladies, that none of his brother disciples dare go
near him. The great Teacher came and tended him lovingly and washed
his feet. *
THE GREAT BANQUET OF BUDDHA.
In the "Lalita Vistara" (p. 51) it is stated that those
who have faith will become "sons of Buddha," and partake of
the "food of the kingdom." Four things draw disciples to his
banquet—gifts, soft words, production of benefits, conformity of
benefits.
BAPTISM.
In a Chinese life of Buddha by Wung Puh, †
it is announced that Buddha at Vaisâlî delivered a Sűtra entitled
"The Baptism that Rescues from Life and Death and confers
Salvation."
"AND NONE OF THEM IS LOST BUT THE SON OF
PERDITION."
Buddha like Christ had a treacherous disciple, Devadatta. He
schemed with a wicked prince, who sent men armed with bows and swords
to slaughter Buddha. Devadatta tried other infamous stratagems. His
end was appalling. Coming in a palanquin to arrest Buddha, he got out
to stretch himself. Suddenly fierce flames burst out, and he was
carried down to the hell Avîchi (the Rayless Place). There, in a
red-hot cauldron, impaled by one red bar and pierced by two others, he
will stay for a whole Kalpa. Then he will be forgiven." ‡
THE LAST SUPPER.
Buddha had his last supper or repast with his disciples. A
treacherous disciple changed his alms-bowl, and apparently he was
poisoned. * Fierce
pains seized him as he journeyed afterwards. He was forced to rest. He
sent a message to his host, Kunda, the son of the jeweller, to feel no
remorse although the feast had been his death. Under two trees he now
died.
It will be remembered that during the last supper of Jesus a
treacherous disciple "dipped into his dish," but as Jesus
was not poisoned, the event had no sequence.
"NOW FROM THE SIXTH HOUR THERE WAS DARKNESS
OVER ALL THE LAND UNTIL ABOUT THE NINTH HOUR."
The critical school base much of their contention that the Gospels
do not record real history on this particular passage. They argue that
such an astounding event could not have escaped Josephus and Tacitus.
When Buddha died, the "sun and moon withdrew their shining,"
and dust and ashes fell like rain. "The great earth quaked
throughout. The crash of the thunder shook the heavens and the earth,
rolling along the mountains and valleys." †
The Buddhist account is certainly not impossible, for the chronicler
takes advantage of the phenomena of an Indian dust-storm to produce
his dark picture. At Lucknow, before the siege, I remember a storm so
dense at midday that some ladies with my regiment thought the Day of
Judgment had arrived.
"AND MANY BODIES OF THE SAINTS WHICH SLEPT
AROSE."
When Buddha died at Kusinâgara, Ânanda and another disciple saw
many denizens of the unseen world in the city, by the river Yigdan. ‡
The Buddhist baptism has striking analogies with that of the
Christians. The Swastika Cross is the only cross in the Catacombs, and
for this baptism a large Swastika cross is marked on the ground called
Sastika Asan. On this sits the postulant, and holy water is sprinkled
on his head. That head is shaved, a rope is put round his neck. His
name is changed, and he is made to vow that he "will not amass
property of any kind," nor "go near a woman," nor touch
intoxicating liquors of any kind, nor animal food. He vows to devote
himself to the worship of the Chaitya and the Trinity, Buddha (Spirit)
Dharma (Matter), Sangha, who is Padmapani, the Gnostic "Christos"
as distinguished from Jesus.
"TO ANOINT MY BODY TO THE BURYING"
(Mark xiv. 8).
The newly-discovered fragments of the Gospel of Peter give us a
curious fact. They record that Mary Magdalene, "taking with her her
friends," went to the sepulchre of Jesus to "place
themselves beside him and perform the rites" of wailing, beating
breasts, etc. Amrapalî and other courtesans did the same rites to
Buddha, and the disciples were afterwards indignant that impure women
should have "washed his dead body with their tears." *
In the Christian records are three passages, all due, I think, to
the Buddhist narrative. In one, "a woman" anoints Jesus; in
John (xii. 7), "Mary" anoints him; in Luke, a
"sinner," who kisses and washes His feet with her hair.
Plainly these last passages are quite irrational. No woman could have
performed the washing and other burial rites on a man alive and in
health.
"THEY PARTED MY GARMENTS."
The Abbé Huc tells us *
that on the death of the Bokté Lama, his garments are cut into little
strips and prized immensely.
"HE APPEARED UNTO MANY."
"Buddha prophesied that he would appear after his death." †
In a Chinese version quoted by Eitel, ‡
Buddha, to soothe his mother, who had come down weeping from the
skies, opens his coffin lid and appears to her. In the temple
sculptures he is constantly depicted coming down to the altar during
worship.
THE "GREAT WHITE THRONE."
Mr. Upham, in his "History of Buddhism," (pp. 56, 57),
gives a description of the Buddhist heaven. There is a "high
mountain," and a city "four square" with gates of gold
and silver, adorned with precious stones. Seven moats surround the
city. Beyond the last one is a row of marble pillars studded with
jewels. The great throne of the god stands in the centre of a great
hall, and is surmounted by a white canopy. Round the great throne are
seated heavenly ministers, who record men's actions in a "golden
book." A mighty tree is conspicuous in the garden. In the Chinese
heaven is the "Gem Lake," by which stands the peach-tree,
whose fruit gives immortality. §
THE ATONEMENT.
The idea of transferred good Karma, the merits of the former lives
of an individual being passed on to another individual, is, of course,
quite foreign to the lower Judaism, which believed in no after life at
all. In the view of the higher Buddhism, Sâkya Muni saved the world
by his teaching; but to the lower, the Buddhism of offerings and
temples and monks, this doctrine of Karma was the life-blood. It was
proclaimed that Buddha had a vast stock of superfluous Karma, and that
offerings at a temple might cause the worshipper in his next life to
be a prince instead of a pig or a coolie. In the "Lalita Vistara" *
it is announced that when Buddha overcame Mâra, all flesh rejoiced,
the blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spake, the hells were cleared,
and all by reason of Buddha's Karma in previous lives.
St. Paul is very contradictory about the atonement. This passage
seems pure Buddhism.
"As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. v. 18).
Contrast this with another passage:—
"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins" (Rom. iii. 25).
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