THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: Buddeus himself issued a Notitia disaertationum . scriptorumque a J. F. Buddeo edihi-
rum, Jena, 1728 (a list of his writings); and the Ehrengedachtniss des J. F. Buddeus, ib. 1731, also con-
tains a catalogue of his productions. Consult: W. Sehrader, Geschichte der Friedrichsuniversitiit zu Halle, i. CO, Berlin, 1894; W. Gass, Geschichte der protestanlischen Dogmatik. iii. 30, 149 sqq., 214 sqq., Berlin, .1862; G. Frank, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, ii. 148, 214 sqq.. Leipsic, 1S65; C. E. Luthardt, Geschichte der christlichen Ethik, ii. 203 sqq., ib. 1893.
BUDDHISM.
Life of Buddha (§ 1). Buddhist Monks (§ 5).
Legendary Additions Development after Buddha's
(§ 2). Death (§ 6).
Buddha's Teaching (§ 3). Buddhist Sects (§ 7).
Nirvana (§ 41. The Dhyani Buddhas (§ 8).
Buddhism' and Christianity (§ 9).
Buddhism is the religion established in India by Buddha in the sixth century B.C., and having, according to a conservative estimate, upward of 100,000,000 adherents at the present time, chiefly in Ceylon, Nepal, Tibet, Farther India, China, and Japan. While frequently regarded as a new religion, it is, strictly speaking, only a reformation of Brahmanism, and can not be understood without some knowledge of the conditions preceding it. The religious system of India as outlined in its oldest religious books, the Vedas, had reached in the Brahmanas and Sutras a degree of ritualism such as, perhaps, never existed elsewhere (see Brahmanism). This formalism produced a revolt, and from time to time arose various teachers, philosophers, and reformers, of whom the most influential was Siddhartha, also known as Sakya, Sakyamuni, Gautama, and, most frequently, as Buddha.
Buddha, the son of Suddhodana, king of Kapilavastu, a city in the district of Gorakhpur, Oudh, was born in .0.37 B.C. in the grove of Lumbini, two miles from the capital. He was, therefore, like Mahavira, the founder of the rival system of Jainism (q.v.), a member of the Kshatriya or warrior caste. The details of the life of the Buddha, or "The Enlightened One," so far as they may be verified historically, are comparatively few. He lost his mother, whom the later texts name Maya, at a very early age, and he married while still young, according to Hindu custom, and had a son called Rahula. At the age of twenty-nine (528 B.C.), he renounced his succession to the throne and became a hermit. Herein there is nothing extraordinary, for Brahmanism divided life into the four stages of student, householder, hermit, and ascetic. Two of these the prince had already performed; two more yet
remained for him, and he went forth
I. Life of to win knowledge of the truth by
Buddha, penance and meditation. From the
first he gained nothing, nor could his teachers help him, while his five companions abandoned him as unfitted to receive a knowledge of the truth. In his wanderings he came to Uruvela, the modern Buddha Gaya in Bengal. There, in 521 B.C., after seven years of struggle, he received illumination while sitting in meditation beneath the sacred bo-tree (Ficus rc-lir/tom or pipul-tree). Thus the Bodhisattva, or potential Buddha, became a true Buddha or Tathagata, " the Perfected One." He now entered upon the fourth and the
last stage of life, and became a wandering ascetic and teacher. His earliest followers were the five monks who had turned from him before, and as other converts were made they were sent as apostles of the doctrine. Favor was his in high places also, for Bimbisara, king of Magadha, became an adherent of the faith. Over all ranks and classes Buddha exercised a powerful influence, due, it is very possible, rather to his personal charm of manner than to any essential novelty of the doctrine which he taught. It was undoubtedly in great part the result of his disregard of the fundamental Hindu principle of caste that he won for himself so large a following. Peaceably and calmly the life of Buddha passed, with little opposition, save from his cousin Devadatta, who attempted, from motives of personal ambition, to rouse hostility against his kinsman. At the age of eighty the Buddha felt that his end was drawing near, and for the first time in his life severe illness befell him. At the village of Kusinara, about thirty miles west of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, the master passed away (477 B.C.).
About the life here outlined the mythopeic tendencies of the Oriental mind wove a web of legend. In course of time Buddha no longer stands alone. He is the successor of twenty-seven Buddhas and himself received recognition from twenty-four of them, passing through a hundred thousand world cycles and countless reincarnations before he reached the perfection which was requisite for his high mission. When in him all perfection and all knowledge was united, the gods besought him to be born on earth, and in answer to 2. Legend- their prayer he entered the womb of ary Maya in the form of a white elephant, Additions, while thirty-two signs of wonder appeared and the ten thousand worlds trembled at the coming of the savior of the world. At the end of ten months, the Buddha was born beneath a sal-tree in the grove of Lumbini, while gods and men did homage unto him. On the fifth day of his life the Brahman Kondanna prophesied to Suddhodana the king that the child was destined to become a Buddha when he should see four signs of evil omen, an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a monk. By every means within his power the father sought to keep his son from seeing these sights, surrounding him with every luxury, and marrying him in his sixteenth year to his cousin Yasodhara, the daughter of Suprabuddha. It was all in vain, however, for Siddhartha beheld the four signs, realized the misery of life, and abandoned the palace. On the expiration of his seven years of wandering, he realized that he was at last to gain Buddhahood, and amid many marvels he sat down beneath the bo-tree facing the East. Fruitlessly did Mara, the leader of the host of evil, endeavor to terrify the Bodhisattva. The blandishments of his daughters, Desire, Pining, and Lust, and his more subtle temptation that the Buddha should at once enter Nirvana without proclaiming his saving knowledge to mankind, failed ignominiously. From the time of his illumination until his death few myths gather about the Buddha, but when he was