Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/341

CHARACTER OF BUDDHISM. o2U reign on the earth for five thousand years ; and that at the end of that time another Buddha would appear, a man-god, predestined twelve centuries before, to be the teacher of the human race. " From this epoch," he added, " my religion will be a prey to persecution ; my disciples will be obliged to quit India to retire to the lofty summits of Thibet ; and this table-land from which the observer overlooks the world, will become the sanc- tuary and the metropolis of the true faith." The dominant character of Buddhism is a spirit of mildness, equality, and fraternity, which contrasts strongly with the hardness and arrogance of Brahminism. Chakia-Mouni and his disciples in the first place endea- voured to communicate to all the world the truths which were before the exclusive property of the privi- leged classes. The Brahmin idea of perfection was of an egotistical character ; religion was for them only, and they devoted themselves to painful penances, in order to share hereafter in the abode of Brahma. The devotion of the Buddhist ascetic was more dis- interested ; not aspiring to elevate himself only, he practised virtue and applied himself to perfection, to make other men share in its benefits ; and by the in- stitution of an order of religious mendicants, which in- creased to an immense extent, he attracted toward him, and restored to society, the poor and unfortunate. It was, indeed, precisely because he received among his disciples miserable creatures who were outcasts from the respectable classes of India, that he became an object of mockery to the Brahmins. But he merely replied to their taunts, " My law is a law of mercy for all." One day the Brahmins were scandalised to see him receive a girl of the inferior caste of the Tchandala as a