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Random Facts about Buddhism
BUDDHISM
In the fifth century a great teacher and
reformer, known as Buddha, or Gautama (died about 470 B.C.),
arose in India. He was a prince, whom legend represents as
being so touched by the universal misery of mankind, that he
voluntarily abandoned the luxury of his home, and spent his
life in seeking out and making known to men a new and better
way of salvation. He condemned the severe penances and the
self-torture of the Brahmans, yet commended poverty and
retirement from active life as the best means of getting rid
of desire and of attaining Nirvana, that is, the repose of
unconsciousness. Buddha admitted all classes to the benefits
of religion, the poor outcast as well as the high-born
Brahman, and thus Buddhism was a revolt against the earlier
harsh and exclusive system of Brahmanism. It holds somewhat
the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity bears to
Judaism. Buddhism gradually gained the ascendancy over
Brahmanism; but after some centuries the Brahmans regained
their power, and by the eighth century after Christ, the
faith of Buddha was driven out of almost every part of
India. But Buddhism has a profound missionary spirit, like
that of Christianity, Buddha having commanded his disciples
to make known to all men the way to Nirvana and consequently
during the very period when India was being lost, the
missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading the
teachings of their master among the peoples of all the
countries of Eastern Asia, so that to-day Buddhism is the
religion of almost one third of the human race. Buddha has
probably nearly as many followers as both Christ and
Mohammed together. During its long conflict with Buddhism,
Brahmanism was greatly modified, and caught much of the
gentler spirit of the new faith, so that modern Brahmanism
is a very different religion from that of the ancient
system; hence it is usually given a new name, being known as
Hinduism. [Footnote: Among the customs introduced into
Brahmanism during this period was the rite of Suttee, or the
voluntary burning of the widow on the funeral pyre of her
husband.]
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