Gospel of the Buddha

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THE GOSPEL OF BUDDHA is the story of an individual, who, almost five hundred years before Christ, conquered the civilized world with simplicity, love and compassion. It provides details of Buddha's birth, life, and belief, and contains parables and stories associated with Buddhist thought. First published in 1894 and reprinted several times since, The Gospel of Buddha by Paul Carus enjoys the rank of a classic today.

• *Who was the Buddha?

• What did he teach?

• *How do his thoughts differ from those of Christ?

While answering these questions, Paul Carus has set off a thought-stimulating process in this book. He has shown Buddhist and Christian teachings in a new light altogether, exploring the relationship between the two in a convincing manner.

The Gospel of Buddha will help people comprehend Buddhism better. Besides, its simple style will also impress the readers with the poetic grandeur of the Buddha's personality. However, the real purpose of the book is to sketch the picture of a religious leader of the remote past with a view to making it bear upon the living present and become a factor in the formation of the future.

The striking and beautiful line drawings in the book are based on ancient paintings from the Ajanta caves and on works from the classical period of Buddhist art.

This booklet needs no preface for those who are familiar with the sacred books of Buddhism, which have been made accessible to the Western world by the indefatigable zeal and industry of scholars like Beal, Bigandet, Bühler, Burnouf, Childers, Alexander Csoma, Rhys Davids, Dutoit, Eitel, Fausboll, Foucaux, Francke, Edmund Hardy, Spence Hardy, Hodgson, Charles R. Lanman, F. Max Müller, Karl Eugen Neumann, Oldenberg, Pischel, Schiefner, Senart, Seidenstücker, Bhikkhu Nyanatiloka, D. M. Strong, Henry Clarke Warren, Wassiljew, Weber, Windisch, Winternitz &c. To those not familiar with the subject it may be stated that the bulk of its contents is derived from the old Buddhist canon. Many passages, and indeed the most important ones, are literally copied in translations from the original texts. Some are rendered rather freely in order to make them intelligible to the present generation; others have been rearranged; and still others are abbreviated. Besides the three introductory and the three concluding chapters there are only a few purely original additions, which, however, are neither mere literary embellishments nor deviations from Buddhist doctrines. Wherever the compiler has admitted modernization he has done so with due consideration and always in the spirit of a legitimate development. Additions and modifications contain nothing but ideas for which proto- types can be found somewhere among the traditions of Buddhism, and have been introduced as elucidations of its main principles.

The best evidence that this book characterizes the spirit of Buddhism correctly can be found in the welcome it has received throughout the entire Buddhist world. It has even been officially introduced in Buddhist schools and temples of Japan and Ceylon. Soon after the appearance of the first edition of 1894 the Right Rev. Shaku Soyen, a prominent Buddhist abbot of Kamakura, Japan, had a Japanese translation made by Teitaro Suzuki, and soon afterwards a Chinese version was made by Mr. Ohara of Otzu, the talented editor of a Buddhist periodical, who in the mean- time has unfortunately met with a premature death. In 1895 the Open Court Publishing Company brought out a German edition by E. F. L. Gauss, and Dr. L. de Milloue, the curator of the Musée Guimet, of Paris, followed with a French translation. Dr. Federigo Rodriguez has translated the book into Spanish and Felix Orth into Dutch. The privilege of translating the book into Russian, Czechic, Italian, also into Siamese and other Oriental tongues has been granted, but of these latter the publishers have received only a version in the Urdu language, a dialect of eastern India.

Buddhism is a world conquering religion that found its origins in the Indian subcontinent. It carries a message of maintaining complete harmony with the cosmos. The path of the Buddha is truly one of balance and dignity. The life of this master is now well recorded in the annals of history. Though shrouded in mystical and mythical garb we are obliged to accept that this person really walked, talked and interacted on this earth.

The princely ascetic achieved the state of the Buddha in the dense jungles that once surrounded Gaya in present day Bihar at a place that is now called Bodhgaya. He announced his achievement to his five fellow ascetics whom he had left in Issipattan, modern day Sarnath, which is now considered as the hub of the Buddhist world.

Though the Buddha himself never put anything in writing his faithful disciples and their disciples much after the Buddha's pari-nirvana faithfully recorded their recollections of his thought and life. These records were first collected and organized during the reign of Ashoka centuries after the Buddha's demise. Written mainly in the Pali language, the lingua franca of the common man of that era, they found much favour in the Southern or Hinayana School of Buddhist thought.

This book relates to all the phases of the Buddha's life and carefully records not only his life story but also his thoughts and statements related to the development of humankind. Though not a complete anthology (there can never be one for there is much we may never come to know), his major statements to mankind have been included.

The thoughts of the Buddha are so dynamic that even today one cannot but be impressed by the clarity and relevance of this Oriental Master. So thought provoking are his ideas that one is compelled to reconsider ones actions through- out life and compare them to another equally profound being and the lessons he taught the world before his execution on the cross almost two thousand years ago. The humility and simplicity invoked by both their thoughts provoke one into a deep consideration ones own personal faith.