Buddhism is now the chief religion in Ceylon
Previous to its introduction in the third century B.C.,.
the aboriginals of the island worshipped demons and
serpents, and even recently consecrated serpents havn
been found in some of their temples. According to
mythological records, the ninth incarnation of the Hindu
god Vishnu was a white elephant, which became
Buddha, and a tenth incarnation is still expected by
his followers in Burmah and Siam.. This is likewise
to be a white elephant, meaning a return of Buddha
hence the great veneration this ■ animal is held in by
the people of those countries, where he is lodged in a
royal pavilion.
Historically, however, Buddhism rests upon the
Tripitaka, or Three Baskets—three collections of'
writings transmitted in the Pali dialect. The first is
called Soutras, or Discourses of Buddha ; the second,..
Vinaya, or Discipline of the Monastic Orders ; and the
third, Dharma, Beligion or Contemplation for the Laity.
From these we learn that Gotama, or Buddha, was.
born at Patalipatra, on the confines of Nepaul, in B.C.
623, and died in B.C. 543 at Kusinagara, in Oude.
He came into the world to reform the Hindu religion ;:
his mission was to purify the people from idolatry and
caste, and to teach a code of austere morality, a life of
virtue and charity. He strictly forbade the taking of'
the meanest life, also falsehood, intemperance, dishonesty,
anger, pride, and covetousness ; he preached
the doctrine of endless series of transmigrations, or
eternal existence of matter alone, possessing power of
reproduction without any other agency. His disciples,
therefore, are essentially Atheists, like those of Confucius,
acknowledging no Supreme Being. Hence
the effigy of Buddha is regarded as a type of earthly
goodness, wisdom, and beauty, for he himself was the
perfection of an ascetic; he had passed through
millions of existences, and had ultimately attained the
sublime excellency of Nirvana—that is, that state of
blissful unconsciousness, akin to final cessation of existence,
the consummation of eternal felicity, 1 a peace that
passes all understanding,” which is every Buddhist’s
aim and ambition. “ Life will condense,” says a
learned Singhalese priest, “ by means of death into its
essence.”
Nirvana therein differs from the Hindu absorption
of the spirit into the supreme divinity of Brahm, whilst
the leading feature of the third of the chief religions of
the East, namely, Mahomedanism, is admission to a
material paradise.
“ Till all the sum of ended life—
The ‘ Karma ’—all that total of a soul
Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had,
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