21 quotes
The history of Sākya Muni's life is the strongest bulwark of his religion. As long as the human heart is capable of being touched by tales of heroic self-sacrifice, accompanied by purity and celestial benevolence of motive, it will cherish his memory.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
What he taught may be summed up in a few words, as the perfume of many roses may be distilled into a few drops of attar: Everything in the world of Matter is unreal; the only reality is in the world of Spirit.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
123. Q. Do these differ with each individual? A. Yes: but all men suffer from them in degree.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
12. Q. Was Buddha his name? A. No. It is the name of a condition or state of mind, of the mind after it has reached the culmination of development.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
120. Q. What is the light that can dispel this ignorance of ours and remove all sorrows? A. The knowledge of the "Four Noble Truths," as the Buddha called them.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
27. Q. Why did he do this? A. To discover the cause of our sufferings and the way to escape from them.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
2. Q. What is Buddhism? A. It is a body of teachings given out by the great personage known as the Buddha.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
129. Q. And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do we reach? A. NIRVĀNA.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
117. Q. Can you tell me the remedy? A. To dispel Ignorance and become wise (Prājña).
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
127. Q. Can you give a better word for salvation? A. Yes, emancipation.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
13. Q. What is its meaning? A. Enlightened; or, he who has the all-perfect wisdom. The Pālī phrase is Sabbannu, the One of Boundless Knowledge. In Samskrt it is Sarvajña.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
128. Q. Emancipation, then, from what? A. Emancipation from the miseries of earthly existence and of rebirths, all of which are due to ignorance and impure lusts and cravings.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
122. Q. Tell me some things that cause sorrow? A. Birth, decay, illness, death, separation from objects we love, association with those who are repugnant, craving for what cannot be obtained.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
125. Q. How may we gain such a conquest? A. By following the Noble Eight-fold Path which the Buddha discovered and pointed out.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
29. Q. But how did he acquire this boundless love? A. Throughout numberless births and aeons of years he had been cultivating this love, with the unfaltering determination to become a Buddha.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
124. Q. How can we escape the sufferings which result from unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings? A. By complete conquest over, and destruction of, this eager thirst for life and its pleasures, which causes sorrow.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
26. Q. Did he become Buddha in his splendid palaces? A. No. He left all and went alone into the jungle.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
33. Q. How old was he when he went to the jungle? A. He was in his twenty-ninth year.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
19. Q. Tell me again when Prince Siddhārtha was born? A. Six hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)
The thoughtful student, in scanning the religious history of the race, has one fact continually forced upon his notice, viz., that there is an invariable tendency to deify whomsoever shows himself superior to the weakness of our common humanity.
The Buddhist Catechism (1903)