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The Gospel of Buddha

Preface

  • Preface:
    by Paul Carus


    Introduction
  • Chapter 01:
    Rejoice
  • Chapter 02:
    Samsara and Nirvana
  • Chapter 03:
    Truth the Saviour


    Prince Siddhattha becomes Buddha
  • Chapter 04:
    The Bodhisatta's Birth
  • Chapter 05:
    The Ties of Life
  • Chapter 06:
    The Three Woes
  • Chapter 07:
    The Bodhisatta's Renunciation
  • Chapter 08:
    King Bimbisara
  • Chapter 09:
    The Bodhisatta's Search
  • Chapter 10:
    Uruvela, the Place of Mortification
  • Chapter 11:
    Mara, the Evil One
  • Chapter 12:
    Enlightenment
  • Chapter 13:
    The First Converts
  • Chapter 14:
    Brahma's Request


    The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness
  • Chapter 15:
    Upaka
  • Chapter 16:
    The Sermon at Benares
  • Chapter 17:
    The Sangha
  • Chapter 18:
    Yasa, the Youth of Benares
  • Chapter 19:
    Kassapa
  • Chapter 20:
    The Sermon at Rajagaha
  • Chapter 21:
    The King's Gift
  • Chapter 22:
    Sariputta and Moggallana
  • Chapter 23:
    Anathapindika
  • Chapter 24:
    The Sermon on Charity
  • Chapter 25:
    Jetavana
  • Chapter 26:
    The Three Characteristics and the Uncreate
  • Chapter 27:
    The Buddha's Father
  • Chapter 28:
    Yasodhara
  • Chapter 29:
    Rahula


    Consolidation of the Buddha's religion
  • Chapter 30:
    Jivaka, the Physician
  • Chapter 31:
    The Buddha's Parents Attain Nirvana
  • Chapter 32:
    Women Admitted to the Sangha
  • Chapter 33:
    The Bhikkhus' Conduct Toward Women
  • Chapter 34:
    Visakha
  • Chapter 35:
    The Uposatha and Patimokkha
  • Chapter 36:
    The Schism
  • Chapter 37:
    The Re-establishment of Concord
  • Chapter 38:
    The Bhikkhus Rebuked
  • Chapter 39:
    Devadatta
  • Chapter 40:
    Name and Form
  • Chapter 41:
    The Goal
  • Chapter 42:
    Miracles Forbidden
  • Chapter 43:
    The Vanity of Worldliness
  • Chapter 44:
    Secrecy and Publicity
  • Chapter 45:
    The Annihilation of Suffering
  • Chapter 46:
    Avoiding the Ten Evils
  • Chapter 47:
    The Preacher's Mission


    The Teacher
  • Chapter 48:
    The Dhammapada
  • Chapter 49:
    The Two Brahmans
  • Chapter 50:
    Guard the Six Quarters
  • Chapter 51:
    Simha's Question Concerning Annihilation
  • Chapter 52:
    All Existence is Spiritual
  • Chapter 53:
    Identity and Non-Identity
  • Chapter 54:
    The Buddha Omnipresent
  • Chapter 55:
    One Essence, One Law, One Aim
  • Chapter 56:
    The Lesson Given to Rahula
  • Chapter 57:
    The Sermon on Abuse
  • Chapter 58:
    The Buddha Replies to the Deva
  • Chapter 59:
    Words of Instruction
  • Chapter 60:
    Amitabha
  • Chapter 61:
    The Teacher Unknown


    Parables and Stories
  • Chapter 62:
    Parables
  • Chapter 63:
    The Widow's Two Mites and the Parable of the Three Merchants
  • Chapter 64:
    The Man Born Blind
  • Chapter 65:
    The Lost Son
  • Chapter 66:
    The Giddy Fish
  • Chapter 67:
    The Cruel Crane Outwitted
  • Chapter 68:
    Four Kinds of Merit
  • Chapter 69:
    The Light of the World
  • Chapter 70:
    Luxurious Living
  • Chapter 71:
    The Communication of Bliss
  • Chapter 72:
    The Listless Fool
  • Chapter 73:
    Rescue in the Desert
  • Chapter 74:
    The Sower
  • Chapter 75:
    The Outcast
  • Chapter 76:
    The Woman at the Well
  • Chapter 77:
    The Peacemaker
  • Chapter 78:
    The Hungry Dog
  • Chapter 79:
    The Despot
  • Chapter 80:
    Vasavadatta
  • Chapter 81:
    The Marriage-Feast in Jambunada
  • Chapter 82:
    A Party in Search of a Thief
  • Chapter 83:
    In the Realm of Yamaraja
  • Chapter 84:
    The Mustard Seed
  • Chapter 85:
    Following the Master Over the Stream
  • Chapter 86:
    The Sick Bhikkhu
  • Chapter 87:
    The Patient Elephant


    The Last Days
  • Chapter 88:
    The Conditions of Welfare
  • Chapter 89:
    Sariputta's Faith
  • Chapter 90:
    Pataliputta
  • Chapter 91:
    The Mirror of Truth
  • Chapter 92:
    Ambapali
  • Chapter 93:
    The Buddha's Farewell Address
  • Chapter 94:
    The Buddha Announces His Death
  • Chapter 95:
    Chunda, the Smith
  • Chapter 96:
    Metteyya
  • Chapter 97:
    The Buddha's Final Entering into Nirvana


    Conclusion
  • Chapter 98:
    The Three Personalities of the Buddha
  • Chapter 99:
    The Purpose of Being
  • Chapter 100:
    The Praise of All the Buddhas


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    The Gospel of Buddha

    The Three Woes

    The palace which the king had given to the prince
    was resplendent with all the luxuries of India;
    for the king was anxious to see his son happy. [1]

    All sorrowful sights, all misery,
    and all knowledge of misery were kept away from Siddhattha,
    for the king desired that no troubles should come nigh him;
    he should not know that there was evil in the world. [2]

    But as the chained elephant longs for the wilds of the jungles,
    so the prince was eager to see the world,
    and he asked his father, the king,
    for permission to do so. [3]

    And Suddhodana ordered a jewel-fronted chariot with four stately horses to be held ready,
    and commanded the roads to be adorned where his son would pass. [4]

    The houses of the city were decorated with curtains and banners,
    and spectators arranged themselves on either side,
    eagerly gazing at the heir to the throne.
    Thus Siddhattha rode with Channa, his charioteer,
    through the streets of the city,
    and into a country watered by rivulets and covered with pleasant trees. [5]

    There by the wayside they met an old man with bent frame,
    wrinkled face and sorrowful brow, and the prince asked the charioteer:
    "Who is this?
    His head is white,
    his eyes are bleared,
    and his body is withered.
    He can barely support himself on his staff." [6]

    The charioteer, much embarrassed, hardly dared speak the truth.
    He said: "These are the symptoms of old age.
    This same man was once a suckling child,
    and as a youth full of sportive life;
    but now, as years have passed away,
    his beauty is gone and the strength of his life is wasted." [7]

    Siddhattha was greatly affected by the words of the charioteer,
    and he sighed because of the pain of old age.
    "What joy or pleasure can men take," he thought to himself,
    "when they know they must soon wither and pine away!" [8]

    And lo! while they were passing on,
    a sick man appeared on the way-side, gasping for breath,
    his body disfigured, convulsed and groaning with pain. [9]

    The prince asked his charioteer:
    "What kind of man is this?"
    And the charioteer replied and said: "This man is sick.
    The four elements of his body are confused and out of order.
    We are all subject to such conditions:
    the poor and the rich, the ignorant and the wise,
    all creatures that have bodies, are liable to the same calamity." [10]

    And Siddhattha was still more moved.
    All pleasures appeared stale to him,
    and he loathed the joys of life. [11]

    The charioteer sped the horses on to escape the dreary sight,
    when suddenly they were stopped in their fiery course. [12]

    Four persons passed by, carrying a corpse;
    and the prince, shuddering at the sight of a lifeless body,
    asked the charioteer: "What is this they carry?
    There are streamers and flower garlands;
    but the men that follow are overwhelmed with grief!" [13]

    The charioteer replied:
    "This is a dead man:
    his body is stark;
    his life is gone;
    his thoughts are still;
    his family and the friends who loved him
    now carry the corpse to the grave." [14]

    And the prince was full of awe and terror:
    "Is this the only dead man," he asked,
    "or does the world contain other instances?" [15]

    With a heavy heart the charioteer replied:
    "All over the world it is the same.
    He who begins life must end it.
    There is no escape from death." [16]

    With bated breath and stammering accents the prince exclaimed:
    "O worldly men! How fatal is your delusion!
    Inevitable your body will crumble to dust,
    yet carelessly, unheedingly, ye live on." [17]

    The charioteer observing the deep impression
    these sad sights had made on the prince,
    turned his horses and drove back to the city. [18]

    When they passes by the palaces of the nobility,
    Kisa Gotami, a young princess and niece of the king,
    saw Siddhattha in his manliness and beauty, and,
    observing the thoughtfulness of his countenance, said:
    "Happy the father that begot thee,
    happy the mother that nursed thee,
    happy the wife that calls husband this lord so glorious." [19]

    The prince hearing this greeting, said:
    "Happy are they that have found deliverance.
    Longing for peace of mind,
    I shall seek the bliss of Nirvana." [20]

    Then asked Kisa Gotami: "How is Nirvana attained?"
    The prince paused,
    and to him whose mind was estranged from wrong the answer came:
    "When the fire of lust is gone out, then Nirvana is gained;
    when the fires of hatred and delusion are gone out, then Nirvana is gained;
    when the troubles of mind, arising from blind credulity,
    and all other evils have ceased, then Nirvana is gained!"
    Siddhattha handed her his precious pearl necklace
    as a reward for the instruction she had given him,
    and having returned home looked with disdain
    upon the treasures of his palace. [21]

    His wife welcomed him and entreated him to tell her the cause of his grief.
    He said: "I see everywhere the impression of change;
    therefore, my heart is heavy.
    Men grow old, sicken, and die.
    That is enough to take away the zest of life." [22]

    The king, his father, hearing that the prince had become estranged from pleasure,
    was greatly overcome with sorrow and like a sword it pierced his heart. [23]

    End Chapter 6


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    The Gospel of Buddha
    The Gospel of Buddha
    Compiled from ancient records by Paul Carus, 1894

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