Return to Index

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


  • Click for The Reluctant Messenger (Host Site)
    Click here to go The Reluctant Messenger (Host Site)

    The Gospel of Buddha

    In the Realm of Yamaraja

    There was a Brahman, a religious man
    and fond in his affections but without deep wisdom.
    He had a son of great promise, who, when seven years old,
    was struck with a fatal disease and died.
    The unfortunate father was unable to control himself;
    he threw himself upon the corpse and lay there as one dead. [1]

    The relatives came and buried the dead child
    and when the father came to himself,
    he was so immoderate in his grief
    that he behaved like an insane person.
    He no longer gave way to tears but wandered about
    asking for the residence of Yamaraja, the king of death,
    humbly to beg of him that his child
    might be allowed to turn to life. [2]

    Having arrived at a great Brahman temple
    the sad father went through certain religious rites and fell asleep.
    While wandering on in his dream he came to a deep mountain pass
    where he met a number of samanas who had acquired supreme wisdom.
    "Kind sirs," he said,
    "can you not tell me where the residence of Yamaraja is?" And they asked him,
    "Good friend, why wouldst thou know?"
    Whereupon he told them his sad story and explained his intentions.
    Pitying his self-delusion, the samanas said:
    "No mortal man can reach the place where Yama reigns,
    but some four hundred miles westward
    lies a great city in which many good spirits live;
    every eighth day of the month Yama visits the place,
    and there mayest thou see him
    who is the King of Death
    and ask him for a boon."
    [3]

    The Brahman rejoicing at the news went to the city
    and found it as the samanas had told him.
    He was admitted to the dread presence of Yama, the King of Death,
    who, on hearing his request, said:
    "Thy son now lives in the eastern garden
    where he is disporting himself;
    go there and ask him to follow thee."
    [4]

    Said the happy father:
    "How does it happen that my son,
    without having performed one good work,
    is now living in paradise?"

    Yamaraja replied:
    "He has obtained celestial happiness not for performing good works,
    but because he died in faith and in love
    to the Lord and Master, the most glorious Buddha.
    The Buddha says:
    'The heart of love and faith spreads as it were
    a beneficent shade from the world of men to the world of gods.'
    This glorious utterance is like the stamp of a king's seal upon a royal edict."
    [5]

    The happy father hastened to the place
    and saw his beloved child playing with other children,
    all transfigured by the peace of the blissful existence of a heavenly life.
    He ran up to his boy and cried with tears running down his cheeks:
    "My son, my son, dost thou not remember me,
    thy father who watched over thee with loving care
    and tended thee in thy sickness?
    Return home with me to the land of the living."

    But the boy, while struggling to go back to his playmates,
    upbraided him for using such strange expressions as father and son.
    "In my present state," he said, "I know no such words,
    for I am free from delusion."
    [6]

    On this, the Brahman departed, and when he woke from his dream
    he bethought himself of the Blessed Master of mankind,
    the great Buddha, and resolved to go to him,
    lay bare his grief, and seek consolation. [7]

    Having arrived at the Jetavana, the Brahman told his story
    and how his boy had refused to recognize him
    and to go home with him. [8]

    And the World-honoured One said:
    "Truly thou art deluded.
    When man dies the body is dissolved into its elements,
    but the spirit is not entombed.
    It leads a higher mode of life in which all the relative terms
    of father, son, wife, mother, are at an end,
    just as a guest who leaves his lodging has done with it,
    as though it were a thing of the past.
    Men concern themselves most about that which passes away;
    but the end of life quickly comes as a burning torrent
    sweeping away the transient in a moment.
    They are like a blind man set to look after a burning lamp.
    A wise man, understanding the transiency of worldly relations,
    destroys the cause of grief, and escapes from the seething wirlpool of sorrow.
    Religious wisdom lifts a man above the pleasures and pains of the world
    and gives him peace everlasting."
    [9]

    The Brahman asked the permission of the Blessed One
    to enter the communitiy of his bhikkhus,
    so as to acquire that heavenly wisdom
    which alone can give comfort to an afflicted heart. [10]

    End Chapter 83


    [Previous] [Next]


    01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | Preface



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

    $3.99 Kindle eBook
    The Reluctant 
Messenger of Science and Religion Book Cover
    Buy from Amazon.com




    The Reluctant Messenger's Recommended Books and CDs

    Book of Chester (sacred scripture)