hich is common among
Europeans. Both tempers must be taken into account by every theory which
is not merely personal but endeavours to ascertain what the human race
think and feel about existence.

The sombre and meditative cast of Indian thought is not due to physical
degeneration or a depressing climate. Many authors speak as if the
Hindus lived in a damp relaxing heat in which physical and moral stamina
alike decay. I myself think that as to climate India is preferable to
Europe, and without arguing about what must be largely a question of
personal taste, one may point to the long record of physical and
intellectual labour performed even by Europeans in India. Neither can it
be maintained that in practice Buddhism destroys the joy and vigour of
life. The Burmese are among the most cheerful people in the world and
the Japanese among the most vigorous, and the latter are at least as
much Buddhists as Europeans are Christians. It might be plausibly
maintained that Europeans' love of activity is mainly due to the
intolerable climate and uncomfortable institutions of their continent,
which involve a continual struggle with the weather and continual
discussion forbidding any calm and comprehensive view of things. The
Indian being less troubled by these evils is able to judge what is the
value of life in itself, as an experience for the individual, not as
part of a universal struggle, which is the common view of seriously
minded Europeans, though as to this struggle they have but hazy ideas of
the antagonists, the cause and the result.

The Buddhist doctrine does not mean that life is something trifling and
unimportant, to be lived anyhow. On the contrary, birth as a human being
is an opportunity of inestimable value. He who is so born has at least a
chance of hearing the truth and acquiring merit. "Hard is it to be born
as a man, hard to come to hear the true law" and when the chance comes,
the good fortune of the being who has attained to human form and the
critical issues which depend on his using it rightly are dwelt on with
an earnestness not surpassed in Christian homiletics. He who acts ill as
a man may fall back into the dreary cycles of inferior births, among
beasts and blind aimless beings who cannot understand the truth, even if
they hear it. From this point of view human life is happiness, only like
every form of existence it is not satisfying or permanent.

Dukkha is commonly rendered in English by pain or su