, much less
poisonous snakes? The extraordinary hold that this tenet of their
religion has upon the Burmese must be seen to be understood. What I
write will sound like some fairy story, I fear, to my people at home. It
is far beneath the truth. The belief that it is wrong to take life is a
belief with them as strong as any belief could be. I do not know
anywhere any command, earthly or heavenly, that is acted up to with such
earnestness as this command is amongst the Burmese. It is an abiding
principle of their daily life.

Where the command came from I do not know. I cannot find any allusion to
it in the life of the great teacher. We know that he ate meat. It seems
to me that it is older even than he. It has been derived both by the
Burmese Buddhists and the Hindus from a faith whose origin is hidden in
the mists of long ago. It is part of that far older faith on which
Buddhism was built, as was Christianity on Judaism.

But if not part of his teaching--and though it is included in the sacred
books, we do not know how much of them are derived from the Buddha
himself--it is in strict accordance with all his teaching. That is one
of the most wonderful points of Buddhism, it is all in accordance; there
are no exceptions.

I have heard amongst Europeans a very curious explanation of this
refusal of Buddhists to take life. 'Buddhists,' they say, 'believe in
the transmigration of souls. They believe that when a man dies his soul
may go into a beast. You could not expect him to kill a bull, when
perchance his grandfather's soul might inhabit there.' This is their
explanation, this is the way they put two and two together to make five.
They know that Buddhists believe in transmigration, they know that
Buddhists do not like to take life, and therefore one is the cause of
the other.

I have mentioned this explanation to Burmans while talking of the
subject, and they have always laughed at it. They had never heard of it
before. It is true that it is part of their great theory of life that
the souls of men have risen from being souls of beasts, and that we may
so relapse if we are not careful. Many stories are told of cases that
have occurred where a man has been reincarnated as an animal, and where
what is now the soul of a man used to live in a beast. But that makes no
difference. Whatever a man may have been, or may be, he is a man now;
whatever a beast may have been, he is a beast now. Never suppose that a
Burman has any