world loved him.
He saw again Yathodaya, she who had been his wife; he saw his son. Now,
when passion was dead in him, he could do these things. And Yathodaya
was full of despair, for if all the world had gained a teacher, she had
lost a husband. So it will be for ever. This is the difference between
men and women. She became a nun, poor soul! and her son--his son--became
one of his disciples.
I do not think it is necessary for me to tell much more of his life.
Much has been told already by Professor Max Mueller and other scholars,
who have spared no pains to come to the truth of that life. I do not
wish to say more. So far, I have written to emphasize the view which, I
think, the Burmese take of the Buddha, and how he came to his wisdom,
how he loved, and how he died.
He died at a great age, full of years and love. The story of his death
is most beautiful. There is nowhere anything more wonderful than how, at
the end of that long good life, he entered into the Great Peace for
which he had prepared his soul.
'Ananda,' he said to his weeping disciple, 'do not be too much concerned
with what shall remain of me when I have entered into the Peace, but be
rather anxious to practise the works that lead to perfection; put on
those inward dispositions that will enable you also to reach the
everlasting rest.'
And again:
'When I shall have left life and am no more seen by you, do not believe
that I am no longer with you. You have the laws that I have found, you
have my teachings still, and in them I shall be ever beside you. Do
not, therefore, think that I have left you alone for ever.'
And before he died:
'Remember,' he said, 'that life and death are one. Never forget this.
For this purpose have I gathered you together; for life and death are
one.'
And so 'the great and glorious teacher,' he who never spoke but good and
wise words, he who has been the light of the world, entered into the
Peace.
CHAPTER IV
THE WAY TO THE GREAT PEACE
'Come to Me: I teach a doctrine which leads to deliverance from all
the miseries of life.'--_Saying of the Buddha._
To understand the teaching of Buddhism, it must be remembered that to
the Buddhist, as to the Brahmin, man's soul is eternal.
In other faiths and other philosophies this is not so. There the soul is
immortal; it cannot die, but each man's soul appeared newly on his
birth. Its beginning is very recent.
To the Buddhist the beginning as
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