Brahman; the ignorant say that one is a Brahman by birth, but one is
a Brahman by penance, by religious life, by self-restraint, and by
temperance" (_V[=a]settha-sutta_).

The penance here alluded to is not the vague penance of austerities,
but submission to the discipline of the monastery when exercised for a
specific fault.

Later Buddhism made of Buddha a god. Even less exaltation than this is
met by Buddha thus: S[=a]riputta says to him, "Such faith have I,
Lord, that methinks there never was and never will be either monk or
Brahman who is greater and wiser than thou," and Buddha responds:
"Grand and bold are the words of thy mouth; behold, thou hast burst
forth into ecstatic song. Come, hast thou, then, known all the Buddhas
that were?" "No, Lord." "Hast thou known all the Buddhas that will
be?" "No, Lord." "But, at least, thou knowest me, my conduct, my mind,
my wisdom, my life, my salvation (i.e., thou knowest me as well as I
know myself)?" "No, Lord." "Thou seest that thou knowest not the
venerable Buddhas of the past and of the future; why, then, are thy
words so grand and bold?" (_Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na_.)

Metaphysically the human ego to the Buddhist is only a collection of
five _skandhas_ (form, sensations, ideas, faculties of mind, and
reason) that vanishes when the collection is dispersed, but the
factors of the collection re-form again, and the new ego is the result
of their re-formation. The Northern Buddhists, who turn Buddha into a
god, make of this an immortal soul, but this is Buddhism in one phase,
not Buddha's own belief. The strength of Northern Buddhism lies not,
as some say, in its greater religious zeal, but in its grosser
animism, the delight of the vulgar.

It will not be necessary, interesting as would be the comparison, to
study the Buddhism of the North after this review of the older and
simpler chronicles. In Hardy's _Manual of Buddhism_ (p. 138 ff.) and
Rockhill's _Life of Buddha_ will be found the weird and silly legends
of Northern Buddhism, together with a full sketch of Buddhistic ethics
and ontology (Hardy, pp. 460, 387). The most famous of the Northern
books, the Lotus of the Law and the Lalita Vistara, give a good idea
of the extravagance and supernaturalism that already have begun to
disfigure the purer faith. According to Kern, who has translated the
former work again (after Burnouf), the whole intent of the Lotus is to
represent Buddha as the supreme, eternal God. The works,