110, 111. Cf. the Psalmist: "One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand."

125. Gautama again and again insists that natural law holds good in the spiritual world, though there are exceptions. (Cf. 54.)

126. Go to the womb: i.e. are born upon earth.

127-8. Cf. Introduction, p. 13.

129-32. Cf. Luke vi, 31: The Golden Rule.

141. Doubt: one of the deadly sins in Buddhism. The Buddha claimed omniscience, and though he did not discourage

investigation and inquiry, from the great mass of men, who are ignorant and foolish, he demanded the plunge of faith.

Matted hair, etc. The Sumagadha-avadana relates that Sumagadha, seeing the naked and unkempt ascetics of Brahminism, exclaimed: "O Mother, if these are saints, what must sinners be like?" (Cf. Max Muller's Dhammapada, p. 38.)

142. Buddhism--so often labelled pessimistic--is striking in the genial attitude it takes towards asceticism. It encourages fasting only as a means to self-control and concentration of mind: for the rest the only kind of fasting it urges is "fasting from sin." Even the "man of the world" may be a true "Brahmin"--though it is very difficult. (Cf. Asoka's Minor Rock Edict, I: "Even by the small man, who chooses to exert himself, immense heavenly bliss may be won.")

The Samana: lit. "the calmed" (see note on 264).

144. By faith Buddhism means the calm acceptance of all Gautama taught: after his death it ceased to be an attitude to his person and became a conviction that his claims to omniscience were well founded, and that his system is the true interpretation of the world and of human life.

But Buddhism is nothing if not psychological, and faith (saddha) came to mean a subjective state of consciousness akin to serenity (passadhi), consequent upon acceptance of Buddha's teaching.

146. Fire is for the Buddhist the synonym of suffering: all is regarded as a flux--the world dissolving "with fervent heat." There is no meaning or permanence in this world: all the more need to seek salvation. In the burning heat of India the metaphor is a very vivid one for weariness and pain.

147-51. The Body too is a poor thing: in these ways Buddhism is distinctly pessimistic as compared with Christianity, which sees in the world a potential Kingdom of God, and in the human body a "temple of the Holy Spirit": yet, be it noted, Gautama painted this lurid picture

with intent to awaken men to the powers of their mind and character.