Lives of Alcyone

depression. The Lord Buddha preached about sorrow and karma,
and much of what He said exactly fitted Alcyone’ s case and
wonderfully relieved his aching heart.
He went again and again to hear those wonderful sermons,
and one day the Lord spoke strongly about the necessity of
kindness and compassion. The man who wished to enter upon the
Path must put away from him even the slightest shadow of anger
and of hatred, and must show nothing to friend or enemy but all-
embracing love. Alcyone thought long over this, ad the result of it
was that he went out to the country house to fetch back Mizar and
his wife and child. He spoke to Thetis, whom before he had refused
even to see, and told her that he regretted his hard feelings towards
her, for he knew that in all that she had done she had been only the
instrument of his own karma. She was utterly overcome by his
unexpected kindness, and thus it happened that both she and Mizar
were brought back again to share the home which she had
desolated.
Alcyone on the first opportunity took Mizar to hear a sermon of
the Lord Buddha. The scene was one never to be forgotten.
Perhaps two thousand people were gathered there among the trees,
most sitting on the ground, some leaning against the trunks, men
and women together, and little children sitting with them or running
about between the outlying groups of people. The Lord sat on a
slightly raised platform—a grassy bank in the midst of the garden,
sorrounded by a band of His monks in their yellow robes, and with
His glorious musical voice made all that crowd hear without an
effort, and held them entranced day after day as they came to listen
to Him. Of Him it was indeed emphatically true, as was once said of