Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists

Myths of the Hindus ^P Buddhistsand though at first his doctrine was not well received, itwas not long before it was accepted by his old disciplesand many others. Some became his personal followers ;others became lay disciples without leaving the household life.Amongst those who accepted his teachingwere his father and mother and wife and son. After aministry lasting forty-five years, during which he preachedthe new doctrines in Kapilavastu and the neighbouringstates, and established an order of Buddhist monks, andalso, though reluctantly, an order of nuns, the Buddhapassed away or entered into Nirvana (about 483 B.C.),surrounded by his mournful disciples.The Teaching of BuddhaIf we know comparativelylittle about the life of Buddha,we have, on the other hand, a trustworthy knowledge ofhis teaching. Conceptions of the personality of theBuddha himself have indeed changed, but the substanceof his teaching has been preserved intact since about250 B.C., and there is every reason to believe that theworks then accepted formally as canonical include theessential part of his own doctrine.It is necessary, in the first place, to realize that though areformer, and perhaps from a priestly point of view aheretic (ifsuch a word can be used in connexion witha system permitting absolute freedom of speculation),the Buddha was brought up and lived and died as aHindu. Comparatively little of his systemwhether ofdoctrine or ethics, was original, or calculated to deprivehim of the support and sympathy of the best among theBrahmans, many of whom became his disciples. Thesuccess of his system was due to various causes : thewonderful personality and sweet reasonableness of the248