moreover the production of the world is imputed as sin and guilt[1] least of all with beguiled Saturn's voluptuous son, to whom Prometheus, defiant, prophesies his downfall. But if we finally direct our attention towards the religion which numbers most followers, and in this respect may therefore be said to rank foremost: that is, Buddhism, we can no longer shut our eyes to the fact that it is as decidedly and explicitly atheistic, as it is idealistic and ascetic ; and this moreover to such a degree, that its priests express the greatest abhorrence of the doctrine of pure Theism whenever it is brought to their notice. Therefore, in a treatise handed to a Catholic bishop by the High Priest of the Buddhists at Ava,[2] the doctrine "that there is a Being who has created the world and all things, and who alone is worthy of worship," is counted among the six damnable heresies.[3] This is entirely corroborated by I. J. Schmidt, a most excellent and learned authority, whom I consider as having undoubtedly the deepest knowledge of Buddhism of any European savant, and who, in his work "Upon the connection between Gnostic doctrines and Buddhism," p. 9, says:—
"In the writings of the Buddhists not a trace is to be found of any positive indication of a Supreme Being as the principle of Creation. Whenever this subject presents itself consistently in the course of argument, it seems, indeed, to be intentionally evaded." And again : "The system of Buddhism knows of no eternal, uncreated,
- ↑ "If Bramha be unceasingly employed in the creation of worlds..... how can tranquillity be obtained by inferior orders of being? "Prabodh Chandro Daya, translated by J. Taylor, p. 23.—Brahma is also part of the Trimurti, which is the personification of nature, as procreation, preservation, and death: that is, he represents the first of these.
- ↑ See "Asiatic Researches," vol. vi. p. 268, and Sangennano's "Description of the Burmese Empire," p. 81.
- ↑ See I. J. Schmidt, "Forschungen im Gebiete der älteren Bildungsgeschichte Mittelasiens." St. Petersburg, 1824, pp. 276, and 180.
