BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM
from the religious life of the wandering recluse, the two standing in contrast, though not necessarily antagonistic. Eastern society, with all its beauty of harmonized duties and intercalated occupations, is based on mutual dependencies, and at best can but end in conventionalism—the moral bondage of the commune. Religion, on the other hand, furnishes the means of true emancipation, and constitutes the acme of individualism. The ideal monk is the child of freedom, who, dying to the mundane, is reborn to the realm of the spirit. He is like the lotus which rises in purity above the mire. He is silent, like the forest in which he meditates; untrammeled, like the wind that blows his gown around him. He is of no caste and no country. What if thrones are overthrown and nations enslaved:
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