"17. How the soul operated on the body.
"18. What its various sensations and faculties were.
"19. The faculty of speaking, anger, desire.
"20. And, lastly, the manner of its composition and dissolution, and other things which the understanding of no creature had ever reached.
"21. Then that philosopher worshipped the Lord Jesus, and said, O Lord Jesus, from henceforth I will be Thy disciple and servant."
Vis´vâmitra in like manner worshipped Buddha by falling at his feet.
THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
I have now come to a stage in this narrative when a few remarks are necessary. The "Lalita Vistara" professes to reveal the secrets of the Buddhas, the secrets of "magic," the secrets of Yoga, or union with Brahma. And whether it be fiction or history, it does so more roundly than any other work. The Christian gospels profess also to teach a similar secret. Read by the light of the Buddhist book, I think they do teach it. But read alone, eighteen centuries come forward to show that they do not.
The highest spiritual philosophers in Buddhism, in Brahminism, in Christendom, in Islam, announce two kingdoms distinct from one another. They are called in India the Domain of Appetite (Kâmaloca), and the Domain of Spirit (Brahmaloca). The "Lalita Vistara" throughout describes a conflict between these two great camps. Buddha is offered a crown by his father. He has wives, palaces, jewels, but he leaves all for the thorny jungle where the Brahmacharin dreamt his dreams of God. This is called pessimism by some writers, who urge that we should enjoy life as we find it, but modern Europe having tried, denies that life is so enjoyable. Its motto is Tout lasse, tout casse, tout passe. Yes, say the optimists, but we needn't all live a life like Jay Gould. A good son, a good father, a good husband, a good citizen, is happy enough. True, reply the pessimists, in so far as a mortal enters the domain of spirit he may be happy, for that is not a region but a state of the mind. But mundane accidents seem, almost by rule, to mar even that happiness. The husband loses his loved one, the artist his eyesight. Philosophers and statesmen find their great dreams and schemes baffled by the infirmities of age.