The whole passage from 703 to 751 is of great interest to those who like to trace Buddhistic thought in non-Buddhistic literature. Lines 66-68 of the Third Georgic are equally striking in this respect:
"Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit, subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis."
It was just such reflections as this that filled the heart of the Sakya prince with pity and love for mankind. Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalium tangunt, the beautiful utterance of "the chastest and royalest" of poets, expresses the feeling that prompted the Great Renunciation and gave to the world a Buddha.
[41] The Chinese 八聖道分.
[43] The Mahâ-Parinibbâna Suttanta, translated by Rhys Davids (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi. p. 38).
[44] Avalokiteçvara is the Chinese Kuan Yin, generally represented in China (where temples to this divinity are exceedingly numerous) as a female, and known to Europeans as the "Goddess of Mercy." The change of sex is due to an identification of this Bodhisattva with a legendary Chinese princess, who devoted herself to saving human lives, especially from the dangers of the sea. She has thus become in a special sense the guardian deity of sailors; but she is also worshipped by women as the goddess who grants male offspring. Mahâsthâma is the Chinese Ta Shih Chih, the Bodhisattva of Great Strength. Eitel, in his Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, says that this Bodhisattva is perhaps the same as Maudgalyâyana; but this is a mistake, as is quite clear from the fact that, in certain sutras, such as the Amitâyur-Dhyāna Sutra, they figure as separate personalities.
[45] The Japanese Amida.
[46] "The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Samgha": i.e. the Buddha, the law and doctrine of the Buddha, and the Church or Community of Brethren established by the Buddha.