ON THE BUDDHA
The life of the Buddha is a poem
The whole life story of the Buddha is a wonderful poem. It is so fascinating, attractive and artistic and I have never read such a wonderful poem. The emergence of the Buddha is the highest honour so far gained in the history of humanity.
Rabindranath
Tagore
Prof Max Muller
A teacher who never had human frailty
The Buddha was the embodiment of all the virtues he preached. His moral code is the most perfect the world has ever known. During his successful and eventful forty-five years as a supremely enlightened teacher, he translated all his work into essence and in no place did he give vent to any human frailty or any base passion.
Prince in beggar's clothing
If you desire to see the most noble of mankind, look at the prince in beggar's clothing; it is he whose sanctity is great among men - 'the Buddha'.
Abdul Atahiya
Albert Schweitzer
Everlasting value and advanced ethics
The Buddha gave expression to truths of everlasting value and advanced the ethics not of India alone but of humanity. The Buddha was one of the greatest ethical men of genius ever bestowed upon the world.
The god who walked on the earth
The Buddha is the only god who ever walked on this earth.
Swanmi Vivekananda
H. C. Wells
Buddha is not a myth
You see clearly a man, simple, devout, lonely, battling for light, a vivid human personality, and not a myth. He gave a message to mankind universal in its character. Many of our best modern ideas are in closest harmony with it.
One who knows the true nature of the world
Among the founders of all religions in this world, I respect only one man — the Buddha. The main reason was that the Buddha did not make statements regarding the origin of the world. The Buddha was the only teacher who realised the true nature of the world.
But, while many others made unjustifiable claims based on rather simplistic logic on how the world originated, the Buddha did not commit himself to any statement about a beginning. This was because he knew his listeners did not have the proper intellectual training and understanding of the physical world to comprehend what he himself had discovered.
Bertrand Russell
Swami Vivekananda
One who has reached above all
Show me in history one character that has reached so high above all. The whole human race has produced but one such person - Buddha - preaching high philosophy yet having the deepest of sympathy even for the lowest animal.
The Buddha emphasised reason, morals, principles and experience
The Buddha had the courage to point out the unsatisfactoriness of popular religion, superstition, ceremony, and priest craft. He was not interested in the metaphysical and theological outlook, miracles, revelations, and dealings with the supernatural. His appeal was to reason, logic, and experience; his emphasis was on ethics and his method was one of psychological analysis, a psychology without a soul. His whole approach comes like the breath of the fresh wind from the mountain after the stale air of metaphysical speculation.
Pandit Nehru
Sir Edwin Arnold
Flower of mankind
This is the Blossom on our human tree
Which opens once in many myriad years —
But when opened, fills the world with
Wisdom's scent and Love's dropped honey.
Eternal debt to the Buddha
It is my deliberate opinion that the essential part of the teachings of the Buddha now forms an integral part of Hinduism. It is impossible for Hindu India today to retrace her steps and go behind the great reformation that Gautama effected in Hinduism.
By his immense sacrifice, by his great renunciation, and by the immaculate purity of his life he left an indelible impression upon Hinduism, and Hinduism owes an eternal debt of gratitude to that great teacher.
Mahatama Gandhi
Dr Malalasekara
The greatest conqueror of the world
The Buddha was the greatest conqueror the world has ever seen. He conquered the world with his infallible weapons of compassion and wisdom. His teaching illuminates the way for mankind to cross from a world of darkness, hatred and suffering, to a New World of light, love, happiness and security.
Buddha's message to humanity
The Buddha has been something greater than all doctrines and dogmas, and his eternal message has thrilled humanity through the ages. Perhaps at no time in past history was his message of peace more needed for a suffering and distracted humanity than it is today.
Pandit Nehru
Prof Max Muller
The Buddha's voice comforted the suffering poor
The voice of the Buddha has comforted the bereaved and helped the suffering poor. It has ennobled the lives of the deluded and purified the corrupted lives of criminals. It has encouraged the feeble, united the divided, enlightened the ignorant, elevated the base and dignified the noble.
The voice of the Buddha is not a voice from heaven
He belongs to the history of the world's thought, to the general inheritance of all cultivated men; for, judged by intellectual integrity, moral earnestness, and spiritual insight, he is undoubtedly the greatest human being who has ever lived.
This was not the heavenly voice of a divine power, but a very human voice, which called on men to seek final emancipation through mental purification and enlightenment. Even today, this voice echoes in our ears and reminds us that we can understand the truth revealed by him, if only we exercise our will and our concentration.
The voice of the Buddha is a message of hope, confidence and courage. It tells us that hatred never ceases through hatred but only by loving-kindness. This vibrant voice emanated from a great personality, who was once a warrior, a royal prince, a yogi, a mendicant and finally a Buddha.
Prof Max Muller
Julius Huxley
Buddhism begins where science ends
The Buddha is the pillar of wisdom and Buddhism begins where science ends. Buddhism is the complete conceivable victory of mankind over itself. The Buddhists' way of thinking belongs to the future.
The calm Buddha image
His eyes are closed but some power of the spirit looks out of them and a vital energy fills the frame.
The ages roll by and Buddha seems not so far away after all; his voice whispers in our ears and tells us not to run away from the struggle but calmed-eyed, to face it, and to see in life even greater opportunities for growth and advancement.
Pandit Nehru
Anatole France
What the Buddha image teaches us
It seems that the kindly, appreciative, eternally young man is seated cross-legged on the lotus of purity with his right hand raised in admonition to utter these words: "If you wish to escape from suffering, from fear, practise compassion and develop wisdom"
The Buddha taught self-reliance
Of all the teachers of the world, the Buddha was the one who taught us to be self-reliant, who freed us not only from the bondage of our views but from the dependence on invisible beings called god or gods.
He invited everyone into the state of free dom, which he called Nirvana. All must attain it one day and the attainment is the complete fulfilment of man.
Swami Vivekananda
Rabindranath Tagore
The Buddha's early morning duty
May my heart lend its ear to every cry of pain,
As the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.
Let not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain,
Before I wipe it off from the sufferer's eyes.
But let each burning human tear
Drop on my heart and there remain,
Nor ever be brushed off until the pain
That caused it is removed.
Salvation never comes from another person
It is not the Buddha who delivers living beings. He guides them to deliver themselves, even as he has delivered himself. They accept his teaching of the truth, not because it comes from him, but because personal conviction, inspired by his words, arises by the light of their own spirit.
Dr Oldenburg
