Excerpt from Buddhism: A List of References in the New York Public Library

A scholar of much repute sums up thus the demands made upon its devo tees by primitive Buddhism: F ilial piety and respect towards teachers and those in authority; kindness and courtesy to dependants, tenderness and pity for the weak, hospitality and charity towards the stranger and the traveller, sympathy and consideration for all living creatures; truthfulness and honesty in word and deed; self-control, gratitude, fidelity, liberality and purity of heart; toleration for the beliefs of others, and avoidance of all hatred and uncharitableness in act, thought and language.

The Buddha, however as has been the case with most moral teachers was much too far in advance Of his times. It is true that under King Asoka (264 - 231 B. His theories and his ideals made great progress in the valley of the Ganges. But they had to struggle against the Hinduism that was firmly intrenched by custom and early association; and with the help of the Muhammedan invasion of the twelfth century, Buddhist theories and prac tices disappeared almost entirely in India proper. However, Buddhism still retained its hold to the North and to the South, in the Himalaya mountains the region made sacred by the Buddha's birth, and in Ceylon where it reigns supreme. In place Of the lost territory in the Peninsula, it has substituted Thibet, Burma and Siam and has affected large districts in China and in Japan. Several hundred millions of human beings are today its devotees. The Bud dhist scriptures the canon of which was fixed in the third century B. C. Are thus found in four recensions in Pali for Ceylon, Burma and Siam; in Sanskrit for Nepal; in Tibetan and in Chinese. How far Buddhism had penetrated into Asia has been shown recently by the marvelous discoveries of Buddhist art in Turkestan and adjacent regions.

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