Buddha
c. 500 BC
The Gospel of Buddha
 
 The "Gospel of Buddha" is a 19th century compilation from a 
variety of Buddhist texts by Paul Carus. It is modelled on the New 
Testament as was very widely read. It was even recommended by 
Ceylonese Buddhist leaders as a teaching tool for Buddhist 
children. 
 
 This version originates from the Internet, via World Wide 
Web, at gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/11/
 
REJOICE
 
 THE DISCIPLE SPEAKS
 
 REJOICE
 REJOICE at the glad tidings! The Buddha our Lord has found 
the root of all evil; he has shown us the way of salvation. The 
Buddha dispels the illusions of our mind and redeems us from the 
terror of death.
 The Buddha, our Lord, brings comfort to the weary and 
sorrow-laden; he restores peace to those who are broken down under 
the burden of life. He gives courage to the weak when they would 
fain give up self-reliance and hope. You who suffer from the 
tribulations of life, you who have to struggle and endure, you who 
yearn for a life of truth, rejoice at the glad tidings! There is balm for 
the wounded, and there is bread for the hungry. There is water for 
the thirsty, and there is hope for the despairing. There is light for 
those in darkness, and there is inexhaustible blessing for the upright.
 Heal your wounds, you wounded, and eat your fill, you hungry. 
Rest, you weary, and you who are thirsty quench your thirst. Look 
up to the light, you who sit in darkness; be full of good cheer, you 
who are forlorn.
 Trust in truth, You who love the truth, for the kingdom of 
righteousness is founded upon earth. The darkness of error is 
dispelled by the light of truth. We can see our way and take firm and 
certain steps. The Buddha, our Lord, has revealed the truth. The 
truth cures our diseases and redeems us from perdition; the truth 
strengthens us in life and in death; the truth alone can conquer the 
evils of error. Rejoice at the glad tidings!
 
 
 SAMSARA AND NIRVANA
 LOOK about and contemplate life! Everything is transient and 
nothing endures. There is birth and death, growth and decay; there is 
combination and separation. The glory of the world is like a flower: 
it stands in full bloom in the morning and fades in the heat of the 
day.
 Wherever you look, there is a rushing and a struggling, and an 
eager pursuit of pleasure. There is a panic flight from pain and 
death, and hot are the flames of burning desires. The world is Vanity 
Fair, full of changes and transformations. All is Samsara, the 
turning Wheel of Existence.
 Is there nothing permanent in the world? Is there in the 
universal turmoil no resting-place where our troubled heart can find 
peace? Is there nothing everlasting? Oh, that we could have 
cessation of anxiety, that our burning desires would be 
extinguished! When shall the mind become tranquil and composed?
 The Buddha, our Lord, was grieved at the ills of life. He saw 
the vanity of worldly happiness and sought salvation in the one 
thing that will not fade or perish, but will abide for ever and ever.
 You who long for life, learn that immortality is hidden in 
transiency. You who wish for happiness without the sting of regret, 
lead a life of righteousness. You who yearn for riches, receive 
treasures that are eternal. Truth is wealth, and a life of truth is 
happiness.
 All compounds will be dissolved again, but the verities which 
determine all combinations and separations as laws of nature endure 
for ever and aye. Bodies fall to dust, but the truths of the mind will 
not be destroyed.
 Truth knows neither birth nor death; it has no beginning and no 
end. Welcome the truth. The truth is the immortal part of mind. 
Establish the truth in your mind, for the truth is the image of the 
eternal; it portrays the immutable; it reveals the everlasting; the truth 
gives unto mortals the boon of immortality.
 The Buddha has proclaimed the truth; let the truth of the 
Buddha dwell in your hearts. Extinguish in yourselves every desire 
that antagonizes the Buddha, and in the perfection of your spiritual 
growth you will become like unto him. That of your heart which 
cannot or will not develop into Buddha must perish, for it is mere 
illusion and unreal; it is the source of your error; it is the cause of 
your misery.
 You attain to immortality by filling your minds with truth. 
Therefore, become like unto vessels fit to receive the Master's 
words. Cleanse yourselves of evil and sanctify your lives. There is 
no other way of reaching truth.
 Learn to distinguish between Self and Truth. Self is the cause 
of selfishness and the source of evil; truth cleaves to no self; it is 
universal and leads to justice and righteousness. Self, that which 
seems to those who love their self as their being, is not the eternal, 
the everlasting, the imperishable. Seek not self, but seek the truth.
 If we liberate our souls from our petty selves, wish no ill to 
others, and become clear as a crystal diamond reflecting the light of 
truth, what a radiant picture will appear in us mirroring things as 
they are, without the admixture of burning desires, without the 
distortion of erroneous illusion, without the agitation of clinging and 
unrest.
 Yet you love self and will not abandon self-love. So be it, but 
then, verily, you should learn to distinguish between the false self 
and the true self. The ego with all its egotism is the false self. It is 
an unreal illusion and a perishable combination. He only who 
identifies his self with the truth will attain Nirvana; and he who has 
entered Nirvana has attained Buddhahood; he has acquired the 
highest good; he has become eternal and immortal.
 All compound things shall be dissolved again, worlds will 
break to pieces and our individualities will be scattered; but the 
words of Buddha will remain for ever.
 The extinction of self is salvation; the annihilation of self is the 
condition of enlightenment; the blotting out of self is Nirvana.
 Happy is he who has ceased to live for pleasure and rests in the 
truth. Verily his composure and tranquility of mind are the highest 
bliss.
 Let us take our refuge in the Buddha, for he has found the 
everlasting in the transient. Let us take our refuge in that which is 
the immutable in the changes of existence. Let us take our refuge in 
the truth that is established through the enlightenment of the 
Buddha. Let us take our refuge in the community of those who seek 
the truth and endeavor to live in the truth.
 
TRUTH, THE SAVIOR
 THE things of the world and its inhabitants are subject to 
change. They are combinations of elements that existed before, and 
all living creatures are what their past actions made them; for the 
law of cause and effect is uniform and without exception.
 But in the changing things there is a constancy of law, and 
when the law is seen there is truth. The truth lies hidden in Samsara 
as the permanent in its changes.
 Truth desires to appear; truth longs to become conscious; truth 
strives to know itself.
 There is truth in the stone, for the stone is here; and no power 
in the world, no god, no man, no demon, can destroy its existence. 
But the stone has no consciousness. There is truth in the plant and 
its life can expand; the plant grows and blossoms and bears fruit. Its 
beauty is marvelous, but it has no consciousness. There is truth in 
the animal; it moves about and perceives its surroundings; it 
distinguishes and learns to choose. There is consciousness, but it is 
not yet the consciousness of Truth. It is a consciousness of self only.
 The consciousness of self dims the eyes of the mind and hides 
the truth. It is the origin of error, it is the source of illusion, it is the 
germ of evil. Self begets selfishness. There is no evil but what flows 
from self. There is no wrong but what is done by the assertion of 
self. Self is the beginning of all hatred, of iniquity and slander, of 
impudence and indecency, of theft and robbery, of oppression and 
bloodshed. Self is Mara, the tempter, the evil-doer, the creator of 
mischief. Self entices with pleasures. Self promises a fairy's 
paradise. Self is the veil of Maya, the enchanter. But the pleasures 
of self are unreal, its paradisian labyrinth is the road to misery, and 
its fading beauty kindles the flames of desires that never can be 
satisfied.
 Who shall deliver us from the power of self? Who shall save us 
from misery? Who shall restore us to a life of blessedness?
 There is misery in the world of Samsara; there is much misery 
and pain. But greater than all the misery is the bliss of truth. Truth 
gives peace to the yearning mind; it conquers error; it quenches the 
flames of desires; it leads to Nirvana. Blessed is he who has found 
the peace of Nirvana. He is at rest in the struggles and tribulations 
of life; he is above all changes; he is above birth and death; he 
remains unaffected by the evils of life.
 Blessed is he who has found enlightenment. He conquers, 
although he may be wounded; he is glorious and happy, although he 
may suffer; he is strong, although he may break down under the 
burden of his work; he is immortal, although he will die. The 
essence of his being is purity and goodness.
 Blessed is he who has attained the sacred state of Buddhahood, 
for he is fit to work out the salvation of his fellow beings. The truth 
has taken its abode in him. Perfect wisdom illumines his 
understanding, and righteousness ensouls the purpose of all his 
actions. The truth is a living power for good, indestructible and 
invincible! Work the truth out in your mind, and spread it among 
mankind, for truth alone is the savior from evil and misery. The 
Buddha has found the truth and the truth has been proclaimed by the 
Buddha! Blessed be the Buddha!
 
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
 There was in Kapilavatthu a Sakya king, strong of purpose and 
reverenced by all men, a descendant of the Okkakas, who call 
themselves Gotama, and his name was Suddhodana or Pure-Rice. 
His wife Mayadevi was beautiful as the water-lily and pure in mind 
as the lotus. As the Queen of Heaven, she lived on earth, untainted 
by desire, and immaculate.
 The king, her husband, honored her in her holiness, and the 
spirit of truth, glorious and strong in his wisdom like unto a white 
elephant, descended upon her. When she knew that the hour of 
motherhood was near, she asked the king to send her home to her 
parents; and Suddhodana, anxious about his wife and the child she 
would bear him, willingly granted her request.
 At Lumbini there is a beautiful grove, and when Mayadevi 
passed through it the trees were one mass of fragrant flowers and 
many birds were warbling in their branches. The Queen, wishing to 
stroll through the shady walks, left her golden palanquin, and, when 
she reached the giant sala tree in the midst of the grove, felt that her 
hour had come. She took hold of a branch. Her attendants hung a 
curtain about her and retired. When the pain of travail came upon 
her, four pure-minded angels of the great Brahma held out a golden 
net to receive the babe, who came forth from her right side like the 
rising sun bright and perfect.
 The Brahma-angels took the child and placing him before the 
mother said: "Rejoice, O queen, a mighty son has been born unto 
thee."
 At her couch stood an aged woman imploring the heavens to 
bless the child. All the worlds were flooded with light. The blind 
received their sight by longing to see the coming glory of the Lord; 
the deaf and dumb spoke with one another of the good omens 
indicating the birth of the Buddha to be. The crooked became 
straight; the lame walked. All prisoners were freed from their chains 
and the fires of all the hells were extinguished.
 No clouds gathered in the skies and the polluted streams 
became clear, whilst celestial music rang through the air and the 
angels rejoiced with gladness. With no selfish or partial joy but for 
the sake of the law they rejoiced, for creation engulfed in the ocean 
of pain was now to obtain release. The cries of beasts were hushed; 
all malevolent beings received a loving heart, and peace reigned on 
earth. Mara, the evil one, alone was grieved and rejoiced not.
 The Naga kings, earnestly desiring to show their reverence for 
most excellent law, as they had paid honor to former Buddhas, now 
went to greet the Bodhisattva. They scattered before him mandara 
flowers, rejoicing with heartfelt joy to pay their religious homage.
 The royal father, pondering the meaning of these signs, was 
now full of joy and now sore distressed. The queen mother, 
beholding her child and the commotion which his birth created, felt 
in her timorous heart the pangs of doubt.
 Now there was at that time in a grove near Lumbini Asita, a 
rishi, leading the life of a hermit. He was a Brahman of dignified 
mien, famed not only for wisdom and scholarship, but also for his 
skill in the interpretation of signs. And the king invited him to see 
the royal babe.
 The seer, beholding the prince, wept and sighed deeply. And 
when the king saw the tears of Asita he became alarmed and asked: 
"Why has the sight of my son caused thee grief and pain?"
 But Asita's heart rejoiced, and, knowing the king's mind to be 
perplexed, he addressed him, saying: "The king, like the moon when 
full, should feel great joy, for he has begotten a wondrously noble 
son. I do not worship Brahma, but I worship this child; and the gods 
in the temples will descend from their places of honor to adore him. 
Banish all anxiety and doubt. The spiritual omens manifested 
indicate that the child now born will bring deliverance to the whole 
world.
 "Recollecting that I myself am old, on that account I could not 
hold my tears; for now my end is coming on and I shall not see the 
glory of this babe. For this son of thine will rule the world. The 
wheel of empire will come to him. He will either be a king of kings 
to govern all the lands of the earth, or verily will become a Buddha. 
He is born for the sake of everything that lives. His pure teaching 
will be like the shore that receives the shipwrecked. His power of 
meditation will be like a cool lake; and all creatures parched with 
the drought of lust may freely drink thereof. On the fire of 
covetousness he will cause the cloud of his mercy to rise, so that the 
rain of the law may extinguish it. The heavy gates of despondency 
will he open, and give deliverance to all creatures ensnared in the 
self-entwined meshes of folly and ignorance. The king of the law 
has come forth to rescue from bondage all the poor, the miserable, 
the helpless."
 When the royal parents heard Asita's words they rejoiced in 
their hearts and named their new-born infant Siddhattha, that is he 
who has accomplished his purpose."
 And the queen said to her sister, Pajapati: "A mother who has 
borne a future Buddha will never give birth to another child. I shall 
soon leave this world, my husband, the king, and Siddhattha, my 
child. When I am gone, be thou a mother to him." And Pajapati wept 
and promised.
 When the queen had departed from the living, Pajapati took the 
boy Siddhattha and reared him. And as the light of the moon 
increases little by little, so the royal child grew from day to day in 
mind and in body; and truthfulness and love resided in his heart. 
When a year had passed Suddhodana the king made Pajapati his 
queen and there was never a better stepmother than she.
 
THE TIES OF LIFE
 WHEN Siddhattha had grown to youth, his father desired to 
see him married, and he sent to all his kinsfolk, commanding them 
to bring their princesses that the prince might select one of them as 
his wife.
 But the kinsfolk replied and said: "The prince is young and 
delicate; nor has he learned any of the sciences. He would not be 
able to maintain our daughter, and should there be war he would be 
unable to cope with the enemy."
 The prince was not boisterous, but pensive in his nature. He 
loved to stay under the great jambu-tree in the garden of his father, 
and, observing the ways of the world, gave himself up to meditation. 
And the prince said to his father: "Invite our kinsfolk that they may 
see me and put my strength to the test." And his father did as his son 
bade him.
 When the kinsfolk came, and the people of the city 
Kapilavatthu had assembled to test the prowess and scholarship of 
the prince, he proved himself manly in all the exercises both of the 
body and of the mind, and there was no rival among the youths and 
men of India who could surpass him in any test, bodily or mental. 
He replied to all the questions of the sages; but when he questioned 
them, even the wisest among them were silenced.
 Then Siddhattha chose himself a wife. He selected his cousin 
Yasodhara, the gentle daughter of the king of Koli. In their wedlock 
was born a son whom they named Rahula which means "fetter" or 
"tie," and King Suddhodana, glad that an heir was born to his son, 
said: "The prince having begotten a son, will love him as I love the 
prince. This will be a strong tie to bind Siddhattha's heart to the 
interests of the world, and the kingdom of the Sakyas will remain 
under the scepter of my descendants."
 With no selfish aim, but regarding his child and the people at 
large, Siddhattha, the prince, attended to his religious duties, bathing 
his body in the holy Ganges and cleansing his heart in the waters of 
the law. Even as men desire to give happiness to their children, so 
did he long to give peace to the world.
 
THE THREE WOES
 THE palace which the king had given to the prince was 
resplendent with all the luxuries of India; for the king was anxious 
to see his son happy. All sorrowful sights, all misery, and all 
knowledge of misery were kept away from Siddhattha, for the king 
desired that no troubles should come nigh him; he should not know 
that there was evil in the world.
 But as the chained elephant longs for the wilds of the jungles, 
so the prince was eager to see the world, and he asked his father, the 
king, for permission to do so. And Suddhodana ordered a jewel-
fronted chariot with four stately horses to be held ready, and 
commanded the roads to be adorned where his son would pass.
 The houses of the city were decorated with curtains and 
banners, and spectators arranged themselves on either side, eagerly 
gazing at the heir to the throne. Thus Siddhattha rode with Channa, 
his charioteer, through the streets of the city, and into a country 
watered by rivulets and covered with pleasant trees.
 There by the wayside they met an old man with bent frame, 
wrinkled face and sorrowful brow, and the prince asked the 
charioteer: "Who is this? His head is white, his eyes are bleared, and 
his body is withered. He can barely support himself on his staff."
 The charioteer, much embarrassed, hardly dared speak the 
truth. He said: "These are the symptoms of old age. This same man 
was once a suckling child, and as a youth full of sportive life; but 
now, as years have passed away, his beauty is gone and the strength 
of his life is wasted."
 Siddhattha was greatly affected by the words of the charioteer, 
and he sighed because of the pain of old age. "What joy or pleasure 
can men take," he thought to himself, when they know they must 
soon wither and pine away!"
 And lo! while they were passing on, a sick man appeared on 
the way-side, gasping for breath, his body disfigured, convulsed and 
groaning with pain. The prince asked his charioteer: "What kind of 
man is this?" And the charioteer replied and said: "This man is sick. 
The four elements of his body are confused and out of order. We are 
all subject to such conditions: the poor and the rich, the ignorant and 
the wise, all creatures that have bodies are liable to the same 
calamity."
 And Siddhattha was still more moved. All pleasures appeared 
stale to him, and he loathed the joys of life.
 The charioteer sped the horses on to escape the dreary sight, 
when suddenly they were stopped in their fiery course. Four persons 
passed by, carrying a corpse; and the prince, shuddering at the sight 
of a lifeless body, asked the charioteer: "What is this they carry? 
There are streamers and flower garlands; but the men that follow are 
overwhelmed with grief!"
 The charioteer replied: "This is a dead man: his body is stark; 
his life is gone; his thoughts are still; his family and the friends who 
loved him now carry the corpse to the grave." And the prince was 
full of awe and terror: "Is this the only dead man, he asked, or does 
the world contain other instances?"
 With a heavy heart the charioteer replied: "All over the world 
it is the same. He who begins life must end it. There is no escape 
from death."
 With bated breath and stammering accents the prince 
exclaimed: "O worldly men! How fatal is your delusion! Inevitably 
your body will crumble to dust, yet carelessly, unheedingly, ye live 
on." The charioteer observing the deep impression these sad sights 
had made on the prince, turned his horses and drove back to the city.
 When they passed by the palace of the nobility, Kisa Gotami, a 
young princess and niece of the king, saw Siddhattha in his 
manliness and beauty, and, observing the thoughtfulness of his 
countenance, said: "Happy the father that begot thee, happy the 
mother that nursed thee, happy the wife that calls husband this lord 
so glorious."
 The prince hearing this greeting, said: "Happy are they that 
have found deliverance. Longing for peace of mind, I shall seek the 
bliss of Nirvana."
 Then asked Kisa Gotami: "How is Nirvana attained?" The 
prince paused, and to him whose mind was estranged from wrong 
the answer came: "When the fire of lust is gone out, then Nirvana is 
gained; when the fires of hatred and delusion are gone out, then 
Nirvana is gained; when the troubles of mind, arising from blind 
credulity, and all other evils have ceased, then Nirvana is gained!"
 Siddhattha handed her his precious pearl necklace as a reward 
for the wisdom she had inspired in him, and having returned home 
looked with disdain upon the treasures of his palace.
 His wife welcomed him and entreated him to tell her the cause 
of his grief. He said: "I see everywhere the impression of change; 
therefore, my heart is heavy. Men grow old, sicken, and die. That is 
enough to take away the zest of life."
 The king, his father, hearing that the prince had become 
estranged from pleasure, was greatly overcome with sorrow and like 
a sword it pierced his heart.
 
THE BODHISATTVAS RENUNCIATION
 IT was night. The prince found no rest on his soft pillow; he 
arose and went out into the garden. "Alas!" he cried "all the world is 
full of darkness and ignorance; there is no one who knows how to 
cure the ills of existence." And he groaned with pain.
 Siddhattha sat down beneath the great jambu-tree and gave