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Cosmic Consciousness by Ali Nomad

VIII GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE

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From these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha assured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of identity, nor translation to another planet.

Nor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any suggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage particularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.

It is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of light and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained for himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and disciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the divine peace that comes from illumination.

But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the wisdom which illumination confers.

To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the one eternal source of life.

It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship, whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a realization of cosmic consciousness.

The points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of illumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident in the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up thus:

A marked seriousness in youth.
A great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others.
A deep tenderness for all forms of life.
A realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power.
The firm conviction that he was instructed by angels.
The wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person.
The firm conviction of immortality--released from the "wheel of life" as he expressed it.
The knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the body.
The love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even into old age.
The unselfish desire to help others.
Great and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and insight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul the name "Buddha--The Compassionate."