Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t3.11

c10.t3.11

As an ally, but at the same time as nothing more. The feeling of having a share as a citizen in the kingdom of Buddha’s children, was denied to the laity, much more so even than was such a feeling denied in the old Brahmanical sacrificial-faith to the non-Brahman who, albeit only through the medium of the priest, could draw near to the god equally with the priest himself. The Buddhist believer, who did not feel in himself the power to renounce the world, could console himself with coming ages; he could hope for this, that it might then be vouchsafed to him, as a disciple of Metteyya, or of one of the countless Buddhas, who shall come after him, to don the garb of a monk and to taste the bliss of deliverance.