Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c7.9

c7.9

This altered condition of the inner life gives rise externally to a new form of spiritual fellowship. In the old order of things nature associated religious unity with the family, the clan, and the nation jointly, and inside these unity of faith and worship existed of itself. Whoever belongs to a people has thereby the right to, and is bound to have a share in, the worship of the popular gods. Near this people are other people with other gods; for each individual it is determined as a natural necessity by the circumstances of his birth, what gods shall be to him the true and for him the operative deities. A particular collective body, which may be denominated a church, there is not and there cannot be, for the circle of all worshippers of the popular gods is no narrower and no wider than the people themselves.