Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.136

c8.136

So much is clear that, granted even that Buddha had not experienced, and had not even professed to have experienced, something analogous to this, still the existence of this narrative among the groups of his disciples can be readily understood. If he was the Buddha, if he possessed sacred knowledge, he must at some place and at some definite moment have become the Buddha, have attained that sacred knowledge, and before this moment there must have been—legend-weaving fancy could scarcely have overlooked this conclusion—a period in which the consciousness that he was still far from his goal, dominated strongly and painfully. What can this period of bootless search have been like? At every step the disciples of Buddha had to contend against the tendencies of ascetics who expected to attain quietude through fasting and severe bodily discipline. It is not surprising that this opposition in which they felt themselves to be to these tendencies should have influenced the belief of the early Church regarding Buddha’s own previous history: he, too, must, before he became partaker of the imperishable treasure of true deliverance, have sought for salvation in the mazes of bodily discipline; he must have surpassed all that Brahmans and devotees had accomplished before him in the way of self-mortification, and he must have realized for himself the fruitlessness of such a course, until he at last, turning from the false to the true path, became the Buddha.