Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c32.s1.47.4

c32.s1.47.4

But the position is best explained in the eloquent words of the writer in the *Hibbert Journal* above referred to: "The secret of union lies in a common life, a common moral ideal, the conception of the service of man as realized in the person of Gotama, who, in the oft-repeated formula of the early texts, chose the homeless life for the welfare of gods and men, that he might become a Buddha, and lift off from the world the veils of ignorance and sin. That was the secret of the extraordinary missionary enthusiasm which carried the noble and the sage amid incredible hardships all through Middle Asia in the centuries preceding Hiuen Tsang, 'moved by the desire to convert the world'; for as the Chronicler of Ceylon remarks in relating the triumphs of an earlier date, 'when the world's welfare is concerned, who would be slothful or indifferent?' To this principle Buddhism has been always faithful. It has never made theological tests the basis of religious communion. Wide as have been its internal variations, it has always asked the disciple, ‘Have you the right disposition?’ rather than, ‘Have you the true belief?’ Neither among its different Schools, nor towards the rival establishments of Brahmans and Jains, or the philosophical sects that lay outside all three, the Agnostics and Materialists, did it ever raise the cry that the faith was in danger or kindle the fires of persecution.