The World’s Religions

131:3.1Ga­nid was shocked to dis­cover how near Bud­dhism came to be­ing a great and beau­ti­ful re­li­gion with­out God, with­out a per­sonal and uni­ver­sal De­ity. How­ever, he did find some rec­ord of cer­tain ear­lier be­liefs which re­flected some­thing of the in­flu­ence of the teach­ings of the Mel­chiz­e­dek mis­sion­ar­ies who con­tin­ued their work in In­dia even to the times of Bud­dha. Je­sus and Ga­nid col­lected the fol­low­ing state­ments from the Bud­dhist lit­er­a­ture:

131:3.2“Out of a pure heart shall glad­ness spring forth to the In­fi­nite; all my be­ing shall be at peace with this super­mor­tal re­joic­ing. My soul is filled with con­tent, and my heart over­flows with the bliss of peace­ful trust. I have no fear; I am free from anx­i­ety. I dwell in se­cu­rity, and my en­e­mies can­not alarm me. I am sat­is­fied with the fruits of my con­fi­dence. I have found the ap­proach to the Im­mor­tal easy of ac­cess. I pray for faith to sus­tain me on the long jour­ney; I know that faith from be­yond will not fail me. I know my breth­ren will pros­per if they be­come im­bued with the faith of the Im­mor­tal, even the faith that cre­ates mod­esty, up­right­ness, wis­dom, cour­age, knowl­edge, and per­se­ver­ance. Let us for­sake sor­row and dis­own fear. By faith let us lay hold upon true righ­teous­ness and gen­uine man­li­ness. Let us learn to med­i­tate on jus­tice and mercy. Faith is man’s true wealth; it is the en­dow­ment of virtue and glory.

131:3.3“Un­righ­teous­ness is con­temptible; sin is de­spi­ca­ble. Evil is de­grad­ing, whether held in thought or wrought out in deeds. Pain and sor­row fol­low in the path of evil as the dust fol­lows the wind. Hap­pi­ness and peace of mind fol­low pure think­ing and vir­tu­ous liv­ing as the shadow fol­lows the sub­stance of ma­te­rial things. Evil is the fruit of wrongly di­rected think­ing. It is evil to see sin where there is no sin; to see no sin where there is sin. Evil is the path of false doc­trines. Those who avoid evil by see­ing things as they are gain joy by thus em­brac­ing the truth. Make an end of your mis­ery by loathing sin. When you look up to the No­ble One, turn away from sin with a whole heart. Make no apol­ogy for evil; make no ex­cuse for sin. By your ef­forts to make amends for past sins you ac­quire strength to re­sist fu­ture ten­den­cies thereto. Re­straint is born of re­pen­tance. Leave no fault un­con­fessed to the No­ble One.

131:3.4“Cheer­ful­ness and glad­ness are the re­wards of deeds well done and to the glory of the Im­mor­tal. No man can rob you of the lib­erty of your own mind. When the faith of your re­li­gion has eman­ci­pated your heart, when the mind, like a moun­tain, is set­tled and im­mov­able, then shall the peace of the soul flow tran­quilly like a river of wa­ters. Those who are sure of sal­va­tion are for­ever free from lust, envy, ha­tred, and the delu­sions of wealth. While faith is the en­ergy of the bet­ter life, nev­er­the­less, must you work out your own sal­va­tion with per­se­ver­ance. If you would be cer­tain of your fi­nal sal­va­tion, then make sure that you sin­cerely seek to ful­fill all righ­teous­ness. Cul­ti­vate the as­sur­ance of the heart which springs from within and thus come to en­joy the ec­stasy of eter­nal sal­va­tion.

131:3.5“No re­li­gion­ist may hope to at­tain the en­light­en­ment of im­mor­tal wis­dom who per­sists in be­ing sloth­ful, in­do­lent, fee­ble, idle, shame­less, and self­ish. But whoso is thought­ful, pru­dent, re­flec­tive, fer­vent, and earnest—even while he yet lives on earth—may at­tain the su­preme en­light­en­ment of the peace and lib­erty of di­vine wis­dom. Re­mem­ber, ev­ery act shall re­ceive its re­ward. Evil re­sults in sor­row and sin ends in pain. Joy and hap­pi­ness are the out­come of a good life. Even the evil­doer en­joys a sea­son of grace be­fore the time of the full ripen­ing of his evil deeds, but in­evitably there must come the full har­vest of evil-do­ing. Let no man think lightly of sin, say­ing in his heart: ‘The penalty of wrong­do­ing shall not come near me.’ What you do shall be done to you, in the judg­ment of wis­dom. In­jus­tice done to your fel­lows shall come back upon you. The crea­ture can­not es­cape the des­tiny of his deeds.

131:3.6“The fool has said in his heart, ‘Evil shall not over­take me’; but safety is found only when the soul craves re­proof and the mind seeks wis­dom. The wise man is a no­ble soul who is friendly in the midst of his en­e­mies, tran­quil among the tur­bu­lent, and gen­er­ous among the grasp­ing. Love of self is like weeds in a goodly field. Self­ish­ness leads to grief; per­pet­ual care kills. The tamed mind yields hap­pi­ness. He is the great­est of war­riors who over­comes and sub­dues him­self. Re­straint in all things is good. He alone is a su­pe­rior per­son who es­teems virtue and is ob­ser­vant of his duty. Let not anger and hate mas­ter you. Speak harshly of no one. Con­tent­ment is the great­est wealth. What is given wisely is well saved. Do not to oth­ers those things you would not wish done to you. Pay good for evil; over­come evil with the good.

131:3.7“A righ­teous soul is more to be de­sired than the sov­er­eignty of all the earth. Im­mor­tal­ity is the goal of sin­cer­ity; death, the end of thought­less liv­ing. Those who are earnest die not; the thought­less are dead al­ready. Blessed are they who have in­sight into the death­less state. Those who tor­ture the liv­ing will hardly find hap­pi­ness af­ter death. The un­selfish go to heaven, where they re­joice in the bliss of in­fi­nite lib­er­al­ity and con­tinue to in­crease in no­ble gen­eros­ity. Ev­ery mor­tal who thinks righ­teously, speaks nobly, and acts un­selfishly shall not only en­joy virtue here dur­ing this brief life but shall also, af­ter the dis­so­lu­tion of the body, con­tinue to en­joy the de­lights of heaven.”