In the
phrase of his religion he 'turned the wheel of the law.' One of his titles
is _Chakravartin_, which means 'the turner of a wheel.' The doctrines
of the Buddha are written out on a wheel, which is set in motion with a
crank, though it is sometimes operated by horse-power; and such machines
are sometimes seen in front of religious houses in Thibet, and the monks
have portable ones."
"I thought the religion of Thibet was the worship of the Grand Lama,"
suggested Louis.
"That is a form of Buddhism. The most important of the converts of the
Buddha was the Rajah of Magadha, or Behar, on the Ganges, which gave him a
good start, and it has since made almost incredible progress. It would take
too long to state the doctrines in detail of this sect, and you get an idea
of what it must be from what I said of its founder. Its leading doctrine is
the transmigration of souls, also called by that tough word,
metempsychosis, though other Hindu systems adopt this belief. It seems to
include the recognition of the immortality of the soul, which at the death
of the body passes into another form of existence,--a man, a woman, a lower
animal, or even a tree or other plant. The Buddha claims to have been born
five hundred and fifty times,--a hermit, a slave, a king, a monkey, an
elephant, a fish, a frog, a tree, etc. When he reached his highest
condition of perfection, he could recall all these different states of
being; and he has written them out.
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