st meditation,' for Buddhism is not a religion of children, but of
men.

This is the doctrine that has caused Buddhism to be called pessimism.
Taught, as we have been taught, to believe that life and death are
antagonistic, that life in the world to come is beautiful, that death
is a horror, it seems to us terrible to think that it is indeed our very
life itself that is the evil to be eradicated, and that life and death
are the same. But to those that have seen the truth, and believed it, it
is not terrible, but beautiful. When you have cleansed your eyes from
the falseness of the flesh, and come face to face with truth, it is
beautiful. 'The law is sweet, filling the heart with joy.'

To the Buddhist, then, the end to be obtained is the Great Peace, the
mighty deliverance from all sorrow. He must strive after peace; on his
own efforts depends success or failure.

When the end and the agent have been determined, there remains but to
discover the means, the road whereby the end may be reached. How shall a
man so think and so act that he shall come at length unto the Great
Peace? And the answer of Buddhism to this question is here: good deeds
and good thoughts--these are the gate wherein alone you may enter into
the way. Be honourable and just, be kind and compassionate, truth-loving
and averse to wrong--this is the beginning of the road that leads unto
happiness. Do good to others, not in order that they may do good to you,
but because, by doing so, you do good to your own soul. Give alms, and
be charitable, for these things are necessary to a man. Above all, learn
love and sympathy. Try to feel as others feel, try to understand them,
try to sympathize with them, and love will come. Surely he was a
Buddhist at heart who wrote: 'Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner.'
There is no balm to a man's heart like love, not only the love others
feel towards him, but that he feels towards others. Be in love with all
things, not only with your fellows, but with the whole world, with every
creature that walks the earth, with the birds in the air, with the
insects in the grass. All life is akin to man. Man's life is not apart
from other life, but of it, and if a man would make his heart perfect,
he must learn to sympathize with and understand all the great world
about him. But he must always remember that he himself comes first. To
make others just, you must yourself be just; to make others happy, you
must yourself be happy first;