re added to the present edition of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an
Appendix. It has very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince
Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that having had the
document translated to them, the Chief Lamas of the great Mongolian
Buddhist monasteries declared to him that they accept every one of the
propositions as drafted, with the one exception that the date of the
Buddha is by them believed to have been some thousands of years earlier
than the one given by me. This surprising fact had not hitherto come
to my knowledge. Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse the real
epoch of Sakya Muni with that of his alleged next predecessor? Be
this as it may, it is a most encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic
world may now be said to have united to the extent at least of these
Fourteen Propositions.

H. S. O.

FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS

I Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and
brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving
kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.

II The universe was evolved, not created; and its functions according
to law, not according to the caprice of any God.

III The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have,
we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by
certain illuminated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA meaning
"Enlightened".

IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sakya Muni, or
Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500
years ago. He is an historical personage and his name was
Siddhartha Gautama.

V Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied
desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To
get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to
escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish
desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.

VI Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing.
When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth,
considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount
need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such
repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive
and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the
other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable
pleas