The Buddhist Catechism - Softcover

S. Olcott, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1490377727 ISBN 13: 9781490377728

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

“A living source of pure truth accessible to all men athirst for spiritual knowledge and abundant to satisfy that thirst. A Catechism suited to the intelligent appreciation of educated populations, and containing in a compendious form the essential doctrine of the Teacher. It is addressed to those for whom material progress and augmented means of luxury do not constitute the goal of life, and to whom the prevalent cruel strife for the possession of worldly goods and grandeur, which the general selfishness makes each day more pitiless, is abhorrent; who long for that peace of the heart and satisfaction of the understanding which alone give life its value, and who fail to find those things in the soulless dogmas of the various Churches, or even in the results displayed, with whatever ostentation, by physical science.

“For such this Buddhist Catechism is written; and if they read it aright and catch its spirit, they will find in it what they have been seeking, a doctrine free from dogma and from formalism in entire harmony with Nature and her laws; the grandest truths, satisfying alike to mind and heart, expressed in simple terms, intelligible to the humblest capacity, yet of a significance so profound as not to be within easy sounding even by the philosophic and scientific European, with all his high culture and all his intellectual resources.

“Let those, then, who aspire to a fuller and completer knowledge, who not only wish to become acquainted with the doctrine but to carry it out in the life, seek to make progress by their own meditations, and by personal communion with those already in advance of htem upon the way have pointed out.

“May the light of the world-illuminating Truth which, at this present, from the far East, whence all light arises, beams upon these Western lands, spread ever more and more widely for the weal, the salvation, the redemption of all mankind.” -Subhadra Bhiksu

Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist schools by H. Sumangala, Pradhana Nayaka Sthavira, High Priest of Sripada and the Western Province and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena

THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE

THE SANGHA

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE

APPENDIX--The Fourteen Propositions accepted by the Northern and Southern Buddhists as a Platform of Unity

This work is presented in the form of question and answer, compiled from the sacred writings of the southern Buddhists for the use of Europeans, with explanatory notes. The book is addressed to those for whom material progress and augmented means of luxury do not constitute the goal of life, and to whom the prevalent cruel strife for the possession of worldly goods and grandeur, which the general selfishness makes each day more pitiless, is abhorrent; who long for that peace of the heart and satisfaction of the understanding which alone give life its value, and who fail to find these things in the soulless dogmas of the various churches.

About this title

About the Author:

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott [1832-1907] was the first western Buddhist convert, probably since antiquity. He co-founded the Theosophical Society and was its first president. The only contributor to the 19th century southern Buddhist revival who was born a Protestant, Olcott was able to promote Eastern ideas to western society. The Buddhist Catechism was Olcott's attempt to elucidate the basic doctrines of Buddhism in an ecumenical way. This book is still in use today in Sri Lanka. Olcott is fondly remembered in Sri Lanka and by Theosophists world-wide.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1490377727
• ISBN 13: 9781490377728
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 122