In Tibet, the Buddhist practical creed is thus briefly stated by Csoma de Korea :-1st, To take refuge only with BAIL 2d, To form in the mind the resolution to aim at the highest degree of perfection, and so to be united with the Supreme Intelligence. 3d, To humble oneself before Budh, and to adore him. 4th, To make offerings of things pleasing to the six senses. 5th, To glorify Idndh by music, and by hymns, and by praise of his person, doctrine, and love of mankind, of his perfections or attributes, and of his acts for the benefit ofanimated beings. Gth, To confess one's sins with a contrite heart, to ask forgiveness of them, and to repent truly, with a resolution not to commit such afterwards. 7th, To rejoice in the moral merit and perfection of animated beings, and to wish that they may obtain beatitude. ' Stli, To pray and exhort existing holy men to turn the wheel of religion, that the world may long benefit, by their teaching (Prinsep's Tibet, Tar tory, and Mongolia, p. 167).
One of the established points in Tibetan Buddhism is the belief in metempsychosis, or the migration of the souls of animated beings; and the Tibetans believe in six forms in which a living being may bo re-born, viz. lha, Tut.; deva, SANSK, spirits or gods ; mi., or men ; lha mayin, or evil spirits ; dudo or johsong, brute beasts ; yidaga, imaginary monsters; and inmates of nyalba, or naraka, or hell.
To cease to exist is the prevailing hope with all Buddhists. The Buddhist longing for anni hilation is an exaggeration of the craving for rest which has been felt by many races, and by the followers of many creeds. Tho universal cry of the overworked and sorrowing children of men has ever been that of the lotus-eaters: There is no joy but calm.' The universal refrain of humanity is ono implying trouble, anxiety, and never-ceasing toil, and its aspiration is that of repose. A holiday is a cessa tion of labour ; and the highest hope of many Christians has ever been, to reach that bourne where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary aro at rest. Nirvana is as a blown-out candle. It is essentially in theory a non-active faith—a faith of negatives. Their ten command ments, according to Max Miler, are :—Do not kill ; do not steal ; do not commit adultery; do not lie ; do not get intoxicated ; abstain from unsuitable words ; abstain from public spectacles ; abstain from excess in dress; do not have a large bed ; do not receive silver or gold. Ten obliga tions or precepts, dasa sit, are repeated when a Burmese enters a kyoung as a novice (Fylehe, ii. 192).
In carrying out the ascetic views of Sakya Muni, pious Buddhists of all these countries, both men and women, have, from the first enunciation of his doctrines, been accustomed to withdraw from public lifo into monasteries and convents. We have distinct evidence of the existence of institn Lions of this kind established at dates long ante cedent to the Christian era. They were in the form of vihara, or cells and caves, or buildings erected for the convenience of those who sought so to spiritualize themselves by separation from the world. Only tho ruins of such buildings
exist in peninsular India, but in Tibet and Tartary they still are like those left by the Indian Srzonanas or Lamas, ten and twenty centuries anterior to the present, and varying very little from what is reported of the moisatteties of the earlier Chris tians; there are also, according to M. Hue, both at Koon-boom and in 'I ibet, the types of the devotees who practised penances, and sat as pillars, like Simeon Stilites. In Burma, every Buddhist lad, for a period, must enter a monastery.
Pythagorean institutions are described as very monastic in their character, in that respect resem bling closely the vihara of the Buddhists of India. The doctrines of Pythagoras were widely spread over Greece, over Italy and Asia Minor, for cen turies after his decease, and under the name of Mithraic the teachings of Budli had also a wide extension (Prinsep's Tibet, pp. 140, 161).
To a Buddhist ascetic, continence is essential to purity, but even contact is unlawful. Neverthe less convents for women are very characteristically Buddhist institutions; they existed in the Burman empire till of late years, and are still to be met with in Nepal, Tibet, and China (Toy Cart, p. 142).
Burma.---Dr. Mason says the philosophy of Buddhism, in Buena, is the religion of Buddhism. To be a Buddhist is to believe in the philosophy of Being. The Buddhists propound as an axiom, that all things are unreal, and on it all their philosophy is based. Some Buddhists recognise idols, a few wholly reject the worship of idols; but these are equally Buddhists, who believe that true happiness is not found in any state of body or mind ; that existence is a calamity ; and that the only desirable object is the extinction of being, or nirvan, where there is deliverance from. ideas and consciousness. To be a pious Buddhist is to remain unaffected by surrounding objects, to deny oneself of every thing beyond the bare necessaries of life, and to cry out, day and night, all things are transitory, productive of unhappiness, and unreal. A change of heart and implicit faith are essentials of salva tion. Burmese Buddhists believe in good and evil spirits, and in the scheme of transmigration, and, for the good, final absorption ; and the Burmese Buddhist prays that ho may, in his trans migrations, meet with a Buddha to convert him. Woman takes a humble position in Burmese Buddhism, and she longs to become a man in her next transmigration. Their views as to the de sirableness for release from this life are evinced in modes painful to European feelings. The Rev. Mr. Marks, when in Moulmein, had a sick pupil whom he went to see. On entering the house, and inquiring for the lad, the mother in a glad manner repented he was well, and jauntily led to another room, where ho was pained to find the young boy lying dead, and still more pained by the mother continuing to repeat that ho was well.