Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1920 — FIND HOLINESS IN FOREST [ARTICLE]

FIND HOLINESS IN FOREST

Buddhist Seeker* After High Knowk edge Lot Themselves Be Absorbed In World of The gods were believed to love the high forests on the mountain slopes, and there doubtless they were worshiped, even as today; every traveler must b* struck by the secluded beauty of the ancient groves wherein, tn tbefar East, the most famous temples are reared. We may gather from a story in the Upanishad? bow Satyakama. the cowherd, learned from his solitary communing with the wilds some leasons of the unity of man with nature. Uis Garu. struck by the luminous gaze of the lad, questioned him, “Tou shine like one who knows God; who. then, has taught you?” and was answered with a radiant smile: “Not man.”

Even in these early days the seeker after knowledge withdrew Into the forest or sought refuge In the mountain fastnesses, and In Brahmanic times we are told that contemplation was practiced “In a place apart, pure, delightful by its sounds, its waters and its bowers, full of shelters and caves.” By this means man might himself be absorbed in the world of nature, and so tn the<llvine. Sakyamuni, the Buddha, trained in the Brahmanic school, adopted this discipline of meditation in the presence of nature into the practice of the religion he founded. All the tmporTFWr recorded events of bis life are associated with the works of nature. He received the truth eternal under the Bodhi tree and under it he entered Nirvana; his favorite retreats were the Deer forest, the Bamboo grove, th* Vulture peak, and be and his immediate followers accepted nothing from convert rajahs of greater value than a grove or a garden plot wherein to set up their rustic shelters of leaves. To them “the body itself was but a hut In the wilderness, a flimsy shelter made by tying together the grasses that grew around. When they fell apart,, they were again resolved Into tiie original waste.” Their aim was to become at heart a wild creature “filled with the forest sense of things,” as one of them sang, and united with nature. This union, the Buddha taught, both by precept and practice, was to be obtained by meditation in solitude.—Hamilton Bell in Asia Magazine.