But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the wisdom which illumination confers. To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the one eternal source of life. It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship, whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a realization of cosmic consciousness. The points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of illumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident in the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up thus: A marked seriousness in youth. A great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others. A deep tenderness for all forms of life. A realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power. The firm conviction that he was instructed by angels. The wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person. The firm conviction of immortality--released from the "wheel of life" as he expressed it. The knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the body. The love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even into old age. The unselfish desire to help others. Great and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and insight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul the name "Buddha--The Compassionate." CHAPTER IX JESUS OF NAZARETH Turning now to the next in order of the world's great masters, or illumined ones, we come to a consideration of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name the great moral system of religion, called "Christianity," is promulgated. It has been conclusively shown that the essential features of the present-day _system_ of religion, known as Christianity, were instituted by Paul rather than by Jesus, and that the system itself, like Buddhism, is the work of the followers of the great teacher, rather than that of the Master. Our present concern, however, is not with the system or method of the church, but with those historic facts which bear upon the question of the Illumination of Jesus, classifying Him, not as an incarnate son of God, in the accepted theological interpretation, but in the light of cosmic consciousness. Jesus the Christ was born, according to the most reliable authorities, about six hundred years after Gautama, the Buddha. Whether or not the Nazarene was familiar with the Buddhist doctrines or whether He spent the years of His life which are shrouded in mystery, in the inner temples of either Thibet, India, Persia, China, or other oriental country, will doubtless always be a disputed point among controversialists.