A. Three: _Kāmāvācharā_ (those who are still under the domination of the passions); _Rūpāvācharā_ (a higher class, which still retain an individual form): _Arāpāvācharā_ (the highest in degree of purification, who are devoid of material forms). 383. Q. _Should we fear any of them?_ A. He who is pure and compassionate in heart and of a courageous mind need fear nothing: no man, god, _brahmarakkhas_, demon or deva, can injure him, but some have power to torment the impure, as well as those who invite their approach. [1] Sumangala Sthavīra explains to me that those transcendent powers are permanently possessed only by one who has subdued all the passions (_Klesa_), in other words, an Arhat. The powers may be developed by a bad man and used for doing evil things, but their activity is but brief, the rebellious passions again dominate the sorcerer, and he becomes at last their victim. [2] When the powers suddenly show themselves, the inference is that the individual had developed himself in the next anterior birth. We do not believe in eccentric breaks in natural law. APPENDIX The following text of the fourteen items of belief which have been accepted as fundamental principles in both the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were submitted by me personally, have so much historical importance that they are 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 Sākya 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".