The meaning of this parable is thus rendered in the "White Lotus of Dharma." The old man is Tathagata, and his children the blind, suffering children of sin and passion. Tathagata fondly loves them, and would save them from their unhappiness. The old rambling mansion, unsightly, rotten, perilous, is the Domain of Karma, the Domain of Appetite. This old mansion is ablaze with the fire of mortal passions, and hates, and lusts. Tathagata in his "immense compassion" would lead all his beloved children away from this great peril, but they do not understand his language. Their only thought is of tinsel toys and childish pastimes. If he speaks to them of the great inner quickening which makes man conquer human pain, they cannot understand him. If he talks to them of wondrous supernatural gifts accorded to mortals, they turn a deaf ear to him. The tinsel chariots provided for the children of Tathagata are the "Vehicles" of the Buddhist teaching. CHAPTER IV. _After Buddha's Death._ From Buddha's death we turn to Buddha's religion and its progress. And I think the narrative form will help us best, but a few preliminary remarks are necessary. What is Buddhism? "The religion of Buddha," says Professor Max Müller in his "Chips from a German Workshop," "was made for a madhouse." "Buddha," says Sir Monier Williams in his "Buddhism," "altogether ignored in human nature any spiritual aspirations." Having heard the dictum of Oxford, perhaps it is fair to listen to a real Buddhist. In a work called "Happiness," an anonymous writer sketches his religion. The teaching of Buddha, as set forth by him, is simple and sublime. There are two states of the soul, call them ego and non-ego--the plane of matter and the plane of spirit--what you will. As long as we live for the ego and its greedy joys, we are feverish, restless, miserable. Happiness consists in the destruction of the ego, by the Bodhi, and Gnosis. This is that interior, that high state of the soul, attained by Fenelon and Wesley, by Mirza the Sufi and Swedenborg, by Spinoza and Amiel. "The kingdom of God is within you," says Christ. "In whom are hid the treasures of _sophia_ and _gnosis_," says St. Paul. "The enlightened view both worlds," says Mirza the Sufi, "but the bat flieth about in the darkness without seeing." "Who speaks and acts with the inner quickening," says Buddha, "has joy for his accompanying shadow. Who speaks and acts without the inner quickening, him sorrow pursues as the chariot wheel the horse." Let us give here a pretty parable, and let Buddha speak for himself:-- "Once upon a time there was a man born blind, and he said, 'I cannot believe in a world of appearances. Colours bright or sombre exist not. There is no sun, no moon, no stars. None have witnessed such things.' His friends chid him; but he still repeated the same words.