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CHAPTER TWELVE
Essential Philosophy of Hinduism,
Buddhism and Jainism
Ladies and Gentlemen,
From the mystic philosophy of India ve pass to the everyday philosophy of the three great sects of the East, the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jainas.
In India the necessaries of life were few, and those which existed were supplied without much exertion on the part of man by a bountiful nature. Clothing scanty as it was, was easily provided. Life in the open air or in the shades of the forest was more delightful than life in cottages or palaces. The danger of in - roads from foreign countries was never dreamt of before the time of Darius and Alexander, and then on one side only, on the North, while more than a silver streak protected all around the far stretching shores of the country.
Why should the ancient inhabitants of India not have accepted their lot? Was it so very unnatural for them, endowed as they were, with a transcendent intellect, to look upon this life not as an arena for gladiatorial strife and combat, or as a market for cheating and huckstering, but as a resting place, a mere waiting room at a station on a journey leading them from the known to
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