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THE UNKNOWN LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST.
Buddhas, similar to Issa, and the eighty-four thousand rolls which exist abound in details about each of them; but very few people have read a hundredth part of them. In order to conform to the established custom, cach pupil or Lama who has visited Lassa does not fail to make a present of one or more of these copics to the convent to which he belongs. Our monastery possesses a great number of these, and among them are descriptions of the life and works of Buddha Issa, who preached the holy doctrines in India and among the sons of Israel, and who was put to death by the heathen whose descendants adopted the beliefs which he advocated, and these beliefs are yours. The great Buddha, the soul of the universe, is the incarnation of Brahma, He remains motionless most of the time, enclosing within himself all things since the origin of beings, and his breath gives life to the world. He has left man to his own will; at certain times, however, he throws off his inaction and invests himself with a human form in order to try and save his creatures from irremediable destruction. In the course of his terrestrial existence, Buddha creates a new world among the misled people; then he disappears again from the earth to become once more an invisible being, and return to his life of perfect felicity. Three thousand years ago the great Buddha incarnated himself into the celebrated Prince Shakya Muni, upholding and spreading abroad the doctrines of his twenty incarnations. Two thousand five hundred years ago the great soul of the world incarnated itself again in Gautama, casting the foundation of a new world in Burma, in Siam and in different islands. Soon afterwards Buddhism commenced to penetrate in China, thanks to the perseverance of the wise men who devoted themselves to propagate the holy doctrine, and under Ming-Ti, of the dynasty of Honi, about 2,050 B. C., the
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