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ZEN
men. Even the Buddha, before the last bridge is crossed, must be "killed", that is, destroyed as a concept in the mind.
BUDDHISM
It is partly because Buddhism has no Pope, no Rome, no Bible which none must alter and to which all men must kneel, that it has proved the most tolerant religion known to the history of mankind. No Buddhist has ever burnt his neighbour's body for the sake of his (non-existent) soul, nor has there been a "Buddhist", still less that blasphemous phrase, a "holy" Buddhist, war. It has always taught that truth is either relative (all that we know), or absolute (which we cannot know). It never, therefore, claimed the unique possession of truth, and never attacked those fellow seekers who held a different view. Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India of the third century B.C., proclaimed this tolerance as an Edict, and it is sad that men have forgotten this Buddhist Edict at the present day. "He who does reverence to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others. with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, by such conduct inflicts the severest injury to his own sect." This ideal has been notably carried out in the world of Buddhism. As R. F. Johnston says, "Buddhism is perhaps the only great religion the world has known which not only teaches that the freedom of the human spirit is a desirable ideal, but achieves a more than moderate success in making its practice in this respect conform with its theory."1
Buddhism has never been arrogant or aggressive in its missionary work; all that its preachers claimed was the right to proclaim a new point of view. Wherever a differing faith prevailed they were well prepared to
1 Buddhist China, p. 330.
