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BUDDHA

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BUENA VISTA

Buddha (bodd'da), the founder of the religion known as Buddhism. Although this religion has now existed for 2,500 years, and its followers are counted as more than 340,000,000, or nearly one fourth of the human race, it is only within recent years that the discovery and study of Buddhist sacred books has made known to western nations the nature and birth of this world-religion. It began about the beginning of the 6th century B. C., in the north of Hindustan. Buddha, the founder, was a prince named Siddhartha; but he is often called Sakya and Gautama. Buddha, or more properly the Buddha, is the title given him in his state of perfection, and means the Enlightened One or he to whom truth is known. This prince, as the story runs, was of a thoughtful disposition, and his father, fearing that he would desert his high position and take to a religious life, had him married to a charming princess and surrounded him with all the splendors of a luxurious court. He was, however, in spite of his surroundings, constantly brooding over the thought of old age, of loathsome sickness and death and of the unknown future after death. After twelve years passed thus, he escaped from the palace and began a strict religious life. He was now about thirty years old. He cut off his long locks, the sign of his high caste, and studied all that the Brahmans could teach him, but found no satisfaction. He sat thinking for weeks, and at last came to the conclusion that ignorance is the cause of all evil and that by getting rid of ignorance, we can be free from all miseries. After various stages of thought, he himself became free from ignorance, and attained the " perfect wisdom'^ of the Buddha. He began to preach this strange gospel at Benares, and for forty years traveled over northern India, making many converts. He died at Kusinagara, at the age of eighty, in the year 472 B. C.

BUDDHISM has now little hold in India, the land of its birth; but it has full sway in Ceylon and over the whole Indo-Chinese peninsula; it prevails in China and to some extent in Japan; it is the religion of Tibet, of the Mongolian population of central Asia and southern Siberia and of the Tartar tribes on the lower Volga. As a system of belief, Buddhism holds that existence is on the whole a curse, and so it seeks final rest, in what is called Nirvana c r nothingness—non-existence. Death, however, does not bring this rest, for it leads only to another state of existence, as a person, a spirit, an animal, an insect, a plant or even an inanimate thing, according to the merit o* demerit of the departed. The Nirvana Is gained by eight things: right faith, right judgment, right language, right jmrpase, right practice, right obedience, right memory and right meditatfon.

There are many moral precepts, and directions and certain virtues which lead directly to it. The great virtue of the religion is benevolence. Buddhism knows no supreme God or Creator, and as an intellectual belief is of little value; but as a system of morals it ranks only second to Christianity. Since the time of its founder its worship has been disfigured by countless extravagant and childish forms and ceremonials.

Buell (bu'el), Don Carlos, an American general, was born near Marietta, O., in 1818. He graduated at West Point in 1841 and took part in several battles in the Mexican War, being severely wounded at Churu-busco. From the era of the Mexican to that of the Civil War, he was assistant adjutant-general in different departments. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he helped for a time in organizing the army at Washington; then became commander of the department of the Ohio, and later was made major-general of volun-teers. At the battle of Shiloh his forces came to the aid of General Grant, and with their help the Confederates were defeated on the second day of the battle. A few months later he was given command of the new district of the Ohio. The Confederate force under General Bragg entered Kentucky and threatened Louisville and Cincinnati. A part of this force was met by a part of Buell's army at Perry ville, October 8, 1862, and an indecisive battle was fought, Buell allowing the Confederates to retreat without attempting to follow them. His command was given to General Rosecrans in the same month, and a court of inquiry was ordered to investigate his conduct, but he was acquitted. He became president of the Green River Iron Works, in Kentucky, in 1865, and died on November 19, 1898.

Buena Vista (bwa'na ves'ta or bu'na vis'ta), a village in Mexico, near which the American forces under General Taylor defeated the Mexicans under General Santa Anna, on February 23, 1847. Taylor had a force of 5,000 men and Santa Anna had 20,000. The American forces occupied a position which made it almost impossible tor the Mexicans to make use of their artillery or cavalry. 'Slight skirmishes took place on February 22; but the main attack by the Mexicans began the following morning and lasted the whole day, Santa Anna being finally drfven back and retreating during the night. The American

GENERAL BUELL