Page:The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism.djvu/30

6 priestly tyranny of the Brāhmans, and profoundly impressed with the pathos and struggle of Life, and earnest in the search of some method of escaping from existence which was clearly involved with sorrow.

His touching renunciation of his high estate, of his beloved wife, and child, and home, to become an ascetic, in order to master the secrets of deliverance from sorrow; his unsatisfying search for truth amongst the teachers of his time; his subsequent austerities and severe penance, a much-vaunted means of gaining spiritual insight; his retirement into solitude and self-communion; his last struggle and final triumph — latterly represented as a real material combat, the so-called "Temptation of Buddha": —

"Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round Environ'd thee ; some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace";