Who said what on the Buddha and his Dhamma
...views on Buddha and His Dhamma as follows
The past masters who were well known for the achievements in their own fields had expressed their views on Buddha and His Dhamma as follows:
1. ALBERT EINSTEIN:
The religion in the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogma & theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.
2. BERTRAND RUSSEL:
I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history. I think I should put Buddha above him in these respects.
3. BLAISE PASCAL:
Buddhism shows that by means of understanding men can also control his circumstances. He can cease to be crushed by them, and use their laws to raise himself.
4. ALBERT SCHWEITZER:
The Buddha gave an expression to truth of ever lasting value and advanced the ethics not of India alone but of humanity. The Buddha was one of the greatest ethical men of genius ever bestowed upon the world.
5. T.W.RHYS DAVIDS:
Buddhists or Non-Buddhists, I have examined every one of the great religious systems of the world and in none of them have I found anything to surpass in beauty and comprehensiveness the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha.
6. MAHATMA GANDHI:
The teachings of the Buddha now form an integral part of Hinduism by his immense sacrifice, by his great renunciation, and by the immaculate purity of his life he left an indelible impression upon Hinduism, which owes an eternal debt of gratitude to that great teacher.
7. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU:
The Buddha has been something greater than all doctrine and dogma, and his eternal message has thrilled humanity through the ages. Perhaps at no time in past history was his message of peace more needed for a suffering and distracted humanity than it is today.
8. MADAME H.P. BLAVATSKY:
While in other religions ritualism and dogma hold the first and most important place, in Buddhism it is the ethics, which have always been the most insisted upon.
9. DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:
Serenity of spirit and love for all sentient creation are enjoined by the Buddha. He does not speak of sin, but only of ignorance and foolishness, which could be cured by Enlightenment and Sympathy.
10. EMPEROR ASHOKA:
One should not honor only one's own religion and condemn the religion of others, but one should honor other's religion for this or that reason. So doing, one helps one's own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one's own religion and also does harm to the other religions.
11. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA:
Buddha is the ideal karma yogi, acting entirely without motive, and the history of humanity shows him to have been the greatest man ever born, beyond compare, the greatest combination of Head & Heart that ever existed.
12. PROF. CARL GUSTAV JUNG:
As a student of comparative religion, I believe that Buddhism is the most perfect one the world has ever seen. The philosophy of the Buddha, the theory of evolution and the law of kamma are far superior to any other creed.
13. PROF. MAX MÜLLER:
The Buddha was the embodiment of all the virtues he preached. During his successful and eventful ministry of 45 years he translated all his words into action, and in no place did he give vent to any human frailty, or any base passion. The Buddha's moral code is the most perfect which the world has ever known.
14. DR. PAUL DAHLKE:
One can place on one side, not only, all religions of the world but also all the philosophical and scientifical systems and on the other, Buddhism will take it's place alone.
15. KARL MARX:
If religion is the soul of soulless conditions, the heart of the heartless world and the opium of the people, then Buddhism, certainly is not such a religion. If religion is meant a system of deliverance from the ills of life, then Buddhism is the religion of religions.
16. HARISINGH GAUR:
If the union of all religions of the world is effected at any time, Buddhism will shine as the loftiest wave of the ocean and Blessed Buddha as the Everest of the Himalayas.
17. OSHO (RAJNEESH):
I love Gautama The Buddha because he represents to me the essential core of religion. He is the founder of a religionless religion. He has propounded not religion but religiousness and this is a great radical change in the history of human consciousness. Before Buddha there were religions but never a pure religiousness. Man was not yet mature, with Buddha humanity entered into a mature age. Nobody represents pure fragrance. Other founders of religion, other enligtened people have compromised with their ideals. Buddha remains uncompromised. Hence his purity.
18. DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR:
The first point, which marks off Buddha from the rest, is his self-abnegation. JESUS insists that he is the Son of God. MOHAMMED went a step further. He claimed that he was the messenger of God on earth and insisted that he was the last messenger. KRISHNA went a step beyond both Jesus and Mohammed. He claimed that he was "Parameshwar"- the God of Gods. BUDDHA never arrogated to himself any such status. He was born a son of man and was content to remain a common man and preached his gospel as a common man. Jesus, Mohammed and Krishna claimed for themselves a role of MOKSHADATA. Buddha was satisfied with playing the role of MARGADATA. Thus to sum up we can say that:
Buddha, the Guide to humanity
Showed Noble Eightfold Path to the suffering humanity.
His message to every individuality
is to give up the path of sensuality
He discarded the path of superficiality
and established him self and others on path of reality.
He preached not to cling to materiality
but, to practice the path of spirituality.
This path He said is none other than the path of Wisdom, Concentration and Morality.
Compiled by Ven. M. Vinayarakkhita Dharmayatana, Maharagama.