Psychology of the religious life / by George Malcolm Stratton.

  • Stratton, George Malcolm, 1865-1957.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psychology of the religious life / by George Malcolm Stratton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the foes of heaven. Zarathustra must meet and vanquish the hell-born Angra Mainyu. ‘‘ From the regions of the north, from the regions of the north, forth rushed Angra Mainyu, the deadly, the Daéva of the Daévas,’’ but he was met by the Holy One chanting the sacred words, “‘ The Will of the Lord is the law of holiness,’’ and using also carnal means—stones big as a house, supplied to him by the Spirit of Goodness. Angra Mainyu commands the Teacher to renounce the law of God, and promises him that he will become a ruler of nations. But answering ‘ No,’ the Holy» One completes his victory in a solemn prayer beginning, “This I ask thee: teach me the truth, O Lord!’! And the Prince Sidartha, under the tree of enlightenment, must overcome the tempter Mara and all his demon host before he could become the perfect vessel of the law, the Buddha. The troop of tempters—some with heads like snakes or savage tigers—encircled on its four sides the Bodhi tree, belching forth flames and steam. But they and all their storm and conflict cannot move the Bodhisattva, “ fixed and well-assured.’’ An angel host sing their confidence in him, the arch-demon slinks away and soon his whole band is scattered, “ whilst from above a fall of heavenly flowers pay their sweet tribute to the Bodhisattva.’’? And soon thereafter, now become the Buddha, he sees truth face to face. Yet the refinement of the sense of harmony and discord brings other things to pass. For a time the conflicting forces are felt to lie asunder, to be alien to each other. But in the subtler moods of the religious fancy, the evil and the good are bound by the closest tie, often springing from the same source. Even among the instances already given from savage faith, the kindly and the ill-disposed spirits are sometimes joined by the family bond: the kindly god has a wicked wife or twin-brother. And other peoples have expressed this curious feeling of the affinity of opposites. 1 Zend-Avesta, Vendtddd, XIX, 1 (IV, 204 ff.), tr. Darmesteter. 2 Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King, III, 13 f. (XIX, 147 ff.), tr. Beale.