exist if that cause is absent.  Suffering has a cause and if that cause can be detected and eliminated, suffering itself will be eliminated.  This cause of evil is Tanha, the thirst or craving for existence, pleasure and success.  And the cure is to remove it.  It may seem to the European that this is a proposal to cure the evils of life by removing life itself but when in the fourth truth we come to the course to be followed by the seeker after salvation—­the eightfold path—­we find it neither extravagant nor morbid.  We may imagine that an Indian of that time asking different schools of thinkers for the way to salvation would have been told by Brahmans (if indeed they had been willing to impart knowledge to any but an accredited pupil) that he who performs a certain ceremony goes to the abode of the gods:  other teachers would have insisted on a course of fasting and self-torture:  others again like Sanjaya and Makkhali would have given argumentative and unpractical answers.  The Buddha’s answer is simple and practical:  seven-eighths of it would be accepted in every civilized country as a description of the good life.  It is not merely external, for it insists on right thought and right aspiration:  the motive and temper are as important as the act.  It does not neglect will-power and activity, for right action, right livelihood and right effort are necessary—­a point to be remembered when Buddhism is called a dreamy unpractical religion.  But no doubt the last stage of the path, right rapture or right meditation, is meant to be its crown and fulfilment.  It takes the place of prayer and communion with the deity and the Buddha promises the beatific vision in this life to those who persevere.  The negative features of the Path are also important.  It contains no mention of ceremonial, austerities, gods, many or one, nor of the Buddha himself.  He is the discoverer and teacher of the truth; beyond that his personality plays no part.

But we are here treating of his life rather than of his doctrine and must now return to the events which are said to have followed the first sermon.

The first converts had, even before embracing the Buddha’s teaching, been followers of a religious life but the next batch of recruits came from the wealthy mercantile families of Benares.  The first was a youth named Yasa who joined the order, while his father, mother and former wife became lay believers.  Then came first four and subsequently fifty friends of Yasa and joined the order.  “At that time” says the Mahavagga. “there were sixty-one Arhats[333] in the world,” so that at first arhatship seems to have followed immediately on ordination.  Arhat, it may be mentioned, is the commonest word in early Buddhist literature (more common than any phrase about nirvana) for describing sanctity and spiritual perfection.  The arhat is one who has broken the fetters of the senses and passions, for whom there will be no new birth or death, and who lives in this world like the Buddha, detached but happy and beneficent.