Abstract
THE theory of evolution held by adepts in Buddhism is the outcome of the researches of an immense succession of investigators, believed to be qualified for their task by the possession of spiritual faculties and perceptions of a higher order than those belonging to ordinary humanity. In the course of ages the block of knowledge thus accumulated concerning the origin of the world and of man and the ultimate destinies of our race, checked and examined at every point, verified in all directions, and constantly under examination throughout, has come to be looked on as the absolute truth concerning the evolution, past and to come, of man and the planets he is destined to inhabit. The initiated members or “adepts” of the Buddhist cult claim to have attained, through intense self-absorption, a knowledge of physical laws of Nature not yet understood by Western science, investing them with extraordinary powers known as spiritualistic, such as clairvoyance and the disintegration and reconstruction of matter by a simple effort of will. They claim in fact to be in possession of potential faculties which will only be generally developed in future stages of evolution. This religion, which is wholly unaggressive and seeks no converts, attracts many on account of its claims to be in accord with all established scientific fact, and by its incorporation of so patent a truth as the doctrine of evolution as an integral part of its system.
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GARDNER, J. The Buddhist Theory of Evolution . Nature 31, 55–56 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031055c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031055c0