Buddhism

by Annie H. Small

"Buddhism by Annie H. Small" is a comparative religious study written in the early 20th century. It presents the core ideas of Buddhism and sets them alongside Christian beliefs, focusing on the origins of suffering, the moral law, the way of self-renunciation, and the meaning of salvation. The book begins with India and Gautama: his sheltered youth, shock at suffering, rejection of ritual and extreme asceticism, enlightenment under the Bo tree, and his teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. It outlines Buddhist ethics for ordinary life (avoiding the ten sins and living kindly, truthfully, and temperately) and the stricter path of the saint (breaking the fetters of self through discipline, taking refuge in Buddha, Law, and Church, and seeking Nirvana). The focus then shifts to Israel and Jesus: the prophetic hope, Jesus’ open, non-ritual life of service, His self-forgetful union with the Father, and the Cross understood as the seed that dies to bring a harvest—fulfilling the universal law of cause and effect through love. The Christian way is self-surrender in daily life, a desire redirected from self to the Father, with no divide between lay and saint; each yielded life becomes new seed for the Kingdom. Poems contrast the two ideals, and a final comparison affirms real resemblances yet a decisive difference: the Buddha as the conqueror who wins knowledge, and the Christ as the revealed Truth and Way.