The Light of Asia
1879
In 1879, Sir Edwin Arnold undertook something radical: telling the story of the Buddha for a Western audience that knew almost nothing about him. The result is this luminous narrative poem, which traces Prince Siddhartha's transformation from sheltered royal to the Awakened One. We see him ride beyond his palace walls and encounter old age, disease, and death, the suffering that permeates all existence. Arnold renders Siddhartha's Great Renunciation as something both intimate and cosmic: a young prince leaving behind his wife and child not from despair, but from an unbearable compassion. The verses move through years of meditation until that moment under the Bodhi tree when all illusions fall away. This was the book that introduced Buddhism to Gandhi, that sparked the West's fascination with the Buddha's path. It endures not as scripture, but as poetry that makes ancient wisdom breathe. For readers seeking spiritual literature that is neither didactic nor distant, this is the luminous beginning of a conversation that continues today.
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“Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels, None other holds you that ye live and die,And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kissIts spokes of agony,Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“Shall any gazer see with mortal eyes,Or any searcher know by mortal mind,Veil after veil will lift--but there must be Veil upon veil behind.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“Man hath no fate except past deeds,No Hell but what he makes, no Heaven too highFor those to reach whose passions sleep subdued.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“insight vast to spheres unnamed, System on system, countless worlds and suns Moving in splendid measures, band by band Linked in division, one yet separate, The silver islands of a sapphire sea With waves which roll in restless tides of change.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“By wordless edict; having none to bid, None to forbid; for this is past all gods Immutable, unspeakable, supreme, A Power which builds, unbuilds and builds again,””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“I TAKE MY REFUGE IN THY NAME AND THEE!I TAKE MY REFUGE IN THY LAW OF GOOD!I TAKE MY REFUGE IN THY ORDER! THE DEW IS ON THE LOTUS! - RISE, GREAT SUN!AND LIFT MY LEAF AND MIX ME WITH THE WAVEOM MANI PADME HUM, THE SUNRISE COMES!THE DEWPROP SLIPS INTO THE SHINING SEA!””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“If any teach NIRVÂNA is to cease,Say unto such they lie.If any teach NIRVÂNA is to live,Say unto such they err.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“He goesUnto NIRVÂNA. He is one with Life,Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be.OM, MANI PADME, OM! the Dewprop slipsInto the shining sea!””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
“The daylight lingered past its timeIn rose-leaf radiance on the watching peaks,So it seemed Night listened in the glensAnd Noon upon the mountains.””
— Edwin, Sir Arnold
![Birds and Nature, Vol. 12 No. 1 [June 1902]illustrated by Color Photography](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd3b2n8gj62qnwr.cloudfront.net%2FCOVERS%2Fgutenberg_covers75k%2Febook-47881.png&w=3840&q=75)
