21.
The things necessary to Buddhism are a very mild climate, customs of
great gentleness and liberality, and no militarism; moreover, it
must get its start among the higher and better educated classes.
Cheerfulness, quiet and the absence of desire are the chief desiderata,
and they are attained. Buddhism is not a religion in which
perfection is merely an object of aspiration: perfection is actually
normal.—Under Christianity the instincts of the subjugated and the
oppressed come to the fore: it is only those who are at the bottom who
seek their salvation in it. Here the prevailing pastime, the favourite
remedy for boredom is the discussion of sin, self-criticism, the
inquisition of conscience; here the emotion produced by power (called
“God”. is pumped up (by prayer); here the highest good is
regarded as unattainable, as a gift, as “grace.” Here, too, open
dealing is lacking; concealment and the darkened room are Christian. Here
body is despised and hygiene is denounced as sensual; the church even
ranges itself against cleanliness (—the first Christian order after the
banishment of the Moors closed the public baths, of which there were 270
in Cordova alone). Christian, too; is a certain cruelty toward one's self
and toward others; hatred of unbelievers; the will to persecute. Sombre
and disquieting ideas are in the foreground; the most esteemed states of
mind, bearing the most respectable names are epileptoid; the diet is so
regulated as to engender morbid symptoms and over-stimulate the nerves.
Christian, again, is all deadly enmity to the rulers of the earth, to the
“aristocratic”—along with a sort of secret rivalry with
them (—one resigns one's “body” to them—one wants
only one's “soul” . . . ). And Christian is all
hatred of the intellect, of pride, of courage of freedom, of intellectual
libertinage; Christian is all hatred of the senses, of joy in the
senses, of joy in general . . .
