He will tell you that he has many jewels, but that three of them stand
out conspicuously--the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Of these
the first is 'Sakya Muni, called the Buddha (the Awakened One).' His
life is full of legend and mythology, but how it takes hold of the
reader! Must we not pronounce it the finest of religious narratives,
and thank the scholars who made the _Lalita Vistara_ known to us?
The Buddha was indeed a supernormal man; morally and physically he
must have had singular gifts. To an extraordinary intellect he joined
the enthusiasm of love, and a thirst for service.

The second of the Buddhist brother's jewels is the Dharma, i.e.
the Law or Essential Rightness revealed by the Buddha. That the Master
laid a firm practical foundation for his religion cannot be denied,
and if Jews and Christians reverence the Ten Words given through
'Moses,' much more may Buddhists reverence the ten moral precepts of
Sakya Muni. Those, however, whose aim is Buddhaship (i.e. those
who propose to themselves the more richly developed ideal of northern
Buddhists) claim the right to modify those precepts just as Jesus
modified the Law of Moses. While, therefore, we recognize that good
has sometimes come even out of evil, we should also acknowledge the
superiority of Buddhist countries and of India in the treatment both
of other human beings and of the lower animals.

The Sangha, or Monastic Community, is the third treasure of Buddhism,
and the satisfaction of the Buddhist laity with the monastic body is
said to be very great. At any rate, the cause of education in Burma
owes much to the monks, but it is hard to realize how the Monastic
Community can be in the same sense a 'refuge' from the miseries of the
world as the Buddha or Dharmakaya.