17
and energy to further spread knowledge
about suffering, how to conquer it, and
how to lead righteous lives.
Supposedly, with his final breath
the Buddha said, “Decay is inherent
in all things. Work out your own salva-
tion with diligence.”
12
In this way, he re-
minded his followers that each person’s
destiny is shaped mostly by his or her
own thoughts and actions. He or she
can learn to both live and die as a good
person who respects others and treats
them justly. Summing up the Buddha’s
enormous influence on large sectors
of humanity during many generations,
the late modern Indian statesman and philosopher Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan wrote, “He belongs to the history of the world’s
thought, to the general inheritance of all cultivated men. For,
judged by intellectual integrity, moral earnestness, and spiritual
insight, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest figures in history.”
13
“[The
Buddha] is
undoubtedly
one of the
greatest
gures in
history.”
13
—Modern Indian
statesman and
philosopher
Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan
