4. The Brahmanical system of re-births was followed to a great extent
by Buddhists, notwithstanding that it had been one chief aim and object
of Shâkjamuni's teaching to provide mankind with a remedy against
their necessity. (See Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, ii. 60, and
other places. Burnouf, Introd. à l'Hist. du Buddh. Ind. i. 153.) By
its teaching, every living being had to be born again a countless
number of times, leading them to higher or lower regions according
to their dealings under each earlier form. The gods themselves were
not exempt from the operation of this law.