e returned to the world to help liberate others from the illusions of suffering in this world. One of the purposes of his return to the world of "sleeping" human beings was to "challenge the deadness of Brahmin society" (Smith, Illustrated, 63). In other words, Buddha sought to make enlightenment available to every individual, whatever their caste, whatever their gender. Buddha wanted to bring the door to the divine to the average man, without reference to the system of authority and power and privilege which had come to mark Hinduism. His words reflect this democratic and individual approach to the divine: "Work out your own salvation with diligence" (Smith, Illustrated, 63).
Accordingly, Buddha rejected the six features of Hinduism and other religions which confused the individual and kept him from attaining true enlightenment. Those features are authority, ritual, explanations, tradition, grace, and mystery. In the place of these rejected features Buddha proposed personal experience, scientific understanding of existence, pragmatic usefulness, therapeutic r
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