In the year 1881 Dr. Rhys Davids said, "There is not the slightest danger of any European ever entering the Buddhist Order."[18] Yet a recent writer was told by a Buddhist in Ceylon that his religion was making its converts "chiefly amongst the Tamils and Germans," and in each of the Buddhist countries there is to-day a small but active group of converts from the European nations to Buddhism.
It would be difficult to say whether these groups are the product or the cause of the undoubted revival which is taking place in the Buddhist world: probably they are part product and part cause. Buddhism is certainly in ferment. As Dr. Suzuki has said, "It is in a stage of transition from a mediæval dogmatic and conservative spirit to one of progress, enlightenment, and liberalism,"[19] and in other ways, especially in Japan, it is approximating to a liberal Christianity.
To this awakening there are several contributory causes, such as the national spirit which has awakened in recent years, the works of Eastern and Western students of Buddhism, the activities of the Theosophical Society, and, it must be confessed, and unwise and, in my opinion, illiberal and unfair attitude on the part of many missionaries who, forgetting that they are sent to preach Christ, have attacked, often without adequate knowledge, the religion of Gautama.[20] From this criticism I do not wish to exempt myself; I have gone through the unpleasant but salutary process of having to eat my own words, and I am more anxious than I can say to foster a real spirit of love and understanding between the followers of Gautama and those of Jesus.
Of the founder of Buddhism I can honestly say with the great Danish scholar Fausboll: "The more I know of him, the more I love him," and it is the "fact of Gautama," emerging more and more clearly as the Buddhist books are being edited and translated, which more than any other single cause is responsible for the Buddhist revival.
"From such far distances the echo of his words returns that we cannot but rank him amongst the greatest heroes of history," says the eminent Belgian scholar de la Vallée Poussin, and from him, as from Gautama, we shall all do well to learn the spirit of tolerance and courtesy. Yet both of them speak out bluntly and shrewdly enough at times. It is recorded that when the great teacher met men whose doctrines were morally dangerous or intellectually insincere, he harried them remorselessly till "the sweat poured from them" and they cried, "As well might one meet an infuriated bull or dangerous snake as the ascetic Gautama!" Of those whose teachings were sincere and earnest he was wonderfully tolerant, even advising a soldier disciple to give alms to them and their followers, no less than to the Buddhist monks.
In this spirit the Belgian scholar, probably the greatest living authority upon Buddhism as a whole, is lovingly tolerant towards Buddhism and honest Buddhists, but of Neo-Buddhism he says: "It is at once frivolous and detestable—dangerous, perhaps, for very feeble intellects." Even so, a vast Neo-Buddhist Church is not impossible!
European and American Buddhists, then, fall into these two classes: those who are honest and sincere students of Buddhism and followers of Gautama, and those of whom the most charitable thing that can be said is that they lead astray "foolish women," and other sentimentalists. To illustrate the methods of these two schools, who are unfortunately at present often working in an unnatural alliance, let me describe two recent experiences.
On Easter Day I went from the simple and exquisite beauty of our Communion Service, in which the glamour of the Resurrection is ever being renewed, to a Buddhist church within a stone's throw, here in the heart of San Francisco. There, as in innumerable other centres of Buddhist life, the birth of Gautama was being celebrated; and I could unhesitatingly join in paying reverence to the memory of the great Indian teacher. But it was certainly amazing and a little staggering to find "Buddhist High Mass" being performed, the celebrant calling himself a bishop and ordaining on his own initiative abbots and abbesses.[21] Three altar candles representing the Buddha, the Law, and the Order being lighted, the "bishop," preceded by seven or eight American and British monks in yellow robes, and by the Abbess, known as Mahadevi, ascended to the platform, which contains a beautiful Japanese shrine of the Hongwanji sect. Several monks from Japan, to my surprise, assisted in the strange service that followed, which began with the invocation of Amida Buddha, and went on in an astonishing hotch-potch of the cults of the primitive and the later Buddhism derived indiscriminately from Ceylon, Tibet, and Japan.
Of this strange service, which the "bishop" claims to have modelled on that in use in the Dalai Lama's palace at Lhassa, it must suffice to say that if the TibetanMantraswere as inaccurately rendered as were the five precepts in Pāli which are the Buddhist pentalogue, then the general impression of Buddhism given was as misleading as it is possible to conceive. The service included a processional hymn, music by an organist announced as "late of the Golden Temple Shway Dagon in Burma, and of St. Paul's Cathedral, London," an "Epistle" read by an American Buddhist, a "gospel of the day," read by the Abbess, several addresses by Japanese and Western Buddhists, and a sermon by the "bishop," who claims to be ninety-five years old, to be the son of a Persian prince, to have spent sixteen years at the feet of the late Dalai Lama in Tibet, to have numerous degrees in arts, medicine, science, and philosophy from Oxford, London, Paris, and Heidelberg, and to have been seventy-five years a monk of the yellow robe. His costume was as amazingly mixed as his liturgy, consisting of a Hindu turban, a yellow Buddhist overmantle, a scarlet robe with cincture and maniple of purple, and a rosary terminating in theSwastika, with which sign he blessed the people at the end of the service, saying: "May the face of the Truth shine upon you, and the divine Wisdom of the Buddhas permeate you, and remain with you now and throughout eternity. So mote it be."
In his sermon he claimed to have founded no less than eighty missions in the past ten years in California, and said some shrewd things in criticism of the Christian Church, of which I am persuaded he was himself once a member. For the rest it was a practical discourse enough; he advised his followers, if they would live as long as he (and he announced that he would still be going strong fifty years hence), they must change their wrinkles into dimples, and learn the secret of a serene mind. He gave notice that in the evening there would be a banquet and a dance, in which he would join, if widows and maidens pressed him, and immediately after the service he saluted them all "with a holy kiss," which they seemed to enjoy as much as he. There is something really attractive about this jovial monk, and he has the energy, the ubiquity and the perseverance of another "Persian prince" who is equally opposed to Christianity!
The "bishop's" disciples are fairly numerous, though one of his colleagues expressed the conviction, on the authority of an English professor, that the same wonderful teachings would draw thousands to hear them in London, instead of scores in San Francisco. Be that as it may, they are faithful disciples; attracted very largely by the fact that he is rather expounding spiritualism, telling of the wonderfulMahatmasof Tibet, and luring them with the glamour of Eastern mysticism than teaching Buddhism. When I chuckled at some of his shrewd sallies, an elegantly dressed woman next to me said, "Hush! Hush! You are not an initiate, you do not understand; all that he says has a profound, inner meaning which only we who are initiated can comprehend." To which I could not resist the reply: "I may not be initiated into this business, but I know that this is not Buddhism any more than that the organist who is playing those penny-whistle tunes on the harmonium ever played them on the Shway Dagon, where music is not allowed, or any more than the old sportsman who is speaking is a bishop."
It is not by such means that Buddhism can be revived.
But there are others! Some years ago I had a delightful talk with one of them in the shadow of the great pagoda from which our organist did not come. He was a Scot, a scholar and scrupulously honest, and his name is already widely known as the translator of both German and Pāli works. Quite frankly he told me why he had taken the yellow robe, and how, having lost his faith in Christianity, he found in the Buddhist books something which saved his reason and probably his life: then, turning to me, he said: "How glad you fellows would be if you could get rid of the Old Testament."
Another friend of mine, an Englishman, was formerly trained as a Roman Catholic priest, and is now a Buddhist missionary in California, having been ordained in Japan, and having, with an American scholar, now a professor in London, been responsible for the production of an admirable and scholarly periodical,The Mahayanist. Its object is to impart an accurate knowledge of the Buddhism of China and Japan, and to investigate its history, doctrines, and present conditions in an unbiased and scholarly way.
Such men as these three ought not to be associated with those who claim to teach "esoteric" Buddhism.[22] There is really no such thing; "I have preached the Law without making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine," said Gautama, "for I have no such thing as the closed fist of the teacher who keeps some things in reserve."[23]
Now so long as these unequally yoked teams are drawing the Buddhist chariot, there is bound to be a smash; when one studies, for instance, the history of the propagandist literature they have put out, one finds that it is one long story of fitful beginnings and spasmodic effort, almost all of them failing to survive for more than a few years. Of these periodicals, Professor Poussin writes as follows: "Propagandist reviews likeBuddhismof Rangoon and theOpen Courtof Chicago are useful when Mrs. Rhys Davids condescends to contribute to them, but she finds in them strange neighbours indeed, fully worthy of the indescribable Mahabodhi Society!"
Buddhists everywhere are finding new inspiration by going back to the authority of Gautama; let the Christian Church go back to Jesus Christ, and, taking Him as the full and perfect revelation of the nature of God and man, rethink and restate its theology. And secondly, let its missionaries study the great religion of Gautama—which is still, after twenty-five centuries, a mighty power, with strong capacity for revival, and which is still strangely misunderstood; and let them see to it that they and the Christian "native" pastors and catechists are as carefully trained as the Buddhist monks who each year are receiving a more systematic preparation for the task of defending and propagating theDhamma.
[17] Reprinted fromThe East and the West.
[18]Hibbert Lectures, 3rd edition, p. 184.
[19]The Zen Sect of Buddhism, p. 11.
[20] There is fortunately a marked improvement in this respect in missionary methods: but the old order has not yet given place to the new. The present writer was recently classed, in a public address in Rangoon, with the Kaiser and Antichrist—as a "Sign of the Times."
[21] The full form of service and a biographical sketch of its author is published by theOpen Court, Chicago, U.S.A.
[22] They are, fortunately, even now parting company: the "bishop," for example, has been obliged to start a rival "church" in San Francisco.
[23] From theMahaparinibbana Sutta, the oldest and most authentic of the Buddhist scriptures.
The Christian missionary in Buddhist lands is faced with a task of infinite fascination. He is dealing, in the first place, with remarkable peoples for whom their religion has done much of the great service which Christianity has done for him and his people. He will find everywhere traces of a mighty Buddhist civilisation, and in many places, if he has the eye to see, proofs that this venerable religion is still alive and is reforming itself to meet the needs of the modern world. In the second place, he will find that it is vitally linked up with the intensely interesting and important nationalist movements of Asia, and that he cannot understand the political situation in these countries without a close and careful study of the religion. And in the third place, he will find that it is not only as part and parcel of nationalist movements that Buddhism is alive, but that it has an international programme and that it is closely bound up with the movement of "Asia for the Asiatics"—a movement deserving of respectful and sympathetic study.
How then will the missionary prepare himself for this absorbing task? Nothing can take the place of friendly intercourse with Buddhists in temple and home, on pilgrimage and at great times of festival; it is thus that the religion will become a living reality to him, full of colour and movement, giving him at times moments of exquisite pleasure in its artistic pageantry, and bringing him into sympathetic touch with the "soul of the people" to whom he is seeking to minister. But to prepare him for this absorbing pursuit, at once business and pleasure, study and hobby, for any one who really enjoys such things, he can and must do some systematic reading. Appended are a course of study for the first two years worked out for Y.M.C.A. secretaries in India, and a more advanced and detailed course. The following additional notes may be of service in using these:
1. Clearly the first step is to get a sympathetic and accurate idea of the founder of Buddhism, of the essence of his teaching, and of the secret of his amazing influence. There is, in human history, only one figure more significant and more worthy of a study. Side by side the student should read Sir Edwin Arnold'sLight of Asia(London: Kegan Paul. 1s. 6d. and 5s.) and some good biographical study such as that of H. Oldenberg,Buddha(London: Williams & Norgate. Out of print. 1882), or that by the present writer,Gotama Buddha(New York: Association Press. 1920).
2. Next he will do well to saturate himself in such selections of the moral teachings of Gautama as are contained in theDhammapadaor theItivuttaka, both of which contain much very early material, some of which may be attributed to the founder himself.
3. For the whole Buddhist system in its earlier forms Warren's admirableBuddhism in Translations(Harvard Oriental Series. Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 1900) is indispensable, and should be constantly used for reference.
4. As an introduction to the history of Buddhism two elementary books, attempting to cover the whole field in a rather sketchy way, are Saunders'The Story of Buddhism(London: Oxford University Press. 4s., 6d. 1916) and Hackmann'sBuddhism as a Religion(London: Probsthain. 15s. 1910).
5. Whether the student is going to work in lands devoted to the primitive type of Buddhism, such as Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, or in those in which a highly developed Buddhism prevails, such as Japan, China, and Korea, he ought to have a grasp of the essential differences between the two types of Buddhism known asHinayānaandMahāyāna; for an evolution must be read backwards as well as forwards, and the missionary will look forward to spending a holiday in one of the other Buddhist lands. If, for instance, his lot is cast in Burma, he ought to plan to go on a visit to Japan or to China, andvice versâ. To get a grasp of the highly developed Mahāyāna he should study especially the famousLotus of the Good Lawtranslated in vol. xxi of the Sacred Books of the East (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 15s. 6d.) and should carefully compare this with theDhammapada. He will find that even in the conservative Buddhism of Ceylon and Burma there are Mahāyāna tendencies, and that everywhere Gautama Buddha has become in practice more than a moral teacher and is related, in the minds of the people, to an eternal order making for righteousness. In this and in other ways which the student will study for himself,e.g.in the idea of a sacrificial life-process culminating in the historical life of Sākyamuni and in the practice of prayer by all Buddhists, he will find a wonderful preparation for the gospel of Christ. I would suggest that he take as his guiding light this saying of a great Buddhist scholar of Japan, "We see your Christ, because we have first seen our Buddha." The task of the missionary will be to relate Christianity to this great preparation that has been made for it and to think out with Eastern scholars the thought bases of a truly Eastern Christianity which shall seem to these Asiatic nations to come with all the authority of their own past behind it, and with all the glamour of a knowledge that the God who has been working with and for them in the past is now bringing them out into a larger and freer life. Only so can they be won for Christ.
[24] Reprinted by kind permission of the editors and publisher from "An Introduction to Missionary Service," Ed. by G. A. Gollock and E. G. K. Hewat, Oxford University Press. 1921, 3s. 6d. net.
The following course of reading—drawn up for Secretaries of the Y.M.C.A. in the East by Dr. J. N. Farquhar and the writer—is recommended to those whose leisure is scant:
First Year. General: Rhys Davids,Buddhism, Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha(London: S.P.C.K. 3s. 6d.); V. Smith,Asoka(Oxford: Clarendon Press. 4s. New edition, 1920).
Special:The Dhammapada. Sacred Books of the East, vol. x (out of print);The Mahaparinibbana. S.B.E., vol. xi (12s. 6d. See Introduction).
Additional: Oldenberg,Buddha(see Introduction); or Rhys Davids,Dialogues of the Buddha(London: Milford. 12s. 6d. 3rd volume, 1921).
Second Year. General: Copleston,Buddhism Primitive and Present(London: Longmans. 10s. 6d. Out of print); Hackmann,Buddhism as a Religion(see Introduction).
Special: Warren,Buddhism in Translations. Chaps. i and iv (seeIntroduction).
Additional: Rhys Davids,Buddhist India(London: Fisher Unwin. 7s. 6d.);The Questions of King Milinda, S.B.E., vols. xxxv, xxxvi. (42s. for two. See Introduction.)
For those who desire further and more detailed study the following suggestions, based upon Professor Hume's course at Union Theological Seminary and the present writer's at the Pacific School of Religion, are likely to prove helpful:
A.The Life of the Buddha.
Rhys Davids,Buddhism, Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, chaps. ii, iii, vii (see I, First Year); Kern,Manual of Indian Buddhism, part ii (London: Probsthain. 15s.); Oldenberg,Buddha, part i (see Introduction); Warren,Buddhism in Translations, chap. i (see Introduction); Saunders,Gotama Buddha(see Introduction).
B.The Scriptures of Hinayāna Buddhism.
The Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline Basket), The Sutta Pitaka (TeachingBasket), The Abhidhamma Pitaka (Higher Religion, or MetaphysicalBasket).
Rhys Davids,Buddhism, Its History and Literature(London: Putnams. 10s. 6d. 1907); Hastings'Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, vol. viii, pp. 85-9 (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 35s. 1916); K. J. Saunders,Heart of Buddhism(London: Oxford University Press. 2s. 6d. Calcutta: Association Press. 6d. 1915); Sacred Books of the East, vols. x, xi, xvii, xix, xx, xxi, xxxv, xxxvi, xlix (see Introduction); Rhys Davids,Sacred Books of the Buddhists, vols. ii, iii (London: Milford. 12s. 6d. each).
C.The Doctrines and Practices of Hinayāna Buddhism.
(The Hindu Setting, Moral Teachings, Concerning the Soul,Transmigration, Karma, Nirvana, Methods of Salvation, Prayer,Miracles, The Order Woman.)
Rhys Davids,Buddhism, A Sketch, chaps. iv, v, vi (London: Williams and Norgate. 2s. 6d. 1912); E. W. Hopkins,Religions of India, chap. xiii (Boston: Ginn & Co. 10s. 6d. 1902); K. J. Saunders,Buddhist Ideals(Calcutta: Y.M.C.A., 10 annas. 1912).
D.The Expansion of Buddhism.
(In India, the Adjacent Countries, in China and Korea, in Japan.)
K. J. Saunders,Story of Buddhism, chaps. iv, vii (seeIntroduction); Hackmann,Buddhism as a Religion, Book iii (seeIntroduction); Rhys Davids,Buddhism, Sketch, chap. ix (see C); R.F. Johnston,Buddhist China(London: Murray. 18s. 1913); K.Reischauer,Japanese Buddhism(London and New York; Macmillan. 10s.6d. $2. 1917).
E.Differences between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna.
Suzuki,Outlines of Mahāyāna(London: Lusac. 8s. 6d. Out of print. 1908);Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. Under headings (see B).
F.Buddhism and Christianity.
(Similarities and Differences.)
Saunders,Buddhist Ideals(see C); Carus,Buddhism and itsChristian Critics, chap. v (Chicago:Open CourtPublishing Co. 7s.6d.); K. J. Saunders,Story of Buddhism, chap. viii (seeIntroduction).
For still more detailed work see the excellent booklets prepared by the Board of Missionary Preparation, 25 Madison Avenue, New York City,The Preparation of Missionaries to Buddhist LandsandBuddhism and Buddhists in China—both in the press.
End of Project Gutenberg's Buddhism in the Modern World, by K. J. Saunders