CHAPTER XI.BUDDHISM IN BURMA.

CHAPTER XI.BUDDHISM IN BURMA.

The greater part of the inhabitants of Burma are Buddhists. The Burman race are so universally, except in the cases where Christianity has gained a few. It is in Burma that Buddhism is found with the least admixture of any other religion, and where it is followed with a more thoroughgoing devotion perhaps than anywhere else. Even the Burman, however, has never discarded in spirit, or even in form, the indigenousnatworship of his far-off ancestors. It may have little of outward appearance, but it remains side by side with Buddhism to the present day. In their numerous popular stories the nats play a prominent part, the wicked ones performing all manner of mischievous pranks, the good ones appearing at the opportune moment to succour the hero of the story, usually some “payaloung,” or incipient Buddha, for the moment in peril through the trials that have befallen him.

This hankering after thenatsis a significant fact. There is no God in Buddhism, and yet a man must have a deity or deities of some kind. The elaborate philosophy of Buddhism may occupy the intellect, and dominate the religious life, but it cannot satisfy this natural craving in man for God. Hence the worship and the fear of thenats, and the many superstitious ceremonies to propitiate them. And hence, too, if we mistake not, the strong tendency to plunge deeply into the occult, and to claim intimacy with the world of spirits, which characterises those Europeans and Americans who have discarded Christianity, and have devisedfor themselves a system fashioned on the basis of Buddhism, for their light and guidance.

Buddhism has been well described as “A proud attempt to create a faith without a God, and to conceive a deliverance in which man delivers himself.” Gautama, the future Buddha, and the founder of the Buddhist religion, was born at Kapilavastu, a town about one hundred miles from Benares, about 500B.C.His father was the ruler of the Sakya tribe. Gautama early showed a disposition for a retired, studious, ascetic, contemplative life. His father wished to see him fit himself for the career of a prince, and heaped upon him every luxury, but in vain. At length we find the young prince, after many struggles between family affection and his view of duty, secretly by night leaving his home of luxury, his wife and child, exchanging his dress for the garments of a mendicant, and commencing his long quest after truth. Six years he spent in fastings and acts of penance. Then perceiving that mere ritual could bring him to no new conceptions of truth, he changed his method, and set himself to devise that system of philosophy which to this day is associated with his name.

The ethics of Buddhism are grand, and for its noble conceptions of man’s duty it well deserves the title of the finest system of heathenism ever devised by man. But it fails altogether as a moral power. The account it gives of man’s nature, and the problem of life generally, though very elaborate, is erroneous and misleading. It knows nothing of a Divine Creator and Father, a Divine Saviour, or a Divine Regenerator. It proclaims no God, offers no Gospel of glad tidings, enjoins no prayer (in our sense of the word, as petition), sets forth no sacrifice for sin, holds out no hope of Divine help, no saving grace, no pardon, no renewal. Man must work out everything by his own endeavours.

For forty-five years Buddha lived to preach his doctrines, winning many converts, and he died at over eighty years of age greatly revered.

“IMAGES OF BUDDHA ARE EXTENSIVELY USED.”

“IMAGES OF BUDDHA ARE EXTENSIVELY USED.”

“IMAGES OF BUDDHA ARE EXTENSIVELY USED.”

That Buddhism is an uninspired system of teaching is most clearly indicated by its attempts at natural science. We neednothing more than a glance at these absurdities to dispose at once of Buddha’s claim to omniscience. His geography followed that of the Hindus, and was no improvement upon it. Its only virtue is that it is very liberal with numbers. It has its countless worlds, in the centre of which is the mountain called Maha Meru, 1,344,000 miles in length, the same in breadth, the same in depth beneath the sea, and rising to the same height out of it. Its teaching upon such matters as eclipses, earthquakes and the like, consists of the wildest of guesses.

It may be well to give the reader a brief outline of the religious teachings of Buddhism. Buddhism denies the creation of the world. Matter is eternal, and all the changes attending it are caused and regulated by certain laws co-eternal with it. Matter and its laws are not under the control of any being. Hence creation and a creator are out of the question.

With such a formidable list of negations to begin with, it becomes a matter of no small interest to inquire out of what materials this vast system could possibly have been constructed. First, then, we have the Buddhist ten commandments. Five of these are binding upon all:—

1. Not to take life.

2. Not to steal.

3. Not to commit adultery.

4. Not to lie.

5. Not to take that which intoxicates.

The other five are applicable only to the monastic order:—

6. Not to eat after midday.

7. Not to attend theatrical amusements, or dance, sing, or play on a musical instrument.

8. Not to use garlands, scents, or cosmetics.

9. Not to stand, sit, or sleep on a platform or elevated place.

10. Not to receive gold or silver.

Besides these precepts there are many minor regulations, some of them entering very minutely into the life of the laity, and others the monks. There are rules for the conduct of parents and children, pupils and teachers, husband and wife, friends and companions, masters and servants, laymen and the religiousorder; in fact, considering the light Gautama possessed, the moral teaching of Buddhism is of a very high order.

But what about the means of attaining to moral excellence? Here Buddhism, it must be confessed, is found wanting. To conceive of a high state of moral excellence is manifestly better within the reach of man’s unaided mind, than to find out a way for the bulk of mankind in their frailty and sinfulness to reach it.

In order to place before the reader any intelligible view of the Buddhist way of salvation, it is essential that we consider first its teaching concerning the nature and circumstances of man.

Buddhism is thoroughly pessimistic in its outlook. It teaches that life is a misery, existence an evil. This doctrine is taught in the sacred books with a wealth and ingenuity of illustration worthy of a more gay and festive theme. The sentient being is “like a worm in the midst of a nest of ants; like a lizard in the hollow of a bamboo that is burning at both ends; like a living carcass, bereft of hands and feet, and thrown upon the sand.” All beings are “entangled in a web of passions; tossed upon the raging billows of a sea of ever-renewing existences; whirling in a vortex of endless miseries; tormented incessantly by the stings of concupiscence; sunk in a dark abyss of ignorance; the wretched victims of an illusory, unsubstantial and unreal world.”

It is true these views of life do not seem unduly to distress the followers of Gautama. The Burmans, the best of Buddhists, are as merry and laughing a people as are to be found anywhere, and the burden of life rests not more lightly upon any people than upon them. Nevertheless such is the teaching. “Anaiksa, Doakka, Anatta” is the formula in Burmese: “Transient, Sorrowful, Unreal.” The monk muses on this in his monastery. The pious Buddhist repeats it to himself as he spends his spare time smoking and meditating on the bench at his door, or strolling idly about, telling off the beads of his rosary the while.

Seeing that life is necessarily a misery, and existence an evil, the problem of life would seem to be how to bring existence to an end. The Christian would say wait for the release of death, but two formidable difficulties stand in the way, to prevent deathproving any release—namely,TransmigrationandKarma(BurmeseKan).

Transmigration constantly renews sentient existence in a countless succession of births and lives. Hence the polite form of the announcement of a death is that the deceased has “changed his state of existence,” that is, put off one existence and taken on another. This is not merely a polite form of speech, but more correctly embodies the popular belief than the mere statement that he has “died.” Moreover, in future births man may rise and fall in the scale of existences; and as human life and animal life are considered to be of the same nature, no difficulty is experienced in readily believing that a man may become an animal, or an animal may become a man in future births. Hence the scruple against taking any kind of animal life amongst the Burmans, extending even to vermin. Supposing transmigration to be true, it follows that if one kills any animal, large or small, even the smallest insect, he may be taking the life of his deceased grandfather, who has thus reappeared in the body.

This universal belief of the Buddhists in transmigration was curiously illustrated quite recently in a court of justice in Burma. A mother and her son came one day to the magistrate of their district and expressed a desire to institute a suit. The case for the son, who was the plaintiff, was as follows. Some years before, a certain man, it was stated, had left in charge of the defendant some jewellery and a silk cloth for safe keeping. While engaged in repairing the roof of a house he fell off and died of the injury. The jewellery and cloth remained in the hands of the defendant, and the suit was now instituted to recover the same.

What was the ground for this claim? Not that this boy or his mother were related to the deceased, but that the boy was that identical man in another birth. But how could he prove it? There was no difficulty in proving this, at least to the satisfaction of the Buddhists. The boy displayed upon his body certain marks, which those who knew the deceased said were precisely similar to marks he bore. The mother, by a comparison of, dates, sought to prove the date of the birth of the boy was just when it would be supposing his claim to be true. But the most convincingtestimony of all was that the boy distinctly remembered the whole of the circumstances happening in his former existence! The defendant admitted receiving the silk cloth, but denied all knowledge of the jewellery. He admitted that he believed the boy was the very man who left the cloth with him, and was willing to return it if the boy paid a small debt of eight annas borrowed on it by the owner. The boy said he remembered the eight annas, but also insisted on the jewellery. Unfortunately for him his good memory did not avail him; it was a British court of justice, not a Burmese, and the magistrate had to dismiss the case as extending to matters beyond his jurisdiction.

KarmaorKan(Burmese), orFate, as it is sometimes rather inadequately rendered, is that self-originating, self-operating, inflexible law which necessitates and causes the working out of the cumulative influences of merit and demerit; these separately producing in succeeding births their full and appropriate effects, extending through cycles of ages, theKanbeing modified from time to time by the passage through these different births. ThusKanis not in any sense a Divine Providence. It is a blind impersonal force that attends our destiny through all the course of our many existences, and makes us to reap in other births what we sow in this. It may be compared to a balance. In the one side we are always putting in acts of merit, and in the other side acts of demerit, and theKangoes on determining which preponderates, and blindly producing its appropriate consequences until each has worked itself out to the pleasant or the bitter end.

Undoubtedly this doctrine is a bold expedient for explaining the apparent anomalies and wrongs in the distribution of happiness and misery in this life; and although it is incapable alike of proof and of disproof, it fully satisfies those who can believe it. A child, for instance, is blind,—this is owing to his eye-vanity, lust of the eye in a former birth,—but he has also unusual powers of hearing; this is because he loved in a former birth to listen to the preaching of the law. Thus the theory can always be made to fit the facts, for it is derived from them. But it satisfies the Oriental mind none the less for that, and it is the belief of millions of Hindus and Buddhists to-day.

Nirvana(BurmeseNeibbân) is the state of complete deliverance from further births and deaths. So long as existence lasts evil and suffering must continue, and there is no hope of blessedness until conscious individuality has become wholly eliminated, and the individual has arrived at that state where further births are no longer possible. This means practically annihilation; but it is so much easier to do wrong than to do right, and it takes so long forKanto work out its result, thatNeibbânbecomes, by the ordinary way, so distant and so difficult of attainment as to be out of reach to the vast majority of the human race.

If Buddhism ended there, and if nothing had been devised to relieve this strain of seeking after an all but hopeless and well-nigh impossible good, it would have been of all creeds the most pessimistic and miserable. The mind must needs have revolted from an outlook so gloomy, and we may safely affirm that it would in that case never have numbered its votaries by hundreds of millions as it does to-day. For it just amounts to this, that “Sin and its consequences follow man as the wheels of the cart follow the legs of the bullocks,” and there is no Saviour and no salvation that he can seek outside of himself.

But just at this point the doctrine of works of merit steps in and offers its hopes to the Buddhist, and seems to bring the attainment of future good at once within the sphere of the practicable. According to this, man can be continually improving hisKanby so-called works of merit, and he may hope, with comparatively little trouble, to make his merits outweigh his demerits, and thereby improve his lot in future existences.

See that row of waterpots under the shade of that great tree upon a dusty road, set upon a neat stand, with a neatly carved roof constructed over them, with a ladle to drink out of, and each of the pots covered with a tin cover to keep out the dust and insects. It is privately constructed and presented for public use, a work of merit; all done to get what they are often thinking and talking about—koothoh.

What is the meaning of all this lavishing on the monks of food daily, and various offerings, including almost everything exceptmoney, which they are under vows not to touch? Answer,koothoh. So with all alms and offerings to monks, to the poor, to dogs, or crows; so with good works of every imaginable description. You may acquire merit by conforming to the ceremonies, by attending the festivals, by listening to the reading of the Law, by striking the pagoda bells, by buying and lighting pagoda tapers, by plastering gold leaf on the pagoda, by contributing to the repairs of the sacred edifices, by showing lights at the festival of lighting in October, and by many, many ways. As might be expected, when the acquiring of merit is so important a matter, there are many avenues opened to it.

Though of course you have not kept all the laws, yet if you have gone out of your way a little to do something more than keep one of them it gives you merit. The care for animal life offers great scope in that direction. An English soldier whilst fishing caught a tortoise and was taking it home, when a Burman met him, bought the tortoise for a rupee, and took it back to its native element. He would expect to gain merit by that. Men have been known to make a regular trade of snaring little birds in the jungle, and bringing them to the bazaar to sell to the merit seekers, who buy them merely to set them free.

Many works of merit involve great expense, such as the digging of a well, the erection of a bridge, azayator rest-house, a monastery, a pagoda. Judging by the enormous number of these sacred buildings in Upper Burma, it would appear that this is a favourite way of seeking merit. The builder of a pagoda is honoured with a special title attached to his name, and he is understood to be in a fair way forNirvana. This seeking after merit is practically the most predominant aim in Burmese religious life.

So fixed is this belief in merit, that when the Burmans see the English so intent upon opening up the country, making roads and railways, metalling streets and lighting them, building hospitals and markets, constructing irrigation works, and carrying out a multitude of other necessary and useful efforts of public utility, they measure us by their own bushel, and remark that there will be great merit to the Government and its officers by means of these things. What other motive could men have fortaking so much pains and trouble for the public good, if not to accumulate merit?

In elaborating this law relating to merit, Gautama was preparing the sheet anchor of his system. It is that mainly by which it abides, and retains its influence over its millions of followers until this day.

“IN THE MORNING THE MONKS INVARIABLY GO FORTH CARRYING THE ALMS-BOWLS TO COLLECT THEIR DAILY FOOD FROM THE PEOPLE.”

“IN THE MORNING THE MONKS INVARIABLY GO FORTH CARRYING THE ALMS-BOWLS TO COLLECT THEIR DAILY FOOD FROM THE PEOPLE.”

“IN THE MORNING THE MONKS INVARIABLY GO FORTH CARRYING THE ALMS-BOWLS TO COLLECT THEIR DAILY FOOD FROM THE PEOPLE.”

Every false religion, however, whatever master mind designed it, must show, somewhere or other, its weak places. It is manifestly a weak place in Buddhism that alms and works of merit may so easily outweigh whatever demerit may attach through real crimes and sins, and that, too, without any repentance or reformation on the part of the offender. This also makes the attainment of merit largely dependent on the pecuniary means and influence at the disposal of the individual. A work may be very easy for a king or a rich man which would be utterly impossible for a poor man. To the Christian mind this seems very unequal and unfair, but to the Burman it presents no stumbling-block. Supposing we do see great inequalities in money, or any other temporal advantages that men possess. Be it so. It arises from differences in theirKan, and that depends on what took place in previous births. One’sKanis not a thing to rail against, but to submit to.

It might be thought that as Christianity is so evidently superior to Buddhism as a religious system, it should be an easy matter to get them to discard their religion and accept the religion of Christ. But this is very far from being the case. The superiority is not apparent to a mind sophisticated by a lifelong familiarity with only the one religion, and it is only, as a rule, perceived after a prolonged and impartial study and comparison of the two has opened the mind. This is the great reason for educational work. It is a very difficult matter to make the votaries of an elaborate system like Buddhism see the superiority of Christ over Buddha; they are more than contented with what they have.

Besides this, we ought to remember that Buddhism has everything on its side that tends to make a religion powerful and influential. It has a concrete existence, and very much of outward and visible form and appearance; it is in possession; it hasnumbers, a voluminous literature, a definite and consistent system of philosophy. It has plenty of popular observances and popular enthusiasm. It is cleverly adapted to man’s natural desire to work out his own salvation. It is most powerfully sustained and buttressed in the regard and confidence of the people by its very numerous monastic institutions, which are recruited from all classes of the people, from the prince to the peasant, for every male Burman must be a monk, for a longer or a shorter time, at some period of his life.

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