CHAPTER XBuddhism and Christianity Contrasted
Comparativereligion is one of the most fascinating studies. In Christian lands well-informed people are ever ready to receive any new light on any of the principal religions of the world. In the East also there is inquiry after the tenets of differing faiths. It is true the inquiry in the Orient is confined to a few of the most advanced minds, and it is also doubtful if the inquiry is often fairly made. The disposition seems to be to assume, to begin with, that some religion like Hinduism, or Buddhism, is the religion of most truth, and then to show that Christianity has some things in common with these faiths. The deduction is then easily drawn that one can be an eclectic in religion. I have seen Europeans in the East who, in an off-handed way, would say: “It is wrong to try to convert the Burmese from their Buddhism to Christianity. Their religion is better for them than ours would be.” I have not heard such a remark from any one who pretended to be a Christian in any devout or spiritual sense. He would be a Christian only in the sense that he belonged to the European community, who are always called “Christians” by those of other faiths.
Buddhism has had much praise for its moral precepts, and its general practice of total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks. This prohibition has been widely observed. It is probable that Buddhism was the first religion to require total abstinence. Then Buddhism gave woman a freedom that no other religion of the East allows. Contrasted with Hinduism or Mohammedanism in this respect, Buddhism must be highly commended. But it is another matter when men assume that one religion is as good as another, or estimate Buddhism as a religion of comfort and light, when it has neither.
It is not the purpose of this book to attempt a comprehensive statement of comparative religions, much less a discussion of that idea. But it is my purpose to set before the reader that wherein Buddhism is contrasted with Christianity, believing that Christianity, and it alone, satisfies the wants of any human soul. I have desired to show wherein Buddhism fails in all essential features to measure up to this need of man for a perfect religion. It is not intended to disparage any incidental good that Buddhism may possess, but to show the contrast with Christianity in its fundamental teachings. In this I am not dependent on my own research, but can accomplish my purpose best by quoting from Sir Monier Williams. This great scholar and author published his works on Buddhism as a culmination of extended studies in the great religions of the world. It is the ripest fruit of his high scholarship. He published thiswork just a few years before he died. From his chapter on “Buddhism Contrasted with Christianity” I have quoted at length, believing his contrasts are exhaustive and entirely truthful.
This eminent author doubts if Buddhism is a religion at all. After postulating that every system assuming to be a religion must declare the existence of an eternal God, and the immortality of the soul of man, he further declares that such a system must satisfy four requisites:
“First. It must reveal the Creator in his nature and attributes to his creature, man.
“Secondly. It must reveal man to himself. It must impart to him a knowledge of his own nature and history—what he is; why he was created; whither he is tending; and whether he is at present in a state of decadence downwards from a higher condition, or of development upwards from a lower.
“Thirdly. It must reveal some method by which the finite creature may communicate with the infinite Creator—some plan by which he may gain access to him and become united with him, and be saved by him from the consequences of his own sinful acts.
“Fourthly. Such a system must prove its title to be called a religion by its regenerating effect on man’s nature; by its influence on his thoughts, desires, passions, and feelings; by its power in subduing all his evil tendencies; by its ability to transform his character and assimilate him to the God it reveals.”
This writer claims what all must admit, that early Buddhism failed in all these requisites, and was not a religion. It refused to admit a personal Creator, or man’s dependence on a higher power. “It denied any external Ego in man. It acknowledged no external revelation. It had no priesthood—no real clergy; no real prayer; no real worship. It had no true idea of sin, or of the need of pardon, and it condemned man to suffer the consequences of his own sinful acts without the hope of help from any Savior or Redeemer, and indeed from any being but himself.”
A few years ago a former bishop of Calcutta saw a Buddhist in a temple, and asked him, “What have you been praying for?” “I have been praying for nothing.” “To whom have you been praying?” He answered, “I have been praying to nobody.” “What, praying for nothing to nobody?” said the astonished bishop. This is a fair sample of the religious expression of Buddhists.
This eminent writer admits that later Buddhism has developed a great reverence for Buddha, the law, and the monkhood, which is some expression of man’s sense of need. But in reality this is a cry from the hungry heart of man for God, which Buddhism does not recognize nor foster. Pure Buddhism is atheistic. This author also considers what claim Gautama has to the title, “The Light of Asia.” He first points out that “his doctrines spread only over Eastern Asia, and Confucius, or Zoroaster, or Mohammed, might equally be called ‘The Light of Asia.’” He also maintains thatGautama was not a true light in any sense; that he claimed little higher than intellectual enlightenment resulting from intense concentration of all man’s intellectual powers in introspection. He did not claim to have any voice regarding the origin of evil, nor concerning a personal God. His “light,” in this respect, was “sheer darkness.” And so the system he founded is as devoid of “light” as midnight. “All that he claimed to have discovered was the origin of suffering and the remedy of suffering. All the light of knowledge to which he attained came to this: That suffering arises from indulging desires, especially the desire for the continuity of life; that suffering is inseparable from life; that all life is suffering; and that suffering is to be gotten rid of by the suppression of desires, and by the extinction of personal existence.”
Here he makes his first great contrast in the teachings of Christ and Gautama, and says in part: “It is noteworthy that both Christianity and Buddhism agree in asserting that all creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, in suffering, in tribulation. But mark the vast, the vital distinction in the teaching of each. The one taught men to be patient under affliction, and to aim at the utter annihilation of the suffering body.” Further: “But, say the admirers of Buddhism, at least you admit that the Buddha taught men to avoid sin, and to aim at purity and holiness of life! Nothing of the kind. The Buddha had no idea of sin as an offense against God; no idea of true holiness. What he said was, Get rid of the demerit of evil actions,and accumulate a stock of merit by good actions. And let me remark here, that the determination to store up merit, like capital at a bank, is one of those inveterate propensities of human nature, one of those deep-seated tendencies in humanity which nothing but the divine force imparted by Christianity can ever eradicate. It is forever cropping up in the heart of man, as much in the West as in the East, as much in the North as in the South; forever reasserting itself like a pestilential weed, or like tares amidst wheat, forever blighting the fruit of those good instincts which underlie man’s nature everywhere.”
He shows the contrast of Gautama and Christ; the former claiming to be self-sent, having no divine commission and no external revelation, while the latter claimed to be sent from God; to be the Son of God, whose every word has divine authority; that the gospel is to be proclaimed to every man in all generations, and that Christ himself was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He proceeds to contrast the Christian Bible with the Buddhist: “The characteristics of the Christian’s Bible are that it claims to be a supernatural revelation, yet it attaches no mystic, talismanic virtue to the mere sound of words. On the other hand, Buddhism utterly repudiates all claim to be a supernatural revelation; yet the very sound of its words is believed to possess a meritorious efficacy capable of elevating any one who hears it to heavenly abodes in future existences. In illustration, I may advert to a legend current in Ceylon, that once on a timefive hundred bats lived in a cave where two monks daily recited the Buddha’s law. These bats gained such merit by simply hearing the sound of the words, that when they died they were all reborn as men, and ultimately as gods.”
We are given another contrast in the kinds of self-sacrifice taught by the two systems. “But again I hear the admirers of Buddhism say: Is it not the case that the doctrine, like the doctrine of Christ, has self-sacrifice as its keynote? Well, be it so. I admit that he related of himself that, on a particular occasion in one of his previous births, he plucked out his own eyes, and that on another he cut off his own head as a sacrifice for the good of others; and that again, on a third occasion, he cut his own body to pieces to redeem a dove from a hawk. Yet note the vast difference of the sacrifice taught by the two systems. Christianity demands the suppression of selfishness; Buddhism demands the suppression of self, with the one object of extinguishing all consciousness of self. In the one the true self is elevated and intensified. In the other the true self is annihilated by a false form of non-selfishness, which has for its real object not the good of others, but the annihilation of the Ego, the utter extinction of the illusion of personal individuality.”
The doctrines which Christ and Gautama bequeathed to their followers present an equally great contrast. From the vast difference between them it is comparatively easy to believe the statement from Christ that he brought a divine revelation,and from Gautama that he was self-sent and had no revelation to make to his followers. The contrast between the two systems has been arranged by the same author.
“According to Christianity: Fight, and overcome the world. According to Buddhism: Shun the world, and overcome it.
“According to Christianity: Expect a new earth when the present earth is destroyed; a world renewed and perfected; a purified world in which righteousness is to dwell forever. According to Buddhism: Expect a never-ending succession of evil worlds coming into existence, developing, decaying, perishing, and reviving, and all equally full of everlasting misery, disappointment, illusion, change, and transmutations.
“According to Christianity, bodily existence is subject to only one transformation. According to Buddhism, bodily existence is continued in six conditions, through countless bodies of men, animals, demons, ghosts, and dwellers in various hells and heavens; and that, too, without any progressive development, but in a constant jumble of metamorphoses and transmutations.
“Christianity teaches that life in heaven can never be followed by a fall to a lower state. Buddhism teaches that life in a higher heaven may be succeeded by a life in a lower heaven, or even by a life on earth or in one of the hells.
“According to Christianity, the body of a man may be the abode of the Spirit of God. According to Buddhism, the body, whether of men or higherbeings, can never be the abode of anything but evil.
“According to Christianity: Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, and expect a change to a glorified body hereafter. According to Buddhism: Look to final deliverance from all bodily life, present and to come, as the greatest of all blessings, highest of all boons, and loftiest of all aims.
“According to Christianity, a man’s body can never be changed into the body of a beast, or bird, or insect, or loathsome vermin. According to Buddhism, a man, and even a god, may become an animal of any kind, and even the most loathsome vermin may again become a man or a god.
“According to Christianity: Stray not from God’s ways; offend not against his holy laws. According to Buddhism: Stray not from the eight-fold path of the perfect man, and offend not against yourself and the perfect man.
“According to Christianity: Work the works of God while it is day. According to Buddhism: Beware of action, as causing rebirth, and aim at inaction, indifference, and apathy.
“According to the Christian Bible: Regulate and sanctify the heart, desires, and affections. According to the Buddhist: Suppress and destroy them utterly, if you wish for true sanctification.
“Christianity teaches that in the highest form of life, love is intensified. Buddhism teaches that in the highest state of existence, all love is extinguished.
“According to Christianity: Go and earn your own bread and support your family. Marriage, it says, is honorable and the bed undefiled, and married life is a field on which holiness may grow and develop. Nay, more: Christ himself honored a wedding with his presence, and took up little children in his arms and blessed them. Buddhism, on the other hand, says: Avoid married life; shun it as if it were a burning of live coals; or, having entered on it, abandon wife, children, and home, and go about as celibate monks, engaging in nothing but in meditation and recitation of the Buddha’s Law—that is to say, if you aim at the highest degree of sanctification.”
Then comes greatest of all distinctions, which separates Christianity and Buddhism.
“Christianity regards personal life as the most sacred of all possessions. Life, it seems to say, is no dream, no illusion. ‘Life is real. Life is earnest.’ Life is the most precious of all God’s gifts. Nay, it affirms of God himself that he is the highest example of intense life, of intense personality, the great ‘I Am That I Am,’ and teaches us that we are to thirst for a continuance of personal life as a gift from him, nay, more, that we are to thirst for the living God himself and for conformity to his likeness; while Buddhism sets forth as the highest of all aims the utter extinction of the illusion of personal identity—the utter annihilation of the Ego—of all existence in any form whatever, and proclaims as the true creed the ultimate resolution of everything into nothing.”
“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” says the Christian. “What shall I do to inherit the eternal extinction of life?” says the Buddhist.
Surely in this comprehensive list of contrasts the great scholar has shown that there is an immeasurable height of moral and spiritual philosophy, and revealed truth concerning God and man in the Christian religion that Buddhism never conceived. It has no excellence in moral precept that is not better stated by Christianity. Christianity sheds a broad, clear light on the way to find salvation from sin. Buddhism has no light, and no consolation. The human heart finds rest in the one, but the other can not bring a moment’s peace to any anxious or agonizing soul. Buddhism is a pessimistic, dark, and desolate system of philosophy, mistaken for religion.