Part 1

BUDDHISM IN THE MODERN WORLD

BY K. J. SAUNDERS

AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF BUDDHISM," "GOTAMA BUDDHA," ETC.

PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION, BERKELEY AND LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

PREFACE

There are many books on Buddhism, and to produce a new one almost demands an apology. Yet most of them deal with the dead past, and Buddhism is a living religion which is showing remarkable powers of revival and adaptation. This is a movement of so great significance that I hope this small volume may prove of value, not only to missionaries but to all sympathetic students of a religion which has played an immense part in the world's history, and which is still a dominant influence in the lives of scores of millions. During twelve years of somewhat intimate study of Buddhist countries I have found that while there is much that is degenerate there is much that is very noble, and the object of this little book is to estimate the living forces of the religion rather than to emphasise its weaknesses. It is at once more scientific and more worth while to look at the strong than at the weak points of a religion, and there is an increasing school of missionary thought which believes in building the Christian Church of Asia upon the great foundations laid through so many centuries. Not only is it true that God has not left Himself without a witness amongst these peoples; it is even truer that during the long and on the whole noble history of the expansion of Buddhism His Spirit has been at work. I am convinced that any who really study this remarkable chapter in human history will come to this conclusion, if they have any belief whatsoever in a meaning in history and in a Divine Providence.

The missionary amongst Buddhist peoples should aim at studying all that is noble and of good repute, whilst of course he will not shut his eyes to what is degenerate and unworthy, and inasmuch as an increasing number of missionary teachers are doing me the honour to consult me as to the method of approach to their Buddhist friends, I venture to dedicate this small volume to them as a token of hearty sympathy in the noble work that they are doing in seeking to fulfil the age-long purposes of God. I think that many of them agree with me that already a nobler form of Christianity is being produced on Asiatic soil than that which we have brought thither, and it may well be in the providence of God that a new and splendid era of Church History is opening up as these responsive and religious peoples of the Orient are captured by the Gospel of Christ. In spite of the failures of Christendom and of our divided Christianity the whole of Asia reverences the historic Jesus, and from her contact with His Spirit is at once reforming and revivifying her ancient faiths. This process is of immense significance and her best spirits, even when they do not call themselves Christian, are frank to confess how much they owe to Him and how much there is in their old faiths which will need to die in order that they may live again, purified and deepened. That Asia is increasingly becoming Christian in its standards of thought and conduct is evident to any unbiased observer, and one of the most remarkable proofs of the authenticity and originality of our faith is this--that it is at once reforming and fulfilling the ancient faiths of Asia. What it did with the religions of Rome and Greece it is already doing with the nobler religions of the Orient; and true missionaries of Christ are at work upon a task of incomparable dignity and significance.

These brief sketches are based upon ten years of intimate association with Buddhists in Southern and Eastern Asia.

Inasmuch as I have only been on the borders of Tibet I have not written here of Tibetan Buddhism. It is very degenerate and so mixed with Tantric Hinduism as to demand separate and different handling: it is very clear that missionary work is urgently needed to free the people of Tibet from a tyranny which is unworthy of the great name of the Buddha.

K. J. S.

BERKELEY, _January, 1922._

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

I. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA

I. BUDDHISM IN BURMA

1. AT THE GREAT PAGODA IN RANGOON (a) A Monastic School (b) Its Moral Teaching (c) Its Religious Instruction (d) The Importance of the Monks as a Class (e) Women at Worship

2. THE RELIGIOUS VALUES OF EVERYDAY BUDDHISM (a) What Buddhism means for Burmese Women (b) What it means for Burmese Men (c) What it means for Burmese Children (d) The Attitude of Burmese Students (e) The Better Side of Burmese Buddhism

3. CHRISTIANITY'S OPPORTUNITY IN BURMA (a) The Burmese are truly Religious in Temperament (b) They tend to view Gotama as a Saviour (c) The Christian Heaven is more attractive than _Nibbāna_ (d) Moral Conditions demand a Vital Christianity (e) Loving Social Service finds its own Way to the Heart (f) Christianity can dispel the Fear of the Demon World

II. BUDDHISM IN CEYLON

1. ON A HILLSIDE NEAR KANDY (a) The Dullness and Superstition of Village Life in Southern Ceylon (b) The Themes of the Hillside Preacher (c) The Stolidity of his Audience

2. THE HOLD OF BUDDHISM UPON THE SINGHALESE (a) The Appeal of its Traditions (b) Its Work of Reformation (c) Its Leadership of Public Opinion (d) Yet Ceylon needs Christianity

3. TWO SHARPLY MARKED ATTITUDES AMONG MODERN BUDDHISTS

III. BUDDHISM IN SIAM

1. SIAM A BUDDHIST KINGDOM 2. THE _THOT KRATHIN_ FESTIVAL 3. THE KING AND PĀLI LEARNING 4. BUDDHIST EDUCATION 5. THE TEMPLES OR _WATS_

IV. CONTRASTED TYPES OF BUDDHIST RELIGIOUS LIFE IN SOUTHERN ASIA

1. THE CREMATION OF A SINGHALESE ABBOT 2. THE FUNERAL RITES OF A BURMESE MONK 3. THOSE OF A SIAMESE PRINCE 4. THE SECRET OF BUDDHISM'S INFLUENCE

V. BUDDHISM AS A LIVING WORLD RELIGION

1. IT ATTRACTS THOSE WHOSE FAITH IN CHRISTIANITY HAS CEASED 2. IT DEALS WITH HUMAN SUFFERING 3. IT OFFERS A WAY OF ESCAPE FROM PESSIMISM 4. ITS GREAT FOUNDER CALLED HIMSELF A "PHYSICIAN OF SICK SOULS" 5. IT CULTIVATES A SENSE OF THE WORTHLESSNESS OF TEMPORAL THINGS 6. ITS CONCEPTION OF BLISS IS REALISABLE IN THIS LIFE 7. IT IS A RELIGION OF ANALYSIS 8. IT HAS FINE ETHICAL TEACHINGS, _e.g._ (a) The Four Noble Truths (b) The Eight-fold Path 9. IT NOW PRACTISES PRAYER 10. YET IT TEACHES STOICAL SELF-MASTERY RATHER THAN DEPENDENCE ON GOD 11. IT HAS TWO STANDARDS OF MORALITY: ONE FOR MONKS, ANOTHER FOR LAY FOLK 12. IT GIVES WOMEN A LOWER PLACE THAN MEN 13. SUMMARY

VI. THE MISSIONARY APPROACH TO MODERN BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA

1. MODERN BUDDHISM DIFFERS FROM THE THEORETICAL BUDDHISM OF GOTAMA 2. THE CENTRAL EMPHASIS OF BUDDHISM VARIES IN THE THREE SOUTHERN COUNTRIES 3. SOME QUALITIES DESIRABLE IN MISSIONARIES TO BUDDHISTS (a) A Genuine Sympathy (b) A Sense of Beauty and of Humour (c) Strong Christian Convictions (d) A Desire to appreciate Fresh Truth 4. A GREAT OPPORTUNITY

II. BUDDHISM IN EASTERN ASIA

I. BUDDHISM IN JAPAN

KŌYA SAN HIEISAN AND ITS SECTS A SHINSHU TEMPLE A REVIVAL OF BUDDHISM CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE

II. BUDDHISM IN CHINA

A CHINESE TEMPLE

APPENDIX I. APPENDIX II.

BUDDHISM IN THE MODERN WORLD

I. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA

I. BUDDHISM IN BURMA

1. At the great Pagoda in Rangoon.

Let us visit the great _Shwe Dagon_ pagoda in Rangoon, one of the living centres of the Buddhist world, where amidst a splendid grove of palms and forest trees the golden spire rises high above a vast platform crowded with shrines and images of the Buddha. Far below is the teeming city bathed in golden light, and humming with life; here all is still save for the rustle of leaves and the tinkling of innumerable bells upon the great pagoda pinnacle, and the shouting of a class of boys in the monastery school near by.

(a) _A Monastic School_.--Some two score of them are seated round a kindly old monk in his faded yellow robe. And all are shouting at the top of their voices repeating in unison certain words, of whose meaning they do not seem to think!

(b) _Its Moral Teaching_.--As we draw near we realise that these are phrases from a popular Buddhist book known as _Mingala Thot_, a summary of the Buddhist beatitudes, which describe the happy life of the Buddhist layman. First they shout a word of Pāli[1] and then a word of Burmese, and lastly the whole phrase. There are twelve verses, of which the following is typical:--

"Tend parents, cherish wife and child, Pursue a blameless life and mild: Do good, shun ill and still beware Of the red wine's insidious snare; Be humble, with thy lot content, Grateful and ever reverent."

Many times must these phrases be droned through before they are learned by heart, but gradually their meanings sink in and simple explanations and grammatical notes by the teacher help his class to understand as well as to learn. These moral maxims still exert a powerful influence for good.

(c) _Its Religious Instruction_.--Another favourite lesson is a short summary of the excellent qualities of the "Three Jewels" of Buddhism--the Buddha, his Order of Monks, and his Law or teaching; and another celebrates eight victories of the Buddha over enemies temporal and spiritual. Having mastered these preliminary books, the boys will learn the chief _Jātakas_, a strange medley of folklore dressed up in Buddhist guise, and purporting to be stories of the various sacrificial existences of the founder of Buddhism, Sākyamuni, before he became a Buddha. Buddhism is not only a body of moral teachings, but a religion with an elaborate system of beliefs, which makes very great demands upon the faith of its worshippers, and some of these beliefs are embodied in these stories of the former lives of the Buddha. Others are conveyed in legends and hymns, in popular summaries and proverbial sayings universally known and used by the people.

(d) _The Importance of the Monks_.--This class of boys around the old monk represents an educational system which covers all Burma and has unbounded influence. It is an amazing fact that there are almost two monasteries to every village. While this constitutes an enormous drain upon the resources of the country, since all the monks retire from its active industrial life, and live upon the alms of the laity, it has, on the other hand, made Burma one of the most literate of all the lands of the East, with a larger percentage of men who can read and write than modern Italy. So great is the power of the monks that all boys, before they can be regarded as human beings, must undergo a form of ordination. It is not strange that some of them are caught by the lure of the monastic life and the glamour of the yellow robe: yet most of them, after a short experience, go back to the world.

The young _shin_ or novice, who chooses to stay in a monastery, may in due course be admitted to ordination. At that time, dressed in princely robes, he celebrates the sacrifice of the founder of Buddhism, Sākyamuni, in leaving his royal state to become a mendicant. His head is shaved, his gorgeous clothes are taken away, and henceforward he is clad only in the yellow robe of the Buddhist monks, an order older, more widespread, and more picturesque than any other religious order in the world. He has "taken refuge in the Three Jewels," and now takes up the regular life of the monk. He goes out daily with a group of others to collect food for the monastery; he attends to the various needs of the older monks and carries on the simple household tasks assigned to him. A large portion of his time must be given to studies, until he has a good working knowledge of the three "Baskets,"[2] _i.e._ the Discipline, the Narratives or Dialogues, and the Higher Religion, which make up the Buddhist canon. In course of time he may himself become a teacher.

Let us turn again to the shrine. The great sun is going down and the pagoda, splendid in the sunset as it changes from gold to purple and from purple to gray, and then to silver as the glorious moon rises, is thronged with devout worshippers. The monk prostrates himself before the jewelled alabaster image of Buddha. He seems unaware of the people around him, who honour him as a being of a superior order; or, if conscious of them, it is with a sense of his own aloofness. "Sabbā Dukkhā" (all is sorrow) he is murmuring: "Sabbā Anattā" (all is without abiding entity). Mechanically the lay-folk repeat with him the words which have been for twenty-five centuries the Buddhist challenge to the world, calling it away from the lure of the senses and the ties of family and home.

Do the people really believe it? Let us look at this group of women before one of the many shrines on the spacious pagoda platform. Are they intent on giving up the world or on making the most of it? Are they persuaded that it is all sad and transient? Here kneels a young wife offering strands of her hair, and praying that her child may have hair as long and beautiful. Near by is an unhappy wife who prays that her husband may become as pure as the flower which she lays at the feet of the Buddha. Not far away is one very old and trembling woman who, after bowing to the impassive image and lighting her little candle before it, has turned back to pat a great old tree lest the _nat_, or spirit, which lives within, be offended. "The spirits are always malignant and have to be propitiated. The world-renowned one, is he not benign?" She must not risk offending this tree-spirit, in her desire to please the Buddha. "The Burman tries to keep both in mind and to serve them faithfully, for both may help to make this life pleasant; but he is most anxious concerning the demons. Whilst in every village in the country there is at least one pagoda and monastery, there is sure to be a spirit-shrine in every home, where the spirits are consulted and appeased before homes are built, marriages arranged, purchases made, or journeys undertaken." It is these things, after all, that make up life for most of us.

2. The Religious Values of Everyday Buddhism.

(a) _What Buddhism means for Burmese Women_.--It will be interesting to consider what Buddhism has to offer to such groups of women. Four sorts of appeal may be mentioned. In the first place Buddhism is a great social force, providing many festivals and giving much colour to everyday life. In theory it may be sad; in practice it is very cheerful. Even in Christian lands some women go to church to see the latest fashions; can we wonder that Burmese Buddhist women delight to gather on the platform of the beautiful pagoda for friendly intercourse and gossip? Again, they think of the order of monks as giving them the best chance to gain "merit." They recall that the Master taught that generous offerings to them are potent in bringing all kinds of benefits in this world, and even in helping the dead in the dim life of the underworld. The monks confer a favour by accepting alms; it is the donor who says "Thank you."

Another great source of enjoyment and instruction is the well-known Buddhist stories, told over and over again, often miraculous, always with a moral. They also reflect on the lives, which they know by heart, of certain great _Bodhisattvas_, or Buddhas in the making, "buds of the lotus," which later on burst into full bloom. One of the pictures in which they delight is that of Gotama[3] when he was a hare and jumped into the fire to feed a hungry Brahmin. Another picture more familiar and more poignant still, depicts his appearance as Prince Vessantara, giving away his wife and beloved children to a hunchback beggar. These stories exert an immense influence.

And finally, Buddhism influences Burmese women by appealing to their imagination and their love of mystery, with its solemn chanting, its myriad shrines, with their innumerable candles twinkling in the dusk, and the sexless sanctity of its monks. How wise and good they seem to be! Are they not custodians of the truth? Here one little woman is lifting a heavy stone weighing forty pounds; a monk has told her that if it seems heavy her prayer will surely be answered. To make assurance doubly sure, she may go and consult the soothsayer, whose little booth is near the shrine--a cheerful rogue, not without insight and a sense of humour--but she gives to the monk the supreme place, and pays him more generously!

A Burman acquaintance of mine, who was converted to Christianity, was asked by an old lady why he had deserted the "custom" of his people. "I am sick," he began, "of all this bowing down to the monks, and of all these offerings." "Stop, stop!" she cried, aghast. "You are destroying the whole religion of our nation!"

(b) _What it means for Burmese Men_.--Laymen in Burma are much like men elsewhere. Here is one who between prostrations before the image of Buddha keeps his long cheroot alive, and enjoys an occasional puff. He is like many men one meets, "making the best of both worlds." Yet to him too Buddhism makes a strong appeal, primarily because it is his heritage or, as he says, "the custom of Burma." The national feeling, which is alive in Burma as well as in all other parts of the East, resents Western influences, of which Christianity seems a part. Moreover, Buddhism strongly appeals to his habit of mind. He thinks he understands why there is inequality in human lot, why some are rich and some poor, some healthy and some diseased. He explains it as the working out of the law of _Kamma_.[4] Men suffer now because they have sinned in a former birth. Listen to this conversation: Old U Hpay is telling a neighbour about a foolish old sister of his who has adopted a calf, and is petting it because its voice is so like that of her dead husband! While the old men chuckle at this quaint expression of her faith, yet they do believe that this is the law of life. Should you kill a mosquito it may be your mother-in-law in a new body, and still going strong! But Buddhism puts forth its greatest appeal at those times when there comes over its votaries a wistful yearning for something which this world has not given them. At these quiet moments, especially in the evening of life, when they are no longer concerned with making money or with the raising of a family, the appeal of _Nibbāna_[5] and its peace comes home to many. They do not feel sure of reaching it, nor do they fully understand what it means. Some of their monkish teachers tell them it will be annihilation, while others describe it as the extinction of all passion or a great calm. In either way _Nibbāna_[5] has its lure, especially to the world-weary. I have even known a Christian missionary who was tempted to long for the quiet and relief from the staleness and hurry of life which annihilation would bring. But he was weary and needed a holiday! Missionaries often do.

(c) _Buddhism and Children_.--Playing around, while the old people talk or pray, are always some children. Here a fat, naked baby takes a puff at his grandfather's cigar; there a little girl, devoutly imitating what she sees her parents doing before the great image of Buddha, also lights her candle and offers her marigolds. The older children quickly begin to take their share in the religious life about them. In some of them is dawning a hero-worship of the great Buddha who has done so much for the world. This little girl thinks wistfully of her brother, so recently her playmate, but now a Buddhist novice, with shaven head and yellow robe, as remote from her and aloof as if he belonged to another world. Not much is taught to her and her girl-playmates: "they are only girls!" But she is learning by what she sees, and she too is becoming a staunch Buddhist. There are some stalwart champions of Buddhism amongst the children, and the girls grow up, less instructed but not less devout than the boys.

(d) _The Attitude of Burmese Students_.--Every mother desires that one of her sons shall take and keep the yellow robe, yet the younger among the educated Burmese are frank in calling the order of monks a "yellow peril," not because they are bad men, for public opinion in Burma rarely tolerates immorality in these religious leaders, but because there are so many of them, over seventy-five thousand in the whole country. To feed such a horde of mendicants is a costly business, and the rebuilding and gilding of a pagoda may mean that the inheritance of every one belonging to its village will be decimated. "The pagoda is built and the village ruined," they ruefully repeat. Thus there is growing up among those who are in the government schools in contact with the liberal thinking of the West a disposition to question the values of the present religious system. Possibly not more than ten per cent. of the students who have Western training can be called orthodox Buddhists. Thus the old people to whom Buddhism means so much are anxious, and the young are restive. Burma, like many other countries, is going through a period of transition, the outcome of which is uncertain. Yet undoubtedly it is still a strongly Buddhist country, and the masses of its people are not much affected by this spirit of scepticism. As, however, Western education is the key to preferment the official classes are apt to sit loose to much that their fathers held sacred. And some few are busy re-thinking their faith and seeking to adapt it to modern needs.

(e) _The Better Side of Burmese Buddhism_.--Buddhism is often described as a pessimistic religion. As one sees it in Burma, however, it seems to make the people happy and contented. Possibly this is due to their naturally cheerful temperament. Whatever the reason, there is a remarkable joyousness about the gay-robed crowds of happy, smiling people.

Again, while Buddhism does not give to womanhood nearly so high a place as does the religion of Jesus, yet it has granted her a far better standing than she has in any part of India under Hinduism or Islam. Woman is the "better half" in Burma and knows it, even though she may pray to be born next as a man.

Caste, moreover, the great bane of India, is almost unknown to Buddhist Burma: it is a cheerful democratic land. Buddhism believes in the education of the masses, and its schools and monasteries are open to all. It is also very tolerant and kindly. It has not led on any large scale either to religious persecution or to war. These are no small services. Moreover, Buddhism has in the past been a great bond of union between the peoples of Asia, and it is to-day again playing some part in the movement, "Asia for the Asiatics"--a movement deserving our sympathetic attention. In the great awakening of Nationalism the Buddhist Revival has its share both as cause and as effect.

3. Prospects of Christianity in Burma.

There are only some twenty thousand Burmese Christians as yet, although, within the confines of Burma there is a far larger number of Christians, and the Karens are already a great church. What, then, are the reasons for confidence that Burma will at some time be a Christian country, albeit with a Christianity whose type will differ very greatly from the prevailing types of the West?

(a) _The Burmese are truly Religious in Temperament_.--The natural instinct of the Burmese for religion is strong. They are not content with mere ritual and with offerings, lavish as these are. Gratitude to Gotama, the great Teacher and lord of life, is a real motive to many. Not uncommonly are Christian hymns adapted by modern educated Buddhists and sung in honour of the Buddha: