Part 3

In due time the body is restored to its resting place on the funeral pyre, the fire is lighted, and the whole mass flares up in flame and smoke, consuming not only the body, but along with it the decorations, including paintings of numerous demons, among whom may be an Englishman with a gun! Only demons could kill for sport! When it is consumed, the crowd disperses with shouts of merriment, well content, not least among the others the relatives of the departed. A good show has been staged, the dead has been honoured, the family name has been distinguished, and everybody is satisfied. If for the next year or more the family exchequer has been sorely depleted, still "it is the custom," and every one expects to follow it. Some one has well said that Buddhism in Burma is a cheery and social affair, "from festive marriages to no less festive funerals." I confess to an admiration for this cheerful view of death, even if some of its expressions are bizarre! It is less pagan than our "blacks, and funeral obsequies."

3. A Similar Scene in Siam.

_The Funeral of a Siamese Prince_.--A nephew of the King has died, and his funeral sermon is being preached by another royal Prince, who is also a monk, and who is true to type and to the orthodox Buddhism of his race. "As kinsmen welcome kinsmen returning after long sojourn in far countries, so do good deeds welcome the good as they enter the other world. And what are good deeds, but the unselfish effort to advance the good of others? All must be left behind as we enter the Gate of Death; but as a shadow follows the body so do purity and simplicity of heart and deed steal after us, and minister to us in that world beyond. As a flame is our mortal life, and if there be no fuel it burns no more. We know not when it may die down, for all that has a beginning has also an end, and transient are all things. And as we may take with us only virtue, shall we not cherish and ensue it?"

We are reminded of the picture by G. F. Watts, "_Sic Transit Gloria Mundi_," in which another prince is seen upon the bier, his crown, his books, his winecup laid aside; and over his bier are the words, "What I spent I had, what I had I lost, what I gave I have." It is sound Buddhism, and every word of this sermon of the royal monk is drawn from the _Dhammapada_, accepted in all Buddhist lands as the very words of the Buddha, himself the prototype of a long line of kings and princes in many lands, who have been proud to wear the Yellow Robe.

4. The Secret of Buddhism's Influence.

Which of these funeral scenes (chosen because Buddhism plays almost its chief part at such times) is most true to type? It is a perplexing question. Buddhism has from the very beginning been chiefly a religion for monks, calling men and women to leave the world. It was never exactly optimistic, and yet another permanent root of its remarkable power over humankind has been that often men and women who obeyed possessed a sense of discovery, of hopefulness, of sheer joy; especially strong in its golden age, the first five centuries of its existence. There was something vernal in the air. "In joy we live, hating none; let us live in the midst of those who hate, unhating; in the midst of those who ail, let us live in perfect health; having nothing, yet we possess great riches." Such is the spirit of the early _sangha_ (monastic community). And when we turn to the Buddhism of to-day we find that it retains these two dominant characteristics: this blending of sadness and quiet joy. Even in sunny Burma the old people and the monks seem sad at times, and even in Ceylon and Siam the ordinary folk are fairly cheerful as they go on pilgrimages or make their offerings to monk or image.

V. BUDDHISM AS A LIVING RELIGION

Buddhism stands in a different relation to Christianity from any other world religion, because it has unquestionably done for Eastern peoples something of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual service which Christianity has done for Europe and America. Moreover, it is showing a strange power of revival. It also seems to make a real appeal to certain types of mind in the West. Little groups of Westerners in Burma and in Ceylon, the former Scotch, the latter German, have for some years been promoting the propagation of Buddhism in Western lands. They feel convinced that it is "the religion of mature minds." One of their number, a Scot, known as _Bhikkhu Silācāra_,[7] wrote in 1913: "This seems to be the place of honour which Burma is called upon to fill in the family of the nations of the world--that of being _Dhammadāyaka_ to the world, giver of the _dhamma_[8] of the Blessed One to all the nations of the earth. What prouder, what more glorious, what more merit-bringing position could any people ask for than to be chosen as the bearer of the sublime teaching of the Blessed One?" There is a considerable amount of publication of Buddhist propaganda to-day in Europe and America, even if few Eastern Buddhists are found with the courage to preach Buddhism in person in Western cities. In Germany, where there are said to be scores of thousands of Buddhists, a publishing house has been set up at Breslau; and the _Buddhist Review_ is published in London. In North America Buddhism has numerous missions, especially on the Pacific Coast, where it aims at converting Americans as well as at ministering to the Japanese. It is the only non-Christian religion which has this appeal. What gives it this hold, not only upon great sections of the East, but also upon those who have been born within the range of Christianity, is a question which needs a thoughtful answer. It is a question of vital importance to us all.

1. It takes hold where Faith in Christianity has ceased.

Buddhism makes a strong appeal to minds dissatisfied with Christianity, or unwilling to accept the claims of Christ. It is not difficult to draw analogies between the acts and sayings of Jesus and those of Gotama. It is easy to be enthusiastic over the ethical teachings of Buddhism, and over its great influence upon Asia. It has a certain appeal too to the scientific mind, which is not found in any other non-Christian religion; and some claim that it is more satisfying to the intellect than Christianity. The appeal of Buddhism, therefore, is more than a mild satisfaction of curiosity in something novel; it gives to a mind which denies the fundamentals of Christianity an apparently good religious substitute. This being true, no one can question the fact that those who are to go as Christian missionaries to Buddhist countries must take the utmost pains to prepare themselves to meet those who believe in Buddhism, not merely with friendliness and a sense of sympathy, but with an adequate background of philosophical, psychological, and religious training which enables them adequately to represent the best that is in Christianity, and to deal sympathetically and fairly with Buddhism at its best. Missionaries are all too few who can "out-think" these Scotch and German Buddhists, who carry much influence with the peoples among whom they live. Some of them are sincere and able men: and there are also strong native defenders of the Buddhist Faith. Moreover, without a deep appreciation of the power of Buddhism one cannot understand the history and culture of Asia. And this study becomes daily more important and more interesting.

2. It faces the Fact of Suffering.

Where shall one begin in his endeavour to grasp the essential teachings of Buddhism? No one can fully understand Buddhism without studying Hinduism as a background and starting point. The student can go far, however, by starting from the fact of universal human suffering, and its relief. "One thing only do I teach," said Buddha, "sorrow and the uprooting of sorrow." He was never weary of bringing home to his disciples the horror of the world's pain, in order that he might lead them on to what he believed to be the only way of salvation. "What think ye, O monks, which is vaster, the flood of tears that, weeping and lamenting, ye in your past lives have shed, or the waters of the four great oceans? Long time, O monks, have ye suffered the death of father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Long time have ye undergone the loss of your goods; long time have ye been afflicted with sickness, old age, and death." "Where is the joy, where is the laughter, when all is in flames about us?" Buddhism is often labelled pessimistic, because its writings are full of attempts, such as these, to make men realise the suffering and the worthlessness of the life to which they cling. The critics, however, do not realise the hopes which it holds out to a suffering world, which are just as characteristic of Buddhistic teaching. The Buddhist replies, "If medical science is pessimistic then Buddhism is also pessimistic." It diagnoses the disease in order to cure it.

Like other religions it is a "Way out." It first states the problem: then offers a solution.

3. It affords a Way of Escape from Sorrow.

In India Gotama had an easier task than he would have faced in the full-blooded and less thoughtful West. We Westerners do not need to be convinced of the pain of life, we are now wide awake to it; but to the Hindu of the sixth century before Christ a conviction of the emptiness of life was something in the nature of an obsession. The bright, naïve optimism of earlier ages, revealed, for example, in the _Rig-Veda_,[9] had passed away; a combination of circumstances, climate, speculative activities, disappointments and other causes, had combined to make India pessimistic. Chief of these causes was undoubtedly the belief in transmigration which has come more and more to occupy a central position in Hinduism. It represents man as doomed to wander from birth to birth, and to expiate every deed of his past. It is impossible for us in the West to realise how firm a hold this thought has upon India, or how great is the longing for a way of escape. Gotama's resolute attempt to find such a way of escape, his assurance that he had discovered it, and his enthusiastic preaching of "the Way" brought Buddhism into the world as a new religion, and became a veritable "gospel" to weary and jaded hearts.

4. It is a Practical Creed: Its Founder called Himself "A Physician of Sick Souls."

Born the son of a chieftain in Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 560 B.C., Gotama, the great founder of Buddhism, was sheltered from the sights and sounds of suffering, as we are told in the loving stories of Buddhist lore, until the gods, who had a higher destiny in store for him than that of an Indian princeling, revealed to him the facts of old age and decay and death. In a series of visions--of the old man tottering down to the grave, of the leper riddled with foul disease, of the corpse laid out for the burning, the great fact of human suffering came home to him. It made so deep an impression that he renounced his royal rights and went out as a mendicant ascetic to discover some way of escape. He was then twenty-nine years old. Not until he had reached the age of thirty-eight, and had honestly tried the various accepted paths for the attainment of holiness and the escape from the burdens of life laid down by Hindu sages, did he find what he was seeking. Sitting under the Indian fig-tree in the heat of the day, he meditated patiently and long until the vision dawned upon him, or, as we should say, until his sub-consciousness, which had long been working upon the problem presented to it, sent a complete and satisfying solution into the focus of his conscious mind. His solution, recognising the fact that Hindu practices had vainly attempted to drug the aching nerve of pain or to tear it out, offered a more positive remedy. The present writer believes that the Spirit of God had much to do with this discovery. There are, however, among missionaries, many who feel that this is a grievous heresy, and are bitterly opposed to any such view.

In order to understand the solution which Gotama offered to the world, which undoubtedly captured the enthusiasm of unnumbered millions of weary pilgrims in India and other lands, it may be well to consider Gotama's own description of himself as "a physician of sick souls." Just as the physician must first diagnose the disease and recognise the germ which is its secret cause, before he can give the right treatment, so Gotama set himself to discover the hidden cause of the world's suffering. He thought that he had found it in that universal clinging to life which he called _tanhā_, which means a "craving" for anything less austere than _Nibbāna_. "From _tanhā_ springs sorrow; he that is free from _tanhā_ is freed from sorrow and suffering."

This is the source of all the world's agony, says Gotama: and if we face the facts we shall see that egoism of men and nations, a form of _tanhā_, accounts for most of it! The modern world is full of _tanhā_.

5. It cultivates a Sense of the Worthlessness of Temporal Things.

It is because man clings to things which cannot fully satisfy him, such as the love of family, the desire for wealth and fame, the wish to be reborn in a heaven (all of which are classed together in Buddhism), that he has to go on being reborn. This is the Buddhist doctrine of _Kamma_. Hinduism, like much orthodox Christianity, thinks of a "soul" which dwells in the body. The Hindu thinks of it as passing from one body to another in the process of transmigration. The view of Buddhism is rather that the "ego" of man is a stream of mental energy, the direction of which is under his own control. If he dies full of _tanhā_, cleaving to the things of this world, he will surely be reborn to some sort of misery. If, on the other hand, he dies detached from human interests and open-eyed to the worthlessness of temporal things, he will eventually be set free from the entanglement of life, as we know it on earth, and will pass into _Nibbāna_. Of this goal one can only say with assurance that it is unlike anything known to mortal man,[10] and that its essence is moral purity.

6. Its Conception of Bliss is realisable in this Life.

But Gotama was not concerned with the next life so much as with this. He laid emphasis also upon the wonderful joy and peace which the fixed purpose to achieve _Nibbāna_ had caused him to experience. This was the real relief from suffering, which he had in mind. "Whoso is pure from all _tanhā_, he is in _Nibbāna_." This he preached with great conviction and enthusiasm, declaring that men might aim in this life to attain the position of an _arhat_ (saint) and actually enter into the preliminary experience of _Nibbāna_. It is this aspect of Buddhism which makes it a true religion. Its joy and power can be experienced in the midst of the world's pain. So it is called an "Island," a "Refuge," where the drowning man may escape, or a "Cool Retreat," whither one may fly from a world in flames.

7. Buddhism is a Religion of Enlightenment and Reason.

Buddhism exhibits salvation as, first of all, a way of understanding. It is a religion of analysis, which bids man see life steadily and see it whole, by first taking it to pieces! When one looks at the body, what is it, says Buddhism, after all, that we should regard ourselves as attached to it? There are so many bones, so many tendons, so much skin, so many juices. If a man views the body with an anatomical eye, he will see it as it really is; disgust will arise in him which will lead him out into detachment. A Buddhist is sometimes urged to practise the habit of sitting in cemeteries or among reminders of the dead, or to have a skeleton near at hand, in order that he may meditate upon the transient nature of all that is mortal. Similarly he is to dispel anger or lust by asking, "Who is it I am angry with, after whom do I lust, but a bag of bones?" It seeks to dispel passion by reason.

8. It has a strong Moral Code: The "Four Noble Truths," and the "Eight-fold Path."

As the old Teacher was passing away he emphasised anew the part which intelligent belief plays in the Buddhist scheme of religion. "It is through not understanding and not grasping four things, O monks, that we have to abide and wander through this maze of being," he remarked. The four things which he had in mind were suffering, its real cause (_tanhā_), the cure of suffering, and the path which leads to _Nibbāna_. These are the "Four Noble Truths" of Buddhism, driven home to every disciple as the very foundation of his religious life.

With reference to the "way" which leads to _Nibbāna_ Buddhism has made its most remarkable contribution to human thought. It is called the "Middle Way," between the extremes of an austere asceticism and a spirit of worldliness, a clear-cut and admirably arranged ethical scheme, which has undoubtedly done much to elevate the nations among whom it has been practised. The "eight practices," urged upon every one who aspires to spiritual growth, are right thinking (about the "four noble truths," etc.), right aspirations (benevolence, pity, brotherhood, etc.), right speech, right action, right livelihood (by industries which are not harmful), right effort of mind, right attention (alertness), and right contemplation, or mystic meditation. Such a scheme may readily be ritualised and deadened, but it lends itself no less readily to the cultivation of simple virtues. A popular summary, universally known, teaches "Do good, shun ill, and cleanse the inmost thoughts, this is the teaching of Buddhas."

The "eight-fold path" is usually developed under three main endeavours--enlightenment, morality, and concentrated meditation. Stage by stage the disciple is led along this path. "Step by step, day by day, one may purify one's heart from defilements by understanding, even as the smith purifies silver in the fire." The true disciple must avoid the extremes of asceticism, on the one hand, or of entanglement with the world on the other. So the noble path claims to be a "middle path" of sweet reasonableness. The lines are not always clearly drawn between ritual offences or mistakes and moral failures, and the ideal life often seems to be represented as primarily monastic, but there is no doubt that one who deliberately sets himself to follow the "eight-fold path" would be a lovable and strong type of character, something like the fine old monk from Tibet in Kipling's "Kim." And there have been many such, men not only of his gentle strength, but men filled with missionary zeal and devotion to noble tasks.

9. It has come to practise Prayer.

In spite of the protests of Gotama against attempts to persuade the gods, this is what most Buddhists in Southern Asia have come to do: and in Tibet, China, and Japan prayer is multiplied by mechanical devices, such as prayer-wheels, prayer-cylinders, and prayer-flags--a degeneration of mysticism into magic, not unknown in some Christian lands. The human heart is hungry and wants to pray! And even this religion of enlightenment and of the fixed causality of the universe has had to find a place for prayer. And Divine Beings have been called in to answer the aspiration of the heart. Gotama himself is deified: and folk pray to him in Burma, Siam, and Ceylon: whilst in the other Buddhist lands they have learnt to love such compassionate beings as Kwanyin, and Amitābha, Buddha of eternal Light who saves men by his grace. That there is mercy in heaven is the hope of every man. It is but a pathetic dream, until we know that the heavens have spoken and declared that mercy in the Word made Flesh.

"So through the thunder comes a human voice."

10. Yet it emphasises Stoical Self-mastery.

On the other hand, the whole trend of early Buddhism is stoical. It sets up a lofty moral ideal, yet offers relatively little assistance in attaining it. Admiration for the Buddha, faith in the system he preached, common-sense or enlightened self-interest in accepting the great truth that happiness follows upon goodness--these furnish the motive power of a Buddhist religious life. In theory, at least, there is no god higher than the little local deities who are said to have bowed down before the Buddha. Inasmuch, moreover, as they are also subject to _kamma_, the gods are less admirable and less helpful than he. To some thinkers this stoical self-mastery is the strongest element of Buddhism. "I am the captain of my soul," a good Buddhist would say: "I am the master of my fate." But to those who think more deeply, this will appear an element of weakness, for everywhere and in all ages the human heart finds no ultimate satisfaction without a belief in some loftier, purer, and stronger Being, who is ready to hear and to help. And in the more developed Buddhism of the North such theology plays a very great part. The history of Buddhism is one of the best chapters in Christian apologetics and deserves close study. As we shall see, the Japanese Buddhist believes in a Trinitarian theology, and in an evangelical doctrine of salvation: and, in one great sect, has urged its priests to marry.

11. It has Two Standards of Morality.

A very serious defect of Southern Buddhism is its double standard of morality, one for the layman and another for the monk. It places the celibate _bhikkhu_ (mendicant) on a higher footing than the layman. During the Buddha's own lifetime he was accused of making many homes desolate, and this has been a constant criticism in China where it is a crime not to beget sons; and where Buddhism has been obstinately monastic. There have been great exceptions, especially where kings have been good Buddhists, but it is on the whole a monastic religion, and has continually reverted to type.

12. It rates Womanhood Low.

Another alleged weakness, which will specially interest those who are entering upon the careful study of non-Christian religions at the present time, is the relatively low place which the Buddhist system, at least in theory, gives to women. While in practice, as has been pointed out, the women of Burma are the better half of the population, yet in strict theory they are not "human beings" at all: they are less than human: only he who takes the yellow robe and becomes for a time a monk reaches the status of full humanity. Yet Gotama said equally severe things about men; the two sexes, he taught, are a snare to one another: but women are the worse! A Singhalese Christian pastor praying for power to resist the Devil added, "and all _her_ works," and women are in fact so described in many passages of the Buddhist Books. Love between the sexes and lust are not distinguished. And here, perhaps, is the supreme service that Jesus renders to human society: he makes family life a sacred thing, and safeguards women and children from abuse, bringing them to honour and sanctity. Buddhism being concerned chiefly with the monastic life of meditation has not much to say about the family. It does not, at least in Southern Asia, teach the Fatherhood of God from whom "all families are named."

13. A Summary.