Chapter 43

THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA

[Footnote 1: See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred Books of the East, and his Buddhismus.]

[Footnote 2: Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism; Non-Christian Religious Systems--Buddhism.]

[Footnote 3: The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested from material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the Histories of India. See the excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder Dutt, in Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and Outlines of The Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha ("for circulation among the members of the Parliament of Religions," and distributed in Chicago), Tokiō, 1893.]

[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus patêr_. See Century Dictionary, Jupiter.]

[Footnote 5: Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once suggests the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 6: Dutt's History of India.]

[Footnote 7: The differences between the simple primitive narrative of Gautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly embroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, first, Atkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's book is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.]

[Footnote 8: Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.]

[Footnote 9: Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.]

[Footnote 10: Job i. 6, Hebrew.]

[Footnote 11: Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.]

[Footnote 12: "Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as their original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the reality of existence."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.]

[Footnote 13: See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne, London, 1893.]

[Footnote 14: Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God, p. 305. "Buddhism, though for a long time it supplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of universal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in its turn, it was outgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to leave India indeed forever, but it contributed quite as much to Indian religion as it had ever borrowed."]

[Footnote 15: Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's Nippon, Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'Église de Corée, Vol. 1., Introd., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.]

[Footnote 16: See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the Buddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is epitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. II.; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of whose death at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in Luzac's Oriental List) more than to any one writer, are we indebted for our knowledge of Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.]

[Footnote 17: See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and explanations in The Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 18: This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys Davids in his compact Manual of Buddhism.]

[Footnote 19: See Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 20: Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this Bodhisattva is at Zenkô-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p. 8, and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was the legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following extract from Brian Hodgson: "The Swayambhu Purana relates in substance as follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of circular form, and full of very deep water, and that the mountains confining it were clothed with the densest forests, giving shelter to numberless birds and beasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the waters....

"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated himself in the N.W. (Váyubona) side of it, and, having repeated several mantras over the root of a lotos, he threw it into the water, exclaiming, 'What time this root shall produce a flower, then, from out of the flower, Swayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form of flame; and then shall the lake become a cultivated and populous country.' Having repeated these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the date of this prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter....

"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the myth--probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath....

"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata (which is situated in Maha China Des). After the coming of Viswabhu Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the world, discovered by means of his divine science that Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame, was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa. Again, he reflected within himself: 'Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name will long be celebrated in the world;' and on the instant, collecting together his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and with his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon the long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having arrived, and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer. In the second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to the south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to draw off the waters of the lake. Immediately he struck the mountain with his scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the bottom of the lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and began to walk about the valley in all directions."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., pp. 147-148.]

[Footnote 21: Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her manifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.]

[Footnote 22: Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the cosmos. "The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric." See Bernouf and Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214. Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in French, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., by Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the Introduction, p. xxxix., the translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated