Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation Part 6

[183]

THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM

The nature of the opposition which the ancient religion of j.a.pan could offer to the introduction of any hostile alien creed, should now be obvious. The family being founded upon ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, the commune being regulated by ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, the clan-group or tribe being governed by ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, and the Supreme Ruler being at once the high-priest and deity of an ancestral cult which united all the other cults in one common tradition, it must be evident that the promulgation of any religion essentially opposed to s.h.i.+nto would have signified nothing less than an attack upon the whole system of society. Considering these circ.u.mstances, it may well seem strange that Buddhism should have succeeded, after some preliminary struggles (which included one b.l.o.o.d.y battle), in getting itself accepted as a second national faith. But although the original Buddhist doctrine was essentially in disaccord with s.h.i.+nto beliefs, Buddhism had learned in India, in China, in Korea, and in divers adjacent countries, how to meet the spiritual needs of peoples maintaining a persistent ancestor-wors.h.i.+p. [184] Intolerance of ancestor-wors.h.i.+p would have long, ago resulted in the extinction of Buddhism; for its vast conquests have all been made among ancestor-wors.h.i.+pping races.

Neither in India nor in China nor in Korea,--neither in Siam nor Burmah nor Annam,--did it attempt to extinguish ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, Everywhere it made itself accepted as an ally, nowhere as an enemy, of social custom. In j.a.pan it adopted the same policy which had secured its progress on the continent; and in order to form any clear conception of j.a.panese religious conditions, this fact must be kept in mind.

As the oldest extant j.a.panese texts--with the probable exception of some s.h.i.+nto rituals--date from the eighth century, it is only possible to surmise the social conditions of that earlier epoch in which there was no form of religion but ancestor-wors.h.i.+p. Only by imagining the absence of all Chinese and Korean influences, can we form some vague idea of the state of things which existed during the so-called Age of the G.o.ds,--and it is difficult to decide at what period these influences began to operate. Confucianism appears to have preceded Buddhism by a considerable interval; and its progress, as an organizing power, was much more rapid. Buddhism was first introduced from Korea, about 552 A.D.; but the mission accomplished little. By the end of the eighth century [185] the whole fabric of j.a.panese administration had been reorganized upon the Chinese plan, under Confucian influence; but it was not until well into the ninth century that Buddhism really began to spread throughout the country.

Eventually it over-shadowed the national life, and coloured all the national thought. Yet the extraordinary conservatism of the ancient ancestor-cult--its inherent power of resisting fusion--was exemplified by the readiness with which the two religions fell apart on the disestablishment of Buddhism in 1871. After having been literally overlaid by Buddhism for nearly a thousand years, s.h.i.+nto immediately rea.s.sumed its archaic simplicity, and reestablished the unaltered forms of its earliest rites.

But the attempt of Buddhism to absorb s.h.i.+nto seemed at one period to have almost succeeded. The method of the absorption is said to have been devised, about the year 800, by the famous founder of the s.h.i.+ngon sect, Kukai or "Kobodais.h.i.+" (as he is popularly called), who first declared the higher s.h.i.+nto G.o.ds to be incarnations of various Buddhas. But in this matter, of course, Kobodais.h.i.+ was merely following precedents of Buddhist policy. Under the name of Ryobu-s.h.i.+nto,* the new compound of s.h.i.+nto and Buddhism obtained imperial approval and support. [*The term "Ryobu" signifies "two-departments" or "two religions."] Thereafter, in hundreds of [186] places, the two religions were domiciled within the same precinct--sometimes even within the same building: they seemed to have been veritably amalgamated. And nevertheless there was no real fusion;--after ten centuries of such contact they separated again, as lightly as if they had never touched. It was only in the domestic form of the ancestor-cult that Buddhism really affected permanent modifications; yet even these were neither fundamental nor universal.

In certain provinces they were not made; and almost everywhere a considerable part of the population preferred to follow the s.h.i.+nto form of the ancestor-cult. Yet another large cla.s.s of persons, converts to Buddhism, continued to profess the older creed as well; and, while practising their ancestor-wors.h.i.+p according to the Buddhist rite, maintained separately also the domestic wors.h.i.+p of the elder G.o.ds. In most j.a.panese houses to-day, the "G.o.d-shelf" and the Buddhist shrine can both be found; both cults being maintained under the same roof.* ... But I am mentioning these facts only as ill.u.s.trating the conservative vitality of s.h.i.+nto, not as indicating any weakness in the Buddhist propaganda. Unquestionably the influence which Buddhism exerted upon j.a.panese [187] civilization was immense, profound, multiform, incalculable; and the only wonder is that it should not have been able to stifle s.h.i.+nto forever. To state, as various writers have carelessly stated, that Buddhism became the popular religion, while s.h.i.+nto remained the official religion, is altogether misleading. As a matter of fact Buddhism became as much an official religion as s.h.i.+nto itself, and influenced the lives of the highest cla.s.ses not less than the lives of the poor. It made monks of Emperors, and nuns of their daughters; it decided the conduct of rulers, the nature of decrees, and the administration of laws. In every community the Buddhist parish-priest was a public official as well as a spiritual teacher: he kept the parish register, and made report to the authorities upon local matters of importance.

[*The ancestor-wors.h.i.+p and the funeral rites are Buddhist, as a general rule, if the family be Buddhist; but the s.h.i.+nto G.o.ds are also wors.h.i.+pped in most Buddhist households, except those attached to the s.h.i.+n sect. Many followers of even the s.h.i.+n sect, however, appear to follow the ancient religion likewise; and they have their Ujigami.]

By introducing the love of learning, Confucianism had partly prepared the way for Buddhism. As early even as the first century there were some Chinese scholars in j.a.pan; but it was toward the close of the third century that the study of Chinese literature first really became fas.h.i.+onable among the ruling cla.s.ses. Confucianism, however, did not represent a new religion: it was a system of ethical teachings founded upon an ancestor-wors.h.i.+p much like that of j.a.pan.

What it had to offer was a kind of social philosophy,--an explanation of the [188] eternal reason of things. It reinforced and expanded the doctrine of filial piety; it regulated and elaborated preexisting ceremonial; and it systematized all the ethics of government. In the education of the ruling cla.s.ses it became a great power, and has so remained down to the present day. Its doctrines were humane, in the best meaning of the word; and striking evidence of its humanizing effect on government policy may be found in the laws and the maxims of that wisest of j.a.panese rulers--Iyeyasu.

But the religion of the Buddha brought to j.a.pan another and a wider humanizing influence,--a new gospel of tenderness,--together with a mult.i.tude of new beliefs that were able to accommodate themselves to the old, in spite of fundamental dissimilarity. In the highest meaning of the term, it was a civilizing power. Besides teaching new respect for life, the duty of kindness to animals as well as to all human beings, the consequence of present acts upon the conditions of a future existence, the duty of resignation to pain as the inevitable result of forgotten error, it actually gave to j.a.pan the arts and the industries of China. Architecture, painting, sculpture, engraving, printing, gardening--in short, every art and industry that helped to make life beautiful--developed first in j.a.pan under Buddhist teaching.

There are many forms of Buddhism; and in [189] modern j.a.pan there are twelve princ.i.p.al Buddhist sects; but, for present purposes, it will be enough to speak, in the most general way, of popular Buddhism only, as distinguished from philosophical Buddhism, which I shall touch upon in a subsequent chapter. The higher Buddhism could not, at any time or in any country, have had a large popular following; and it is a mistake to suppose that its particular doctrines--such as the doctrine of Nirvana--were taught to the common people. Only such forms of doctrine were preached as could be made intelligible and attractive to very simple minds. There is a Buddhist proverb: "First observe the person; then preach the Law,"--that is to say, Adapt your instruction to the capacity of the listener. In j.a.pan, as in China, Buddhism had to adapt its instruction to the mental capacity of large cla.s.ses of people yet unaccustomed to abstract ideas. Even to this day the ma.s.ses do not know so much as the meaning of the word "Nirvana" (Nehan): they have been taught only the simpler forms of the religion; and in dwelling upon these, it will be needless to consider differences of sect and dogma.

To appreciate the direct influence of Buddhist teaching upon the minds of the common people, we must remember that in s.h.i.+nto there was no doctrine of metempsychosis. As I have said before, the spirits of the dead, according to ancient j.a.panese thinking, continued to exist in the world: they [190] mingled somehow with the viewless forces of nature, and acted through them. Everything happened by the agency of these spirits--evil or good. Those who had been wicked in life remained wicked after death; those who had been good in life became good G.o.ds after death; but all were to be propitiated. No idea of future reward or punishment existed before the coming of Buddhism: there was no notion of any heaven or h.e.l.l. The happiness of ghosts and G.o.ds alike was supposed to depend upon the wors.h.i.+p and the offerings of the living.

With these ancient beliefs Buddhism attempted to interfere only by expanding and expounding them,--by interpreting them in a totally new light. Modifications were effected, but no suppressions: we might even say that Buddhism accepted the whole body of the old beliefs. It was true, the new teaching declared, that the dead continued to exist invisibly; and it was not wrong to suppose that they became divinities, since all of them were destined, sooner or later, to enter upon the way to Buddhahood--the divine condition. Buddhism acknowledged likewise the greater G.o.ds of s.h.i.+nto, with all their attributes and dignities,--declaring them incarnations of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas: thus the G.o.ddess of the sun was identified with Dai-Nichi-Nyorai (the Tathagata Mahavairokana); the deity Hachiman was identified with Amida (Amitabha). Nor did Buddhism deny the existence of goblins [191] and evil G.o.ds: these were identified with the Pretas and the Merakayikas; and the j.a.panese popular term for goblin, Ma, to-day reminds us of this identification. As for wicked ghosts, they were to be thought of as Pretas only,--Gaki,--self-doomed by the errors of former lives to the Circle of Perpetual Hunger. The ancient sacrifices to the various G.o.ds of disease and pestilence--G.o.ds of fever, small-pox, dysentery, consumption, coughs, and colds--were continued with Buddhist approval; but converts were bidden to consider such maleficent beings as Pretas, and to present them with only such food-offerings as are bestowed upon Pretas--not for propitiation, but for the purpose of relieving ghostly pain. In this case, as in the case of the ancestral spirits, Buddhism prescribed that the prayers to be repeated were to be said for the sake of the haunters, rather than to them.... The reader may be reminded of the fact that Roman Catholicism, by making a similar provision, still practically tolerates a continuance of the ancient European ancestor-wors.h.i.+p. And we cannot consider that wors.h.i.+p extinct in any of those Western countries where the peasants still feast their dead upon the Night of All Souls.

Buddhism, however, did more than tolerate the old rites. It cultivated and elaborated them. Under its teaching a new and beautiful form of the domestic cult came into existence; and all the [192] touching poetry of ancestor-wors.h.i.+p in modern j.a.pan can be traced to the teaching of the Buddhist missionaries. Though ceasing to regard their dead as G.o.ds in the ancient sense, the j.a.panese converts were encouraged to believe in their presence, and to address them in terms of reverence and affection. It is worthy of remark that the doctrine of Pretas gave new force to the ancient fear of neglecting the domestic rites. Ghosts unloved might not become "evil G.o.ds" in the s.h.i.+nto meaning of the term; but the malevolent Gaki was even more to be dreaded than the malevolent Kami,--for Buddhism defined in appalling ways the nature of the Gaki's power to harm. In various Buddhist funeral-rites, the dead are actually addressed as Gaki,--beings to be pitied but also to be feared,--much needing human sympathy and succour, but able to recompense the food-giver by ghostly help.

One particular attraction of Buddhist teaching was its simple and ingenious interpretation of nature. Countless matters which s.h.i.+nto had never attempted to explain, and could not have explained, Buddhism expounded in detail, with much apparent consistency. Its explanations of the mysteries of birth, life, and death were at once consoling to pure minds, and wholesomely discomforting to bad consciences. It taught that the dead were happy or unhappy not directly because of the attention or the [193] neglect shown them by the living, but because of their past conduct while in the body.* It did not attempt to teach the higher doctrine of successive rebirths,--which the people could not possibly have understood,--but the merely symbolic doctrine of transmigration, which everybody could understand. To die was not to melt back into nature, but to be reincarnated; and the character of the new body, as well as the conditions of the new existence, would depend upon the quality of one's deeds and thoughts in the present body. All states and conditions of being were the consequence of past actions. Such a man was now rich and powerful, because in previous lives he had been generous and kindly; such another man was now sickly and poor, because in some previous existence he had been sensual and selfish.

This woman was happy in her husband and her children, because in the time of a former birth she had proved herself a loving daughter and a faithful spouse; this other was wretched and childless, because in some anterior existence she had been a jealous wife and a cruel mother. "To hate your enemy," the Buddhist preacher would proclaim, "is [194] foolish as well as wrong: he is now your enemy only because of some treachery that you practised upon him in a previous life, when he desired to be your friend. Resign yourself to the injury which he now does you accept it as the expiation of your forgotten fault... The girl whom you hoped to marry has been refused you by her parents,--given away to another. But once, in another existence, she was yours by promise; and you broke the pledge then given.... Painful indeed the loss of your child; but this loss is the consequence of having, in some former life, refused affection where affection was due.... Maimed by mishap, you can no longer earn your living as before. Yet this mishap is really due to the fact that in some previous existence you wantonly inflicted bodily injury. Now the evil of your own act has returned upon you: repent of your crime, and pray that its Karma may be exhausted by this present suffering." ... All the sorrows of men were thus explained and consoled. Life was expounded as representing but one stage of a measureless journey, whose way stretched back through all the night of the past, and forward through all the mystery of the future,--out of eternities forgotten into the eternities to be; and the world itself was to be thought of only as a traveller's resting-place, an inn by the roadside.

[*The reader will doubtless wonder how Buddhism could reconcile its doctrine of successive rebirths with the ideas of ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, If one died only to be born again, what could be the use of offering food or addressing any kind of prayer to the reincarnated spirit?

This difficulty was met by the teaching that the dead were not immediately reborn in most cases, but entered into a particular condition called Chu-U. They might remain in this disembodied condition for the time of one hundred years, after which they were reincarnated. The Buddhist services for the dead are consequently limited to the time of one hundred years.]

Instead of preaching to the people about Nirvana, [195] Buddhism discoursed to them of blisses to be won and pains to be avoided: the Paradise of Amida, Lord of Immeasurable Light; the eight hot h.e.l.ls called To-kwatsu, and the eight icy h.e.l.ls called Abuda. On the subject of future punishment the teaching was very horrible: I should advise no one of delicate nerves to read the j.a.panese, or rather the Chinese accounts of h.e.l.l. But h.e.l.l was the penalty for supreme wickedness only: it was not eternal; and the demons themselves would at last be saved.... Heaven was to be the reward of good deeds: the reward might indeed be delayed, through many successive rebirths, by reason of lingering Karma; but, on the other hand, it might be attained by virtue of a single holy act in this present life.

Besides, prior to the period of supreme reward, each succeeding rebirth could be made happier than the preceding one by persistent effort in the holy Way. Even as regarded conditions in this transitory world, the results of virtuous conduct were not to be despised. The beggar of to-day might to-morrow be reborn in the palace of a daimyo; the blind shampooer might become, in his very next life, an imperial minister. Always the recompense would be proportionate to the sum of merit. In this lower world to practise the highest virtue was difficult; and the great rewards were hard to win. But for all good deeds a recompense was sure; and there was no one who could not acquire merit. [196] Even the s.h.i.+nto doctrine of conscience--the G.o.d-given sense of right and wrong--was not denied by Buddhism. But this conscience was interpreted as the essential wisdom of the Buddha dormant in every human creature,--wisdom darkened by ignorance, clogged by desire, fettered by Karma, but destined sooner or later to fully awaken, and to flood the mind with light.

It would seem that the Buddhist teaching of the duty of kindness to all living creatures, and of pity for all suffering, had a powerful effect upon national habit and custom, long before the new religion found general acceptance. As early as the year 675, a decree was issued by the Emperor Temmu forbidding the people to eat "the flesh of kine, horses, dogs, monkeys, or barn-door fowls," and prohibiting the use of traps or the making of pitfalls in catching game.* [*See Aston's translation of the Nihongi, Vol. II, p. 329.] The fact that all kinds of flesh-meat were not forbidden is probably explained by this Emperor's zeal for the maintenance of both creeds;--an absolute prohibition might have interfered with s.h.i.+nto usages, and would certainly have been incompatible with s.h.i.+nto traditions. But, although fish never ceased to be an article of food for the laity, we may say that from about this time the ma.s.s of the nation abandoned its habits of diet, and forswore the eating of meat, in accordance with [197] Buddhist teaching.... This teaching was based upon the doctrine of the unity of all sentient existence. Buddhism explained the whole visible world by its doctrine of Karma,--simplifying that doctrine so as to adapt it to popular comprehension. The forms of all creatures,--bird, reptile, or mammal; insect or fish,--represented only different results of Karma: the ghostly life in each was one and the same; and, in even the lowest, some spark of the divine existed.

The frog or the serpent, the bird or the bat, the ox or the horse,--all had had, at some past time, the privilege of human (perhaps even superhuman) shape: their present conditions represented only the consequence of ancient faults. Any human being also, by reason of like faults, might hereafter be reduced to the same dumb state,--might be reborn as a reptile, a fish, a bird, or a beast of burden. The consequence of wanton cruelty to any animal might cause the perpetrator of that cruelty to be reborn as an animal of the same kind, destined to suffer the same cruel treatment. Who could even be sure that the goaded ox, the over-driven horse, or the slaughtered bird, had not formerly been a human being of closest kin,--ancestor, parent, brother, sister, or child? ...

Not by words only were all these things taught. It should be remembered that s.h.i.+nto had no art: its ghost-houses, silent and void, were not even [198] decorated. But Buddhism brought in its train all the arts of carving, painting, and decoration. The images of its Bodhisattvas, smiling in gold,--the figures of its heavenly guardians and infernal judges, its feminine angels and monstrous demons,--must have startled and amazed imaginations yet unaccustomed to any kind of art. Great paintings hung in the temples, and frescoes limned upon their walls or ceilings, explained better than words the doctrine of the Six States of Existence, and the dogma of future rewards and punishments. In rows of kakemono, suspended side by side, were displayed the incidents of a Soul's journey to the realm of judgment, and all the horrors of the various h.e.l.ls. One pictured the ghosts of faithless wives, for ages doomed to pluck, with bleeding fingers, the rasping bamboo-gra.s.s that grows by the Springs of Death; another showed the torment of the slanderer, whose tongue was torn by demon-pincers; in a third appeared the spectres of l.u.s.tful men, vainly seeking to flee the embraces of women of fire, or climbing, in frenzied terror, the slopes of the Mountain of Swords. Pictured also were the circles of the Preta-world, and the pangs of the Hungry Ghosts, and likewise the pains of rebirth in the form of reptiles and of beasts. And the art of these early representations--many of which have been preserved--was an art of no mean order. We can hardly conceive the effect upon inexperienced imagination of the crimson frown of Emma [199] (Yama), Judge of the dead,--or the vision of that weird Mirror which reflected, to every spirit the misdeeds of its life in the body,--or the monstrous fancy of that double-faced Head before the judgment seat, representing the visage of the woman Mirume, whose eyes behold all secret sin; and the vision of the man Kaguhana, who smells all odours of evil-doing.... Parental affection must have been deeply touched by the painted legend of the world of children's ghosts,--the little ghosts that must toil, under demon-surveillance, in the Dry Bed of the River of Souls.... But pictured terrors were offset by pictured consolations,--by the beautiful figure of Kwannon, white G.o.ddess of Mercy,--by the compa.s.sionate smile of Jizo, the playmate of infant-ghosts,--by the charm also of celestial nymphs, floating on iridescent wings in light of azure. The Buddhist painter opened to simple fancy the palaces of heaven, and guided hope, through gardens of jewel-trees, even to the sh.o.r.es of that lake where the souls of the blessed are reborn in lotos-blossoms, and tended by angel-nurses.

Moreover, for people accustomed only to such simple architecture as that of the s.h.i.+nto miya, the new temples erected by the Buddhist priests must have been astonishments. The colossal Chinese gates, guarded by giant statues; the lions and lanterns of bronze and stone; the enormous suspended [200] bells, sounded by swinging-beams; the swarming of dragon-shapes under the caves of the vast roofs; the glimmering splendour of the altars; the ceremonial likewise, with its chanting and its incense-burning and its weird Chinese music,--cannot have failed to inspire the wonder-loving with delight and awe. It is a noteworthy fact that the earliest Buddhist temples in j.a.pan still remain, even to Western eyes, the most impressive. The Temple of the Four Deva Kings at Osaka--which, though more than once rebuilt, preserves the original plan--dates from 600 A.D.; the yet more remarkable temple called Horyuji, near Nara, dates from about the year 607.

Of course the famous paintings and the great statues could be seen at the temples only; but the Buddhist image-makers soon began to people even the most desolate places with stone images of Buddhas and of Bodhisattvas. Then first were made those icons of Jizo, which still smile upon the traveller from every roadside,--and the images of Kos.h.i.+n, protector of highways, with his three symbolic Apes,--and the figure of that Bato-Kwannon, who protects the horses of the peasant,--with other figures in whose rude but impressive art suggestions of Indian origin are yet recognizable. Gradually the graveyards became thronged with dreaming Buddhas or Bodhisattvas,--holy guardians of the dead, throned upon lotos-flowers of [201] stone, and smiling with closed eyes the smile of the Calm Supreme. In the cities everywhere Buddhist sculptors opened shops, to furnish pious households with images of the chief divinities wors.h.i.+pped by the various Buddhist sects; and the makers of ihai, or Buddhist mortuary tablets, as well as the makers of household shrines, multiplied and prospered.

Meanwhile the people were left free to wors.h.i.+p their ancestors according to either creed; and if a majority eventually gave preference to the Buddhist rite, this preference was due in large measure to the peculiar emotional charm which Buddhism had infused into the cult. Except in minor details, the two rites differed scarcely at all; and there was no conflict whatever between the old ideas of filial piety and the Buddhist ideas attaching to the new ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, Buddhism taught that the dead might be helped and made happier by prayer, and that much ghostly comfort could be given them by food-offerings. They were not to be offered flesh or wine; but it was proper to gratify them with fruits and rice and cakes and flowers and the smoke of incense. Besides, even the simplest food-offerings might be trans.m.u.ted, by force of prayer, into celestial nectar and ambrosia. But what especially helped the new ancestor-cult to popular favour, was the fact that it included many beautiful and touching customs not known to the old. Everywhere [202]

the people soon learned to kindle the hundred and eight fires of welcome for the annual visit of their dead,--to supply the spirits with little figures made of straw, or made out of vegetables, to-serve for oxen or horses,*--also to prepare the ghost-s.h.i.+ps (shoryobune), in which the souls of the ancestors were to return, over the sea, to their under-world. Then too were inst.i.tuted the Bon-odori, or Dances of the Festival of the Dead,** and the custom of suspending white lanterns at graves, and coloured lanterns at house-gates, to light the coining and the going of the visiting dead.

[*An eggplant, with four pegs of wood stuck into it, to represent legs, usually stands for an ox; and a cuc.u.mber, with four pegs, serves for a horse.... One is reminded of the fact that, at some of the ancient Greek sacrifices, similar subst.i.tutes for real animals were used. In the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo, at Thebes, apples with wooden pegs stuck into them, to represent feet and horns, were offered as subst.i.tutes for sheep.

**The dances themselves--very curious and very attractive to witness--are much older than Buddhism; but Buddhism made them a feature of the festival referred to, which lasts for three days. No person who has not witnessed a Bon-odori can form the least idea of what j.a.panese dancing means: it is something utterly different from what usually goes by the name,--something indescribably archaic, weird, and nevertheless fascinating. I have repeatedly sat up all night to watch the peasants dancing. j.a.panese dancing girls, be it observed, do not dance: they pose. The peasants dance.]

But perhaps the greatest value of Buddhism to the nation was educational. The s.h.i.+nto priests were not teachers. In early times they were mostly aristocrats, religious representatives of the clans; and the idea of educating the common people could not even have occurred to them. Buddhism, on [203] the other hand, offered the boon of education to all,--not merely a religious education, but an education in the arts and the learning of China. The Buddhist temples eventually became common schools, or had schools attached to them; and at each parish temple the children of the community were taught, at a merely nominal cost, the doctrines of the faith, the wisdom of the Chinese cla.s.sics, calligraphy, drawing, and much besides. By degrees the education of almost the whole nation came under Buddhist control; and the moral effect was of the best. For the military cla.s.s indeed there was another and special system of education; but Samurai scholars sought to perfect their knowledge under Buddhist teachers of renown; and the imperial household itself employed Buddhist instructors. For the common people everywhere the Buddhist priest was the schoolmaster; and by virtue of his occupation as teacher, not less than by reason of his religious office, he ranked with the samurai. Much of what remains most attractive, in j.a.panese character--the winning and graceful aspects of it--seems to have been developed under Buddhist training.

It was natural enough that to his functions of public instructor, the Buddhist priest should have added those of a public registrar. Until the period of disendowment, the Buddhist clergy remained, throughout the country, public as well as religious officials. They kept the parish records, and furnished [204] at need certificates of birth, death, or family descent.

To give any just conception of the immense civilizing influence which Buddhism exerted in j.a.pan would require many volumes. Even to summarize the results of that influence by stating only the most general facts, is scarcely possible,--for no general statement can embody the whole truth of the work accomplished. As a moral force, Buddhism strengthened authority and cultivated submission, by its capacity to inspire larger hopes and fears than the more ancient religion could create. As teacher, it educated the race, from the highest to the humblest, both in ethics and in esthetics. All that can be cla.s.sed under the name of art in j.a.pan was either introduced or developed by Buddhism; and the same may be said regarding nearly all j.a.panese literature possessing real literary quality,--excepting some s.h.i.+nto rituals, and some fragments of archaic poetry. Buddhism introduced drama, the higher forms of poetical composition, and fiction, and history, and philosophy. All the refinements of j.a.panese life were of Buddhist introduction, and at least a majority of its diversions and pleasures. There is even to-day scarcely one interesting or beautiful thing, produced in the country, for which the nation is not in some sort indebted to Buddhism. Perhaps the best and briefest way of [205] stating the range of such indebtedness, is simply to, say that Buddhism brought the whole of Chinese civilization into j.a.pan, and thereafter patiently modified and reshaped it to j.a.panese requirements. The elder civilization was not merely superimposed upon the social structure, but fitted carefully into it, combined with it so perfectly that the marks of the welding, the lines of the juncture, almost totally disappeared.

[207]

THE HIGHER BUDDHISM

Philosphical Buddhism requires some brief consideration in this place,--for two reasons. The first is that misapprehension or ignorance of the subject has rendered possible the charge of atheism against the intellectual cla.s.ses of j.a.pan. The second reason is that some persons imagine the j.a.panese common people--that is to say, the greater part of the nation--believers in the doctrine of Nirvana as extinction (though, as a matter of fact, even the meaning of the word is unknown to the ma.s.ses), and quite resigned to vanish from the face of the earth, because of that incapacity for struggle which the doctrine is supposed to create. A little serious thinking ought to convince any intelligent man that no such creed could ever have been the religion of either a savage or a civilized people. But myriads of Western minds are ready at all times to accept statements of impossibility without taking the trouble to think about them; and if I can show some of my readers how far beyond popular comprehension the doctrines of the higher Buddhism really are, something will have been accomplished for the cause of truth and [208] common-sense. And besides the reasons already given for dwelling upon the subject, there is this third and special reason,--that it is one of extraordinary interest to the student of modern philosophy.

Before going further, I must remind you that the metaphysics of Buddhism can be studied anywhere else quite as well as in j.a.pan, since the more important sutras have been translated into various European languages, and most of the untranslated texts edited and published. The texts of j.a.panese Buddhism are Chinese; and only Chinese scholars are competent to throw light upon the minor special phases of the subject. Even to read the Chinese Buddhist canon of 7000 volumes is commonly regarded as an impossible feat,--though it has certainly been accomplished in j.a.pan. Then there are the commentaries, the varied interpretations of different sects, the multiplications of later doctrine, to heap confusion upon confusion.

The complexities of j.a.panese Buddhism are incalculable; and those who try to unravel them soon become, as a general rule, hopelessly lost in the maze of detail. All this has nothing to do with my present purpose, I shall have very little to say about j.a.panese Buddhism as distinguished from other Buddhism, and nothing at all to say about sect-differences. I shall keep to general facts as regards the higher doctrine,--selecting from among such facts only those most suitable [209] for the ill.u.s.tration of that doctrine. And I shall not take up the subject of Nirvana, in spite of its great importance,--having treated it as fully as I was able in my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, --but confine myself to the topic of certain a.n.a.logies between the conclusions of Buddhist metaphysics and the conclusions of contemporary Western thought.

In the best single volume yet produced in English on the subject of Buddhism,* the late Mr. Henry Clarke Warren observed: "A large part of the pleasure that I have experienced in the study of Buddhism has arisen from what I may call the strangeness of the intellectual landscape. [*Buddhism in Translations, by Henry Clarke Warren (Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, 1896). Published by Harvard University.]

All the ideas, the modes of argument, even the postulates a.s.sumed and not argued about, have always seemed so strange, so different from anything to which I have been accustomed, that I felt all the time as though walking in Fairyland. Much of the charm that the Oriental thoughts and ideas have for me appears to be because they so seldom fit into Western categories." ... The serious attraction of Buddhist philosophy could not be better suggested: it is indeed "the strangeness of the intellectual landscape," as of a world inside-out and upside-down, that has chiefly interested Western [210] thinkers heretofore. Yet after all, there is a cla.s.s of Buddhist concepts which can be fitted, or very nearly fitted, into Western categories.

The higher Buddhism is a kind of Monism; and it includes doctrines that accord, in the most surprising manner, with the scientific theories of the German and the English monists. To my thinking, the most curious part of the subject, and its main interest, is represented just by these accordances,--particularly in view of the fact that the Buddhist conclusions have been reached through mental processes unknown to Western thinking, and unaided by any knowledge of science.... I venture to call myself a student of Herbert Spencer; and it was because of my acquaintance with the Synthetic Philosophy that I came to find in Buddhist philosophy a more than romantic interest. For Buddhism is also a theory of evolution, though the great central idea of our scientific evolution (the law of progress from h.o.m.ogeneity to heterogeneity) is not correspondingly implied by Buddhist doctrine as regards the life of this world. The course of evolution as we conceive it, according to Professor Huxley, "must describe a trajectory like that of a ball fired from a mortar; and the sinking half of that course is as much a part of the general process of evolution as the rising." The highest point of the trajectory would represent what Mr. Spencer calls Equilibration,--the supreme point of development preceding the period [211] of decline; but, in Buddhist evolution, this supreme point vanishes into Nirvana.

I can best ill.u.s.trate the Buddhist position by asking you to imagine the trajectory line upside-down,--a course descending out of the infinite, touching ground, and ascending again to mystery....

Nevertheless, some Buddhist ideas do offer the most startling a.n.a.logy with the evolutional ideas of our own time; and even those Buddhist concepts most remote from Western thought can be best interpreted by the help of ill.u.s.trations and of language borrowed from modern science.

I think that we may consider the most remarkable teachings of the higher Buddhism,--excluding the doctrine of Nirvana, for the reason already given,--to be the following:--

That there is but one Reality;--

That the Consciousness is not the real Self;--

That Matter is an aggregate of phenomena created by the force of acts and thoughts;--

That all objective and subjective existence is made by Karma,-- the present being the creation of the Past, and the actions of the present and the past, in combination, determining the conditions of the future.... (Or, in other words, that the universe of Matter, and the universe of [conditioned] Mind, represent in their evolution a strictly moral order.)

It will he worth while now to briefly consider [212] these doctrines in their relation to modern thought, beginning with the first, which is Monism:--

All things having form or name,--Buddhas, G.o.ds, men, and all living creatures,--suns, worlds, moons, the whole visible cosmos,--are transitory phenomena.... a.s.suming, with Herbert Spencer, that the test of reality is permanence, one can scarcely question this position; it differs little from the statement with which the closing chapter of the First Principles concludes:--

"Though the relation of subject and object renders necessary to us these ant.i.thetical conceptions of Spirit and Matter, the one is no less than the other to be regarded as but a sign of the Unknown Reality which underlies both."--Edition of 1894.

For Buddhism the sole reality is the Absolute,--Buddha as unconditioned and Infinite Being. There is no other veritable existence, whether of Matter or of Mind; there is no real individuality or personality; the "I" and the "Not-I" are essentially nowise different. We are reminded of Mr. Spencer's position, that "it is one and the same Reality which is manifested to us both subjectively and objectively." Mr. Spencer goes on to say: "Subject and Object, as actually existing, can never be contained in the consciousness produced by the cooperation of the two, though they are necessarily [213] implied by it; and the ant.i.thesis of Subject and Object, never to be transcended while consciousness lasts, renders impossible all knowledge of that Ultimate Reality in which Subject and Object are united."... I do not think that a master of the higher Buddhism would dispute Mr. Spencer's doctrine of Transfigured Realism. Buddhism does not deny the actuality of phenomena as phenomena, but denies their permanence, and the truth of the appearances which they present to our imperfect senses. Being transitory, and not what they seem, they are to be considered in the nature of illusions,--impermanent manifestations of the only permanent Reality. But the Buddhist position is not agnosticism: it is astonis.h.i.+ngly different, as we shall presently see. Mr. Spencer states that we cannot know the Reality so long as consciousness lasts,--because while consciousness lasts we cannot transcend the ant.i.thesis of Object and Subject, and it is this very ant.i.thesis which makes consciousness possible. "Very true," the Buddhist metaphysician would reply; "we cannot know the sole Reality while consciousness lasts. But destroy consciousness, and the Reality becomes cognizable. Annihilate the illusion of Mind, and the light will come." This destruction of consciousness signifies Nirvana,--the extinction of all that we call Self. Self is blindness: destroy it, and the Reality will be revealed as infinite vision and infinite peace.

[214] We have now to ask what, according to Buddhist philosophy, is the meaning of the visible universe as phenomenon, and the nature of the consciousness that perceives. However transitory, the phenomenon makes an impression upon consciousness; and consciousness itself, though transitory, has existence; and its perceptions, however delusive, are perceptions of actual relation. Buddhism answers that both the universe and the consciousness are merely aggregates of Karma--complexities incalculable of conditions shaped by acts and thoughts through some enormous past. All substance and all conditioned mind (as distinguished from unconditioned mind) are products of acts and thoughts: by acts and thoughts the atoms of bodies have been integrated; and the affinities of those atoms--the polarities of them, as a scientist might say--represent tendencies shaped in countless vanished lives. I may quote here from a modern j.a.panese treatise on the subject:--

"The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth to the varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. They are caused by aggregate actions, and so are called aggregate fruits. Our present life is the reflection of past actions. Men consider these reflections as their real selves. Their eyes, noses, ears, tongues, and bodies--as well as their gardens, woods, farms, residences, servants, and maids--men imagine to be their own possessions; but, in fact, they are only results endlessly produced by innumerable [215]

actions. In tracing every thing back to the ultimate limits of the past, we cannot find a beginning: hence it is said that death and birth have no beginning. Again, when seeking the ultimate limit of the future, we cannot find the end."* [*Outlines of the Maheyena Philosophy, by S. Kuroda.]