The Religions of Japan Part 29

[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.]

[Footnote 19: Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; j.a.panese Life of Yos.h.i.+da Shoin, by Tokutomi, T[=o]ki[=o], 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol.

II., p. 83.]

[Footnote 20: "The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, both as taught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The j.a.panese recognize both religions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but Confucianism in j.a.pan has a direct bearing upon everything relating to human affairs, especially the extreme loyalty of the people to the emperor, while the Koreans consider it more useful in social matters than in any other department of life, and hardly consider its precepts in their business and mercantile relations."

"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a system of sociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and his disciples are moralists and economists."--Education in Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh, of the Korean Emba.s.sy to the United States; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., pp. 345-346.]

[Footnote 21: In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the j.a.panese by means, of fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.]

CHAPTER VI

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 Ill.u.s.trated 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), Toki[=o], 1893.]

[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus pater_. 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 j.a.panese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's book is refres.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d, 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'eglise de Coree, 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: j.a.p. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this Bodhisattva is at Zenko-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 circ.u.mambulated the lake, seated himself in the N.W. (Vayubona) 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 wors.h.i.+pped, 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 pa.s.sing 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 mult.i.tude of the peasantry of the land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he a.s.sumed 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 circ.u.mambulate 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 pa.s.sage 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: j.a.p. Kwannon, G.o.d or G.o.ddess 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 j.a.panese 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. x.x.xix., the translator discusses age, authors.h.i.+p, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's Short History of the Twelve j.a.panese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated Chapter XXIV.]

[Footnote 23: At the great Zenk[=o]ji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at Nagano, j.a.pan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.]

[Footnote 24: "The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by Manjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana books.

Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil of them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all."--B.N., p. 51.]

[Footnote 25: See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel, S. Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.]

[Footnote 26: See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of great scholars.h.i.+p and marvellous condensation.]

[Footnote 27: Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other ill.u.s.trations of the growth of the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian Hodgson's writings.

1. The line of division between G.o.d and man, and between G.o.ds and man, was removed by Buddhism.

"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of acceptance with the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between finite and infinite mind, urges its followers to aspire by their own efforts to that divine perfectibility of which it teaches that man is capable, and by attaining which man becomes G.o.d--and thus is explained both the quiescence of the imaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real Ma.n.u.s.h.i.+ Buddhas--thus, too, we must account for the fact that genuine Buddhism has no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; the saint scorns the aid of mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the adept or Buddha to the novice or BodhiSattwa)--conquer the importunities of the body, urge your mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you shall, in time, discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know this, and you become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of G.o.dhead--you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the power and all the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and which, as they are manifested out of matter, must belong solely to matter; not indeed in the gross and palpable state of pravritti, but in the archetypal and pure state of nirvritti. Put off, therefore, the vile, pravrittika necessities of the body, and the no less vile affections of the mind (Tapas); urge your thought into pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as a.s.suredly you can, so a.s.suredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a Buddha (Bodhijnana), and become a.s.sociated with the eternal unity and rest of nirvritti.'"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194.

2. A specimen of "esoteric" and "exoteric" Buddhism;--the Buddha Tatkagata.

"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of the Supreme wisdom (_Prajna_) of nature, so is it perfected by a refluence to its source, but without loss of individuality; whence Prajna is feigned in the exoteric system to be both the mother and the wife of all the Buddhas, '_janani sarva Buddkanam_,' and '_Jina-sundary_;' for the efflux is typified by a birth, and the reflux by a marriage.

"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism (_Bodhijnana_) whose first duty, so long as he remains on earth, is to communicate his wisdom to those who are willing to receive it. These willing learners are the 'Bodhisattwas,' so called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom of Buddhism, and 'Sanghas,' from their companions.h.i.+p with one another, and with their Buddha or teacher, in the _Viharas_ or coen.o.bitical establishments."

"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and inferior) member of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha continues to be such until he has surmounted the very last grade of that vast and laborious ascent by which he is instructed that he can 'scale the heavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its resplendent source: which achievement performed, he becomes a Buddha, that is, an Omniscient Being, and a _Tathagata_--a t.i.tle implying the accomplishment of that gradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or ceases to be subject to transmigration."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., pp. 194, 195.

3. Is G.o.d all, or is all G.o.d?

"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single reality, is, whether all is G.o.d, or G.o.d is all, seems to be the sole _proposition_ of the oriental philosophic religionists, who have all alike sought to discover it by taking the high _priori_ road. That G.o.d is all, appears to be the prevalent dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all is G.o.d, the preferential but sceptical solution of the _Buddhists_; and, in a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate any further essential difference between their theoretic systems, both, as I conceive, the unquestionable growth of the Indian soil, and both founded upon transcendental speculation, conducted in the very same style and manner."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45.

4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.