Buddhism and Buddhists in China Part 8

Early Buddhism tried to dissolve man's personality. Later Buddhism corrected this and perhaps has appealed too much to the desire on the part of the individual to enter a heaven which is merely a replica of the earth. Christianity starts with a personal G.o.d and holds up before the believer the goal of perfection for his own personality. It finds man without a self and confers a real selfhood upon him.

Early Buddhism taught that salvation is accomplished by the individual alone. It denies the possibility and the necessity of help from a divine source. Subsequent history has proved this to have been wrong. In India, Buddhism has been displaced by Hinduism, and in China, and j.a.pan, the Mahayana has developed the idea of salvation through another. The great stream of Buddhism has recognized that man by himself is helpless. He must have the help of a divine power in order to obtain salvation.

Christianity a.s.serts that salvation is possible only through the intervention of G.o.d. The incarnation, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and his work in the world through the Holy Spirit on the one hand are the expression of G.o.d's solicitude for man, and, on the other hand, correspond to the deep need which men of all ages have felt, for a power above themselves. From the early stages of magic to the highest reaches of religion we find this constant factor recognized by human groups all over the world. They bear witness to a power above themselves to whom they continually appeal. In Christianity we find this main tendency enunciated most clearly. The individual cannot save himself.

Mankind cannot save itself. Both must rely upon the a.s.sistance of the divine power which started this universe on its way and which is the ever present creative force.

Christianity, moreover, has established the community of believers including all cla.s.ses and conditions of men. Herein each one may realize him&if. Herein also he may realize the kind of community which is friendly to his highest aspirations for himself. Herein he has the opportunity to trans.m.u.te the instincts above mentioned into forces which make for the larger development of his own person and the well-being of the community.

Accordingly, as Christians face Buddhists, they can do so with the consciousness that this great religion has been reaching out after the light which s.h.i.+nes brightly in our Christian religion. They have the a.s.surance not only that they have a message which brings fulfilment to the ideas of the Mahayana, but also that it has prepared the way for the hearts of the Chinese to receive the highest message of Christianity.

APPENDIX I

HINTS FOR THE PRELIMINARY STUDY OF BUDDHISM IN CHINA

The student should read and inwardly digest the booklet of K. J.

Saunders

He should follow the directions given in Appendix One of that book, This procedure is important because the Hinayana Buddhism and the life of Buddha are the background of Buddhism in China.

Then he may take Hackmann's _Buddhism as a Religion_ (No. 15). This will give a general orientation. This may be followed with R. F. Johnston's _Buddhist China_ (No.

_20_). Along with this he may read Suzuki's _Awakening of Faith_ (No. 32), and also his _Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism (No._ 33). McGovern's _Introduction to Mahayana Buddhism_ (No._ 23) will illuminate the philosophical background of Buddhism, and Eliot's _Hinduism and Buddhism_ (No. 13) will add historical perspective.

The translation of _Mahdydna Sutras_ by Beal and in the Sacred Books of the East will give him some of the sources for the doctrines held in China. He may begin as the Buddhist missionaries did with the sutra of the Forty-two sections and then take up the Diamond Sutra, and then completing the sutras in Vol. 59 and the Catena of Buddhist Scriptures.

For the study of the ethical side he will find De Groot's _Le Code du Mahayana en Chine_ very helpful. For the study of the sects Eliot, Vol. III, pp. 303-320 Northern Buddhism_ (No. 14) will be helpful.

In all his study he will find Eitel's _Handbook of Chinese Buddhism_ (No. 12) indispensable. He must, however, make a Chinese index in order to be able to use the book.

Contact with monks will be helpful and is quite necessary in order to appreciate the human problems of the work.

APPENDIX II

A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BEAL, S. _Abstract of Four Lectures_ upon _Buddhist Literature_ in _China._ London, Triibner, 1882.

Lecture II, on "Method of Buddha's Teaching in the Vinaya Pitaka," and Lecture IV, on "Coincidences Between Buddhism and Other Religions,"

especially desirable.

2. ---- _Buddhism in China,_ London, S. P. C. K, 1884.

The best comprehensive account of Chinese Buddhism, written by an authority.

3. ---- _Catena of Buddhist Scriptures,_ from the Chinese. London, Triibner, 1871.

A good introduction to Chinese Buddhism from the sources.

4. ---- _The Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha._ London, Triibner, 1875.

Recounts Buddha's history from the beginning to the conversion of the Kasyapas and others.

5. ---- _Texts from the Buddhist Canon Commonly Known_ as _D_ hammapada. London, Triibner, 1878. Pocket edition, 1902.

These "Scriptural Texts," translated from the Chinese and abridged, are usually connected with some event in Buddha's history. This translation has Indian anecdotes, ill.u.s.trating the verses.

6. COULING, S., editor. _The Encyclopaedia Sinica._ Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1917.

Contains, on pages 67-75, a number of brief articles upon Buddhism in China.

7. DE QROOT, J. J. M. _Religion of the Chinese._ New York, Macmillan, 1900.

Pages 164-223 contain a summary of the main facts about Chinese Buddhism by an authority.

8. ---- _Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China._ 2 vols.

J. Muller, Amsterdam, 1903-1904.

Treats from sources Confucianism's persecution of Buddhism and other sects. See Vol. II. Index, under Buddhism, p. 572.

9. DORE, HENEI. _Researches into Chinese Superst.i.tions._ 6 vols.

Tusewei Press, 1914-1920.

A well ill.u.s.trated miscellany of superst.i.tions of all Chinese religions showing indistinctly their interpenetration by Buddhism.

For Buddhism proper, see Vol. VI, pp. 89-233.

10. EDKINS, J. _Chinese Buddhism._ 2d edition. London, Trubner, 1893.

A very full account of Buddhism as seen by a Sinologue of the last generation.

11. EITEL, E. J. _Buddhism: Its Historical, Theoretical and Popular Aspects._ Hongkong, Lane, Crawford and Co., 1884.

Written by an observant scholar and descriptive of Buddhism of South China especially.