Buddhism in the Modern World

by Kenneth J. Saunders

[9] The Rig-Veda is a great anthology of religion. The Vedas are early religious Books in which a joyous nature-worship predominates.

[10] Nirvāna means to the Hindu reabsorption into the Absolute Brahman. To Buddhists it is variously expounded by their teachers as either (a) annihilation, or (b) a heaven of bliss, or (c) annihilation of evil desire, i.e. of all clinging to life. Western Buddhist writers call it usually by some such phrase as "The great Peace," which is vague enough to mean any of the three!

VI. THE MISSIONARY APPROACH TO MODERN BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA

I have tried to show both the good and the bad sides of Buddhism in Southern Asia: and have laid emphasis upon those characteristics which demonstrate its continuing power. Southern Buddhists, however, need earnest and sympathetic missionaries, with a gospel of abounding life, of a Father God, and of communion with Him in Christ. Let all who contemplate this great service note the following points.

1. Modern Buddhism differs from the Theoretical Buddhism of Gotama.

There is a marked difference between the theoretical Buddhism of early days, reflected in the standard literature of Southern Buddhism, and the Buddhism of the present day in Southern Asia. The Buddhism which Western enthusiasts are eager to introduce into their own countries is something which they have learnt, not from the peoples of Buddhist lands, but from the ancient literature of Buddhism. Captivated at first, it may be, by the beauty of some isolated saying, or, possibly, deeply touched during some moonlight scene at the great golden pagodas of Burma or on the hillsides of Ceylon, they become eager and not infrequently learned students of the Buddhism of Gotama. They have to declare with sadness that the great bulk of the people who profess Buddhism have wandered very far from its true principles and practice, and that human nature, for the most part, needs something less austere.

This old Buddhism of the Books may be regarded and used as a kind of Old Testament for Buddhists; already they have passed away from its traditions.

2. The Central Emphasis of Buddhism varies in the Three Southern Countries.

Not only does Buddhism, as the missionary comes in contact with it, differ very markedly from theoretical Buddhism, but the central emphasis varies in different parts of Southern Asia. The student must know his country and his people in order to know their Buddhism, as well as vice versâ. Nothing can be further from the sunny temperament of the Burmese than the central "truth" of Buddhism that "all is sorrowful"; and it is a strange perversion of the truth which claims, as some of these Western writers have claimed, that the Burmese are optimistic because they are free from tanhā. The fact that they believe in a good Buddha as a living god, however, has much to do with it: and temperament has even more.

In Ceylon, while Buddhist ideals are better suited to the more melancholic temperament of the people, yet they are acutely conscious of their powerlessness to gain the victory over sin and sorrow unaided. As in Japan and China, so in a lesser degree in Burma and Ceylon, Buddhism has been constrained to die to itself (to substitute the idea of a saviour for the idea of earning one's own salvation) in a way that is full of encouragement and suggestion to the Christian. For, if the mythical Kwanyin and the far-off Metteya can so captivate hungry human hearts, how shall not the historic and living Christ be enthroned in their stead?