Buddhism in the Modern World

by Kenneth J. Saunders

From the Buddhism of Southern Asia to that of China and Japan is a far cry. It must be remembered that the monastic Buddhism, in which the Arhat seeking his own salvation is the ideal, gradually gave place before Buddhism left India and entered Eastern Asia to the Mahāyāna, or Great Vessel, in which the Bodhisattva, or compassionate servant of humanity, became the ideal. Other important changes also took place in the religion of Gotama during the five or six centuries after his death. In the first place, in spite of all his teachings that men should not look to him for help the teacher was himself deified: He "mounts the empty throne of Brahmā." A little later there appeared a docetic tendency which explained him away, or attempted to show that he was without human feeling or passion, a kind of unreal adaptation of the eternal to the needs of time. Others conceived of him as an Eternal Being carrying on the work he had begun upon earth, and opening up salvation to all sentient beings, until finally a trinitarian doctrine was evolved which related the historical Gotama to the eternal Buddha, and conceived of him as having emptied himself of his glory for a season out of compassion for mankind, but as now enjoying it and manifesting it in pitiful and helpful ministries.

It is possible to see in this developing Buddhology evidence of Christian influence: the late Arthur Lloyd of Tokyo is the chief exponent of such a view. To me, however, it seems at once more scientific and more interesting to find in these parallels one more evidence alike of the similarity of human nature in all lands and ages, and of the indwelling Presence of the one Father of us all, guiding the nations in their search for Truth. The vitality and adaptability of Buddhism are evidences of His Spirit.

This vitality, even if at times adaptability has degenerated into compromise, is, as we have seen, great in Southern Asia, and amongst the sources of its strength we have noted its great influence as a civilising power and as a bond of social life: its appeal to the imagination and to the gratitude of the peoples: its philosophical explanation of the age-old problem of suffering, and the moderation and sanity of its ethical teachings. All these factors enter in differing degrees into the vitality of Buddhism in China and Japan: for it has done much to help the civilisation of these countries also, and to give them a popular philosophy of life and a pleasant social setting for religious faith.

Let us consider these facts in more detail as regards the Buddhism of Japan; for she is leading the Orient not only in matters of material progress, but in such spiritual things as a revival of the old faith which she is characteristically using to her own advantage. In 1918, for instance, a Pan-Buddhistic League was formed in Tokyo, and more remarkable has been the lead taken by the Buddhists of Japan in sending strong idealistic appeals to the Conferences at Versailles and Washington. The vital forces of Buddhism in Japan, then, are as follows:—

1. Buddhism has for twelve centuries rendered a unique service to the culture of the nation. Letters, architecture, painting, the discipline of the mind—in fact, the whole culture of Japan is shot through and through with Buddhist influence. It is significant that the two Western writers who entered most deeply into the spirit of Japanese culture, Lafcadio Hearn and Fenollosa, both became Buddhists and are buried in Buddhist cemeteries.

2. Buddhism is again a great bond of social union. Its great pilgrimages, for example, are the favourite recreation of the people, and its great festivals such as the Bon Matsuri, in which the spirits of the departed are honoured, are seasons of great sociability. Here, again, the "pessimistic" Buddhism is a cheerful and a pleasant thing.

3. Its appeal to the imagination is obvious. Splendid temples with their dim golden altars, gorgeous vestments, sonorous chanting, and all the splendour of an artistic ritual—all this leaps to the eye of the most casual visitor. What must it not be to the artistic Japanese worshipper with all its tender associations?

4. Nor does Japanese Buddhism appeal less to the mind. Its apologists constantly claim for it that it is a more philosophical and more scientific creed than any other. I have been many times impressed with the wide reading of Japanese Buddhists, and with the intellectual tone of Japanese Christianity. It is clear that the crude theology of some missionaries will not meet the acid test of modern scholarship, and is partly responsible for a widespread belief amongst the Japanese that Christianity is out of date. The chief Buddhist sects give their priests a better training in the History of Religion than our missionary societies. A stronger apologetic literature is needed.

5. The best apologetic, however, is in saintly lives; Tolstoi and Francis of Assisi especially make an immense appeal to the Japanese; there are Tolstoyan colonies, and a Buddhist Franciscan society. Yet it must be remembered that they find in the saints of Buddhism such as Honen and Nichiren, men worthy to compare with these great Christian souls. Mr. Takayama, whose influence on young Japan has been so great, was at once an ardent disciple of Tolstoy and a follower of Nichiren; Dr. Anesaki is no less a Buddhist of the Nichiren school because he is a devoted admirer of St. Francis. And these men believe that Buddhism and Christianity at their best are closely akin: "We see your Christ," says Dr. Anesaki, "because we have first seen our Buddha."

6. There is much to be said for this view; for Buddhism in Japan has developed a very noble idea of God; he is the Eternal Father who has compassion on all his sons; their salvation is won by faith, not by merit, and gratitude is the motive to good living. It is surely a misnomer to call the fair forms of Amida, the lord of the Western paradise, and of Kwannon the Compassionate, "idols." And Jīzo, the strong Conqueror of Death, the play mate and protector of little children—is he not a noble embodiment of divine strength and gentleness? If the Christian apologist argues that these are figments of the imagination, the Buddhist is right in replying that they owe their inspiration to the historic Sākyamuni and his early followers, and that there is as much evidence in the vision of a Buddhist saint as in that of an Old Testament prophet for the objective reality of the god who is worshipped. May we not see in the strivings of good and true men everywhere to know God a movement of the Spirit of God Himself? This is my own conviction—that the Spirit of God has been moving for long centuries amongst our Buddhist brethren and has led them far upon the path to Truth. It is, however, only right to say that this view is shared by comparatively few missionaries in Japan. Though the great Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 accepted it as an axiom that God had been at work in these ethnic faiths, and though it was specifically stated of Japanese Buddhism, yet it is a fact that this view is held at best as one of academic interest, and without enthusiasm. The leading authority upon the subject amongst the Protestant missionaries in Japan sums up his conviction in these weighty words and they are one tenable interpretation: "It may be said, then, that Mahāyāna Buddhism is a religion with a rather lofty idea of God among many conceptions of the divine, but without a real faith in the living God; a religion with the idea of a saviour, but without a historical saviour; a religion with a doctrine of divine grace paralysed by the old karma doctrine; a religion with a promise of a present salvation and a future life, which is nevertheless made obscure by the doubts of a recurrent agnostic philosophy that cuts the nerve of all vital ethics and beclouds the hopes of a better future."[11] The student must weigh these two interpretations: and can only do so by a sympathetic and patient study of the facts. And the outstanding fact is that Buddhism has been the civiliser of Asia, and a great bond of union between its peoples.