Buddhism in the Modern World

by Kenneth J. Saunders

The great Hondo or hall of the Hongwanji temples in Kyōto is a thing of exquisite beauty. How different are these great altars, these exquisite paintings, this cave of splendour, with its dim lights and its fragrant incense, from the simple rock-hewn shrines of Ceylon and their barbaric frescoes, and from the sunny courtyards and massed images of a Burmese pagoda! Very different, too, is the worship of this devout crowd of Japanese men and women, prostrating themselves before the high altar or joining in antiphonal praises of Amitābha (Amida Nyorai), the lord of the Western Paradise. The influence of the solemn chanting, the deep notes of gongs, the incense rising in clouds, the dim lights, the burnished gold and lacquer work of screen and altar—all this is almost hypnotic, and the congregation is borne along on a tide of sombre feeling shot through with gleams of joy and otherworldly enthusiasm. The student who has steeped himself in the simple pithy sayings of the Dhammapada, or of the Amitābha Books, and then passes on to study the elaborate apocalypses of the Lotus Scripture, will understand what has taken place in this transition from the simple ethical reform movement of early Buddhism to the elaborate pietism and cultus of the Mahāyāna. The historical Sākyamuni has almost disappeared, and in his place there are the eternal or semi-eternal Buddhas, and the great Bodhisattvas. Let us study the figures in this great Kyōto temple. The central position is given to the Japanese monk Shinran, a Luther or Wesley who in the twelfth century popularised in Japan the Way of Salvation by Faith; to the left of him are the figures of Amida Nyorai, the chief object of worship in this sect, Honen, the predecessor of Shinran and his teacher in the way of mystic faith, and Shōtoku, the great layman who as Regent of Japan espoused Buddhism in the seventh century A.D., and laid the foundations of Japanese civilisation. He is the patron saint of the arts and crafts of Japan and is given a prominent place in Shin Shu Buddhism (to which three-quarters of Japanese Buddhists belong) because it claims to be a religion for lay-people and not only for monks. There is a delightful story of Shinran and of the lady who led him to realise this truth. Going up to his monastery on the Hiei San Shinran met a charming princess, who took from her long silken sleeve a burning glass; "See how this little crystal gathers to a point the scattered rays of the sun," she cried. "Cannot you do this for our religion?" He replied that it took twenty years to train a monk in the old Tendai sect to which he belonged, and she reminded him that women were not allowed to go up to its temples. He went away and meditating upon the essential teachings of Buddhism came to the conclusion that the real heart of the matter was this, that it is faith in the eternal Buddha and gratitude to him which are to be the motives of true living, that as the Lotus Scripture teaches, all may become Buddhas, and that the priests of Amida should be free to become fathers after the pattern of the Heavenly Father. Marrying the charming princess this Japanese Luther founded a new sect, and to-day one sees the hereditary abbot, splendid in purple and scarlet, accompanied by his son, a boy of seventeen, proudly conscious of his destiny as the next head of the great hierarchy, and taking his place in the elaborate ritual of the service. Behind them are the choir in robes of old gold and the priests in black. "Namu Amida Butsu"[13] intone the priests, and alternating with this act of faith they sing to a kind of Gregorian chant such words as these:

"Eternal Life, Eternal Light!
Hail to Thee, wisdom infinite.
Hail to Thee, mercy shining clear,
And limitless as is the air.
Thou givest sight unto the blind,
Thou sheddest mercy on mankind,
Hail, gladdening Light,
Hail, generous Might,
Whose peace is round us like the sea,
And bathes us in infinity."

Or it may be some patriarch who is being hymned, such as Honen himself:

"What though great teachers lead the way,—
Genshin and Zendo of Cathay,—
Did Honen not the truth declare
How should we far-off sinners fare
In this degenerate, evil day?"

Occasionally a hymn, like the excellent preaching of some of the priests, strikes a note of moral living whose motive is gratitude to Amida:

"Eternal Father on whose breast
We sinful children find our rest,
Thy mind in us is perfected
When on all men thy love we shed;
So we in faith repeat thy praise,
And gratefully live out our days."[14]

The Japanese, in whom gratitude is a very strong motive, find in the teachings of Shinran a Buddhism which is very Christian, and the words attributed to him as he was nearing his journey's end, are a confession of sin which is only worthy of a saint. That the mass of his followers fall far behind him in this respect is unfortunately true, as it is true of most of us who call ourselves by a greater name.

Other founders of Buddhism are commemorated on the altars and in the hymns of this sect, especially Nāgārjuna, the Indian philosopher of about the second century A.D., and Donran, a Chinese, who carried still further the evolution of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

A Revival of Buddhism.

The Shin Shu is one of the sects of Japanese Buddhism in which a great revival seems to be at work. Upwards of five hundred young priests are being trained in its schools in Kyōto, and it claims to have one hundred and fifty thousand children in its Sunday Schools, an organisation in which it has wisely imitated the missionary methods of the Christian Church.