The Reconciliation of Races and Religions Part 12

It is much to be wished that Western influence on China may not be exerted in the wrong way, i.e. by an indiscriminate destruction of religious tradition. Hitherto the three religions of China--Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism--have been regarded as forming one organism, and as equally necessary to the national culture. Now, however, there is a danger that this hereditary union may cease, and that, in their disunited state, the three cults may be destined in course of time to disappear and perish. Shall they give place to dogmatic Christianity or, among the most cultured cla.s.s, to agnosticism? Would it not be better to work for the retention at any rate of Buddhism and Confucianism in a purified form? My own wish would be that the religious-ethical principles of Buddhism should be applied to the details of civic righteousness. The work could only be done by a school, but by the co-operation of young and old it could be done.

Taoism, however, is doomed, unless some scientifically trained scholar (perhaps a Buddhist) will take the trouble to sift the grain from the chaff. As Mr. Johnston tells us, [Footnote: _Buddhist China_, p. 12.] the opening of every new school synchronizes with the closing of a Taoist temple, and the priests of the cult are not only despised by others, but are coming to despise themselves. Lao-Tze, however, has still his students, and accretions can hardly be altogether avoided. Chinese Buddhism, too, has accretions, both philosophic and religious, and unless cleared of these, we cannot hope that Buddhism will take its right place in the China of the future. Suzuki, however, in his admirable _Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism_, has recognized and expounded (as I at least think) the truest Buddhism, and it is upon him I chiefly rely in my statements in the present work.

There is no accretion, however, in the next point which I shall mention. The n.o.ble altruism of the Buddhism of China and j.a.pan must at no price be rejected from the future religion of those countries, but rather be adopted as a model by us Western Christians. Now there are three respects in which (among others) the Chinese and j.a.panese may set us an example. Firstly, their freedom from self, and even from pre-occupying thoughts of personal salvation. Secondly, the perception that in the Divine Manifestation there must be a feminine element (_das ewig-weibliche_). And thirdly, the possibility of vicarious moral action. On the first, I need only remark that one of those legends of Sakya Muni, which are so full of moral meaning, is beautified by this selflessness. On the second, that Kuan-yin or Kwannon, though formerly a G.o.d, [Footnote: 'G.o.d' and 'G.o.ddess' are of course unsuitable. Read _pusa_.] the son of the Buddha Amitabha, is now regarded as a G.o.ddess, 'the All-compa.s.sionate, Uncreated Saviour, the Royal Bodhisat, who (like the Madonna) hears the cries of the world.' [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_, pp. 101, 273.]

But it is the third point which chiefly concerns us here because of the great spiritual comfort which it conveys. It is the possibility of doing good in the name of some beloved friend or relative and to 'turn over' (_parimarta_) one's _karma_ to this friend. The extent to which this idea is pressed may, to some, be bewildering. Even the bliss of Nirvana is to be rejected that the moral and physical sufferings of the mult.i.tude may be relieved. This is one of the many ways in which the Living Presence is manifested.

G.o.d-MAN

_Tablet of Ishrakat_ (p. 5).--Praise be to G.o.d who manifested the Point and sent forth from it the knowledge of what was and is (i.e. all things); who made it (the Point) the Herald in His Name, the Precursor to His Most Great Manifestation, by which the nerves of nations have quivered with fear and the Light has risen from the horizon of the world. Verily it is that Point which G.o.d hath made to be a Sea of Light for the sincere among His servants, and a ball of fire for the deniers among His creations and the impious among His people.--This shows that Baha-'ullah did not regard the so-called Bab as a mere forerunner.

The want of a surely attested life, or extract from a life, of a G.o.d-man will be more and more acutely felt. There is only one such life; it is that of Baha-'ullah. Through Him, therefore, let us pray in this twentieth century amidst the manifold difficulties which beset our social and political reconstructions; let Him be the prince-angel who conveys our pet.i.tions to the Most High. The standpoint of Immanence, however, suggests a higher and a deeper view. Does a friend need to ask a favour of a friend? Are we not in Baha'ullah ('the Glory of G.o.d'), and is not He in G.o.d? Therefore, 'ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you' (John xv. 7). Far be it that we should even seem to disparage the Lord Jesus, but the horizon of His early worshippers is too narrow for us to follow them, and the critical difficulties are insuperable. The mirage of the ideal Christ is all that remains, when these obstacles have been allowed for.

We read much about G.o.d-men in the narratives of the Old Testament, where the name attached to a manifestation of G.o.d in human semblance is 'malak Yahwe (Jehovah)' or 'malak Elohim'--a name of uncertain meaning which I have endeavoured to explain more correctly elsewhere.

In the New Testament too there is a large Docetic element. Apparently a supernatural Being walks about on earth--His name is Jesus of Nazareth, or simply Jesus, or with a deifying prefix 'Lord' and a regal appendix 'Christ.' He has doubtless a heavenly message to individuals, but He has also one to the great social body. Christ, says Mr. Holley, is a perfect revelation for the individual, but not for the social organism. This is correct if we lay stress on the qualifying word 'perfect,' especially if we hold that St. Paul has the credit of having expanded and enriched the somewhat meagre representation of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels. It must be conceded that Baha-'ullah had a greater opportunity than Christ of lifting both His own and other peoples to a higher plane, but the ideal of both was the same.

Baha-'ullah and Christ, therefore, were both 'images of G.o.d'; [Footnote: Bousset, _Kyrios-Christos_, p. 144. Christ is the 'image of G.o.d' (2 Cor. iv. 4; Col. i. 15); or simply 'the image'

(Rom. viii. 29).] G.o.d is the G.o.d of the human people as well as of individual men, so too is the G.o.d of whom Baha-'ullah is the reflection or image. Only, we must admit that Baha-'ullah had the advantage of centuries more of evolution, and that he had also perhaps more complex problems to solve.

And what as to 'Ali Muhammad of Shiraz? From a heavenly point of view, did he play a great _role_ in the Persian Reformation? Let us listen to Baha-'ullah in the pa.s.sage quoted above from the Tablet of Ishrakat.

PRAYER TO THE PERPETUAL CREATOR

O giver of thyself! at the vision of thee as joy let our souls flame up to thee as the fire, flow on to thee as the river, permeate thy being as the fragrance of the flower. Give us strength to love, to love fully, our life in its joys and sorrows, in its gains and losses, in its rise and fall. Let us have strength enough fully to see and hear thy universe, and to work with full vigour therein. Let us fully live the life thou hast given us, let us bravely take and bravely give. This is our prayer to thee. Let us once for all dislodge from our minds the feeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be a thing apart from action, thin, formless and unsustained. Wherever the peasant tills the hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the green of the corn; wherever man displaces the entangled forest, smooths the stony ground, and clears for himself a homestead, there does thy joy enfold it in orderliness and peace.

O worker of the universe! We would pray to thee to let the irresistible current of thy universal energy come like the impetuous south wind of spring, let it come rushing over the vast field of the life of man, let it bring the scent of many flowers, the murmurings of many woodlands, let it make sweet and vocal the lifelessness of our dried-up soul-life. Let our newly awakened powers cry out for unlimited fulfilment in leaf and flower and fruit!--Tagore, Sadhana (p. 133).

THE OPPORTUNENESS OF BAHAISM

The opportuneness of the Baha movement is brought into a bright light by the following extract from a letter to the Master from the great Orientalist and traveller, Arminius Vambery. Though born a Jew, he tells us that believers in Judaism were no better than any other professedly religious persons, and that the only hope for the future lay in the success of the efforts of Abdul Baha, whose supreme greatness as a prophet he fully recognizes. He was born in Hungary in March 1832, and met Abdul Baha at Buda-Pest in April 1913. The letter was written shortly after the interview; some may perhaps smile at its glowing Oriental phraseology, but there are some Oriental writers who really mean what they seem to mean, and one of these (an Oriental by adoption) is Vambery.

'... The time of the meeting with your excellency, and the memory of the benediction of your presence, recurred to the memory of this servant, and I am longing for the time when I shall meet you again. Although I have travelled through many countries and cities of Islam, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a personage as Your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not possible to find such another. On this account I am hoping that the ideals and accomplishments of Your Excellency may be crowned with success and yield results under all conditions, because behind these ideals and deeds I easily discern the eternal welfare and prosperity of the world of humanity.

'This servant, in order to gain first-hand information and experience, entered into the ranks of various religions; that is, outwardly I became a Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and Zoroastrian. I discovered that the devotees of these various religions do nothing else but hate and anathematize each other, that all these religions have become the instruments of tyranny and oppression in the hands of rulers and governors, and that they are the causes of the destruction of the world of humanity.

'Considering these evil results, every person is forced by necessity to enlist himself on the side of Your Excellency and accept with joy the prospect of a fundamental basis for a universal religion of G.o.d being laid through your efforts.

'I have seen the father of Your Excellency from afar. I have realized the self-sacrifice and n.o.ble courage of his son, and I am lost in admiration.

'For the principles and aims of Your Excellency I express the utmost respect and devotion, and if G.o.d, the Most High, confers long life, I will be able to serve you under all conditions. I pray and supplicate this from the depths of my heart.--Your servant, VAMBERY.'

(Published in the _Egyptian Gazette_, Sept. 24, 1913, by Mrs. J. Stannard.)

BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY

BROWNE, Prof. E. G.--_A Traveller's Narrative_. Written to ill.u.s.trate the Episode of the Bab. Cambridge, 1901.

_The New History_. Cambridge, 1893.

_History of the Babis_. Compiled by Hajji Mirza Jani of Kashan between the years A.D. 1850 and 1852. Leyden, 1910.

'Babism,' article in _Encyclopaedia of Religions_.

Two Papers on Babism in _JRAS_. 1889.

CHASE, THORNTON.--_In Galilee_. Chicago, 1908.

DREYFUS, HIPPOLYTE.--_The Universal Religion; Bahaism_. 1909.

GOBINEAU, M. LE COMTE DE.--_Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale_. Paris. 2nd edition, Paris, 1866.

HAMMOND, ERIC.--_The Splendour of G.o.d_. 1909.

HOLLEY, HORACE.--_The Modern Social Religion_. 1913.

HUART, CLEMENT.--_La Religion du Bab_. Paris, 1889.

NICOLAS, A. L. M.--_Seyy'ed Ali Mohammed, dit Le Bab_. Paris, 1905.

_Le Beyan Arabe_. Paris, 1905.

PHELPS, MYRON H.--_Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi_. New York, 1914.

RoMER, HERMANN.--_Die Babi-Beha'i, Die jungste muhammedanische Sekte._ Potsdam, 1912.

RICE, W. A.--'Bahaism from the Christian Standpoint,' _East and West_, January 1913.

SKRINE, F. H.--_Bahaism, the Religion of Brotherhood and its place in the Evolution of Creeds._ 1912.

WILSON, S. G.--'The Claims of Bahaism,' _East and West_, July 1914.

Works of the BAB, BAHA-'ULLAH, ABDUL BAHA, and ABU'L FAZL:

_L'epitre au Fils du Loup._ Baha-'ullah. Traduction francaise par H. Dreyfus. Paris, 1913.

_Le Beyan arabe._ Nicolas. Paris, 1905.

_The Hidden Words._ Chicago, 1905.

_The Seven Valleys._ Chicago.

_Livre de la Cert.i.tude._ Dreyfus. Paris, 1904.

_The Book of Ighan._ Chicago.