The Religions of Japan Part 15

K[=o]b[=o]'s smart example has been followed only too well by the people in every part of the country. One has but to read the stacks of books of local history to see what an amazing proportion of legends, ideas, superst.i.tions and revelations rests on dreams; how incredibly numerous are the apparitions; how often the floating images of Buddha are found on the water; how frequently flowers have rained out of the sky; how many times the idols have spoken or shot forth their dazzling rays--in a word; how often art and artifices have become alleged and accepted reality. Unfortunately, the characteristics of this literature and undergrowth of idol lore are monotony and lack of originality; for nearly all are copies of K[=o]b[=o]'s model. His cartoon has been constantly before the busy weavers of legend.

It may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its multiplication of sects and in its growth of legend and superst.i.tion, Buddhism has but followed every known religion, including traditional Christianity itself. Yet popular Buddhism has reached a point which shows, that, instead of having a self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is apparently still treading in the steps of the degradation which K[=o]b[=o]began.

The Seven G.o.ds of Good Fortune.

We repeat it, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism is j.a.panese Buddhism with vengeance. It is to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. Its _ingwa_ is manifest. Take, for example, the little group of divinities known as the Seven G.o.ds of Good Fortune, which forms a popular appendage to j.a.panese Buddhism and which are a direct and logical growth of the work done by K[=o]b[=o], as shown in his Riy[=o]bu system. Not from foreign writers and their fancies, nor even from the books which profess to describe these divinities, do we get such an idea of their real meaning and of their influence with the people, as we do by observation of every-day practice, and a study of the idols themselves and of j.a.panese folk-lore, popular romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar divinities, indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the artists than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with some rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity and influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy G.o.ds of Fortune form nominally a Buddhist a.s.semblage, and their effigies on the kami-dana or G.o.d-shelf, found in nearly every j.a.panese house, are universally visible. The child in j.a.pan is rocked to sleep by the soothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these G.o.ds.

Even though it may be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name the evil G.o.ds and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with showers of beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the Buddhist demons "as drops of holy water to the Devil," yet few households are complete without one or more of the images or the pictures of these favorite deities.

The separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of j.a.panese religion, are from no fewer than four different sources: Brahmanism, Buddhism, Taoism and Shint[=o]ism. "Thus, Bishamon is the Buddhist _Vais'ramana_[42] and the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvati, the wife of Brahma; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala, the black-faced Temple Guardian; Hotei has Taoist attributes, but is regarded as an incarnation of Maitreya, the Buddhist Messiah; f.u.ku-roku-jiu is of purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a personification of Lao-Tsze himself; Ju-ro-jin is almost certainly a duplicate of f.u.ku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi and Izanami, is a contribution from the Shint[=o] hero-worship."[43] If Riy[=o]bu Buddhism be two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is _shi-bu_, four-fold. Let us watch lest _go-bu_, with Christianity mixed in, be the next result of the process. To play the j.a.panese game of go-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a Palestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in j.a.pan are even now planning.

This ill.u.s.tration of the Seven G.o.ds of Happiness, whose local characters, functions and relations have been developed especially within the last three or four hundred years, is but one of many that could be adduced, showing what proceeded on a larger scale. The Riy[=o]bu process made it almost impossible for the average native to draw the line between history and mythology. It destroyed the boundary lines, as Pantheism invariably does, between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood. The j.a.panese mind, by a natural, possibly by a racial, tendency, falls easily into Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer of boundaries and the maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early j.a.panese "history" is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in the Const.i.tutional j.a.pan of the Meiji era--masters in their arts and professions, graduates of technical and philosophical courses--who solemnly talk about their "first emperor ascending the throne, B.C.

660," and to whom the dragon-born, early Mikados, and their fellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated mists of the Kojiki, are divine personages.

The Gon-gen in the Processions.

While living in j.a.pan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to enjoy watching and studying the long processions which celebrated the foundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the completion of some great public enterprise, such as the railway between T[=o]kio and Yokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and representation most of the cultus-objects were marvels of art and skill. Besides the gala dresses and uniforms, the fantastic decorations and personal adornments, the dances which represented the comedies and tragedies of the G.o.ds and the striking scenes in the Kojiki, there wore colossal images of Kami, Bodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Mi[=o] Jin, and of imps, oni, mythical animal forms and imaginary monsters.[44] More interesting than anything else, however, were the male and female figures, set high upon triumphal cars having many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic primeval, ancient, medieval, or early modern dress. Some were of scowling, others of benign visage. In some years, everyone of the eight hundred and eight streets of Yedo sent its contribution of men, money, decorations, or vehicles.

As seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant native, the Shint[=o]ist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical historical scholar, these effigies represented three different characters or creations.

Especially were those divine personages called Gon-gen worth the study of the foreign observer.

(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or that Dai Mi[=o] Jin, as the great ill.u.s.trious spirit or G.o.d of its particular district. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his honor he made offerings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he hoped to win, for the Gon-gen was a divine being.

(2) To the Shint[=o]ist, who hated Buddhism and the Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o]

which had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned and tabooed this Chinese term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, this or that image represented a divine ancestor whose name had in it many j.a.panese syllables, with no defiling Chinese sounds, and who was the Kami or patron deity of this or that neighborhood.

(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in the early ages of j.a.panese history, had been an avatar of Buddha who had appeared in human flesh and brought blessings to the people and neighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being unprepared to receive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then revealed or preached it; but now, as for a thousand years since the time of the ill.u.s.trious and saintly K[=o]b[=o], he had his right name and received his just honors and worship as an avatar of the eternal Buddha. So, although Buddhist and Shint[=o]ist might quarrel as to his t.i.tle, and divide, even to anger, on minor points, they would both agree in letting the common people take their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment, and preserve their reverence and worship.

(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the swaying figure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he admired the accuracy of the drapery and a.s.sociations. He was amused, it may be, with occasional anachronisms as to garments or equipments. He knew that the original of this personage had been nothing more than a human being, who might indeed have been conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a skilful physician who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who imported new food or improved agriculture.

In a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in modern Christendom, he might be honored through the government, patent office, privy council, the admiralty, the university, or the academy, as the case or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic representation by the sculptor or artist, or be known in the popular literature; but he would never receive religious worship, or aught beyond honor and praise.

In this swamping of history in legend and of fact in dogma, we behold the fruit of K[=o]b[=o]'s work, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism.

K[=o]b[=o]'s Work Undone.

Buddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. j.a.panese poetry asks of the dewdrop "why, having the heart of the lotus for its home, does it pretend to be a gem?" For a thousand years Riy[=o]bu Buddhism was received as a pure brilliant of the first water, and then the scholarship of the Shint[=o] revivalists of the eighteenth century exposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and declared that the jewel called Riy[=o]bu was but a craftsman's doublet and should be split apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they declared, crowned a ma.s.s of paste. Indignation made learning hot, and in 1870 the cement was liquefied in civil war. The doublet was rent asunder by imperial decree, as when a lapidist melts the mastic that holds in deception adamant and gla.s.s, while real diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen flame. The Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols, furniture, equipment and personnel, and were made again to a.s.sume their august and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic critic, this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of the priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was outrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in blood, fire and a.s.sa.s.sination; to the Shint[=o]ist, it was an exhibition of the righteous judgment of the long-insulted G.o.ds; in the ken of the critical student, it seems very much like historic and poetic justice.

In our day and time, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism furnishes us with a warning, for, looked at from a purely human point of view, what happened to Shint[=o] may possibly happen to j.a.panese Christianity. The successors of those who, in the ninth century, did not scruple to Buddhaize Shint[=o], and in later times, even our own, to Shint[=o]ize Buddhism while holding to Buddha's name and all the revenue possible, will Buddhaize Christianity if they have power and opportunity; and signs are not wanting to show that this is upon their programme.

The water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming ma.s.s, which needs cleansing to purity by a knowledge of one G.o.d who is Light and Love.

Without such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism will but form fresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such knowledge, Christianity may pa.s.s through endless changes, for this is her capability by Divine power and the authorization of her Founder. The now Buddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself through reformation and progress. In doing so, the danger of the destruction of the system is great, for thus far change has meant decay.

CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS

"To the millions of China, Corea, and j.a.pan, creator and creation are new and strange terms,"--J.H. De Forest.

"The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it is to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the Inmost Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their Original State."

"The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads it mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is unified with it though he has no thought about it. He is the true keeper of the Sutra."--Zitsuzen As.h.i.tsu of the Tendai sect.

"It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course it is. All logic is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'"

"It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations.

It is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the chief of evils."--George William Knox.

"Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well satisfied, dance their prayers."--j.a.panese Proverb.

"The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without hypocrisy."--James.

"The mystery of G.o.d, even Christ in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."--Paul.

CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS

Chronological Outline.

In sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of Buddhism in j.a.pan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from its original simplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. Several distinct phases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were introduced into the islands at various times between the sixth and the ninth century. From these and from others of native origin have sprung the larger j.a.panese sects. Even as late as the seventeenth century, novelties in Buddhism were imported from China, and the exotics took root in j.a.panese soil; but then, with a single exception, only to grow as curiosities in the garden, rather than as the great forests, which had already sprung from imported and native specimens.

We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in j.a.pan into four epochs:

I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects, which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital.

II. Then follows Riy[=o]bu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth centuries.

III. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and peculiarly j.a.panese, and by a wide missionary propagation.

IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of to-day claims at least a pa.s.sing notice.

The j.a.panese writers of ecclesiastical history cla.s.sify in three groups the twelve great sects as the first six, the two mediaeval, and the four modern sects.

In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century but which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more fully the purely j.a.panese developments. The first three sects may be grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called.

Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and yet this ill.u.s.tration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as though a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a special emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians and the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and organizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept the literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy Scripture itself.

The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and printed in j.a.pan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The canon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of Buddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or followers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in j.a.pan, is made up of books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the contemporaries of Gautama had pa.s.sed away. Not a few of these writings are the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held by particular sects as holy scripture were composed in j.a.pan itself, the very books themselves being worshipped. Nevertheless those who are apparently farthest away from primitive Buddhism, claim to understand Buddha most clearly.

The Standard Doctrinal Work.