I. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA
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1. At the great Pagoda in Rangoon.
Let us visit the great Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon, one of the living centres of the Buddhist world, where amidst a splendid grove of palms and forest trees the golden spire rises high above a vast platform crowded with shrines and images of the Buddha. Far below is the teeming city bathed in golden light, and humming with life; here all is still save for the rustle of leaves and the tinkling of innumerable bells upon the great pagoda pinnacle, and the shouting of a class of boys in the monastery school near by.
(a) A Monastic School.—Some two score of them are seated round a kindly old monk in his faded yellow robe. And all are shouting at the top of their voices repeating in unison certain words, of whose meaning they do not seem to think!
(b) Its Moral Teaching.—As we draw near we realise that these are phrases from a popular Buddhist book known as Mingala Thot, a summary of the Buddhist beatitudes, which describe the happy life of the Buddhist layman. First they shout a word of Pāli[1] and then a word of Burmese, and lastly the whole phrase. There are twelve verses, of which the following is typical:—
"Tend parents, cherish wife and child,
Pursue a blameless life and mild:
Do good, shun ill and still beware
Of the red wine's insidious snare;
Be humble, with thy lot content,
Grateful and ever reverent."
Many times must these phrases be droned through before they are learned by heart, but gradually their meanings sink in and simple explanations and grammatical notes by the teacher help his class to understand as well as to learn. These moral maxims still exert a powerful influence for good.
(c) Its Religious Instruction.—Another favourite lesson is a short summary of the excellent qualities of the "Three Jewels" of Buddhism—the Buddha, his Order of Monks, and his Law or teaching; and another celebrates eight victories of the Buddha over enemies temporal and spiritual. Having mastered these preliminary books, the boys will learn the chief Jātakas, a strange medley of folklore dressed up in Buddhist guise, and purporting to be stories of the various sacrificial existences of the founder of Buddhism, Sākyamuni, before he became a Buddha. Buddhism is not only a body of moral teachings, but a religion with an elaborate system of beliefs, which makes very great demands upon the faith of its worshippers, and some of these beliefs are embodied in these stories of the former lives of the Buddha. Others are conveyed in legends and hymns, in popular summaries and proverbial sayings universally known and used by the people.
(d) The Importance of the Monks.—This class of boys around the old monk represents an educational system which covers all Burma and has unbounded influence. It is an amazing fact that there are almost two monasteries to every village. While this constitutes an enormous drain upon the resources of the country, since all the monks retire from its active industrial life, and live upon the alms of the laity, it has, on the other hand, made Burma one of the most literate of all the lands of the East, with a larger percentage of men who can read and write than modern Italy. So great is the power of the monks that all boys, before they can be regarded as human beings, must undergo a form of ordination. It is not strange that some of them are caught by the lure of the monastic life and the glamour of the yellow robe: yet most of them, after a short experience, go back to the world.
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The young shin or novice, who chooses to stay in a monastery, may in due course be admitted to ordination. At that time, dressed in princely robes, he celebrates the sacrifice of the founder of Buddhism, Sākyamuni, in leaving his royal state to become a mendicant. His head is shaved, his gorgeous clothes are taken away, and henceforward he is clad only in the yellow robe of the Buddhist monks, an order older, more widespread, and more picturesque than any other religious order in the world. He has "taken refuge in the Three Jewels," and now takes up the regular life of the monk. He goes out daily with a group of others to collect food for the monastery; he attends to the various needs of the older monks and carries on the simple household tasks assigned to him. A large portion of his time must be given to studies, until he has a good working knowledge of the three "Baskets,"[2] i.e. the Discipline, the Narratives or Dialogues, and the Higher Religion, which make up the Buddhist canon. In course of time he may himself become a teacher.
Let us turn again to the shrine. The great sun is going down and the pagoda, splendid in the sunset as it changes from gold to purple and from purple to gray, and then to silver as the glorious moon rises, is thronged with devout worshippers. The monk prostrates himself before the jewelled alabaster image of Buddha. He seems unaware of the people around him, who honour him as a being of a superior order; or, if conscious of them, it is with a sense of his own aloofness. "Sabbā Dukkhā" (all is sorrow) he is murmuring: "Sabbā Anattā" (all is without abiding entity). Mechanically the lay-folk repeat with him the words which have been for twenty-five centuries the Buddhist challenge to the world, calling it away from the lure of the senses and the ties of family and home.
Do the people really believe it? Let us look at this group of women before one of the many shrines on the spacious pagoda platform. Are they intent on giving up the world or on making the most of it? Are they persuaded that it is all sad and transient? Here kneels a young wife offering strands of her hair, and praying that her child may have hair as long and beautiful. Near by is an unhappy wife who prays that her husband may become as pure as the flower which she lays at the feet of the Buddha. Not far away is one very old and trembling woman who, after bowing to the impassive image and lighting her little candle before it, has turned back to pat a great old tree lest the nat, or spirit, which lives within, be offended. "The spirits are always malignant and have to be propitiated. The world-renowned one, is he not benign?" She must not risk offending this tree-spirit, in her desire to please the Buddha. "The Burman tries to keep both in mind and to serve them faithfully, for both may help to make this life pleasant; but he is most anxious concerning the demons. Whilst in every village in the country there is at least one pagoda and monastery, there is sure to be a spirit-shrine in every home, where the spirits are consulted and appeased before homes are built, marriages arranged, purchases made, or journeys undertaken." It is these things, after all, that make up life for most of us.
2. The Religious Values of Everyday Buddhism.
(a) What Buddhism means for Burmese Women.—It will be interesting to consider what Buddhism has to offer to such groups of women. Four sorts of appeal may be mentioned. In the first place Buddhism is a great social force, providing many festivals and giving much colour to everyday life. In theory it may be sad; in practice it is very cheerful. Even in Christian lands some women go to church to see the latest fashions; can we wonder that Burmese Buddhist women delight to gather on the platform of the beautiful pagoda for friendly intercourse and gossip? Again, they think of the order of monks as giving them the best chance to gain "merit." They recall that the Master taught that generous offerings to them are potent in bringing all kinds of benefits in this world, and even in helping the dead in the dim life of the underworld. The monks confer a favour by accepting alms; it is the donor who says "Thank you."
Another great source of enjoyment and instruction is the well-known Buddhist stories, told over and over again, often miraculous, always with a moral. They also reflect on the lives, which they know by heart, of certain great Bodhisattvas, or Buddhas in the making, "buds of the lotus," which later on burst into full bloom. One of the pictures in which they delight is that of Gotama[3] when he was a hare and jumped into the fire to feed a hungry Brahmin. Another picture more familiar and more poignant still, depicts his appearance as Prince Vessantara, giving away his wife and beloved children to a hunchback beggar. These stories exert an immense influence.
And finally, Buddhism influences Burmese women by appealing to their imagination and their love of mystery, with its solemn chanting, its myriad shrines, with their innumerable candles twinkling in the dusk, and the sexless sanctity of its monks. How wise and good they seem to be! Are they not custodians of the truth? Here one little woman is lifting a heavy stone weighing forty pounds; a monk has told her that if it seems heavy her prayer will surely be answered. To make assurance doubly sure, she may go and consult the soothsayer, whose little booth is near the shrine—a cheerful rogue, not without insight and a sense of humour—but she gives to the monk the supreme place, and pays him more generously!
A Burman acquaintance of mine, who was converted to Christianity, was asked by an old lady why he had deserted the "custom" of his people. "I am sick," he began, "of all this bowing down to the monks, and of all these offerings." "Stop, stop!" she cried, aghast. "You are destroying the whole religion of our nation!"
(b) What it means for Burmese Men.—Laymen in Burma are much like men elsewhere. Here is one who between prostrations before the image of Buddha keeps his long cheroot alive, and enjoys an occasional puff. He is like many men one meets, "making the best of both worlds." Yet to him too Buddhism makes a strong appeal, primarily because it is his heritage or, as he says, "the custom of Burma." The national feeling, which is alive in Burma as well as in all other parts of the East, resents Western influences, of which Christianity seems a part. Moreover, Buddhism strongly appeals to his habit of mind. He thinks he understands why there is inequality in human lot, why some are rich and some poor, some healthy and some diseased. He explains it as the working out of the law of Kamma.[4] Men suffer now because they have sinned in a former birth. Listen to this conversation: Old U Hpay is telling a neighbour about a foolish old sister of his who has adopted a calf, and is petting it because its voice is so like that of her dead husband! While the old men chuckle at this quaint expression of her faith, yet they do believe that this is the law of life. Should you kill a mosquito it may be your mother-in-law in a new body, and still going strong! But Buddhism puts forth its greatest appeal at those times when there comes over its votaries a wistful yearning for something which this world has not given them. At these quiet moments, especially in the evening of life, when they are no longer concerned with making money or with the raising of a family, the appeal of Nibbāna[5] and its peace comes home to many. They do not feel sure of reaching it, nor do they fully understand what it means. Some of their monkish teachers tell them it will be annihilation, while others describe it as the extinction of all passion or a great calm. In either way Nibbāna[5] has its lure, especially to the world-weary. I have even known a Christian missionary who was tempted to long for the quiet and relief from the staleness and hurry of life which annihilation would bring. But he was weary and needed a holiday! Missionaries often do.
(c) Buddhism and Children.—Playing around, while the old people talk or pray, are always some children. Here a fat, naked baby takes a puff at his grandfather's cigar; there a little girl, devoutly imitating what she sees her parents doing before the great image of Buddha, also lights her candle and offers her marigolds. The older children quickly begin to take their share in the religious life about them. In some of them is dawning a hero-worship of the great Buddha who has done so much for the world. This little girl thinks wistfully of her brother, so recently her playmate, but now a Buddhist novice, with shaven head and yellow robe, as remote from her and aloof as if he belonged to another world. Not much is taught to her and her girl-playmates: "they are only girls!" But she is learning by what she sees, and she too is becoming a staunch Buddhist. There are some stalwart champions of Buddhism amongst the children, and the girls grow up, less instructed but not less devout than the boys.
(d) The Attitude of Burmese Students.—Every mother desires that one of her sons shall take and keep the yellow robe, yet the younger among the educated Burmese are frank in calling the order of monks a "yellow peril," not because they are bad men, for public opinion in Burma rarely tolerates immorality in these religious leaders, but because there are so many of them, over seventy-five thousand in the whole country. To feed such a horde of mendicants is a costly business, and the rebuilding and gilding of a pagoda may mean that the inheritance of every one belonging to its village will be decimated. "The pagoda is built and the village ruined," they ruefully repeat. Thus there is growing up among those who are in the government schools in contact with the liberal thinking of the West a disposition to question the values of the present religious system. Possibly not more than ten per cent. of the students who have Western training can be called orthodox Buddhists. Thus the old people to whom Buddhism means so much are anxious, and the young are restive. Burma, like many other countries, is going through a period of transition, the outcome of which is uncertain. Yet undoubtedly it is still a strongly Buddhist country, and the masses of its people are not much affected by this spirit of scepticism. As, however, Western education is the key to preferment the official classes are apt to sit loose to much that their fathers held sacred. And some few are busy re-thinking their faith and seeking to adapt it to modern needs.
(e) The Better Side of Burmese Buddhism.—Buddhism is often described as a pessimistic religion. As one sees it in Burma, however, it seems to make the people happy and contented. Possibly this is due to their naturally cheerful temperament. Whatever the reason, there is a remarkable joyousness about the gay-robed crowds of happy, smiling people.
Again, while Buddhism does not give to womanhood nearly so high a place as does the religion of Jesus, yet it has granted her a far better standing than she has in any part of India under Hinduism or Islam. Woman is the "better half" in Burma and knows it, even though she may pray to be born next as a man.
Caste, moreover, the great bane of India, is almost unknown to Buddhist Burma: it is a cheerful democratic land. Buddhism believes in the education of the masses, and its schools and monasteries are open to all. It is also very tolerant and kindly. It has not led on any large scale either to religious persecution or to war. These are no small services. Moreover, Buddhism has in the past been a great bond of union between the peoples of Asia, and it is to-day again playing some part in the movement, "Asia for the Asiatics"—a movement deserving our sympathetic attention. In the great awakening of Nationalism the Buddhist Revival has its share both as cause and as effect.
3. Prospects of Christianity in Burma.
There are only some twenty thousand Burmese Christians as yet, although, within the confines of Burma there is a far larger number of Christians, and the Karens are already a great church. What, then, are the reasons for confidence that Burma will at some time be a Christian country, albeit with a Christianity whose type will differ very greatly from the prevailing types of the West?
(a) The Burmese are truly Religious in Temperament.—The natural instinct of the Burmese for religion is strong. They are not content with mere ritual and with offerings, lavish as these are. Gratitude to Gotama, the great Teacher and lord of life, is a real motive to many. Not uncommonly are Christian hymns adapted by modern educated Buddhists and sung in honour of the Buddha:
"Glory, laud and honour
To our Lord and King,
This through countless ages,
Men and Devas sing."
These Buddhists have organised Buddhist Sunday Schools. In these the children not only closely imitate Protestant Sunday Schools but sing to a small portable harmonium:
"Buddha loves me, this I know;
For the Scriptures tell me so,"
or more usually Burmese hymns and "carols."
(b) They tend to view Gotama as a Saviour.—Again many look upon Gotama as a loving saviour. So strong is this attitude toward him that when a father blesses his child, he says to him: "May you be reborn when the Loving One, Metteya[6] comes." Gotama is reported as having promised the coming of such a redeemer. Even in Southern Asia, therefore, Buddhism is changing from a way of merit and self-mastery into a way of salvation by faith. May we not reckon this transition as a preparation for the message of Christianity? Buddhism everywhere is to-day almost more like Christianity than it is like the Buddhism of Gotama and the Elders. The Buddhism of Burma is more of a religion and less of a philosophy than that of the Books.
(c) _The Christian Heaven is more Attractive than Nibbāna.—It is clear again that Buddhists to-day are much more ready than before to accept the idea of a Christian heaven. This heaven, preached as a state of progress, a meeting-place of friends, and the beatific vision of God, is very attractive to them. The appeal of Nibbāna is dying: "Nibbāna," said a monk in Burma, "is a fearsome thought. I have no hope of attaining it." "We are walking in darkness," said another leader, "without seeing a light, a person, or a hope."
Missionaries both in Burma and Ceylon are agreed that the teaching of Buddhism has changed very greatly during the last few decades, among those who have come directly or indirectly in touch with Christianity. Formerly Buddhists preached that there was no supreme god, that Nibbāna meant total quiescence, almost total annihilation, that man is his own saviour, and that there is no possible escape from the penalty of sin; now many admit that there must be a God, declare that Gotama is a saviour, that sin is forgiven and that there is a heaven in place of Nibbāna.
On the other hand, there is still much work for the Christian missionary. Buddhism in many parts of Burma seems to be making one great last stand against the gospel of Christ. Its own standard is in many respects so high that our Christianity is as a whole not loving or sacrificial enough to win its adherents. The Christianity which is to be an overpowering argument for the efficacy and truth of the Christian faith is too rare. The Buddhist Revival is largely a reaction from our Western pseudo-Christianity, and from the shameless aggression of Christendom.
(d) Moral Conditions Demand a Vital Christianity.—The moral situation in Burma clearly demands that either a revivified Buddhism or Christianity in its most vital form should come to the rescue. The need is grave. Burma is at once the most literate and the most criminal portion of the Indian Empire. A government report for 1912 reads: "The moral sense of the people is diminishing with a slackening of religious observances. With the decay of ancient beliefs the Buddhist religion is losing its moral sanction as an inspiring force in the lives of its adherents. Drunkenness, gambling, drug-taking and vicious habits, increasing as they all are, tend to produce a weakening of self-control and a loss of self-respect which in favouring circumstances easily create the criminal." A fair-minded missionary would agree that these deplorable conditions are in large measure chargeable to the impact of Western "civilisation." It is incumbent upon us, in ordinary justice and fair play, to see that the West is represented by our very best men in missionary service, in commerce and in government posts. On the other hand, these deplorable moral conditions are also due to the fact that Buddhism has not succeeded in its task of building character. A genuine and vital Christianity has a large and hopeful task in Burma. These very attractive people need a dynamic and a bond of union in great enterprises. They are seeking such a religion.
(e) Loving Social Service finds its own Way to the Heart.—When Christianity is expressed in deeds of loving social service, such as work for lepers, for the deaf and the blind, or for any other needy class in the community, it touches a responsive chord in every Buddhist heart. They subscribe to our Christian mission work for the afflicted. The social appeal of Christianity will go far toward breaking down all forms of prejudice: and it is significant that the young Burmese are organising their own Y.M.B.A.'s and their own social service clubs, though at present these movements do not exhibit much staying-power.
(f) Christianity dispels the Fear of the Demon World.—Christianity reveals its power by dispelling the terrors of demon-haunted villages, and lessening the horrors of the slums of the great cities. A country like Burma is not interested in a new system of ethics. It is wholly satisfied with the admirable system it already possesses. But it does welcome the sense of spiritual freedom and power which Christianity can impart. "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." May we not say that Christ can give strength to follow the Noble Path of which Gotama spoke?
[1] The ancient and still the classic language of S. Buddhism in which its scriptures are preserved. It is used religiously, much as Latin is used in the Roman Catholic services.
[2] The Tipitaka (Sanskrit, Tripitika) (1) Vinaya; (2) Sutta; (3) Abhidhamma. The Pāli scriptures were originally written on palm leaves and preserved, layer upon layer, in the three "baskets." This, at least, is one explanation of the use of this term.
[3] Gotama is the Pāli form (common in S. Asia) of the Sanskrit Gautama, more familiar to Western readers.
[4] Sanskrit, Karma.
[5] Sanskrit, Nirvāna.
[6] Sanskrit, Maitri.
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