Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-10-03
STATE OF BUDDHISM,
WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGION CAN
NEVER MAKE HEADWAY.

dhist Idea Is Dramatically Opposed to
the Tendency of Civilization.
( Every few weeks the newspapers give
voice to some one of a certain class of mys-
tics who announce, or perhaps we should
say threaten, a revival of Buddhism
which is to revolutionize the world. The
Buddhists are already said to be numerous
in all the great cities of the Western world,
and their ranks are daily swelled by new
converts. We are assured that there are
1000 in Paris, as many more in London,
u~nnumbered thousands in Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, with Chicago and
St. Louis yet to be heard from. The fig.
ures seem to be slightly exaggerated.
Granting for the sake of argument that
there are in Europe and America a million
persons who incline toward this form of
religion, which inculcates a great deal that
is admirable and true in morals, we shall
yet be very far from that sweeping CONVEX
sion to the dogmas of the Indian messiah
which his admirers predict. 1t is strange
to note in this connection that while a
small faction of Christianity desires to
convert the world to Buddhism, there has
been a growing sentiment in Japan. a
Buddhist country, that Christianity is
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would do well to discard their ancient,
non-progressive faith and adopt it's rights
and practices.
Buddhism is the faith of perhaps 500, 0OO,-
900 persons, inhabiting Burmah, Siam,
Cambodia, Cochin China, Ceylon, Anam,
Tonquin, Thibet, the Chinese empire and
Japan. There are none in Hindostan, the
country where Gautama, the father of the
| faith, was born some 300 years before
Christ, his followers all having persisted in
a persecution that took place about the
commencement Of the Christian era.
THE BUDDHIST IDEA.
TIL life of Buddha is the keySote of the
belief of his followers. The son of q DOW.
erful rajah, married to a beautiful woman
and surrounded by every luxury, he left
his home on account of the impression
made on him by the evidences of human
misery that he saw about him, and lived
thenceforward the life of an ~ascetic, his
only effort being to %extinguish in his
breast every human desire and passion. To
his mind the chief end of existence was the
attainment of %"nirvana," a state of perfect
repose, which could not generally be &C
complished till after death. He recognized
no God as a separate being, his theory of
the universe being pantheistic, not a soul
separate from the body, though every hui
man being had before his present life
passed through a series of existences,
which after his death would be continued
to all eternity. This theory of the trans
migration of souls Tor of existences) has
been for some years past in favor among
spiritists.
The morality of Buddhism in it's ascetic
form is naturally above suspicion. But
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when everything is on fire, has a religion
which involves ~conventual inactivity, and
has for its chief end, its ideal of happiness,
the n%irvana, a state of perfect repose, which
is equivalent to mental death or physical
annihilation? Could anything be more
foreign to the American habit of thought
and action?
Buddhism is inferior to Christianity not
only in that it is unprogressive, but in that
it is highly personal and selfish. The gov
erning motive of the Buddhist is to purify
and save himself. The leading idea Of
Christianity is doing good to others. The
difference is vital, since every living gen.
GRAFTON has as its beneficent task to create
a new world for that which is to follow.
Save yourself" is the cry of Buddhism;
Save othersI" is the cry of Christianity,
and when we say Christianity we mean not
those merely who regard themselves as its
orthodox representatives, but all who in
so called Christian countries acknowledge
what faith has done for the world, and &C.
cept its principles in general, without put
ting implicit faith in all its dogmas.
A THINKERS OPINION.
A Paris reporter a short time ago
thought it would be a sensible thing to in.
terview Renan, one of the accepted oracles
of human thought, on the threatened in
vasion of Buddhism. The great philoso-
pher and moralist took the matter serious
ly and practically. He acknowledged the
admirable moral theories that the system
had given to the world, but regarded its ex-
cessive gentleness and resignation, it's
horror OF blood, its asceticism, its illumina-
lions, as tending to demoralize and destroy
the race. The nations vowed to the faith
were dead politically and morally. Some
of them were swept away by the Tartar in.
vasions.
Those which remain, in which Buddhism
may almost be said to be a state religion,
and that does not include China and
Japan, amount to nothing. There is moth
ing in Buddhism which corresponds with
the temperament of any western nation of
this epoch, which is all for action, and has
no sympathy with the perfect repose Of
the nirvana. AS to the RECONSIDERATION or
the passage Of beings retaining something
OF the human form from star to star, the
philosophers ideas were not of that wan
dering character, and he had no time to
discuss such a vagabond theory.
1t hardly needed the opinions even of a
thinker so profound and so practical as
Renan to convince any sensible man that
If the world is ever to return to Buddhism
It is not just at this epoch. There is moth
ing in the spirit of the age to encourage
its followers to persist in the attempt at
conversion. The world is just now too
busily occupied to accept any form of faith
that is purely reflective. In Europe the
condition of armed truce offers no vantage
ground to abstract thought. There is not
only the rivalry at home to fill the minds
of government and people, but a colonial
policy that takes up all their spare time
and rounds out their sphere of action.
AS for ourselves, there is so much to do,
40 much to develop and complete, that we
seem just at the commencement of our Ma.
tional career. The period for the whole
world is one of hope, not of despair. Ev
erywhere nations and people are looking
forward. not backward. No doubt the
world will pass, at some future day,
through II period of pessimism, when it