The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-05-27

individual soul in the soul of the UNI
verse. This was the end to be sought,
and no wonder it came as a relief to
those whose philosophy taught perpet-
ual transition of the soul thru man
and beast and bird and reptile. The
means of reaching Nirvana was thru
the remuneration of self. Life he con-
ceived to be prolonged misery, inf
declared to be the root of all evil. So
long as one loves life, he argued, he
cannot escape from the bondage of ex-
istence. In the entire elimination Of
self by the REIMBURSEMENT of a desire
for separate existence here or here
after-in this alone could he find path
to Nirvana.
The next forty-ive years of his life
his doctrines, in formulating rules and
in perfecting the details of his system.
Many of =. his precepts are admirable.
| For instance, he divides progress to-
ward the blissful state into three
| stages. In the first, he puts those who
abstain from evil thru fear of punish
ment; these he commends, tho he con-
siders the motive comparatively low.
In the second stage are those who,
passing from negative harmlessness. to
helpfulness, do good from hope of re-
| higher motive than the first. In the
| third state, the seeker after Nirvana
| does good. not for hope of reward, but
for the sake of love alone. The last
gift love has to give is to give up love
| of life itself and pass from further
change to changelessness.
e. + j. +
| At one. time Buddhism spread over
India and promised the conquest Of
Asia. Two hundred years after the
Buddhist's death great king, Asoka,
sent out $4,000 missionaries and the
doctrines of Gautama were accepted as
! far east as China and Japan and as far
south as Java. But the wave receded.
India returned to Hinduism, China to
Confucianism and Japan to Shintoism
and Mohammedanism now outnumbers
Buddhism on the Gauges. The Budd-
hists still hold Burma, Thibet and Cey-
Ion, but even in these countries there
is evidence of decline. Handy, the
capital city Of Ceylon. has the distine.
ton of guarding a "sacred tooth,n
thought by the ignorant to be one Of
the eye teeth of the Buddha. 1t is
kept in a gold and jeweled casket en-
| iect of worship, but the more intelli-
gent Buddhists know that it is a fraud.
| At Rangoon I found Baptist school,
conducted by Americans, with nearly
900 pupils, and learned of the crafty
| ing success which has attended mission
airy work in Burma
| And yet. there is Buddhist propa-
| ganda in Europe and America! In a
review called Buddhism, published at
Rangoon by the international Budd-
hist society, I read that Kaiser Will
helm is "alarmed' at the progress that
this religion is making in Germany, and
I also read that our country offers a
promising field for Buddhist mission
| aries.
:. + !.
AS religion Of agnosticism, requir-
ing belief in neither God nor immor-
tally, nor vet in the mortality taught
by Christ. it may appeal to some who,
like the Englishman whom [ found in
the monastery, have already rejected
Christianity but it is not likely to ap-
peal to those who have had religious
experience Those who emphasize good
works, and fail to recognize the need
of an inspiring faith behind the works,
may take refuge in the teachings Of
Buddha from the more exacting re-
quirements of the Nazarene, but no
one is likely to be led astray who COM
pares the altruism, the philanthropy
and the benevolences of Christianity
with the fruits of Buddhism. To live.
even in poverty, upon the labors OF
others with view to gaining thus an
earlier entrance into blissful uncon-
seriousness is not so unselfsh, after all,
as to spend oneself in the service of his
fellows and to convert life into an ex-
1 10,