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    THE METAPHYSIC

    OF

    CHRISTIANITY

    AND

    BUDDHISM.

    _A SYMPHONY._

    BY
    MAJOR-GENERAL DAWSONNE M. STRONG, C.B.
    (_Late Indian Army_),

    AUTHOR OF "SELECTIONS FROM THE BOSTĀN OF SÂDI,
    TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE."

    "Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."--_Bible._

    LONDON:

    WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET ST.

    1899.




    LOVINGLY DEDICATED

    TO

    MY WIFE

    IN MEMORY OF OUR SOJOURN

    IN

    THE EAST.




CONTENTS.


  CHAP.                                         PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                                   vii

  I. JESUS AND GOTAMA                              1

  II. GOD AND THE KOSMOS                          33

  III. SOUL, SELF, INDIVIDUALITY, AND KARMA       55

  IV. HEAVEN AND NIRVANA                          82

  V. SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS                     103

  AT THE MALAGAWA TEMPLE, CEYLON                 113

  APPENDIX:--METRICAL ADAPTATIONS OF BUDDHISTIC
  LEGEND AND SCRIPTURE:--

    1. The Last Words of Gotama Buddha to his
    Favourite Disciple Ananda                    115

    2. Samsâra and Nirvana                       116

    3. Rejoice                                   118

    4. The Goal                                  120

    5. Buddha and the Herdsman                   123

    6. Buddha and the King                       126




INTRODUCTION.

 "Si notre foi diffère quant à la forme et aux dogmes, nos âmes restent
 toujours d'accord sur un principe éternel et divin."--GEORGE SANDS.


An immense difficulty has to be encountered by those who have been
deeply impressed by the value and beauty of Christianity when they are
called upon to consider the claims of other faiths. Anyone who has had
within his experience and under his observation such an exceptional
case as that of a sincere Christian who, from childhood to old age,
has set before him the ideal Christ and the Christian conception of an
all-compassionate Father--a Christian whose inner light has been so
pure that no darkness of doubt has ever dimmed it, and no doctrinal
warfare has ever stained its radiance--he, I contend, has an almost
insuperable obstacle to overcome when he attempts to associate holiness
and purity, of the same supreme order, with the followers of other
religious systems which have been formulated for the comfort and
salvation of humanity.

It is doubtful if any ordinary adherent of the Christian faith, however
extensive his sympathies towards persons outside his own flock, has
ever been able to pass this barrier, which always seems to interpose
itself when search is made for a common bond of union with an alien
belief.

A man may have lived many a year in the East, and witnessed there, with
deep appreciation, the purity, the endurance, the touching self-denial
of the devout peasantry, and the beautiful charity of the poor towards
the poor; or he may have associated with saintly ascetics in India,
and with the yellow-robed and gentle _religieux_ of Ceylon; he may
have surveyed the famous temple of that fair island, in the intense
stillness of a tropical night, till all identity of self seemed to
vanish in the solemnity of the surroundings, and the only sound was
that of a monk's intoning voice heard from within the dungeon-like
apertures of the building, and the only light that of the fitful
fireflies amid the lofty and drooping foliage;--yet, in each and all of
these experiences, that aroma of holiness, so perceptible at times in
our own religious atmosphere, would somehow seem strangely absent to
the unacclimatized senses, and no halo would be distinguishable by a
vision which had been restricted by prejudice.

Still more difficult is it to rise to the same height of reverence
for a saintly and surpassing personality if it is presented in
sacred records other than those to which one has owned a prior
allegiance. Nevertheless, the discovery in other religious systems of
a correspondence with one's own particular persuasion must assuredly
tend towards the attainment of that attitude of mind commended by St.
Paul of "being all things to all men." To pave the way towards the
acquisition of this mental posture in relation to religious concepts is
the main object I have had in view in composing this small book.

It has been said that no age has more needed a departure in this
direction than our own. "On the one hand, sectarian hatred and
dogmatism almost obscure the great truths _common_ to all mankind; on
the other, merciless and destructive criticism, in undermining much
that used to be generally accepted, seems at times to threaten even the
foundations of truth."

Some people, however, maintain that there is an appreciable value
to be attached to all dogmatic declarations, and that those who are
working in strictly-confined theological grooves are contributing, as
specialists, to a knowledge of the whole. Even if these workers are
possessed of all the uncharitable qualities sometimes attributed to
the narrow-minded, yet they may be held deserving of encouragement
in view of the probability that the more their limited ideas become
exposed to the light by their enthusiastic endeavours to assert them as
final truth, the sooner will their imperfections be obliterated. The
fragmentary opinions they cling to will then be discovered to possess
no value except as constituent elements of the whole.

Others go the length of advocating that the flames of bigotry should be
fanned to furnace-heat in order that the feeding fuel may be the more
rapidly consumed.

In any case, the more apparent it becomes that every religion worthy
of the name springs from a root common to all, and is really, at
bottom, the one true cosmic religion, and that the variations are
superficial and unimportant in themselves, the greater will be the
advantages accruing to humanity in the political, social, and moral
spheres. In other words, the advantage to be derived from the study of
the obscure phases of religions lies in this--that, in so doing, our
minds are better able to grasp the solidarity of religious thought and
aspirations throughout the world. We are enabled to see more clearly
that all religious forms, and even formless philosophies, however crude
and idolatrous the former may appear to people of wide culture, and
however mystical and evasive the latter may be regarded by those of
narrow vision, are but the effects of one cause common to all.

When we have got rid, Buddhistically, of the idea of separateness,
or, in a Christian sense, have exercised self-suppression, we can
then proceed to eliminate the notion of separateness in religions and
philosophies. Thus, whether we are Determinists or Indeterminists,
we shall experience the sensation that, according to the law of
development, it is in the scheme of things for us to struggle forward
on our several paths, not in antipathy to, but hand in hand with, those
who make use of different modes of progression towards one identical
goal.

Missionary propagandism, under these conditions, will have the same
_raison d'être_, and our cherished symbolisms will in no wise suffer.
Holding this view, I have felt no misgivings as to the propriety of
placing side by side, as it were, the historical and radiant figures of
Jesus the Christ and Gotama the Buddha, and of indicating an analogy
between the essential features of the two systems of religion which
these great deliverers of a world on earth have fashioned and commended
for the acceptance of their fellow creatures.

Indeed, Buddhism should occupy a very large place in the affections
and admiration of all true Christians on account of the many points of
resemblance discernible in the characters and gospels of Gotama and
Jesus.

St. Augustine, the great vindicator of Christianity, clears the ground
for an assimilation of the two systems. He writes: "For the thing in
itself which is now called the Christian religion really was known to
the ancients, nor was wanting at any time, from the beginning of the
human race until the time that Christ came into the flesh, from which
the true religion which had previously existed began to be called
Christian; and this in our day is the Christian religion--not as having
been wanting in former times, but as having in later times received
this name."

Köppen says: "As, from the standpoint of Buddhism, all men--nay, all
beings--are brothers, children of one sin, sons of the same nonentity,
thus all religions of the globe appear to it as related, as sprung from
one source; all pursuing the same end, and arriving at the same goal.
The religious views, creeds, etc., etc.... of all nations, Churches,
schools, sects, and parties, however diverse they may seem, are hence,
according to the conception of the believing Buddhist, not alien,
but inwardly akin. They are merely peculiar forms, modifications,
obscurations, degenerations of the same truth--of one law, one faith,
one redemption. For him there is only one doctrine and one Way; and
all religions belong, in one way or another, to this doctrine, and are
all on that Way."

Among the things that can never be shaken are the foundations of
Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, and other cognate religious
systems. Here and there, perchance, a steeple may come down with
a crash, a minaret may fall, a pagoda crumble into dust; but the
foundation-stones, laid beneath the surface, buried in mystery, and
encompassed by darkness, remain irremoveable, changeless, and eternal.

It is, then, in this brooding darkness which envelopes their occult
sources that we must take our stand; and not until we have grown into
and become one with the encircling gloom, and been subjectively steeped
in it, can we hope to understand or pronounce a fair judgment upon what
is the less obscure and objective.

The comparative study of religions requires approach with an open and
receptive mind, and a large amount of intuitive sympathy with all. It
cannot be fairly undertaken if the initial object of investigation is
to mould the one or the other to the shape of personal fancy.

Mr. Arthur Lillie, a most interesting exponent of Buddhism in relation
to Christianity, says that the study of an ancient religion is not
philosophy, but pure history. This may be true, in a sense; but, at
the same time, it is necessary that the records of the past should be
studied in a philosophical and synthetic spirit, with an Impressionist
rather than a pre-Raphaelite tendency. Mr. Lillie hardly makes due
allowance for the measure of failure which must accompany all human
efforts to do justice to a great idea, and perhaps overstrains the
theory that literary and philological analysis have had their day, and
that archæology and history should now reign supreme.

In connection with the placing of too great a reliance upon the
"letter" of venerated records, a warning--serious enough if we
appropriate it to ourselves--has issued from the pen of the Rev. Spence
Hardy, who, in a passage of his book, entitled _Eastern Monachism_
(p. 166), emphasizes with tremendous force the precarious position of
those who take their stand solely upon sacred books. "The priests of
India," he writes, "are encompassed by weapons that may be wrested
from their hands and used to their own destruction. When it is clearly
proved to them that their venerated records contain absurdities and
contradictions, they must of necessity conclude that their origin
cannot have been divine; and, the foundations of the system being thus
shaken, the whole mass must speedily fall, leaving only the unsightly
ruin as a monument of man's folly, when he endeavours to form a
religion from the feculence of his own corrupt heart or the fancies of
his own perverted imagination."

It may be apposite here to demonstrate how far short of the Pauline
standard the cultivated European critic falls, by referring to some
remarks of the Rev. Prof. Bruce in one of his Gifford Lectures[A] of
last year, in which he treats of Gotama's views concerning the moral
order of the universe. Of the two leading doctrines of Buddhism, Karma
is called by him "fantastic" and Nirvana "morbid"; and, not content
with such a contemptuous dismissal of these remarkable conceptions, he
proceeds to say: "The well-being of the race demanded warriors, brave
in the field of battle against evil, not monks, immured in cloisters
and passing their lives in poverty, wearing the yellow robe of a
mendicant order."

 [A] _Vide Glasgow Herald_, January, 1898.

This rhetorical flourish may have sounded very effective and convincing
as a peroration, and have produced the desired result of clearing
the lecturer from any possible imputation of sympathy with Buddhism,
except as an ethical system of considerable excellence; but such a
summing-up of Buddhism is neither more nor less than a throwing of
dust in the eyes of beholders, and is, in my opinion, very far removed
from the dispassionate survey one would expect from a Gifford Lecturer.
Alighting on such a misrepresentation of his religious system, a
Buddhist would naturally feel aggrieved, and his belief in our
self-adopted reputation for fair-play all round might be rudely shaken.

"Karma" is undoubtedly one of the so-called mysteries of Buddhism; but
is it in any sense more fantastic than any other religious mystery? Is
this theory of the transmigration of character (as it has been somewhat
loosely described) more fanciful in its conception than that of the
transmigration of the soul, a "vaguely-apprehended, feebly-postulated
ego," to a dim locality such as heaven? Then, again, it may be asked,
what is there so objectionable in a quiet, unobtrusive resistance to
evil, that it should prompt the lecturer to magnify the importance of a
crude aggressiveness?

It is by no means true that Buddhist monks are usually immured in
cloisters; they, in fact, move about freely as examples, within human
limits, of the highest morality, and they chiefly occupy themselves
(as in Burma) with the education of children.[B] General Forlong, in
his _Short Studies in the Science of Comparative Religions_, says:
"Gotama's religion widened from Jaino-Buddhism into one of work and
duty towards his fellows; his instructions to the order of monks were
to the following effect: that they were not to _beg_ from door to door,
but only to accept gifts in return for services performed; and this was
their service--to be an example to all men."

 [B] Those who have not yet read that pathetically beautiful book, _The
 Soul of a People_, by H. Fielding, are referred to chapters x. and
 xi., wherein are set forth the true characteristics, functions, and
 aspirations of the Buddhist monkhood in Burma.

Condemnation of these monks for passing their lives in poverty sounds
strangely inappropriate coming from the lips of a Christian professor;
and, as to the well-being of the race not demanding the wearing of
yellow garments, one might reasonably ask if it demanded the wearing
of a black gown. We must, in all fairness, I think, credit Gotama with
possessing a large measure of that "Light which lighteth _every man_
that cometh into the world."

Sir Edwin Arnold, I believe, refers to the mysteries of Buddhism as
"blank abstractions," but I do not suppose he regards them as more
"blank" than the mysteries of other religions. All mysteries are, in
a sense, blank abstractions, and the blanker they are the nearer the
truth; and what religion is without them? It may be conceded, however,
that such a conception as "Ultimate Reality" upon which to fall back in
time of need might prove to some minds a more comfortless one than that
presented by the "Compassionate Father" of the Christian God-idea. But
even this Christian symbolism has an element of mystery in it.

Then there is the poetic phase of anthropomorphism, which is not
altogether to be despised from an æsthetic point of view. Such as the
Mohammedan Allah, who is described with exquisite imagery in the Bostān
of Sâdi as a beautiful cup-bearer at Sufistic banquets,

  "So fair, They spill the wine and stare,"[C]

which recalls the anthropomorphic Deity of the Psalms:--

  "In His hand is a cup, and the wine is red."

  [C] Author's translation of _Bostān of Sâdi_.

Another picture of great poetical merit is that of the Incarnate
Saviour of the Mexicans, who does not ascend to heaven on his departure
from the earth, but sets forth upon the wide ocean in a wizard bark of
serpent skins for the fabled shores of the kingdom of his Father.

Dr. Paul Carus, in his preface to _The Gospel of Buddha_, says: "A
comparison of the many striking agreements between Christianity and
Buddhism may prove fatal to a sectarian conception of Christianity,
but will in the end only help to mature our insight into the essential
nature of Christianity, and so elevate our religious convictions.
It will bring out that nobler Christianity which aspires to be the
cosmic religion of universal truth.... It will serve both Christians
and Buddhists as a help to penetrate further into the spirit of their
faith, so as to see its full width, breadth, and depth."

The theological formation which has gradually developed into what may
be called the crust of creeds, and which has probably now reached
its limits of hardening, is seen, from day to day, under varying
influences, to be cracking into wider and deeper fissures. The curious
inquirer now possesses ample opportunities of looking below the surface
and observing some of the conditions that have, in the course of ages,
given rise to