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This latter divinity, or bodishat, has had more of a following than even any of the Buddhas, because she was regarded as the personification of pity for suffering humanity. To one who looks upon the suffering of the world with a heart of compassion we instinc- tively yield homage and love, whatever the plan which compassion adopts to show itself forth in escaping from suffer- ing or in removing it. Thus Buddhism, whether ancient or modern, and whatever its philosophic conceptions, has for centuries been a power in the Orient because it repre- sents human pity. It is pity rather than philosophy which characterizes Buddhism. Among all the religious teachers of the world, the Christ and the Buddha stand forth as the embodiment of love which feels for others' woes and yearns to provide deliverance. IV This idea of deliverance or salvation is the other prevailing power of Bud- dhism. It is joined with compassion, as compassion is joined with suffering. Compassion has meaning only by its power to save mankind from suffering. To pity without the heart or the power to save soon becomes a mockery and works its own destruction. It is in seek- ing to save mankind from all forms of misery and sorrow that Buddhism is akin to Christianity, and it is of these three aspects of Buddhism that the Christian must feel appreciation. Thus the full expression of Kuan Yin is "the merciful and compassionate, who saves from suffering and saves from misery." All the Buddhas likewise re- ceive prayer, adoration, and trust as being the ones who can effect salvation. The great Buddha in his early life pointed out what lay at the bottom of suffering, namely, desire or passion, craving for more than is right. It may be lust for money, for fame; it may be the indulgence of one's passions; it may be a form of discontent. In order to save men from suffering, therefore, they must be saved from passion or wrong desire. Buddhism thus goes down to the root of all human trouble. The Buddha, having stated the forms of suffering, then asks and answers three questions: i. What is the origin of suffering ? It is lust, passion, and the thirst for existence that yearns for pleasure everywhere, leading to a continual rebirth. It is sensuality, desire, selfishness; all these things are the origin of suffering. 2. What is the annihilation of suffering? It is the radical and total annihilation of this thirst, the abandonment, the liberation, the deliverance from this passion. 3. What is the path that leads to the annihilation of suffering? It is the holy eightfold path, A CHRISTIAN'S APPRECIATION OF BUDDHISM 19 and he then proceeds to the enumeration of eight forms of virtue, eight aspects of good character. In saving men from their passions and so from suffering, ancient Buddhism and the new Buddhism have provided differ- ent methods. According to the former there is an eightfold path of deliverance, summed up in being good — right faith, right resolve, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right thought, and right meditation. In the new Buddhism, especially of the Pure Land School of Japan, salva- tion comes from without, from above, from one of the Buddhas or one of the bodishats. One's own efforts are in- sufficient to bring to an end all the suffering of the world. In Buddhism as in Christianity there must be a divine Savior. While ancient Buddhism taught salvation by good works, the new Bud- dhism has taught salvation by faith. In both, the predominant note is sal- vation, which issues from the heart of compassion. V A fifth reason for appreciating Bud- dhism is the emphasis placed on a right- eous life. This is true both in ancient Buddhism and in the new Buddhism, but more particularly in the former as providing the only way of salvation. The point of interest is that a righteous life means not so much righteous conduct as a righteous soul, righteousness within as essential to righteousness without. In the eightfold path, five of the eight re- quirements relate to actions of the heart. The righteousness of Buddhism is of the whole man. The teaching is not so much to do right as to be right. "Bud- dha," as one has written, "lays as much stress on the inward as on the outward side of morality; and he would have us realize that conduct, when divorced from faith and thought and purpose, is worth nothing." One of the simplest exhortations, understood by all, reads thus: Abstain from all evil, In all things act virtuously, Be pure in mind: This is the religion of the Buddhas. Sakyamuni, in his forty and more years of public preaching, ever exhorting his fellow-men not only to do good but to be good, traced suffering back to evil as he traced it back to wrong desire, and happiness back to goodness as he had traced it back to the subjugation of all passion, to complete self-control. Thus he said: If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. And again: If a man commits a sin let him not do it again; let him not delight in sin; pain is the outcome of evil. If a man does what is good, let him do it again; let him delight in it; happiness is the outcome of good. The exhortations of Buddhism to a life of goodness are without number. They appear in philosophic language, but more often in plain speech to reach all. The distinct aim of Buddhism is to bring about goodness in the world, and so remove unworthy desires and to be freed from suffering. As deliverance comes from compassion, so a righteous life is summed up in being compassion- ate. This is the way to remove suffer- ing from the world. 20 THE BIBLICAL WORLD VI A sixth reason for appreciating Bud- dhism is because of its wise method of building up character, viz., to have only a few positive commandments, but many prohibitions. In the higher stages of development, whether intellectual or spiritual, the negative gives place to the positive, but in all the preliminary stages the positive is not grasped except by frequent reminders of negative, of the prohibitive, of that to be avoided and shunned. By specifying minutely what one must not do, he learns best what he ought to do. Merely to tell one to be good or just is too indefinite to make an impression on the child-life of the individual or the nation. By speci- fying a variety of things which are not good and not just, and by a command- ment to abstain therefrom there comes growth in apprehension of goodness and justice. By facing prohibitions, and by determining what not to do, one learns self-control, and self-control is the strength of all virtue: it is the back- bone of sound character. The enunciation of great principles, which are to be worked out in each indi- vidual in the spirit of perfect freedom, characterizes a high form of civilization. Ordinary society can be governed only by laws. Men need to be told what are the various crimes and misdemeanors, and what is the punishment for breaking this or that law. A child learns how to keep the body strong and healthy only by a few accidents, some pain, and much crying. A national catastrophe best awakens a nation to the need of reform. To know what to avoid we best learn what we are to follow. In advanced training we "cease to speak of first principles" and "press on to perfection." Thus, according to wise educational methods in character training, Buddhism has first ten commandments, or rather prohibitions, and these are then ex- panded into several hundreds. The Mosaic law of Ten Commandments is also negative in form — "Thou shalt not." On the positive side of Buddhism all is summed up in compassion, and, later on, in what is called enlightenment or spiritual knowledge, just as Chris- tianity is summed up in love to God and men, or in being perfect. VII A seventh fundamental principle of Buddhism, which every Christian must recognize as true and must accordingly appreciate, is the law of cause and effect applied to morals, or the law of retri- bution, known in Buddhism as "Karma." One saying known to every man, woman, and child in China is this: "Goodness has its recompense; badness has its recompense; goodness and badness in the final reckoning must have their recompense." This law from which no one can escape is a basic principle of Buddhism. It is also a principle of supreme importance inculcated over and over again in Christianity, whose recognition preserves the Christian from becoming lax and unconcerned. "What- soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." So Christ asked the question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" and then added a scientific law, which all can understand: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." A CHRISTIAN'S APPRECIATION OF BUDDHISM 21 The saying of the Buddha is, "Our good or evil deeds follow us continually like shadows." And again he adds, with encouragement as well as warning, "Since it is impossible to escape the result of our deeds, let us practice good works." As Christianity gives hope to the sinner who stands in dread of inevitable consequences, so Buddhism, as we have already shown, makes as much of the principle of salvation as of the principle of retribution. There is given the hope of salvation, but even then this law, which runs through the universe, cannot be destroyed. It may be altered by higher forces, but not destroyed. The Buddha, in addressing a king, remarked, "We are inclosed on all sides by the rocks of birth, old age, disease, and death, and only by considering and practicing the true law can we escape from this sorrow-piled mountain.