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vol. title: vol. period: 1876-1878 pages in vol.: 247 |
< A Second Pilgrimage Around the World: the Southern Route (continued from page 4-169) >
would tottle off the next morning, and stand beneath it till the unseen agency plucks and drops a green branch upon the sufferer's head. This done, and the invalid is at once made whole! They declared they had seen persons spiritually obsessed and dragged, screaming and wrestling, along the way—dragged by these unseen intelligences, and thrown into water with a reckless malignancy; they had seen persons beaten by unseen forces, believed to be spirits, till the marks from the invisible lash were visible, crimson, red, and terribly swollen. They had seen people out in the fields begin to tremble, and the head begin to whirl violently, when they would be levitated and hurled up into an adjoining tree. They had seen two families in a domestic quarrel become gradually enveloped in a dark, hazy cloud, when the familiar spirits of each would appear, visible and tangible, engaging freely in the fight. They had seen a group sitting under a clump of trees, and chanting some rude battle-hymn, when one, seized with trembling, shaking, gasping, and violent head-whirling, would be lifted up, up, and borne away out of sight, remaining absent for months; and they had also seen, and related to me, instances of nervous prostration, suspension of breathing and magnetic vampirism, which—all of which I shall in due time put before the public. Marvels of this character, and those more wonderful, are carefully concealed from missionaries, and from the English generally, whom they consider intruders and foreign monsters.
All occult and superhuman manifestations transpiring in the East, pass under the current name of "devil-worship." The rude and uncharitable term came originally, no doubt, from the Roman Catholic missionaries. For, whatever of the spiritual occurs within their range of observation and experience, not in accordance with the dogmas of the Roman Church, is at once ascribed to the devil.
"Devil-worship," says the Rev. T. R. Stevenson of Colombo, Ceylon, "has a tremendous hold upon the people. It is highly probable that, together with serpent worship, it was the religion of the aborigines. Devil-priests, devil-dances, and devil-trances are resorted to in cases of sickness; and their grotesque antics, weird chantings, and wild appearances are believed to propitiate the demons and heal the diseases."
Treating of the "Asiatic races," Prof. Wilson says that "demon-worship, which prevailed so extensively over India and Ceylon, appears to have been an original superstition, having a firm hold of the people for three thousand years. Diseases are attributed to malignant spirits in Ceylon, called 'Yakkos,' whom they seek to propitiate by sacrifices, by burning incense and various ceremonies. They ascribe some diseases to these evil spirits. This kind of worship still occurs in different parts of the island, and is employed by the natives to heal diseases instead of European medicines. . . . But after the introduction of Buddhism, which strictly forbids the shedding of blood, demon-worship began to decline."
Why these occult practices, so common among the natives of the East, should be called "worship," is to me unaccountable; for the Asiatics no more worship these demons or spiritual intelligences, than Protestants worship the Bible, or Roman Catholics the saints. If the spirits are good, they encourage and honor them; but if evil, they either propitiate or exorcise them. I have frequently attended their ceremonies of exorcism, or the casting-out of devils! They are similar to the methods in use in the New Testament times of the apostles. Gautama Buddha not only cast out demons as did Jesus, but he laid down rules, and prescribed the Paritta ceremony for exorcism. "The Paritta, or the use of exorcism, is frequently resorted to as a protection against apprehended danger from disease, or demoniacal influences."*
August 8th, accompanied by Doncarolis, a well-to-do Buddhist gentleman, and Mr. C. Alwis, a teacher and translator of Singhalese and Pali, I went out to the Widyodaga College, established in 1873. There were over sixty priests in this educational institution as students; besides a number of youthful laymen in the preparatory classes for priests. While the natural sciences are not ignored in this College, they are considered of much less importance than morality or religion, and accordingly most of the time is devoted to the study of the Sanscrit, the Pali, and Oriental literature generally.
There are three High Priests in Ceylon, two at Kandy, and one at Colombo. The latter, Prof. H. Sumangala, is the High Priest of the Adams' Peak diocese, and the President of this Oriental College that I visited. The priests in this College are celibates. They eat but one meal a day, and that before 12 o'clock at noon. They take no life, not even that of a worm or insect. When going out upon religious duties they walk. They are not allowed to take any money for their services. They live by begging, or upon the alms given them.
Entering the college grounds through a broad gateway, a group of young priests, some thirty or forty in number, flocked around me, attired in their gracefully fitting yellow robes, exposing their right shoulders. They own nothing but their robes and their rice-bowls. They were bare-footed, and their heads shaven, for the triple purpose of comfort, neatness, and uniformity.
Introduced to the high priest, he pleasantly invited me into an outer portico of the temple, overshadowed by palms and tropical foliage. The seat was a sort of sofa, decidedly Oriental in conception and primitive in construction. After a good square look at each other, we were at once in the full flush of conversation. This priest spoke a little English; but finding it difficult to clearly convey in another language the philosophy and metaphysical subtleties threading the whole system of Eastern Buddhism, we conversed and argued our various points through the two interpreters accompanying me.
My first inquiry, after a general conversation about America, Ceylon, and England was: "Do you consider Guatama Buddha and his teachings, as embodied in your sacred scripture, infallible?"
"We do not. Infallibility pertains only to Infinity. Sakya Gautama was a man, a brother of humanity, who, by walking in the divine path, became a Buddha. All may become Buddhas and enter Nirvana."
"What do you and the Buddhists of different countries understand by the word Nirvana?"
"It is an open question. Priests and teachers among us differ upon the point, something as do Christians about the meaning, the duration, and the location of heaven. Some consider Nirvana to mean the complete cessation of existence. This is my opinion. Others consider it to mean a cessation from further incarnations, and a perfect yet conscious peace in the bosom of the Infinite."
"But men not only love existence, but they hunger for and desire a future conscious existence."
"Yes; and just so long as they desire existence—just so long as they lust after it for the gratification of what they denominate happiness, just so long will they have it by re-incarnations, or re-births back from other worlds into bodies human or animal, the grade corresponding to the deeds and moral conduct of the person's life upon earth."
"Well, it seems to me that upon the principle of the conservation of forces, once in existence always in existence. I certainly can have no conception of annihilation—no conception of the extinction of existence!"
"But neither your conception nor non-conception proves anything. The desire for an endless conscious existence is based in selfishness, and selfishness is the root of all evil. . . . In approaching this building you first perceived, or had a perception of it." "Yes." "Sitting now within, and examining its proportions, you have a conception of it." "Yes." "In leaving you will not take away the building; only the conception of it." "Yes." "But will you always carry with you the conception?"
"Doubtless; unless—unless I forget it." "Ay; but forgetfulness implies a loss of memory—extinction! Most certainly you have no memory now of your infantile notions. Youth even is to us all only a half-remembered dream. And if memory, if perception, if conception, and other attributes ascribed to the soul, may perish, i. e., become extinct, may they not all? And are not change and extinction of existence taking place around us every moment? Where is the hair that covered the baby head at birth? fallen, perished, extinct—gone into the whirl of matter! Where are the glimmering thoughts of infancy? the dreamy memories of childhood? the dimmed perceptions of the past? That which is organized must become disorganized—that which is formed must enter the void again. Earthly existence is a shadow—an evil—a selfish, troubled <... continues on page 4-171 >
* J. Alwis, "Origin, History, Doctrines, &c., of Buddhism," p. 20.