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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A Second Pilgrimage Around the World: the Southern Route|4-170}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A Second Pilgrimage Around the World: the Southern Route|4-170}}


...
{{Style P-No indent|dream! Who does not desire extinction from it—entrance into
Nirvana?"}}


{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |4-172}}
"But," said I, "the soul is immortal—being an emanating spark;
a divine principle; a spiritual force!"
 
"How do you know?" was the calm, meditative remark. It was a
stunner. He immediately added, "A certain combination of
machinery produces a watch that keeps time; but destroy the
combination, break the connection of the wheels, and the motion
ceases—the force is gone."
 
"Granted," said I, "but because '''gone'',' because it eludes
your grasp, it is not logical to infer the annihilation or the
extinction of the force itself. It has simply been transferred."
 
"Transferred where? or transferred to what?" Another stunner!
And before I had gathered up my reply, he added, "You spoke of
the thoughts of the soul; do you consider them attributes of
the soul?"
 
"By no means; they are rather the effects of the soul's
activities. They may be compared to the sparks resulting from
striking steel against flints."
 
"Let us trace a thought up to the source and see. Now," said he,
"think—think this portico—think the parts that constitute the
portico—think the architect who conceived and constructed the
portico—think the motive that induced the architect to think of,
conceive and construct the portico—think of the causative cause
that prompted the motive, that induced——"
 
"Hold!" I exclaimed; "the water is getting deep."
 
These are samples of the reasonings of the "poor, ignorant
heathen," that full-fed missionaries are striving to convert
over to Orthodox theology.
 
At this point it is but justice to say that this priest alone,
out of the twelve or fifteen with whom I conversed while in
Ceylon, took these extreme grounds of materialism, and he
believed in a future conscious existence, and the return and
re-incarnation of spirits. But far along in the measureless
ages, the soul—the all of conscious man—will, so he thinks,
return; the body first to its elements, and then the soul to its
original principles. Briefly put, he had become enamored with
the materialism of what is called "English science."
 
During this pungent conversation, and while disputing about the
persistence of forces and the consciousness and permanency of
the soul's forces, this high priest ordered brought and placed
before me Dr. Louis Buchner's work on "''Force and Matter''," which,
when done, he turned to a passage confirming his position. These
Buddhists have some of the best English works treating of
philosophy and the natural sciences. They have translated the
works of Bishop Colenso into the Singhalese language. And the
Buddhist priest, Mohattiwattey Goonananda, who had the oral
discussion at Pantura a while since, with the Rev. David Silva,
is literally a terror to the Methodist missionaries of the
Island.
 
"Is Christianity making any headway against Buddhism here in
Ceylon?" I inquired.
 
"It has not produced so much as a ripple upon the great body of
Buddhists. The few converts that Christians have made were
either from the very lowest classes, or a sort of policy men,
who nominally gave adhesion to Christianity to secure clerkships
and government employ. The most of these return to Buddhism at
death."
 
After inquiring of me if the different sects of Christians were
as envious and jealous of each other in America as in Ceylon, he
expressed great surprise that, "considering Christianity was,
comparatively, a new religion, that its God was born of a Jewish
woman and circumcised, that he was arrested for misdemeanor,
convicted and executed, that ''sacrificial substitution'' was
made a means of salvation rather than ''individual merit''"—I
say that this high priest expressed profound surprise that "such
a system of religion should have kept afloat so long, and especially in that portion of the
world—the West—claiming so much intellectual and religious
enlightenment." It is needless to add that I joined him in the surprise.
 
"But what," I inquired, "is to you Buddhists the most unreasonable and
distasteful doctrine connected with western Christianity?" And without a
moment's hesitation he replied: "The doctrine of sacrificial substitution;
or ''salvation through atoning blood''. To us, not only the life of man but
that of the insect is sacred and inviolate. Our first commandment is, 'do
not kill.' And then to ask us to believe that the God of all worlds could
only save the human race by the killing, or the shedding of the blood of
his innocent Son, is to me, and must be in the opinion of any Buddhist,
abhorrent if not really blasphemous. Our Saviour, or rather our great
exemplar, Gautama Buddha, discovered the ''path'', walked in it, living a
holy life, and ''peacefully'' died at a good old age under the sacred
''bo-tree''. His constant command was, 'Follow me.' There is but one way to
secure salvation—but one way to reach Nirvana—and that is to pursue the
path, to keep the law and to treasure up ''merit''."
 
No ''savant'', no intelligent man will deny that the whole scheme of
Buddhism, relating to the final happiness of the human soul, turns upon the
pivot of personal merit. Buddhism knows nothing of a crucified
Saviour—nothing of atoning blood; but is emphatically, from conception to
completion, a system of salvation by works.
 
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|no crucified saviours—no salvation
through atoning blood.}}</center>
 
"Hinduism, like Christianity, is not a unity. And to say, as certain
incoherent writers have, that this or that is the belief of the Hindus, is
to talk in a very indefinite, if not in an absolutely idle manner. That
there are several contending sects among the Hindus is as well known to
scholarly Orientalists as that Brahmans, on peculiar festival occasions,
continue to sacrifice kids and other animals. But tell one of the ordinary
Krishnaites of India that Krishna was crucified, or tell a Buddhist of
Ceylon that Gautama Buddha suffered crucifixion upon a cross, and,
wondering at your ignorance, they would possibly correct you; but far more
probably they would pity, and pass on. Krishna, according to the very
highest testimony, died by an accidental arrow shot by a huntsman, and
Arjuna performed the obsequial rites. Gautama Buddha died peacefully at
about eighty, under a sal-tree. Accordingly neither of these classes of
'heathen' have any blood-atoning scapegoat for their sins."
 
After spending a long time in the East, studying the Oriental religions,
T. W. Rhys Davids writes thus, in substance, under the heading of
"Buddhism in the British Encyclopedia":
 
"There are four stages, called the paths; and during man's progress in
these he successively becomes free from all impure desires, from
ignorance, from doubt, from heresy, and from unkindliness and vexation.... Every one's salvation is entirely dependent on the modification or growth of his own inner nature, resulting from his own exertions....
The Brahmans did all they could to put down a faith which inculcated such
a spirit of equality within the society of all ranks and castes, and the
possibility of ''salvation'' without sacrifice or the assistance of the
priests.... Salvation as held by the Buddhists depends upon a radical
change in man's nature, brought about by his own self-denial and his own
self-culture.... After the rainy season Gautama Buddha called together
those of his disciples who had devoted themselves to the higher life, and
whom, for want of a better name, we may call monks, and said to them,
'Beloved Rahans, I am free from all the passions which, like an immense
net, hold men and spirits in their power. You, too, owing to my teachings,
enjoy the same glorious privilege. There is now laid on us a great
duty—that of working effectually for men and spirits, and gaining for them
also the priceless blessing of salvation.'
 
"Buddhism acknowledges man's sinful nature and enjoins the necessity of
subjugating the evil passions. It admonishes him against covetousness and
warns him against the cares of a selfish life. It inculcates all the
virtues which ennoble {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |4-172}}
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