To many persons it must seem that the idea of Soul as an infinite
multiple would render impossible any idea of religion in the
Western sense; and those unable to rid themselves of old
theological conceptions doubtless imagine that even in Buddhist
countries, and despite the evidence of Buddhist texts, the faith
of the common people is really based upon the idea of the soul as
a single entity. But Japan furnishes remarkable proof to the
contrary. The uneducated common people, the poorest country-folk
who have never studied Buddhist metaphysics, believe the self
composite. What is even more remarkable is that in the primitive
faith, Shinto, a kindred doctrine exists; and various forms of
the belief seem to characterize the thought of the Chinese and of
the Koreans. All these peoples of the Far East seem to consider
the soul compound; whether in the Buddhist sense, or in the
primitive sense represented by Shinto (a sort of ghostly
multiplying by fission), or in the fantastic sense elaborated by
Chinese astrology. In Japan I have fully satisfied myself that
the belief is universal. It is not necessary to quote here from
the Buddhist texts, because the common or popular beliefs, and
not the philosophy of a creed, can alone furnish evidence that
religious fervor is compatible and consistent with the notion of
a composite soul. Certainly the Japanese peasant does not think
the psychical Self nearly so complex a thing as Buddhist
philosophy considers it, or as Western science proves it to be.
_But he thinks of himself as multiple_. The struggle within him
between impulses good and evil he explains as a conflict between
the various ghostly wills that make up his Ego; and his spiritual
hope is to disengage his better self or selves from his worse
selves,--Nirvana, or the supreme bliss, being attainable only
through the survival of the best within him. Thus his religion
appears to be founded upon a natural perception of psychical
evolution not nearly so remote from scientific thought as are
those conventional notions of soul held by our common people at
home. Of course his ideas on these abstract subjects are vague
and unsystematized; but their general character and tendencies
are unmistakable; and there can be no question whatever as to the
earnestness of his faith, or as to the influence of that faith
upon his ethical life.
Wherever belief survives among the educated classes, the same
ideas obtain definition and synthesis. I may cite, in example,
two selections from compositions, written by students aged
respectively twenty-three and twenty-six. I might as easily cite
a score; but the following will sufficiently indicate what I
mean:--
"Nothing is more foolish than to declare the immortality of the
soul. The soul is a compound; and though its elements be eternal,
we know they can never twice combine in exactly the same way. All
compound things must change their character and their
conditions."
"Human life is composite. A combination of energies make the
soul. When a man dies his soul may either remain unchanged, or be
changed according to that which it combines with. Some
philosophers say the soul is immortal; some, that it is mortal.
They are both right. The soul is mortal or immortal according to
the change of the combinations composing it. The elementary
energies from which the soul is formed are, indeed, eternal; but
the nature of the soul is determined by the character of the
combinations into which those energies enter."
Now the ideas expressed in these compositions will appear to the
Western reader, at first view, unmistakably atheistic. Yet they
are really compatible with the sincerest and deepest faith. It
is the use of the English word "soul," not understood at all as
we understand it, which creates the false impression. "Soul," in
the sense used by the young writers, means an almost infinite
combination of both good and evil tendencies,--a compound doomed
to disintegration not only by the very fact of its being a
compound, but also by the eternal law of spiritual progress.