(a) _What Buddhism means for Burmese Women_.--It will be interesting
to consider what Buddhism has to offer to such groups of women. Four
sorts of appeal may be mentioned. In the first place Buddhism is a
great social force, providing many festivals and giving much colour to
everyday life. In theory it may be sad; in practice it is very
cheerful. Even in Christian lands some women go to church to see the
latest fashions; can we wonder that Burmese Buddhist women delight to
gather on the platform of the beautiful pagoda for friendly
intercourse and gossip? Again, they think of the order of monks as
giving them the best chance to gain "merit." They recall that the
Master taught that generous offerings to them are potent in bringing
all kinds of benefits in this world, and even in helping the dead in
the dim life of the underworld. The monks confer a favour by accepting
alms; it is the donor who says "Thank you."
Another great source of enjoyment and instruction is the well-known
Buddhist stories, told over and over again, often miraculous, always
with a moral. They also reflect on the lives, which they know by
heart, of certain great _Bodhisattvas_, or Buddhas in the making,
"buds of the lotus," which later on burst into full bloom. One of the
pictures in which they delight is that of Gotama[3] when he was a hare
and jumped into the fire to feed a hungry Brahmin. Another picture
more familiar and more poignant still, depicts his appearance as
Prince Vessantara, giving away his wife and beloved children to a
hunchback beggar. These stories exert an immense influence.
And finally, Buddhism influences Burmese women by appealing to their
imagination and their love of mystery, with its solemn chanting, its
myriad shrines, with their innumerable candles twinkling in the dusk,
and the sexless sanctity of its monks. How wise and good they seem to
be! Are they not custodians of the truth? Here one little woman is
lifting a heavy stone weighing forty pounds; a monk has told her that
if it seems heavy her prayer will surely be answered. To make
assurance doubly sure, she may go and consult the soothsayer, whose
little booth is near the shrine--a cheerful rogue, not without insight
and a sense of humour--but she gives to the monk the supreme place,
and pays him more generously!
A Burman acquaintance of mine, who was converted to Christianity, was
asked by an old lady why he had deserted the "custom" of his people.
"I am sick," he began, "of all this bowing down to the monks, and of
all these offerings." "Stop, stop!" she cried, aghast. "You are
destroying the whole religion of our nation!"
(b) _What it means for Burmese Men_.--Laymen in Burma are much like
men elsewhere. Here is one who between prostrations before the image
of Buddha keeps his long cheroot alive, and enjoys an occasional puff.
He is like many men one meets, "making the best of both worlds." Yet
to him too Buddhism makes a strong appeal, primarily because it is his
heritage or, as he says, "the custom of Burma." The national feeling,
which is alive in Burma as well as in all other parts of the East,
resents Western influences, of which Christianity seems a part.
Moreover, Buddhism strongly appeals to his habit of mind. He thinks he
understands why there is inequality in human lot, why some are rich
and some poor, some healthy and some diseased. He explains it as the
working out of the law of _Kamma_.[4] Men suffer now because they have
sinned in a former birth. Listen to this conversation: Old U Hpay is
telling a neighbour about a foolish old sister of his who has adopted
a calf, and is petting it because its voice is so like that of her
dead husband! While the old men chuckle at this quaint expression of
her faith, yet they do believe that this is the law of life. Should
you kill a mosquito it may be your mother-in-law in a new body, and
still going strong! But Buddhism puts forth its greatest appeal at
those times when there comes over its votaries a wistful yearning for
something which this world has not given them. At these quiet moments,
especially in the evening of life, when they are no longer concerned
with making money or with the raising of a family, the appeal of
_Nibbāna_[5] and its peace comes home to many. They do not feel sure
of reaching it, nor do they fully understand what it means. Some of
their monkish teachers tell them it will be annihilation, while others
describe it as the extinction of all passion or a great calm. In
either way _Nibbāna_[5] has its lure, especially to the world-weary.
I have even known a Christian missionary who was tempted to long for
the quiet and relief from the staleness and hurry of life which
annihilation would bring. But he was weary and needed a holiday!
Missionaries often do.
(c) _Buddhism and Children_.--Playing around, while the old people
talk or pray, are always some children. Here a fat, naked baby takes a
puff at his grandfather's cigar; there a little girl, devoutly
imitating what she sees her parents doing before the great image of
Buddha, also lights her candle and offers her marigolds. The older
children quickly begin to take their share in the religious life about
them. In some of them is dawning a hero-worship of the great Buddha
who has done so much for the world. This little girl thinks wistfully
of her brother, so recently her playmate, but now a Buddhist novice,
with shaven head and yellow robe, as remote from her and aloof as if
he belonged to another world. Not much is taught to her and her
girl-playmates: "they are only girls!" But she is learning by what she
sees, and she too is becoming a staunch Buddhist. There are some
stalwart champions of Buddhism amongst the children, and the girls
grow up, less instructed but not less devout than the boys.
(d) _The Attitude of Burmese Students_.--Every mother desires that one
of her sons shall take and keep the yellow robe, yet the younger among
the educated Burmese are frank in calling the order of monks a "yellow
peril," not because they are bad men, for public opinion in Burma
rarely tolerates immorality in these religious leaders, but because
there are so many of them, over seventy-five thousand in the whole
country. To feed such a horde of mendicants is a costly business, and
the rebuilding and gilding of a pagoda may mean that the inheritance
of every one belonging to its village will be decimated. "The pagoda
is built and the village ruined," they ruefully repeat. Thus there is
growing up among those who are in the government schools in contact
with the liberal thinking of the West a disposition to question the
values of the present religious system. Possibly not more than ten per
cent. of the students who have Western training can be called orthodox
Buddhists. Thus the old people to whom Buddhism means so much are
anxious, and the young are restive. Burma, like many other countries,
is going through a period of transition, the outcome of which is
uncertain. Yet undoubtedly it is still a strongly Buddhist country,
and the masses of its people are not much affected by this spirit of
scepticism. As, however, Western education is the key to preferment
the official classes are apt to sit loose to much that their fathers
held sacred. And some few are busy re-thinking their faith and seeking
to adapt it to modern needs.
(e) _The Better Side of Burmese Buddhism_.--Buddhism is often
described as a pessimistic religion. As one sees it in Burma, however,
it seems to make the people happy and contented. Possibly this is due
to their naturally cheerful temperament. Whatever the reason, there is
a remarkable joyousness about the gay-robed crowds of happy, smiling
people.
Again, while Buddhism does not give to womanhood nearly so high a
place as does the religion of Jesus, yet it has granted her a far
better standing than she has in any part of India under Hinduism or
Islam. Woman is the "better half" in Burma and knows it, even though
she may pray to be born next as a man.
Caste, moreover, the great bane of India, is almost unknown to
Buddhist Burma: it is a cheerful democratic land. Buddhism believes in
the education of the masses, and its schools and monasteries are open
to all. It is also very tolerant and kindly. It has not led on any
large scale either to religious persecution or to war. These are no
small services. Moreover, Buddhism has in the past been a great bond
of union between the peoples of Asia, and it is to-day again playing
some part in the movement, "Asia for the Asiatics"--a movement
deserving our sympathetic attention. In the great awakening of
Nationalism the Buddhist Revival has its share both as cause and as
effect.