There is a marked difference between the theoretical Buddhism of early
days, reflected in the standard literature of Southern Buddhism, and
the Buddhism of the present day in Southern Asia. The Buddhism which
Western enthusiasts are eager to introduce into their own countries is
something which they have learnt, not from the peoples of Buddhist
lands, but from the ancient literature of Buddhism. Captivated at
first, it may be, by the beauty of some isolated saying, or, possibly,
deeply touched during some moonlight scene at the great golden pagodas
of Burma or on the hillsides of Ceylon, they become eager and not
infrequently learned students of the Buddhism of Gotama. They have to
declare with sadness that the great bulk of the people who profess
Buddhism have wandered very far from its true principles and practice,
and that human nature, for the most part, needs something less
austere.
This old Buddhism of the Books may be regarded and used as a kind of
Old Testament for Buddhists; already they have passed away from its
traditions.
2. The Central Emphasis of Buddhism varies in the Three Southern
Countries.
Not only does Buddhism, as the missionary comes in contact with it,
differ very markedly from theoretical Buddhism, but the central
emphasis varies in different parts of Southern Asia. The student must
know his country and his people in order to know their Buddhism, as
well as _vice versâ_. Nothing can be further from the sunny
temperament of the Burmese than the central "truth" of Buddhism that
"all is sorrowful"; and it is a strange perversion of the truth which
claims, as some of these Western writers have claimed, that the
Burmese are optimistic because they are free from _tanhā_. The fact
that they believe in a good Buddha as a living god, however, has much
to do with it: and temperament has even more.
In Ceylon, while Buddhist ideals are better suited to the more
melancholic temperament of the people, yet they are acutely conscious
of their powerlessness to gain the victory over sin and sorrow
unaided. As in Japan and China, so in a lesser degree in Burma and
Ceylon, Buddhism has been constrained to die to itself (to substitute
the idea of a saviour for the idea of earning one's own salvation) in
a way that is full of encouragement and suggestion to the Christian.
For, if the mythical Kwanyin and the far-off Metteya can so captivate
hungry human hearts, how shall not the historic and living Christ be
enthroned in their stead?