The Christian missionary in Buddhist lands is faced with a task of
infinite fascination. He is dealing, in the first place, with
remarkable peoples for whom their religion has done much of the great
service which Christianity has done for him and his people. He will
find everywhere traces of a mighty Buddhist civilisation, and in many
places, if he has the eye to see, proofs that this venerable religion
is still alive and is reforming itself to meet the needs of the modern
world. In the second place, he will find that it is vitally linked up
with the intensely interesting and important nationalist movements of
Asia, and that he cannot understand the political situation in these
countries without a close and careful study of the religion. And in
the third place, he will find that it is not only as part and parcel
of nationalist movements that Buddhism is alive, but that it has an
international programme and that it is closely bound up with the
movement of "Asia for the Asiatics"--a movement deserving of
respectful and sympathetic study.
How then will the missionary prepare himself for this absorbing task?
Nothing can take the place of friendly intercourse with Buddhists in
temple and home, on pilgrimage and at great times of festival; it is
thus that the religion will become a living reality to him, full of
colour and movement, giving him at times moments of exquisite pleasure
in its artistic pageantry, and bringing him into sympathetic touch
with the "soul of the people" to whom he is seeking to minister. But
to prepare him for this absorbing pursuit, at once business and
pleasure, study and hobby, for any one who really enjoys such things,
he can and must do some systematic reading. Appended are a course of
study for the first two years worked out for Y.M.C.A. secretaries in
India, and a more advanced and detailed course. The following
additional notes may be of service in using these:
1. Clearly the first step is to get a sympathetic and accurate idea of
the founder of Buddhism, of the essence of his teaching, and of the
secret of his amazing influence. There is, in human history, only one
figure more significant and more worthy of a study. Side by side the
student should read Sir Edwin Arnold's _Light of Asia_ (London: Kegan
Paul. 1s. 6d. and 5s.) and some good biographical study such as that
of H. Oldenberg, _Buddha_ (London: Williams & Norgate. Out of print.
1882), or that by the present writer, _Gotama Buddha_ (New York:
Association Press. 1920).
2. Next he will do well to saturate himself in such selections of the
moral teachings of Gautama as are contained in the _Dhammapada_ or the
_Itivuttaka_, both of which contain much very early material, some of
which may be attributed to the founder himself.
3. For the whole Buddhist system in its earlier forms Warren's
admirable _Buddhism in Translations_ (Harvard Oriental Series.
Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 1900) is indispensable, and should be
constantly used for reference.
4. As an introduction to the history of Buddhism two elementary books,
attempting to cover the whole field in a rather sketchy way, are
Saunders' _The Story of Buddhism_ (London: Oxford University Press.
4s., 6d. 1916) and Hackmann's _Buddhism as a Religion_ (London:
Probsthain. 15s. 1910).
5. Whether the student is going to work in lands devoted to the
primitive type of Buddhism, such as Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, or in
those in which a highly developed Buddhism prevails, such as Japan,
China, and Korea, he ought to have a grasp of the essential
differences between the two types of Buddhism known as _Hinayāna_ and
_Mahāyāna_; for an evolution must be read backwards as well as
forwards, and the missionary will look forward to spending a holiday
in one of the other Buddhist lands. If, for instance, his lot is cast
in Burma, he ought to plan to go on a visit to Japan or to China, and
_vice versâ_. To get a grasp of the highly developed Mahāyāna he
should study especially the famous _Lotus of the Good Law_ translated
in vol. xxi of the Sacred Books of the East (Oxford: Clarendon Press.
15s. 6d.) and should carefully compare this with the _Dhammapada_. He
will find that even in the conservative Buddhism of Ceylon and Burma
there are Mahāyāna tendencies, and that everywhere Gautama Buddha
has become in practice more than a moral teacher and is related, in
the minds of the people, to an eternal order making for righteousness.
In this and in other ways which the student will study for himself,
_e.g._ in the idea of a sacrificial life-process culminating in the
historical life of Sākyamuni and in the practice of prayer by all
Buddhists, he will find a wonderful preparation for the gospel of
Christ. I would suggest that he take as his guiding light this saying
of a great Buddhist scholar of Japan, "We see your Christ, because we
have first seen our Buddha." The task of the missionary will be to
relate Christianity to this great preparation that has been made for
it and to think out with Eastern scholars the thought bases of a truly
Eastern Christianity which shall seem to these Asiatic nations to come
with all the authority of their own past behind it, and with all the
glamour of a knowledge that the God who has been working with and for
them in the past is now bringing them out into a larger and freer
life. Only so can they be won for Christ.
[24] Reprinted by kind permission of the editors and publisher from
"An Introduction to Missionary Service," Ed. by G. A. Gollock and E.
G. K. Hewat, Oxford University Press. 1921, 3s. 6d. net.
I
The following course of reading--drawn up for Secretaries of the
Y.M.C.A. in the East by Dr. J. N. Farquhar and the writer--is
recommended to those whose leisure is scant:
_First Year_. General: Rhys Davids, _Buddhism, Life and Teachings of
Gautama, the Buddha_ (London: S.P.C.K. 3s. 6d.); V. Smith, _Asoka_
(Oxford: Clarendon Press. 4s. New edition, 1920).
Special: _The Dhammapada_. Sacred Books of the East, vol. x (out of
print); _The Mahaparinibbana_. S.B.E., vol. xi (12s. 6d. See
Introduction).
Additional: Oldenberg, _Buddha_ (see Introduction); or Rhys Davids,
_Dialogues of the Buddha_ (London: Milford. 12s. 6d. 3rd volume,
1921).
_Second Year_. General: Copleston, _Buddhism Primitive and Present_
(London: Longmans. 10s. 6d. Out of print); Hackmann, _Buddhism as a
Religion_ (see Introduction).
Special: Warren, _Buddhism in Translations_. Chaps. i and iv (see
Introduction).
Additional: Rhys Davids, _Buddhist India_ (London: Fisher Unwin. 7s.
6d.); _The Questions of King Milinda_, S.B.E., vols. xxxv, xxxvi.
(42s. for two. See Introduction.)