IS BUDDHISM THE PARENT OF CHRISTIANITY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 5, 6 November 1891, Page 5

IS BUDDHISM THE PARENT OF CHRISTIANITY

(A lecture delivered before the Dunedin Catholic Literary Society by the Rev. P. Lynch, Adm.) {Continued.) It ia far otherwise with the life and doctrine of our Divine Redeemer. Christ appeared when ihe Roman Empire was in the he}dey of ita glory, and the affairs of State were diligently chronicled. The Gospels containing the record of the Saviour's life and the essence of His teaching are well authenticated. Their evidence is supported by contemporary history. The very notion of a Saviour appearing in the West was in accord with the teaching of the Orientals. Here, then, we have two quantities — one well known, the other still " seen as in a glass darkly." Are we to judge the known by the unknown ? — or rather ia it not the unknown of which the student, by certain knowledge, strives to understand the significance 1 But it will be asserted by Rationalists that the history of the Crucified is full of legends. It contains some truth, with much beautiful, though fabulous etory. These and such like chips from the mental workshops of Strauss and Renan are too thin to be used in building up a solid argument. Even admitting — only for the sa&e of argument — that we have to deal with two unknown quantities, we cannot judge the one by the other — Christianity by Buddhißm. We should act reasonably, only in taking a certain third reliable source of information in order that comparison might be instituted and truth discovered. If we take as witnesses profane contemporary history and the records of the age that modern research has brought under our notice, we have unhesitatingly to pronounce against the conclusions of some of the so called kings of modern thought. It would, indeed, be well if those who assail Christianity in the direction indicated would study more deeply the teaching of true science. In the light of scientific research in every department, the old theories regarding Eastern religion are tottering and falling tact. The genuineness of the Gospels and the truth of the facts recorded in the Old Testament shine out in greater relief. Astronomy and archaeology and ethnography are slowly putting to death the legendary Buddha. All the sciences unite in dibposing of the groundless suppositions and gratuitous hypotheses advanced by false-reaeooing Rationalists. After having treated the matter in a general way we come to the particular question at issue — and first, ia there really a resemblance, however email, between ihe life of Buddha and the life of Christ? The Vicar Apostolic of Arv-i and Pegu (quoted by Max Miiller) tells us in his life of Buddha that in reading the particulars of th« life oi the last Buddha Gautama it it impossible not to feel reminded of many circumstances relating to

our Saviour's life, such as has been sketched out by the Evangelists. Assuming that Sir Edwin Arnold gwes a tolerably accurate account of what the Buddbis's relate cf their founder, let us take from the pages of the " Light of Asia " some of these resemblances, and afterwards consider what is to be said concerning them. We believe that, filled with compassion for sinful man, the Son of God came down from he.iven, asfeumid our nature, and accomplished oor salvation. Buddha's com.ng is thus descnbsd : — 11 Thus came he to be born again for men, . on Lord Buddha, waiting in that sky, Came for our sakes, the five sure signs of birth, So that the Devus knew the signs, and said, ' Buddha will go again to help the world.' " Ie is recorded in the Gospels that our D.vine Redeemer was of the royal house of David, and that lie was miraculously conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Listen asjain to what, by the pen of Sir Edwin Arnold, the Easterns say of Buddha : — " Yea," spake he, " now I go to h^ p the world. I will go down amon^ the Under the southward snows of Himtlny, Where pious people live, and a just king. That night the wife of King SudJholana, Maya, the Queen, asleep, • . . Dreamed a strange dream — dreamed that a star from heaveo, Splendid, eix-rayed, in colour rosy pearl, , , , Shot through the vcid, and shining into her, Entered her womb upon the rigiit. Awaked, Bias b.yond murtal mo her's fill' d her breast." Note the id j a of a star, ami the similarity in name of Buddha's mother, MLiya, to Mary. Omit the " r " from the Latin or Greek Maria, and you have Maia, or Mii>a. Most striking is the similarity between the Gospel accouDt of Simeon's prophecy and what is said of Buddha : — " 'Mongst the strangers came A gray- haired saint, Asita — one whose ears, Long closed to earthly things, caught heavenly sounds, And heard at prayer, beneith his pupul tree, The Devas siugmg songs at Buddha's birth ; Wondrous in love, he was by age and faßta — Him, drawing nigh, Beeming bo reverend ; The King saluted, and Queen Miiya made To lay her Babe before 6uch holy feet ; But when he siw the Prince the old man cried, lAh Queen, not so ! ' and thereupon he touched Eight times the dust, laid his waste visage there, Saving, ' O Babe 1 I woiship 1 Thou art He 1 . . . Thou art Buddhl And tbou wilt preach the law, and save all ileih ; Who learn the law, though I snail never hear, Dying too soon, who lately longed to die ; Kow be it I have seen Thee. Know, 0 King 1 This ia that blossom on our human tiee, Which opens once in many myriad years. . . . Ah, happy house, Yet not all happy, for a sword must pierce Thy bowels for tl is boy.' ' You remember the picture which the Evangelist gives of the boy Jesus in the midst of the doc'ors, astonishing all by the wisdom of His answers. It is said that Buddha's teacher fell prostrate before the boy fciddhaita — " ' For thou,' he cried, ' Art teacher of thy teachers — thou, not I, Art Guru. Oh ! I worship thee, sweet Prince, That com'st to my school only to snow Thou know'st all without books, and know'st Fair reverence besides.' " Note the striking similarity between the rival records, all the more striking because Sir Edwin Arnold is scarcely in accord with the Buddhist annals which make Siddharta receive enlightment under the Bo tree, and become Buddha at the age of thirty years or more. In reading Sir Edwin Arnold's fine poem, which the London Tablet says worthily treats a great theme, one cannot help feeling strongly that in his glowiDg account of the virtues and heroic deeds of Sakyamouni he is much indebted to his own Christian ideas and Christian idu ation. In his preface, without perhaps intending it, the author supp ies ?n answer to the objections brought against our holy religion from the resemblances related, when he speaks of the Buddhistical books as being discordant ia frequent particulars and sorely overlaid by corruption?, inventions and misconceptions. Every day study and comparison bring this out more clearly. To illustrate the way in which the too-enthusiastic are imposed upon in the matter of Eastern literature, I may mention the case of the " Kzour Vedam," a work published by Samte Croix. This work, believed by Voltaire to be of great antiquity and to have been written by a Brahmin, was eeised

upon by the Prince of Scoffers as affording proof that the doctrines of Christianity were borrowed from India. Tbe investigations ordered by Sir Alexander Johnßon, Chief Justice of Ceylon, brought to light the original manuscript in French and Sanskrit. The Brahmins knew nothing of i's existence. It was discovered in a library at Goa. Tbe author was found to be Robert ile Nobilibu-, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine and near relative of Pope Marcellus 11. Voltaire's Brahmin turned out to be a learned aad saint y Jes nt, The h?ithen b <ok ' f great antiqui'y was found on diligent examination to have been composed in A.D. 1621, for purposes of Chrisiian instruction. Small wonder that there was a great resemblance bftween its teaching and th<»t of Christianity. Reverses even such as these do not discourage men who are not extra scrupulous in the means they employ to estab'dt-h their theories. They are bind to the claims of revrale I religion, and are ready to swallow any narrative providei it come from a distance and be of service in the contest. " I believe," says Cardinal Wiseman, " thit had the books of Moses not been preserved by Christianity, but discovered for the first time by the Jew 3of China or by Dr Buchanan among the natives of Malabar, they would have been received as a treasure of historical and philosophical knowledge by those who, under tbe present circumstances, have slighted or disregarded them." The assertion of Christian apologists that Buddhism, in its corrupted forms, has taken from Christianity and from Judaism and engrafted on its own system the stories contained in the current lives of Buddha is illustrated by the origin of the legend regarding Krishna, the Indian Apollo. While listening to a brief account of thia really interesting legend, keep in mind the record of the Evangelists. The native annalists tell us that Krishna was an Avatar, or incarnation of the divinity. They speak of the songs of gladness which Davataa sang at his birth ; of the shepherds who surrounded his cradle ; of the attempt upon his life by the tyrant Oansa ; of the flight thereby occasioned into a foreign land. They make mention of years passed in obscurity before the preaching of a most pei feet law. Hio kindness to the poor, the purity of his life, his spirit of humility, exemplified in the washing of the Brahmin's feet, did not prevent his having enemies. Tbese plotted and at length prevailed against him. He died — attached to a tree, pierced and nailed to it by an arrow. This story is relegated by some delighted freethinkers to a remote age long before the advent of Christ. What has Bcience to say to it ? AMr Bentley, who brought to his woik a thorough knowledge of Sanskrit and astronomy, conclude from the position of the planets at the time of Krishna's death (as described in an Indian work on astronomy. — the Janampatra of Krishna), that there is here question of 7th August, Ad. 600. He, therefore, reasonably concludes that the astute heathen Brahmins framed the story to prevent the natives from embracing Christianity. Returning to the particular pomt — the resemblance of many Buddhist stories to the facts narrated in holy Scripture, you naturally ask how is this to be explained? The answer sustained by well-grounded reasoning is this : — There is every reason for believing that the Buddhist books have been at various times interpolated by writers who had easy recourse to the Old and New Testaments. It is certain that even long before Christ the Jews were dispersed through Asia. In caravans they journeyed to Iniia, China, and Thibet, and of course, brought with them their prophecies. Especially were they familiar with, and they loved to speak of, the prophecy that a s ar ■hould arise out of Jacob, that a Virgin should conceive, and in her immaculateuess, bring forth a Redeemer. Even before Christianity Buddhism could have taken much from the religion of the Jews concerning the Saviour. The transition from attributing certain things to the Saviour who was to come, and the Saviour Buddha who had come, was not a difficult task for the listless imagination of the Eastern mind. We know, furthermore, that in the first century of our era Saint Thomaß preached in India, and his memory was long held in benediction.. We know that the doctrines of Christ must have made much progress, because a Hindoo bishop was present at the council of Nice in 325. Pantrenus, Patriarch of Alexandria, went in 189 to preach the gospel in. India. It is stated that another Hindoo bishop was present at the general Council of Constantinople in 381. The acts of these councils are not involved in mystery, and the gloom of nncertainty. With the ideas you now have of pure Buddhism and of the hazy atmosphere surrounding even that, and the clearness of the facts which history supplies regarding Christianity, you cannot but wonder that men with any pretence to accuracy and real learning should continue to essert that the great religion of the West had its origin in Oriental philosophy. I should like to enter at length into the subject of the reputed Lamanesque origin of Christianity. Time, of which too much, perhaps, has already been spent, will permit me to say but a few words on Lam-usm — the most corrupt and by far the most widely spread form uf Buddhism. The missionaries, who in the 17th century penetrated into central Asia, were surprised to find " numerous monasteries, solemn processions, religious fCtes, a pontifical court, colleges of superior Lamas electing their ecclesiastical sovereign and the spiritual Father of Thibet and Tartary — in a word, an organisation closely resembling the Catholic Church." It is certainly true that many external resemblances are to be found. You will ccc that if you read Hue's " Travels in Tartary and Thibet,"

or any other reliable work. We find among the simple nomadic tribes of Asia, the use of beads, incenee, mitres, copes, dalmatics, bells, — aho amoog some, the practice of public confession — and among all the monks the practice of celibacy. The mention of the word monk astonishes you. Monasteries, or what we would call monasteries, are everywhere to be met with in Buddhist countries. Tlie monks— L^mas they call themselves — are very numerous. Often ii a singe monastery there will be two or three thousand. They live principally on the offerings of the faithful. They spend much time in repeating certain formulas, and when they are tired, but wish to continue the. invocation, they set the prayer-wheel in motion. This wheel has various holy sayings inscribed upon it, and is eupposod to produce the same i ffjet as the oral recitation, as long as it remains in mo ion . A traveller tells a story of a fight between two Thibetans occnaiontid by the stopping and setting again in motion of the prayer whfel by a new-c. rner, which bad been first moved prayerfully by a dweller hard by. Tbel.amis are exceedingly kind to one another and to etran^eis. They are admitted to the order when young, and tbersby acquire many priveleges. They wear a yellow robe— a colour adopted in the beginning in all probability because it was the colour prescribed for outcasts. The Lamas profess greater perfection than ordinary Buddhists. They are on the road that directly leads to Nirvana. There is a regular graduation in the Lamanesque bierarchy. First comes the Tale Lama, or Dalai Lama, or Grand Lama. He resides in Lassa in Thibet and is the Pope of Lamaistn, Next in order are to be found the Khutukus, who correspond to our Cardinals. Then come the Khubilghans, who may be compared to our bishops. These latter in their respective districts appoint the superiors of varit us monasteries and give judgment in all cases of appeal brought to their courts. The enemies of Catholicity endeavour tn make capital o"t of all this. Thus Mr Clodd, F.R.A.S., " Childhood of Religious " after observing that " monasteries for men and nunneries for women si ill exist," has no hesitation in saying that monastic institutions '• whioh had been thought to belong to Cari3tianity only, had formed part of Buddhism for 2000 years." He goes far back indeed for the origin of Lamaism. The famous Orientalist Abel Remusat and others who with sober minds have th iroughly studied tho matter, will not allow us to go back more than 500 years. They say — founding their assertions on reliable eastern works carefully examined, that Kublai Khan, the grandson of the famous conqueror Genghis Khan, was the real founder of Lamaism. They adduce facts to show ih»t he took the idea of the Buddhist hierarchy from the Catholic Church, of which he heard much from ambassadors, missionaries and travellers from the west. He was a cosmopolitan in matters of religion and was said to be as much a Christian and Mahommedan as a Buddhist. We are told that in the days of Christian festivals he devoutly kissed the book of the gospels, after having perfumed it with incenee. He said there were four great prophets revered by all nations. Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Moses, and Chakia-mouni (Buddha), and that he held them all in c qual honour and invoked their celestial assistance. By the consolidation of Buddhism and a good extern al organisation, he wished to have a united bold front presented to th 3 Moslems. In tbe AD. 1261, at an interview with two Venetian travellers named Nicolo and M. Polo, he " questioned taem about the Pope, the customs of the Latins, and the general arrangements of the Catholic Church." Very soon afterwnrd he raised a Buddhist priest named Mati to the position of supreme Head of the Faith. Thus originated the office of Grand Lama or Buddhist Pope. It is not a difficult task to acsount for the prevalence in China and Tartary and elsewhere of Christian and C tthohc customs. Central Asia was evangelised ot a very early date. Tae metropolitan sees of China andSamarcand were founded between 714 and 728. We have it on the authoiity of the accurate historian Dr. Alzog that Pope Clement appointed in 1307 John of Monte Corvino Archbisuop of Kambuli, the present P^kin. In his church, Abel E6oiusat tells us, were three bells by" which the faithful were summoned to prayer. Converts to Christianity were to be found among the members of the Imperial household. The missionaries brought with them all the requisites for public worship. The ceremonies made a great impression on the Tartar princes, and many heathens were found mingling Christian practices with their Buddhist practices. The Buddhist priests, in their d( sire to please a prince who admired Catholicity, would have little difficulty in adding Catholic customs and prac ices to their own forms It is certain that the hierarchical organisation <f Lamanesque Buddhism did not exist before the 13ih century of our era. It is tqually certain that in those days there was frequent communication between the East and West. Embassadors came to the court of China from St. Louis of France and the reigning Pontiff. There was abundant opportunity for studying Catholic institutions, Catholic practices, and Catholic ceremonies. History tellß us that these were attentively studied by at least one Tartar prince who introduced great and lasting reforms throughout the Empire. Add to this that the Buddhists have the greatest reverence for the priests of the West aud for the pure doctrine of the " Lamas of the Western Sky." And where, my friends, have the antagonists of Catholic Christianity firm ground on which to stand. The careful student and the man of deep research must unhesitatingly KfErm with Monseigneur de Harlez that Christ is the negation of Buddhism. Buddhism, either in ita pure or corrupted form, is not the parent of Catholic Christianity.