sects dating from the thirteenth century. The Nichiren sect is the most bigoted, the Shingon the most superstitious. The Monto has been compared to Protestantism, because it allows its priests to marry, and teaches the doctrine of justification by faith in Amida[1] alone. The Zen is the most interesting of all to the student of Japanese sociology, on account of its close connection with the cultivation of poetry and the arts.
The complicated metaphysics of Buddhism have awakened little interest in the Japanese nation. Another fact, curious but true, is that these people have never been at the trouble to translate the Buddhist canon into their own language. The priests use a Chinese version, the laity no version at all nowadays, though—to judge from allusions scattered up and down Japanese literature—they would seem to have been more given to searching the scriptures a few hundred years ago. The Buddhist religion was disestablished and disendowed during the years 1871–4, a step taken in consequence of the temporary ascendency of Shintō. More recently a faint struggle has been carried on by the Buddhist priesthood against rivals in comparison with whom Shintō is insignificant: we mean the two great streams of European thought,—Christianity and physical science. A few—a very few—men trained in European methods fight for the Buddhist cause. They do so, not as orthodox believers in any existing sect, but because they are convinced that the philosophical contents of Buddhism in general are supported by the doctrine of evolution, and that this religion needs therefore only to be regenerated on modern lines in order to find universal acceptance.
- ↑ A deity dwelling in a lovely paradise to the west. Originally he was an abstraction, the ideal of boundless light.
