| Show JAPANESE BUDDHISM elder melvin F barton of kaysville Kays ville EA explains plains the greatest religion in the oriental world r thoro there aro are two malu states into which people may enter at death tho the state of tho the good who immediately modia toly enter paradise and become hotoke or Budd budihas has and the state of the wicked who must pass through a long series of transmigration yot yet some of which may take them through the bodies of animals or the state of demons in hell bell practically all people may become hotoke hitoko when they die especially with the help of the priests they may have to remain in some intermediate state or purgatory for some borne time but they can be delivered by prayers and offerings ings S when a person dies priests are called in as many as the family can affords afford who set up the tablet bearing the now new name of the dead just as a person Is born into this world must receive a now name so birth into lato the next world requires a repetition of the process incense is then burned before the tablet and prayers offered for seven successive days af after ter the f funeral the priests come to the house of the deceased to burn some ln in cense and say more prayers before the tablet and af after tor that i they come once anc e a wook week for a year the priests must offer food to the departed spirit or hotoke and give it news from the homo the ago relatives also visit tho the grave on the monthly recurrence of the date of death for the first year af after ter that on the anniversary of the death the object of those visits is first to serve the dead by bringing flowers and food secondly to pray that he might truly bo be born into paradise and thirdly to pray that the dead may keep in peace and pros bority the house from which he departed all this is under the direction of tho priests hero here I 1 will relate briefly or in part the doings at a funeral that I 1 attended those who have never attended a f funeral in japan cannot understand the conditions as they are so mystical the f funeral was that of one of the richest men in the ken kea and was our closest noi neighbor 0 abor therefore many priests wore were hired and the chanting or prayer could be heard f from rom morn till eve and when I 1 retired for the night the chanting and the thump of the bell and drum could bo be heard and for some days after the funeral the mournful sounds were repeated the day of the f funeral came and many gathered to enjoy the fun close f friends were taken into the house where sake was served until some were fooling feeling fine others were sent to the neighbors homes where tea and calies cakes were served each baell man loft left his card in a tray at the house so that members of the family could call on those ent tat at the funeral win will not describe the dress of the mourners relatives etc but they were gorgeous to say the least ar riving at the temple the family entered to the beating beatin of a drum thon then the friends took their shoes off and they were che checked cited by tho the coolies or servants and you were given a receipt for the same As you wont in you handed your card in to tho the head servant of the family and lie ho would hand you a box of cakon costing from fifteen to twenty five son per liar box if your friends wore unable to come you could hand ills HS card in and receive a box of cakes for him also otic one man handed in in seven cards and received seven boxes of cakes dont know whether the cards were all his own or friends I 1 had a card case of cards but would rather have the cards than the cakes that is japanese f funeral cakes when inside the carried on a mystical performance mon men and wonna n wore smoking g ing drinking tea etc this lasted for some time when tho the body was laid in mother earth at the home that night mon men und and women wore invited to come and play the result was waa that ore long many drunk and having a glorious time in III honor of tho the departed As aa wo could not join them in their revelry the family sent us a fine japanese feast this is briefly the fun funeral oraf I 1 could toll tell much more but it could not bounder be understood by tho the readers the Tho funeral of tho the poor class is more simple today there is ono one class of buddhists who have nothing to do with buddhism except to have their dead buried and pray occasionally casio nally A large proportion of those who aro are aday t day crowding the government colleges and the imperial universities or who have gone forth from these ansti tut lons ions belong to this class they have no religion the second class have no positive faith in buddhism yet they give alms to help support the temples and occasionally pray to the idols as a more mere matter of decency and to be on the safe side still another class wo we find that try to fulfill their regular loud duties as prescribed by the priests they worship their hous household behold gods faithfully ully they visit the temples regularly and carry on tho the reverence for the dead this class worship the images of amida the eternal the god of war dharma the god of wisdom and others according to the customs of the place in which they havo have boon beon reared or the customs of the sect of which they belong or religious festivals uro aro hold at the ho temples several times a year abear these festivals are jolly religious which aro are of often ten enlivened by a very amusing theatrical performance so fir as knowledge n of their religion is concerned there is among the common people a woeful lack there is no reading of sacred literature in the home no teaching of religion to the young even the iho more educated know little about the specific doctrines af the faith superstition prevails among the people to a great greatt extent they believe that ovil evil spirits haunt the home so they often plant a certain tree at the gate to keep the evil spirits out when when the dead body is carried out the floor bloor is immediately swept it is the sweeping out of the evil spirits lot let us now turn from the people to the priest therease there Ther eare are about buddhist priests in in japan toa to a population lation of forty two million people I 1 still they occupy an important position the general intellectual and moral condition of the buddhist priest is shamo shame fully low thor there 0 are exceptions as there are many men among the priests who have degrees dearel from european colleges the immorality of tho the priests is sorely c ensured censured they frequent prostitute quarters or keep harlots in the temples lutell intelligent igent budd fists declare that unless the religion can bo ba reformed it is doomed 0 buddhism has bas done much for japan it was under the in fluence of buddhism that her civilization grow grew up F for or a thousand years buddhism was antwork at work silently patiently per inculcating that gentleness tl eness that extreme regard for life that boundless courtesy which have made the japanese people famous buddhism fostered education when there were no other schools excepting perhaps s the train training school for the young sa muriti samurai or warrior buddhist priests taught the children of the neighborhood to read and write the native alphabet was brought into general use by the priests the monasteries were of often ten the only place where libraries were to be found the fondness for flowers and the likeness for landscape are probably connected with th the e teachings oi of him the favorite favorit 0 sent seat of whose imars images Is the beautiful lotus etower Ni chiren sect while buddhism was kind to animals it was ofton often pruel cruel to mon men in political influence while generally peaceful was destructive of tho the national spirit it wits was not always for peace often it instigated sti gated internal strife the temple bolls bells hung low as they lire are instead of pooling peeling forth the glad notes of joy joy faith and hope send forth a low choly sound of gloomy pessimism sad as a temple comple boll 0 is a i jap abeso saying you ask a pr priest lost who has studied at oxford why ho he worships idols he be will tell you that god is in evereth everything I 1 ng ile ho is in images and images ar ore helpful representation to the common mind therefore wo use them to sum up all after a thousand years of buddhism the japanese spiritual nature has suffered distortion tor tion and has become fixed and hardened in thi this s distortion MELVIN P F |
