"ELIMINATING SELF."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1650, 17 January 1913, Page 8

"ELIMINATING SELF."

CURIOUS CEREMONY OF JAPANESE ■-■'.;.' •.. SECT. ..; ■'..:';• .The five hundred and eighty-fifth anniversary of the death of:Kcizaru Daishu was celebrated by a five days' festival at the Sojiji Temple, between Yoltohama and Tokio, receutly. Daishu" was the founder of the Soto sect, which is the principal sub-sect of the Zens, ono of the most important, of tho,various offshoots of Buddhism in Japan. It is claimed for Zcnism that it >is the most abstruse, and profound of all sects, and aims entirely at salvation by the;, elimination of self and the' comprehension of the "thing.'- Only the intellectual can .'fully.appreciate its creed, and its members, therefore, are stated to include, most of the "iutolligents". of' Buddhism. Its motto may be said -to'be'-"meditation'," for only by meditation may the true wisdoih be really comprehended. , The last day of the festivities were by far the most interesting for the spectator, and attracted great numbers of believers and of the curious. On'that day-was performed the rare ceremony of "amondo, or questions and answers. ■•..'' ■'-..'■■•■ With much ceremony' and with music the Lord Abbot was' escorted - into the Temple. He is a man .to all appearance in the prime of life, and-he wore a gorgeous dress embroidered with purplo and golden chrysanthemums.' In his left hand he carried a palmer's staff, in his right a thick stick, about one yard long and so thick as a well-developed thumb. An attendant at his side boro a brush of long white horse hair. Ho mounted a pulpit arid announced that he was ready to: proceed;to the ceremony of "amondo.", ■ A'long lino of 150 priests awaited'the ordeal. The first submitted to the Lord Abbot the question, "What would 1» the colour' of the nmplo'leaves in' the Mountains in tlio present month?" . \ Up went the right ,oxlll of tlio Lord .Abbot. Down came-tho-thick.stick .on the shoulders of tlio 'candidate. •-''My 'son, their colour would be redder than, tjie tints of tlio flowers in May. Up again went the , arm, down- again camp the stick, and tho candidate retired, gratefully thanking his Holiness for the wisdom of his reply. The second candidate asked, What should wo do to escape tho heat in summer and the cold in winter f" . Down came tho stick with a smart crack. Mp where there is neither heat-nor cold, neither summer nor winter." Candidate number three offered only an assertion, "Tho moon is 111. the blue sky." The Lord Abbott laid on with- increased vchcnicnco as ho thundered, "And water is in a jar,' and tho partin" stroke broke tho stick in his hand. One 'candidate placed tno conundrum, "For What is the sword, to.kilt a man or to savo him?" - ' „ T , In tho course of the ceremony the Lord Abbot broko twelve sticks. . Iho; beating is regarded, according to the principles of tho sect, as a means of testing whether the candidate is capablo of undergoing hardships in tho cause of Buddha, to train their enduranco and to .develop their spirit of sclf-control.-Rcuter.