WHITE "BUDDHISTS"

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 73, 20 December 1920, Page 6

WHITE "BUDDHISTS"

1 _ MUMMERY IN AMERICA. : European and American Buddhists are described iii an article by Mr. Kenneth Saunders in tho "East and tho West" (luorterly. Ho says that tlioy fall into two classca—those who are honest and sincere students of Buddhism and followers of Gautama (Buddha),' and those of whom the most charitable thing that can be said is that tlity lead astray foolish women and other sentimentalists. Unfortunately the two schools nro working in an unnatural alliance. In San Francisco he found "Buddhist High Moss" being: performed. It was a curious hotchpotch. of religions and superstitions, not at all like a real Buddhist serricc. The celebrant. called himself a bishop, and had ordained oil his own initiativo "abbots" and "abbesses." Among thoso taking part in the ccremony were American, British, and Japanese monks, as well as tho. abbots and abbesses. The precepts wer'o inaccurately given, and "penny whistle" tunes were played 011 a harmonium by an organist announced as "late of tho Golden Tompie Shway Dagon mi Burma"—(whore there is 110 organ)-/'a.nd of St. Paul's Cathedral, London." The bishop was an "old sportsman," who claimed that 110 was 95 years of age, had bwn a Buddhist monk for 75 years, .and was tho sou of a Persian, prince; but Mr. Saunders was convinced that lie had once ljcon a member of tho Christian Church. Tho bishop "gave notice that in the ovening there would bo a banquet and dance, in which he would join if widows and maidens pressed him, and immediately after the service ho Saluted them all 'with a holy kiss,' which they seemed to enjoy as much us ho. . . . AVlicn I chuckled at HOlllO of his shrewd sallies," adds Mr. Saunders, "an olcgantlly dressed woman next to pie said 'Hush! lrash You arc not an initiate; you do not understand; all that lie says lias a profound inner meaning, which only wo who aro initiates can compreBut there nro genuine White Buddhists. Somo years ago Mr. Saunders mot a Scottish monk, widely known by Ins books as a secularly translator, in the shadow of the great pagoda from which our organist did not come. Another of Ms fritwls—an Englishman, formerly a Soman Catholic priest—is a .Buddhist missionary in California, having been ordained in Japan.