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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1907)
c3vzzjrzT tjzi&st w t IWO vwki ro 100 Jfapanea rl- denta of PortUnd uninbM In a littla room at 4S North Flrat atrmt that ia balng used aa a Uuddhlat temple, commmo- rats tt annlvaraarr of tha blrtb of hydarrha Oauuuna, tha moat Important iL-ilirtoua avant of the year. It la to liuddhlata what the twaatr-flftn o( De cember la to Chrtattana. Kav. 8. Wakabayaahi. local prleat la charire of the Buddhlat temple, prealded at the oeremonlea. ' There waa a repre snntrntlve of praotfcally ererr Buddhlat or Japaneae family la Portland at the met-tlna. The aervlcee were almple. They oon alated of propitiatory rltea to the dead. rartaklna; of food and tea, and provld-1 lng- nourishment for the aplrlt not only of the one whoae birth, they were com inemoratlna but of other dead, and of a uermoa by the prleat. - . ' x The aermon waa vastly different from a Buddhlat addreaa of ancient daya of Japan. It told that on the morrow, April 4, 1451 yeara ago. Bydarrha Gau tama waa born.1- it told who be waa, hla nsplratlona during; hla lifetime, hla fichievementa and deeda, ' and the re-t-ulta of hla having Jived. Gautama waa a Brahmin, he aald,. but (Uncovered prlnclplee which forced him t it abandon tuat faith, and he told of the reaulta -of that abandonment: He uIho told of the early blatory of Japan i.nd or the ancient ouatoma and early mruffglee of Buddhtam. He devoted i articular attention to the Buddhlat and Japaneae ouatom .of anceator-worahlp, :uid of lta connection with Buddhiam. History of Cuatama. The aermon waa translated Into Eng lish In part by Mr. Wakabayaskl. He in regarded aa a acholar of note among Ma people and,' though unable to apeak the Engllah language with fluency, rada and wrltea It with perfect under standing. Ha tranalated that portion i I hla aermon which, he thought, would l e of general lntereet.- The aubject. he nld, waa-"What Shall the Harvest Bar' h aubject,' by the way, that la uaed with irpouency by Chrietlan preachera. Hla translated verelon followe; "Tomorrow, the ' ath of April. 1451 'oura a hall have paasod ainoe Sydarrha i .rnjtama waa born,- Who waa hat Hla father, waa king or 'rajah of a prlnci- tality la India, near the foot of the ittmalavaa He waa an only child, and i reatly beloved by hla father. A life of rase and luxury araa at hla - command. lie had a charming wife and son. . He waa heir to a - well-ruled " kingdom. Nothing that can make mere earthly existence happy waa lacking to htm. "He waa a Brahmin of a deeply rellg- loua mind. It atruck him that earthly life la only a mere apeck in eternity; that other existence will follow It. like othere have preceded It, and that how fver glittering earthly exlatence may be for aoroe. life generally la full of tnla- fr. - ' " SrfT - '' - "Therefore, when'l yeara of age, ha n-parated himself from father, wife and ma. left all luxury he waa accustomed to. and penniless and alone went forth Into the world, to mix wnn omera in oil claaaea of life, and to ponder on the great problem e of exlatence. ' Combated Evil for Yeara. V "r "Far It yeara of wandering and pri vation be had to oombat evil spiritual iMfluenoea which were endeavoring to mislead him on a wrong track, and he t -led one way after another without finding a eolutlon te the problema which I nrplexed him. At last, when 16 yeara i f age. light ' by - Intuition - dawned t pnn him. He got light on the .ay man baa to travel for reaching a heavenly goal. He Improved on the i hiloeophy of Brahmlam and evolved a religious aystem alnoe called Bud dhism, "He hlmaelf became the most enllght- ned aeer who yet had appeared, tne jiuddha above all others. , The light which had dawned on him be apread till he became 10 yeara of age, when ha riled In peace near Kushlnara, A city on the border of the river Shlrennla-wy-thla, in India. All the yeara alnce hla enlightenment he had been traveling and enduring hardahlpa. waking up people, Inspiring them with lofty Ideaa and bracing them to a higher life. - The great Buddha aystem of morale and athlca haa never yet been Improved By Carolyn Prescott. ' w OVLD you bellove that In the ., United states there lived sad breathed a girl who ' would rather do housework than to appear behind the footlights? There Is. Bhe la away out in Denver, .re. perhapa, the high altitude la re oneible for high-minded sctlons. Her i me Is Lulu Kicharda. " Bhe is good king and has good prospects of fol ding In her alster's footstnpa and ef . .lining a footlights favorite. But she set her little No. 1 down on the '.J-rt and baa aald, "Rather a houae- M drudge than a public play toy," .1 that aettlee It. ! wish there were more girls who would ' her example. If there were, we V..1 have fewer divorcee, and fewer if and murders than we have now. riure of footlights la the flame that ninny moths, who learn too lata i It lu fatal warmth and flitter that rtd them; And when the moth I rain withdraw It finds Its wings - g ne and It haa no further useful- ! t girl who seeks glory oa the stags i at the beginning renounce any A Girl Who Prefers the Kitchen THE erf Alt &r Hla law of cauae and effect, an Improvement on the old Brahmlnlo con ception, la universally accepted by all men spiritually minded. The alma and methods of Buddhism are the same aa those of Christianity. The two relig ions together have nearly two-thirda of mankind aa . followers. The weat la more Christian and tha east more Bud dhlat , -.. i . ' The two principal : rellgtona tally with each other. No Buddhlat becom ing a Christian ahould therefore cease to be a Buddhlat; and no Christian adopting Buddhlat metaphyilea ahould therefore cease also to be a Chrietlan. Buddhiam and Chiiatlanity, blended or aide by aide, are here forever. All Loyal to Buddha, t ."V , ,) "Let no Buddhlat aver waver' In hla loyalty to .? the great Buddha.' When here where Buddhiam . la but ' little known, he meets any one who knows only about Chriatlanlty. let him aay 'I practice thoae aame virtuea which Christianity preaches, and I am apt to fall short like yon. , My alma and aa Iratlona are the aame.' 1 "Do not act as if you were aahamed of Buddha. Reapect him whom you ahould bonor, and reapect youraelvea. Then othere will likewise respect you. Never deny your . faith, proclaim it boldly, and live up to It . 'Then the harveat will be a higher and better exlatence in the next world, be you Buddhlat alone or Chrietlan Bud dhlat The karma muat bear fruit Chriatlanlty ia Buddhism with a karma renewed in Chrlat" The total number of Buddhlata ia aald to be 460,000,000. There are perhaps $00 In the city of Portland, though all Japanese residents of thla city are not followera of that religion. A majority, however. , are faithful Buddhlata, and nearly every family waa represented at the aervlcea two weeka ago. Buddhiam aroae out of the phlloaoph ical and ethical teachtnga of Gautama. In celebration of whoae birth meetings almllar to the one in thla city were held In all parte of the world April 7. She religion la professed by the Inhabitants of Ceylon, Blam, Burma, Nepal, -Tibet China and Japan. - The local priest In hla aermon told largely of tha early Buddhlat cu stoma and teachings In Ja pan, for both he and hla hearers were Japanese. - Legends of Miraclea. : - About the early life of Gautama there are numeroua legendary and mlraculoua tales. These tales, among the Japanese Buddhlata especially, have all tha weird and fantaatlo glamour peculiar to that country, He waa the eldest son of Buddhodana, who was rajah and chief of the tribe of Sakyas. an Aryan clan living during the fifth century B. C on the banka of the Kohana, about 100 miles north of the city of Banares and about B0 miles south, of the foot of the Himalaya mountaina. Hla religion and teachlnga spread rapidly even during hla lifetime and have an lmmenae following at the preaent time. Perhapa Japan la the moat Important nation where It could be unlveraally accepted. ' While Buddha maintained that only hla own religion, eould take men to what he termed Nirvana, yet he waa tolerant toward others, provided they laid stress hopes she. may have for a peaceful and contented married lire, ine exigencies of the profession are such that In order to be eucceaaful the home life muat retreat farther and farther Into the background. In direct proportion to the amount of success. - ' The girl of Denver is wise In choosing rather a life In the home. Bhe knows something of the drudgery of the pro fession, having sisters who are actresses. Bhe knows that they have a hard row te hoe, starting, ss she would be com pelled to do, at the -foot of the ladder. Bhe knows of the trials and tribulations that come to the chorus gtrl who Is try ing to live an honest, womanly Ufa, and she Is sensible In choosing housework rather than the life that the stage of- fera her. And, -after all. what would her life oa the state bring her? Btara are few and tar oetween. For every star--- there are a hundred grubs, who plod along, earn ing a few dollars a week, playing In strange towna among atrange people, leaving the theatre lata at night Bleep ing -until noon. Surely thla Is not the most enjoyable life in tha world. And If the girl of the stage marries, what thent OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, ' FORTLAND, SUNDAY upon ethlca. Ha admitted that a former religion had taken men to heaven and to God, but not to Nirvana. Gautama de clared that naked aacetlca rarely . are permitted to enter paradise because of their neglect of athlca Moat Buddhlat scriptures, however, affirm that only Buddhlata are assured of. final release. At the same time Buddhism haa alwaya been tolerant, and when It enjoyed po litical power did not persecute other faiths, but only heretics of Its own. A Japanese poet haa described Budd hism In theae worda: "Ceaalng to do all wrong, initiation Into goodneaa, cleans ing the heart: thla is the religion of Buddha." Patience and long-aufforlng are the aupreme aecetiolsm, the supreme nirvana,, mo auinor says. , . . v Ancestor Worihip a Feature, With' all followera of the faith, but especially among Japanese Buddhists is ancestor worship an especial reatore. Reverence for tho dead la one of the greatest of all virtues and rites In be half of departed ancestors are never neglected by the Japanese. ( - Before the Japanese were united Into one kingdom there re vartoua forma of funeral rltea. or religious - services over their dead. Between the ancient Japanese funeral customs, however, and tboee of antique Europe there waa a vast difference. - In early European countries It was the custom to bury the family dead within the llmlta of the family estate. Sometimes the dead were buried close to the house. : But In ancient Japan men fled from the neighborhood of death. For a long time It waa the custom to abandon, either temporarily, or permanently, tha houae In which the death had occurred. Some Japanese authorttlea declare that In the very earliest ages there waa no burial.' and that corpeea were merely conveyed to deaolate placea and there abandoned to wild creatures, If she and her husband are engaged in different companies, which Is usually the case, they see each other for a few weeka In the summer. The rest of the time one may be in Ban Francisco, tha other in Boaton. Holidays paaa, sick ness and sorrow come, it makes no dif ference; both are under contract which cannot be broken. No; the outlook ianot pleaaant. ' Place beside it the vision of the home whers the girl, as wife or daughter, is leader. If shs is st all tactful and clever. Bhe is something in- that home, eome-thina- bealdea one of fifty or a hundred other chorus girls, all dressed exactly alike, and making the same gestures, all singing the same song, all getting the aame pay she Is the queen, or may be queen If she possesses even ordinary In telligence, Home I How much better tnan same room In a big hotel Is a home with hus band and children to watch over and to care for. Children! Here's another mark against the life of the actor and actress. Where la the child'a place In a theatrical com pany? What can the mother do with her child when her time la all taken up with rehearsals and the 1,17 T At beat - In early Japan the dead were left for a certain period, called the period of mourning, either in the abandoned houae where the death occurred, or In a shel ter especially built for the purpose; and, during the period of mourning, of ferings of food and drink were set be fore the dead and ceremonlea performed without yie houae. One of theae cere monlea consisted In the recital of poems In praise of the dead.- The poems were called "ahlnoblgoto." There, waa music also of flutes and drums and dancing, and at night a fire was kept burning before the house. After all - this had been done for fixed period of. mourn ing, the corpse was interred. - -.At regular Intervals - after burial. ceremonlea were , performed at the graves, and food and drink were then aerved to the spirits. The.custom still survives according to the Buddhlat rltea Even at thla time' every spring an imperial meaeenger preaents at the tomb of the Emperor Jtmmu the aame offerings of birds and fish and seaweed, rice and rice wine, which were made to the spirit of the founder of the empire more than 1,600 years ago. , Human Sacrifices Common. , In the early days the family worshiped Its dead only before the mortuary house, or at tha grave; and the spirits were yet supposed to dwell in their tombs with access to some mysterious subterranean world, ' They were supposed to need other things beside nourishment, and it waa customary to place in the grave various arttclea for their ghostly use a sword for a warrior; a mirror in case of a woman; together with other objects especially prised during lifetime. At the funerala of great personages human eacrtflcee were common. These eecrlflcee are aald to have been the most cruel recorded in history. . The human victims were burled up to the neck In a circle about the grave, and thus left I the child la left In the hands of some one else, where it grows up to regard its parents as some strangs creatures, who are always going somewhere, or coming from somewhere, who have no time, though they have plenty of money, for their little boy or girl. The Denver maiden is far wlaer than the - great crowd of girls who would Jump at the chance of going on - the stage. Bhe knows her mind, and sticks to it, and wers there more girls like her, who loved the home aa thoroughly aa she, home life would mean- more, would be lifted to a higher plane la every sense of the word. . I bops she will stick to her decision. 120,000 First Kichtere. The theatres of New York, sll of them together, hold about 110,000 persona- If It be supposed that at an aver age performance they are only two thirds full. It followe that (0,000 per sona In the metropolis must go to the play every week day night a number equal to the population of Savannah, Georgia. . Our Impossible Sky Scraper. An Ingenious statlaticlun has reck oned that if a flat house were butlt cov ering one entire block, with 60 apart ments on each floor and five peraona to each -family. It would have to be K.000 stories high in order to accommodate the entire population of Oreater New York.: MORNING. APRIL 21. 1807. to perish under the beaks of birds and the teeth of wild beasta. This custom was abolished by the Emperor Sulnln about 1900 years ago. Being grieved by the crying of the victims interred In the funeral, mound erected over1 the grave of hia brother, the emperor la recorded to have said: - - "It la a very painful thing to force those whom one has loved In life to follow one in death. Though It Is an ancient custom, why follow It if It la bad? From this time forward take counsel to put a stop to the following of the dead." The aubatltutton - of earthen Imagea of men and horses for living, victims was then suggested and approved. It continues to a certain extent to the present time, according to the Buddhist rltea Bui the voluntary following' of the dead continued for many hundred years after. . ' With the rise of the mili tary power there gradually came Into existence another custom of following one's lord . In death eulclde by - the sword. , , Suicide by the Sword. ' It Is said to have begun about lilt, when the last of a certain family of re gents committed suicide, and a number of bis retainers took their own lives by "hara-kiri,"- in order to follow their master. This Incident Is said to have really started the practice of ' "hara kiri," which haa never been entirely abandoned. By the sixteenth century it had become an honored custom among the Samurai. Loyal retainers esteemed It a duty to kill themselves: after the death of their lord. In order to attend upon him during his ghostly Journey. A thousand years of Buddhlat teach ing had not sufficed .to eradicate all primitive notions of sacrificial - duty. The practice continued for centuries, when laws were made to check It These lawa were rigidly applied, the entire family of the suicide being held re "" By Camilla Flemmarton." INT A comparatively ' few yeara, as tronomically speaking, this beautiful planet upon which we live, so full of ' life today, so full of activity, so . noisy, ao rich on whose surface generations - succeed generatlona so repldly, will be dead, more destroyed! Just aa aha ernceala in her bosom today the elemepta and dates of her beginnings, so she contains there the germs of ber decadence and end. And no only she, but her companions also Venua, her younger sister, who resembles her so closely snd whose present humanity Is undoubtedly cen turies behind our present stage of pro gress; Mercury, fiery and swift; Jupi ter, now pursuing his course with noble and majeatlo movement; Saturn, girdled with his triple ring and guarded by his eight satellites; Uranus, slow and Ven erable; Neptune, whose years ars cen turies all these worlds will shortly have ceased to exist Inside an infinitely small fraction of eternity they will have lost all heat- water, air, llqulda. gases, cehealon. affinity all the elements of exlstenoe sod of life will have disappeared. llent daaarta roulM la msjaacholv .1 JLjiXLi sponsible.' Yet. tha eustom eannot be aald to have become extinct until long after. Even now there are eccaatonal survivals . some of a very touching kind suicides performed in the hope of be ing able to serve or aid the spirit of master or husband or parent in the in visible world. , i. By degreea, 'under the Influence ' tf Buddhiam, the household religion be came a religion of tendemeaa aa well aa of duty, and changed and softened the thoughts of men about their dead. Ancestor worship is now the universal religion of Japan. In every home there is a shrine devoted to it If the fam ily' worships Its ancestors according to the Buddhist rite, the mortuary tableta are placed - In the Buddhlat household shrine, which occupies the upper, shelf of one of -the Inner" apartments. One miy be seen In the Buddhist temple In .his city, and Indeed all good Buddhists In Portland have one In their home. ' Soul-Commemoration.' - ' The Buddhist mortuary tablets are called by a Japanese term which signi fies "soul commemoration." They are lacquered and gilded, usually havtng a carved lotus flower as ledeatal; and aa a rule they do not bear the real, but only the religious and posthumous name of the dead. The mortuary tablet In shape suggests a miniature tomb stone. The shape or form ia slightly varied to indicate sex and age. The number of tablets In a Buddhist household shrine does not generally ex ceed five or six only grandparents and parents and the recently dead be ing thus represented. The names of mere remote ancestors are Inscribed npon scrols .which are preaerved with th greatest care. v - i ' - j The family rltea of a Buddntat house hold are not neglected under any cir cumstances. - Their performance la us ually entrusted to- the elders or to tha women. There Is no long ceremony, no space, they will present only Ice end barren rocks to the enfeebled rays of tha san. i . , - ' Meteors, winds and rains will have leveled the mountains with the plains, dried up the beds of' the lakes and gradually augmented tha extent of the ocean, 'which today covers' Uiree quar ters of the earth's surface, knd which will at last cover It completely. The sota on the sun. which are even now scaring many people, will have In creased in number, and this great luminary will have been exhausted, of Its best by 1U long radiation into sfcaca. ' . ,-,.. At first theea spots will be seen to spread themselves, like two dark sones, on either Bide of the equator of the sun, and meteorologists will observe a sen sible diminution In its heat and light When mlUlone of centuries shall have passed, this loss of heat will have be come ao great that all organlame on the plar.ete will perish to glvs jilare to new beings constituted to live ia ths cold. But sn age will come when the sun, flrat growing dark red. then obscure, will eeaae to be the source of heat ta the family of planets which , have so long drawn from It their magnetism and rule about prayers, and nothing sol emn. The food-offerings are sal acted from the family cooking. Tha mur mured or whispered prayara are short and few. But . trifling aa they ' may seem, the rites must never be over looked. So long as the family exists thw must hai m.d. ' la the household the! dead are not thought Of as dead; they are believed to remain among those who loved tbem. They guard the home and watch over the welfare of He inmates. They dwell most within the lettered tablets, according to the Buddhist rites. They may animate a tablet change It Into the - substance of a human body and return in that body to native life, la order to succor or console. . ; Require Va'por of Food. . . They require " nourishment, but the vapor of food contents them. They only exact the daily fulfillment ef duty. From their shrine they observe and hear what happens In the -house. The prayer that Is dally rendered to them la very simple.- ' A Japaneae priest baa I translated It aa follows! ... ;' : f "For aid received, ' by . 4ay 'and by . . night, August Ones, our . reverential .gratitude Is offered." ' ' - - . The Buddhist dead . are not called gods, but Buddhan, the Japanese term for which expressing a pious hope rath- . r than a faith. The belief la that they- are only on their - way to some higher state of exlstenoe; and they . should not be Invoked or ' worshiped sfter the manner of the regular god a. Prayers should be said (or them, and not to them. - - . , From this worship of ancestors there has evolved a religion of filial piety. It la the supreme virtue of the Japanese.. By the term' filial piety, however, it -is not mesnt what Is commonly- signi fied by that term the devotion ef chil dren to parents. . . Reverence for-the dead, a a wen aa the sentiment of duty towards the Uv-' tng; the affection of children to Bar ents; and the affection Of parents to '' children; the mutual duties of the hue- . band and wife; the duties of sons-in-law and daughters-in-law to the family . as a body; the duties of servant to mas ter, snd of maater to dependent all -theae are Included under the term. '' i Family Itself a Religion. The family Itself Is a reHgtonitKe ancestral home is a temple. Filial piety in Japan meana the cult of ancestors, reverential service to the dead, the gratitude of the present to the past and the oonduct of the Individual In rela- . tlnn to the entire household. One of the most noted of old Japanese au thorities declared that all virtuea are derived from the worship of anoeatora, A translation of hla words follows: . "It is the duty of a subject te be wursniping me anoeatora, whoae minister he should consider hlm- ..I. . A k. . . - . .. j u, tm ouatom ox adoption aroae from the natural daalre of havtng ' aome one to perform sacrlflcea; and thla desire ought not to be rendered of no avail by neglect Devotion to the . memory of ancestor ia the mainspring of all virtues. . No one who discharges hla duty to them will ever be dlareapect ful to the gods or to his living parents. Such a man will also be faithful to his prince, loyal to his friends and-Jtlnd and gentle to his wife snd children. For -: the eesnce of this devotion la lndut filial piety." , . .., , ,, . . . their life, and will shed only a livid and sinister light , The days shall be turned Into nights, snd there will be no longer either spring or summer. The worlds, dark and hetvy, will revolve like - black balls arnina another black ball - The heavens will have hecnm h.m ognlsoble, the earth decrepit, dried up, disintegrated, will have fallen into ' fragmenta which, spreading themselves slong her orbit will continue to revolve arnu'id the dead sun. ' Diminutive skeletons revolving around a giant skeleton, aerolites carrying Into dkrkness the laat fragmenta of a form erly inhabited earth, they will, perhapa. be entalnne4 In v hyperbolic comet which, carrying aome " mm i in us course, will sot ter them In another system on some unknown planet whoae Inhabitants, gathering them up to preserve them un der glaaa in a museum, will analyse them, without finding In them any clew to the hlafTy of the globe from whsnoe they came. But how can Cuhsna K. i- ' - ' ..iwi.i 19 behave themselves, with Magooa sitting v oa the eockflghtlng lid'