8 -C
Religion in America
THURSDAY. JULY 25, 1963
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON
Variety of Buddhism Attracts Following Among Westerners
Bellon Cautions Committee About Referral Movement
By LOUIS CASSELS
UPI Correipondeni
By burning himself to
death, a Buddhist monk in
Viet Nam has drawn world
wide attention to a revival of
fervor in one of the ancient
religions of Asia.
Buddhism, which comes in
almost as many varieties as
Christianity, now has about
150 million followers in Ja
pan, Korea, China, Mongolia
Tibet. Ceylon, Burma, That
land. Laos, Cambodia and
Viet Nam.
One of its varieties, called
Zen, has attracted a small but
articulate following a m o n
western intellectuals.
Twenty years ago, students
of world Teligions were can-
ing Buddhism a moribund
faith. But as a traditional re-
legion of the East, it has re
ceived a powerful stimulant
from the wave of nationalist
feeling that has swept over
Asian countries since World
War II. Its come-back
popular religion is dramatized
by the current controversy in
Viet Nam, where Buddhists
are bitterly protesting against
alleged persecution by the
government of President Ngo
Dinh Diem, a Roman Catholic.
Buddhism is sometimes
called "Hindu Protestantism.
It originated in India 2,500
years ago as a protest or re
form movement within Hindu
ism.
Its founder was an cnor
Credit Union
Popularity Shown
By Rapid Growth
." New York (UPI) - Ameri
cans long have been known as
Joiners and a type of organi
zation which has proved at
tractive to roughly one in ev
ery 14 persons in the nation
is the credit union.
Membership in these grew
by a little over 7 per cent
last year from the previous
year to $3,705,906, according
to the International Credit
Union Yearbook.
Other figures serving as a
measure of the popularity of
these groups also showed
growth in the past year. The
number of credit unions grew
by only 2 per cent, to 21,032;
but savings Jumped 11.7 per
- cent, to $6,203,843,913; loans
outstanding expanded 12.6
per cent to $5,426,379,462; re
serves swelled 15.7 per cent,
to $375,933,533: total assets
went up 11.5 per cent to $7
114,091,426, a figure higher
than the total annual budget
of some of the overseas na
tions where the credit union
movement also has grown.
A Group of Peopl
"A credit union," explain
ed the yearbook, "is a goup
of people, united by a com
mon bond, who save their
money together and make
loans to oae!i other for good
purposes at low interest. Each
credit union Is an Independ
ent, nonprofit corporation,
chartered and supervised by
the government, which is run
by members exclusively for
the benefit of members."
Large as the total credit
union savings may seem, they
are dwarfed by those in com
mercial banks, which at the
end of 1962 had personal sav
ings of about $90 billion, fol
lowed by savings and loan as
sociations with $80.4 billion,
and mutual savings banks
with $41.3 billion.
mously wealthy Indian prince
Sidhartha Guatama, who was
born about 560 B.C. in a
northern province about 100
miles from Bernares. Legend
says that Guatama had three
palaces and 40,000 dancing
girls to keep him amused.
But he learned early in life
that luxury did not lead to
happiness. When he was
about 29 years old, he aban
doned his sumptuous life as a
prince and went into the
forest, dressed in rags, to
seek enlightment in the soli
tary life of a Hindu ascetic.
No one ever practiced
mortification of the flesh with
greater dedication than Gua
tama. He fasted (eating one
bean a day) until his spine
could be seen through his
shrunken stomach. But he
found no answer to his que
tions about life, and conclud
ed that extreme asceticism
was no better than luxury as
a pathway to happiness,
After six years of futile
searching, Guatama seated
himself one evening beneath
the shade of a fig tree near
the village of Gaya in north-
cast India. He vowed that
he would sit right there until
he saw the light
According to Buddhist
scriptures, he remained there
for 49 days. He emerged Irom
this experience as the Buddha,
or "the enlightened one." for
the next 45 years, he walked
from one Indian village to an
other, sharing his new In
sights with all who would
listen, and founding an order
of monks to practice his pre
cepts and pass on his message.
Compris a Philosophy
Buddha's original teachings
constitute a philosophy of life
rather than a religion. He
taught that human life is
characterized by suffering,
and the basic cause of suffer
ing is "tanha," a word which
is often translated as "desire"
but which actually connotes
selfish craving, the tendency
in every person to seek his
own private happiness.
To break free from slavery
to "tanha," Budha said men
must follow "the eightfold
path" of right knowledge,
right aspiration, right speecn,
right behavior, right occupa
tion, Tight effort, right think
ing and right absorption.
- Under each of these eight
headings, he laid down rules
for rigorous s e 1 f discipline.
Buddhists were forbidden to
lie, steal or kill any living
Use Koch Said
Stiff in Prison
Augsburg, Germany - OJPD -
A spokesman at the Alchach
Prison today denied reports
published abroad that Use
Koch, the infamous "bitch of
Buchenwald," had been
freed.
The wife of the Buchen
wald concentration camp's
S. Commander Karl Koch,
she was sentenced by a court
In Augsburg in 1951 to life
imprisonment in a war atro
city trial.
The spokesman noted that
Mrs. Koch must serve at least
15 years before she can even
apply for parole.
MAKES RARE TRIP
London - IUPD - London's
635th lord mayor, 58-ycar-old
Sir Ralph Pcrring, said today
he will arrive In Canada Aug.
12 on the first state visit to
the Dominion by a lord may
or of London since 1936.
-JZ Iks.
7
" i
!
X- jTM
x
PICTURE AMONG PICTURES - Karen Kopseng, 18, ' Miss
Rocky Mountain Professional Photographer," makes a picture
among pictures as she poses amid prints on exhibition at the
72nd International Exposition of Professional Photography
at Dallas, Tex. Miss Kopseng, a Bismarck, N. D beauty
1 Mudpin U be a modcL (UPI)
creature, Including animals
and insects. They were al
lowed to eat only what they
could beg, and then just
enough to keep the body alive
and functioning. Alcoholic
beverages and sex relations
were strictly forbidden.
Ruddha said this monastic
way of life, if earnestly prac
ticed, would eventually lead
to "nirvana." Exactly what
he meant by this much-abused
term is hard to determine
from his authenticated say
ings. At times, he seems to
think of nirvana as a state of
nothingness, a final blotting
out of human individuality
and hence of the selfish crav
ings which cause suffering.
At other points, he speaks of
nirvana in terms comparable
to those which a Christian
mystic might use to describe
ecstatic union with God.
Preserved By Monks
Today the austere philos
ophy of Buddha is preserved
primarily by the so-called
"Theravada" monks of Bur
ma, Ceylon, Thailand and
Cambodia. The popular Budd
hism of other countries wor
ships Guatama as a divine
savior, and admits a whole
pantheon of other gods
Like Christianity, popular
or "M a h a y a n a" Buddhism
places great emphasis on
compassion and human broth
erhood. Room has been made
for prayer and ritual, and
salvation is something man
receives by divine grace, rath
er than something he must
earn by rigorous self-denial.
Laymen as well as monks can
hope to reach nirvana, which
in Mahayana Buddhism sounds
rather like a primitive Chris
tian version of Heaven.
Zen is a special' case. It
developed in China in the 6th
Century A.D., and by the 12th
Century had reached Japan,
where it took root and still
flowers. The heart of Zen is
the conviction that real truth
can never be expressed or
understood in verbal formu
lae, but can only be directly
experienced through a flash
of intuition or enlightment
called "satori." To drive home
the futility of reason as a road
to truth, Zen masters require
their disciples to spend end
less hours working on "kqans"
or nonsense problems to
which there is no rational
solution.
Howard Belton, state treas
urer, appeared at the Wednes
day breakfast meeting of the
Governmental Operations
committee of the Medford
Chamber of Commerce as
guest of Representative Ed
Branchfield and discussed
Oregon's legislative picture.
The committee is consider
ing the move now under way
to refer the present tax pro
gram of the legislature to the
people.
Belton contended that many
of the problems faced by the
1963 legislature had been
passed on by the 1961 legis
lature which had a surplus of
$30 million. Even, at that, he
maintained, stringent econ-
haH to be effected dur
ing the last biennium to keep
in balance.
Now, Belton said, the men-
MONORAIL SYSTEM
New York -IUPD- Construc
tion has begun on the Orient's
longest nonorail system
which will link downtown
Tokyo with Tokyo Interna
tional Airport, says the Japan
National Tourist Association.
Scheduled for completion by
Sept. 1, 1964, in time for the
Olympics, the system will
transport about 138,000 pas
sengers daily along the eight
mile route at speeds of more
than 40 miles per hour.
(ai hntnifal is short five doc
tors. There are 1,600 inmates
in the state penitentiary and
the state has a crime rate in
crease five times that of the
population increase.
Belton suggested that the
real tax burden begins at the
local level, where new serv
ices are constantly demanded.
Branchfield agreed with
this summary of the tax sit
uation and added that he re
ceived "Not one letter request
ing that services be cut." He
urged the committee to con
sider very carefully any move
for referral of the tax pro
gram which could put the
state in serious financial dif
ficulties. ,
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