FORMATIVE ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE BUDDHISM.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

It is my goal in this essay to provide my readers with a general description of Buddhism as it exists in Japan. I do not intend to offer a scholarly original: "learned" description filled with specialized historical original: "antiquarian" or linguistic research. Instead, I want to try to show, as plainly and simply as possible, what an ordinary Japanese Buddhist believes and the principles that underlie their religious life.

To make this clearer and easier to understand, I will contrast Buddhism—the most widely practiced faith in Japan—with Christianity. I will take the first part of the Catechism of the Church of England A Catechism is a summary of religious principles in the form of questions and answers, used for instruction. and place its questions and answers side-by-side with the corresponding doctrines and practices of Buddhism. In this way, it can be easily and readily seen where, and in what ways, a Buddhist differs from a Christian.

I start with the premise that Buddhism in Japan is very different from the version of the religion found in Sri Lanka original: "Ceylon" or Myanmar original: "Burmah". Indeed, the two great forms of Buddhism differ so significantly from each other that I believe it would be better to give them separate names. The Buddhism of Japan should be described not so much as "Buddhism" but rather as what is sometimes called Mahayana Buddhism original: "Mahâyânism"; Mahayana is the "Great Vehicle" tradition of Buddhism prevalent in East Asia., the ex-