FORMATIVE ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE BUDDHISM.

...panded Buddhism of the later stages of Buddhist or Gnostic thought. This completes the word "expanded" from the previous page.

(1). It is not generally known that there was, and still is, in Buddhism a Baptism (Abhisheka original: "Abhis'ekha", or in Japanese, kanjo original: "kwanjo"), which was administered to the novice when he first joined the community of monks. This baptism is no longer administered, except in the Shingon sect,† but I have heard Buddhist priests of other sects regret that it has been discontinued. There is, I believe, no ceremony of initiation for a Buddhist layman; however, if I—who am now a Christian—should by any unlikely chance become a Buddhist and wish to enter the company of the Buddhist priesthood, I would have to make a declaration similar to this:

“Namu Kie Ho. I take refuge in the Law The Dharma, or the teachings of Buddha.. Namu Kie So. I take refuge in the Priesthood The Sangha, or the monastic community.. Namu Kie Butsu. I take refuge in Buddha.”

Here we have something very much like the Baptismal Vow.

“I take refuge. It is an evil world in which I live,” says the Buddhist. “It is full of misery, pain, sickness, disease, and death. It is a transitory, fleeting original: "evanescent" world whose joys pass away. I must free myself from it, and in order to escape from the ‘miseries of this sinful world,’ I take refuge—in the Law, which is eternal, unchangeable, and true; and in Buddha, who, incarnate in Sakyamuni The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. and other great and godlike sages, has taught me what that Law is."

• Mahayana The "Great Vehicle" tradition of Buddhism prevalent in East Asia. Buddhism arose around the first century of the Christian era. It is, therefore, chronologically contemporary with Gnosticism, the earliest heresy which Christianity had to combat. Mahayanaism and Gnosticism are very similar in their doctrines and philosophical ideas. Pilgrims to Jerusalem from Eastern countries, and merchants from India and China taking their goods to the seaports of the Mediterranean—not to mention the mysterious sages, the Magi—all these must have brought back fragments of the "Great Life" that was being lived in Palestine A reference to the life of Jesus Christ.. These fragments were woven into the books of the Mahayana, especially into those which deal with the life of Sakyamuni.

† On Dec. 31, 1907, I bought a pamphlet at the Daishi Temple in Kawasaki entitled Yakuyoke Daishi The Great Teacher who Wards off Evil., which included a chapter entirely devoted to this Buddhist rite of Baptism. It urged Shingon believers to be baptized and even suggested having their baptism repeated.