The Buddhist Revival in America
By L. A. S.
The New York Sun of February 23 calls attention to some “details indicative of a very notable revival of the aggressive spirit of Buddhism,” which, says the Sun, “have a pertinency for this country, since it seems that here the new Buddhist propaganda is most hopeful of success.” The Sun adds: “The American nation,” says the editor of Buddhism, Ananda Metteya, “is one which, in our opinion, is perhaps the best of all fields for the promotion of those ideas for which our journal is founded, on account alike of the general freedom of its people from conservative prejudices and their capacity for grasping what is essential in new ideas.” He acknowledges indebtedness to Professor Lanman, of Harvard University, for selecting for the society an American representative, Albert J. Edmunds, of Philadelphia, the author of a metrical translation of the ‘Dhammapada,’ or one of the divisions of the sacred writings of the Buddhists, also translated by Max Muller. Not long since we reprinted from an American Buddhist magazine, the Light of Dharma, a very glowing description of a Buddhist temple established in Philadelphia, “under the direction of Dr. Maxwell Sommerville, professor of glyptology in the University of Pennsylvania.” The Sun also makes mention of having received the second number of “an imposing quarterly review called Buddhism,” printed in the English language in Rangoon, as the organ of the International Buddhist Society. “Every indication of enthusiasm, of hopefulness, and of methodical organization in this Buddhist propaganda,” the Sun remarks, “is manifested in the Rangoon review. All the articles give evidence of a sincere conviction that from it will come the world religion of the future.” There is much in what is being taught to-day in this country in the name of Christianity that gives support to the belief of these exponents of Buddhism that “the American nation is one which, in our opinion, is perhaps the best of all fields for the promotion of those ideas for which our journal is founded.” Disguised Buddhism, masquerading in this country as a new phase of Christianity, finds ready acceptance in many minds not guarded by a knowledge of “the truth as it is in Jesus.”
L. A. S.