BUDDHIST PRIESTS.
A casual observer visiting the Buddhist temples in Japan may be impressed with the points of resemblance between the Buddhistic and the Roman Catholic ceremonial. The flowers on the altar, the candles, the incense, the images, the processions, the shaven heads and the gorgeous robes of the priests, all seem strangely familiar. But the likeness is merely external, for Buddhism is wholly at variance with the doctrines of Christianity.
Knowledge, and not faith, is the condition of grace. Practical annihilation of individual life, and not immortality, is the aim of its devotees. The existence of a supreme God is ignored, and life is regarded as an evil.
Source: JAPAN. Described and Illustrated by the Japanese. Written by Eminent Japanese Authorities and Scholars. Edited by Captain F Brinkley (1841 – 1912) of Tokyo Japan. With an Essay on Japanese Art by Kakuzo Okakura (1860 – 1929) Director of the Imperial Art School at Tokyo Japan. 1897.
