Those races and civilizations whose highest and deepest conception of the ultimate is that of mere reason, no less than those races and civilizations whose highest and deepest conception of reality is that of an abstract emptiness, must be landed in an unreal world, must arrive at irrational results, for they have not taken into account the most vital element of thought and life.  Such races and civilizations cannot rise to the highest levels of which man is capable; they must of necessity give way to those races and that civilization which build on larger and more complete foundations, which worship Will, Human and Divine, and seek for its larger development both in self and in all mankind.

But I must not pause to trace the contrasts further.  Enough has been said to show the source of Occidental belief in the infinite worth of man.  In almost diametrical contrast to the Buddhist conception, according to the Christian view, man is a real being, living in a real world, involved in a real intellectual problem, fighting a real battle, on whose issue hang momentous, nay, infinite results.  So great is man’s value, not only to himself, but also to God, his Father, that the Father himself suffers with him in his sin, and for him, to save him from his sin.  The question will be asked how widely the Buddhistic interpretation of the universe has spread in Japan.  The doctrine of illusion became pretty general.  We may doubt, however, whether the rationale of the philosophy was very generally understood.  One Sutra, read by all Japanese sects, is taught to all who would become acquainted with the essentials of Buddhist doctrine.  It is so short that I give it in full.[DD]

THE SMALLER-PRAGNA-PARAMITA-HRIDYA-SUTRA

“Adoration to the Omniscient.  The venerable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara performing his study in the deep Pragna-paramita [perfection of Wisdom] thought thus:  There are the five Skandhas, and these he considered as by their nature empty [phenomenal].  O Sariputra, he said, form here is emptiness, and emptiness indeed is form.  Emptiness is not different from form, and form is not different from emptiness.  What is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is form.  The same applies to perception, name, conception, and knowledge.

“Here, O Sariputra, all things have the character of emptiness; they have no beginning, no end, they are faultless and not faultless, they are not imperfect and not perfect.  Therefore, O Sariputra, in this emptiness there is no form, no perception, no name, no concepts, no knowledge.  No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.  No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, objects....  There is no knowledge, no ignorance, no destruction of knowledge, no destruction of ignorance, etc., there is no decay and death, no destruction of decay and death; there are not the four truths, viz., that there is pain, the origin of pain, stopping of