f the Southern and those of the Northern
Buddhist countries?_

A. In the year A.D. 1891, a successful attempt was made to get the
Pradhana Nayakas of the two great divisions to agree to accept
fourteen propositions as embodying fundamental Buddhistic beliefs
recognised and taught by both divisions. These propositions, drafted
by Colonel Olcott, were carefully translated into Burmese, Sinhalese
and Japanese, discussed one by one, unanimously adopted and signed by
the chief monks, and published in January 1892.

321. Q. _With what good result?_

A. As the result of the good understanding now existing, a number of
Japanese bhikkhus and samaneras have been sent to Ceylon and India to
study Pali and Samskrt.

322. Q. _Are there signs that the Buddha Dharma is growing in favour
in non-Buddhistic countries?_[1]

A. There are. Translations of our more valuable books are appearing,
many articles in reviews, magazines and newspapers are being published,
and excellent original treatises by distinguished writers are coming
from the press. Moreover, Buddhist and non-Buddhist lecturers are
publicly discoursing on Buddhism to large audiences in western
countries. The Shin Shu sect of Japanese Buddhists have actually
opened missions at Honolulu, San Francisco, Sacramento and other
American places.

323. Q. _What two leading ideas of ours are chiefly taking hold upon
the western mind?_

A. Those of Karma and Reincarnation. The rapidity of their acceptance
is very surprising.

324. Q. _What is believed to be the explanation of this?_

A. Their appeals to the natural instinct of justice, and their evident
reasonableness.

[1] See Appendix.

PART V

BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE

325. Q. _Has Buddhism any right to be considered a scientific
religion, or may it be classified as a "revealed" one?_

A. Most emphatically it is not a revealed religion. The Buddha did
not so preach, nor is it so understood. On the contrary, he gave it
out as the statement of eternal truths, which his predecessors had
taught like himself.

326. Q. _Repeat again the name of the Sutta, in which the Buddha
tells us not to believe in an alleged revelation without testing it by
one's reason and experience?_

A. The Kalama Sutta, of the Anguthara Nikaya.

327. Q. _Do Buddhists accept the theory that everything has been
formed out of nothing by a Creator?_

A. The Buddha taught that two things are causeless, _viz._