The Nichirenites are
also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other
creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The
people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal
possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding
business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes,
badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are
generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The
phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of
hysteria and hypnotism.
This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets,
lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making
instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are
prominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense
it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what
strikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the
Ranters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and
reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are
familiar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects.
Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even
against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian
sectarians in their fiercest controversies.
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