C II
hinese uddhist mages
Much abuse or unkind remarks have been heaped upon Chinese
Buddhists accusing them as being idolators because of their use
of images in their temples. Accusations of such nature only re-
veal the ignorance of those who made them as the principle of
the use of images in places of worship should be viewed as sym-
bolical and not idol worship. It should be stressed that all the
images that are found in the temples or home shrines only serve
as reminders of their respective qualities. For example, when a
Buddhist kneels down before the image of the Buddha, he does
not worship the holy image but brings to mind the great com-
passion of the Enlightened One who has taught him the way to
liberation.
Idolatory is not what Buddhists practise and only the unkind
person will choose to deride the use of holy images in the tem-
ples. He should have the wisdom to realise that no religion in
the world can do away with symbolism, whether they be human
or otherwise, for without symbolism, identification would be
quite impossible. e world, in fact, cannot exist without sym-
bolism and it can safely be said that only civilisations as old and
advanced in culture as China are able to bring forth symbolic
images such as those produced by the Chinese people. e im-
ages used in the Chinese temples are therefore useful aids to
generating faith and devotion in the minds of the believers and
are objects worthy of reverence.