illusion is an illusion destroys it as such. It is then no longer an
illusion, but only a passing shadow. We cannot now stop to see how
pessimism, the doctrine of self-salvation, and the nature of that
salvation through contemplation and asceticism and withdrawal from
active life, all inevitably follow from such a course of thought. That
which here needs emphasis is that all this thinking renders it still
more impossible to think of the self as having any intrinsic worth.
On-the contrary, the self is the source of evil, of illusion. The
great aim of Buddhism is necessarily to get rid of the self, with all
its illusions and pains and disappointments.

Is it now clear why Buddhism failed to reach the idea of the worth of
the individual self? It was due to the nature of the social order, and
the nature of its introspective and speculative thinking. Lacking,
therefore, the conception of individual worth, we see clearly why it
failed, even after centuries of opportunity, to secure individualism
in the social order and a general development of personality either as
an idea or as a fact among any of the peoples to which it has gone. It
is not only a fact of history, but we have seen that it could not have
been otherwise. The very nature of its conception of self and, in
consequence, the nature of its conception of salvation absolutely
prohibited it.[CY]

We have thus far confined our view entirely to philosophic Buddhism.
It is important, therefore, to state again that very few of the
Japanese people outside of the priesthood have any such ideas with
regard to the abstract nature of the individual, of the absolute self,
and of their mutual relations as I have just described. These ideas
are a part of esoteric Buddhism, the secret truth, which is an
essential part of the great enlightenment, but far too profound for
the vulgar multitudes. The vast majority, even of the priesthood, I am
told, do not get far enough to be taught these views. The sweep of
such conceptions, therefore, is very limited. That they are held,
however, by the leaders, that they are the views of the most learned
expounders and the most advanced students of Buddhism serves to
explain why Buddhism has never been, and can never become, a power in
reorganizing society in the direction of individualism.

Popular Buddhism contains many elements alien to philosophic Buddhism.
For a full study of the subject of this chapter we need to ask whether
popular Buddh