e Bodhisattvas.[874] The prescription is founded on the
twenty-second chapter of the Lotus[875] which, though a later
addition, is found in the Chinese translation made between 265 and
316 A.D.[876] I-Ching discusses and reprobates such practices. Clearly
they were known in India when he visited it, but not esteemed by the
better Buddhists, and the fact that they form no part of the ordinary
Tibetan ritual indicates that they had no place in the decadent Indian
Buddhism which in various stages of degeneration was introduced into
Tibet.[877] In Korea and Japan branding is practised but on the breast
and arms rather than on the head.

It would appear then that burning and branding as part of initiation
were known in India in the early centuries of our era but not commonly
approved and that their general acceptance in China was subsequent to
the death of I-Ching in A.D. 713.[878] This author clearly approved of
nothing but the double ordination as novice and full monk. The third
ordination as Bodhisattva must be part of the later phase inaugurated
by Amogha about 750.[879]

This practice is defended as a trial of endurance, but the earlier and
better monks were right in rejecting it, for in itself it is an
unedifying spectacle and it points to the logical conclusion that, if
it is meritorious to cauterize the head, it is still more meritorious
to burn the whole body. Cases of suicide by burning appear to have
occurred in recent years, especially in the province of
Che-Kiang.[880] The true doctrine of the Mahayana is that everyone
should strive for the happiness and salvation of all beings, but this
beautiful truth may be sadly perverted if it is held that the
endurance of pain is in itself meritorious and that such acquired
merit can be transferred to others. Self-torture, seems not to be
unknown in the popular forms of Chinese Buddhism.[881]

The postulant, after receiving these three ordinations, becomes a full
monk or Ho-shang[882] and takes a new name. The inmates of every
monastery owe obedience to the abbot and some abbots have an official
position, being recognized by the Government as representing the
clergy of a prefecture, should there be any business to be transacted
with the secular authorities. But there is no real hierarchy outside
the monasteries, each of which is an isolated administrative unit.
Within each monastery due provision is made for discipline and
administration. The monks are divided into two