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Lafcadio Hearn - Kokoro
(1) Principles of Psychology: "The Feelings."
III
To many persons it must seem that the idea of Soul as an infinite multiple would render impossible any
idea of religion in the Western sense; and those unable to rid themselves of old theological conceptions
doubtless imagine that even in Buddhist countries, and despite the evidence of Buddhist texts, the faith of
the common people is really based upon the idea of the soul as a single entity. But Japan furnishes
remarkable proof to the contrary. The uneducated common people, the poorest country-folk who have
never studied Buddhist metaphysics, believe the self composite. What is even more remarkable is that in
the primitive faith, Shinto, a kindred doctrine exists; and various forms of the belief seem to characterize
the thought of the Chinese and of the Koreans. All these peoples of the Far East seem to consider the soul
compound; whether in the Buddhist sense, or in the primitive sense represented by Shinto (a sort of
ghostly multiplying by fission), or in the fantastic sense elaborated by Chinese astrology. In Japan I have
fully satisfied myself that the belief is universal. It is not necessary to quote here from the Buddhist texts,
because the common or popular beliefs, and not the philosophy of a creed, can alone furnish evidence
that religious fervor is compatible and consistent with the notion of a composite soul. Certainly the
Japanese peasant does not think the psychical Self nearly so complex a thing as Buddhist philosophy
considers it, or as Western science proves it to be. But he thinks of himself as multiple. The
struggle within him between impulses good and evil he explains as a conflict between the various ghostly
wills that make up his Ego; and his spiritual hope is to disengage his better self or selves from his worse
selves, - Nirvana, or the supreme bliss, being attainable only through the survival of the best within him.
Thus his religion appears to be founded upon a natural perception of psychical evolution not nearly so
remote from scientific thought as are those conventional notions of soul held by our common people at
home. Of course his ideas on these abstract subjects are vague and unsystematized; but their general
character and tendencies are unmistakable; and there can be no question whatever as to the earnestness of
his faith, or as to the influence of that faith upon his ethical life.
Wherever belief survives among the educated classes, the same ideas obtain definition and synthesis. I
may cite, in example, two selections from compositions, written by students aged respectively
twenty-three and twenty-six. I might as easily cite a score; but the following will sufficiently indicate
what I mean: -
"Nothing is more foolish than to declare the immortality of the soul. The soul is a compound; and though
its elements be eternal, we know they can never twice combine in exactly the same way. All compound
things must change their character and their conditions."
"Human life is composite. A combination of energies make the soul. When a man dies his soul may
either remain unchanged, or be changed according to that which it combines with. Some philosophers
say the soul is immortal; some, that it is mortal. They are both right. The soul is mortal or immortal
according to the change of the combinations composing it. The elementary energies from which the soul
is formed are, indeed, eternal; but the nature of the soul is determined by the character of the
combinations into which those energies enter."
Now the ideas expressed in these compositions will appear to the Western reader, at first view,
unmistakably atheistic. Yet they are really compatible with the sincerest and deepest faith. It is the use of
the English word "soul," not understood at all as we understand it, which creates the false impression.
"Soul," in the sense used by the young writers, means an almost infinite combination of both good and
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