Reincarnation in Japan.

The following account is taken from the history of Saint Francis Xavier, by Father Bouhours. n It is a theological discussion between a Japanese bonze named Tucarondono and Saint Francis Xavier, then a missionary in Japan.

“I do not know whether you know me or, to put it better, whether you recognize me, said Tucarondono to Francis Xavier. — I do not remember ever having seen you, the latter replied.

“Then the bonze, bursting into laughter, and turning to other bonzes, his confreres, whom he had brought with him: I see well, he said to them, that I would have no difficulty in defeating a man who has dealt with me more than a hundred times, and who shows that he has never seen me. Then, looking at Xavier with a smile of scorn: Nothing remains to you of the merchandise you sold me in the port of Frénasoma?

“In truth, replied Xavier with an ever serene and modest expression, in my life I have never been a tradesman and have never been in Frénasoma. — Ah! what forgetfulness and what foolishness! replied the bonze, feigning astonishment and continuing his laughter: — What! is it possible that you have forgotten this? — Refresh my memory, the Father gently continued, you who have more spirit and more memory than I. — Indeed I will, said the bonze, quite proud of the compliment Xavier had paid him. Exactly one thousand five hundred years ago, you and I were merchants, we carried on our trade in Frénasoma, and I bought from you a hundred pieces of silk very cheaply. Do you remember now?

“The saint perceived where the bonze wished to go and honestly asked him how old he was. — I am fifty-two years old, said Tucarondono. — How is it possible, retorted Xavier, that you were a merchant fifteen centuries ago, if you have been in the world only half a century, and that we traded at that time, in Frénasoma, if you and most of the other bonzes teach that Japan was nothing but a desert one thousand five hundred years ago?

“Listen to me, said the bonze: you will hear the oracles and will agree that we have more knowledge of past things than you others have of present things.

“You must, then, know that the world never had a beginning, and that souls, properly speaking, do not die. The soul detaches itself from the body in which it was enclosed; it seeks another, new and vigorous, where we are reborn, now in the nobler sex [male], now in the imperfect sex [female], according to the various constellations of the heavens and the different aspects of the Moon. These changes of birth cause our lots also to change. Now, it is the reward of those who have lived in holiness to have a fresh remembrance of all the lives one has led in past ages and to represent in oneself the whole of what one has been from eternity, in the form of a prince, of a merchant, of a man of letters, of a warrior and under other figures. On the contrary, whoever, like you, knows so little of his own affairs, is ignorant of what he was and what he did during an infinity of ages, shows that his crimes made him deserving of death so many times that he has lost the remembrance of the lives he changed.” Observation. – One cannot suppose that Francis Xavier invented this story, which was not favorable to him, nor suspect the good faith of his historian, Father Bouhours. On the other hand, it is no less certain that it was a trap set for the missionary by the bonze, for we know that the remembrance of previous existences is an exceptional case and that, in any case, it never includes such precise details. But what stands out from the fact is that the doctrine of reincarnation existed in Japan at that time, under conditions identical, save the intervention of the constellations and the Moon, to those taught today by the Spirits. Another no less remarkable similarity is the idea that the precision of the remembrance is a sign of superiority; indeed, the Spirits tell us that in the worlds superior to Earth, where the body is less material and the soul is in a normal state of detachment, the remembrance of the past is a faculty common to all; there one remembers previous existences as we remember the first years of our childhood. It is quite evident that the Japanese have not reached this degree of dematerialization, which does not exist on Earth, but the fact proves that they have an intuition of it. [1] [La vie de St. François Xavier: apôtre des Indes et du Japon, Volume 1. Par Dominique Bouhours, P. J. d’Orleans - Google Books.]