This shastra was the
work of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived about nine
centuries after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow views of his
teacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school (of the four
Disciplines), he made selections of the best and broadest
interpretations then current in the several different schools of the
Smaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts to unite all that
was best in each of the Hinayana schools; but certain Chinese teachers
consider that its explanations are applicable to the Great Vehicle also.
Translated into Chinese in 406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon
numbered hundreds, and it was widely expounded and lectured upon.
Commentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by
D[=o]-z[=o]. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This
J[=o]-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Sh[=o]toku, and promulgated
as a division of the school called San-Ron. The students of the
J[=o]-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct organization.
The burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or the
non-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter absence of
substantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged dream.
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