The school of thought which issued in J[=o]-d[=o] Shu was
founded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in
the Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras,
called Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1]
from the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of
Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in
the Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings
from every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to
become enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokke
Ki[=o] is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas,
expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric.
We have before called attention to the fact that, with the
multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of
the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body
to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary
that some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden
could be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their
doctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain
sects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole
canon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation.
Pages:
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339