On the
contrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into
China, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical
energy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine
declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his
own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence,
instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the
complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he
substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the
all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a
man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the
Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his
death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this
matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different
directions.
One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century,
contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the
King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling
weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure
Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out.
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