The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much
repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and
vicarious work.
H[=o]-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all
mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have
seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid
emphasis on the idea of the elect. H[=o]-nen taught Buddhist
universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure
Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward
the perfection of Buddha-hood.
The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus
Japanize Buddhism, and J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine went forth conquering and to
conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is
in the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of
J[=o]-d[=o], the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the
syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature
of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet
the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha.
History had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator,
and that philosophy was H[=o]-nen's.
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