Volume II Part 3 (2/2)

[Footnote 78: The names of many of these Buddhas, perhaps the majority, contain some word expressive of light such as aditya, prabha or tejas.]

[Footnote 79: Chap. XX. Pushpavalivanarajikusumitabhijna.]

[Footnote 80: _E.g._ Yashts. XXII. and XXIV. _S.B.E._ vol. XXIII. pp.

317 and 344. The t.i.tle Pure Land (Chinese Ch'ing-t'u, j.a.panese Jo-do) has also a Persian ring about it. See further in the chapter on Central Asia.]

[Footnote 81: Vishnu P., Book III. chap. II.]

[Footnote 82: See below: Section on Central Asia, and Grunwedel, _Mythologie_, 31, 36 and notes: Taranatha (s.h.i.+efner), p. 93 and notes.]

[Footnote 83: Amitayur-dhyana-sutra. All three works are translated in _S.B.E._ vol. XLIX.]

[Footnote 84: Pran?idhana. Not only Amitabha but all Bodhisattvas (especially Avalokita and Ks.h.i.+tigarbha) are supposed to have made such vows. This idea is very common in China and j.a.pan but goes back to Indian sources. See _e.g._ Lotus, XXIV. verse 3.]

[Footnote 85: These Bodhisattvas are also mentioned but without much emphasis in the Greater Sukhavati-vyuha.]

[Footnote 86: Even in Hinayanist works such as the Nidanakatha Sumedha's resolution to become a Buddha, formed as he lies on the ground before Dipankara, has a resemblance to Amida's vow. He resolves to attain the truth, to enable mankind to cross the sea of the world and only then to attain Nirvana.]

[Footnote 87: See Foucher, _Iconographie Bouddhique dans l'Inde._]

[Footnote 88: The Bhagavad-gita states quite clearly the doctrine of the deathbed prayer (VIII. ad init.). ”He who leaves this body and departs remembering me in his last moments comes to my essence.

Whatever form (of deity) he remembers when he finally leaves this body, to that he goes having been used to ponder on it.”]

[Footnote 89: See art. adi-Buddha in _E.R.E._ Asanga in the Sutralankara (IX. 77) condemns the doctrine of adi-Buddha, showing that the term was known then, even if it had not the precise dogmatic sense which it acquired later. His argument is that no one can become a Buddha without an equipment (Sambhara) of merit and knowledge. Such an equipment can only be obtained from a previous Buddha and therefore the series of Buddhas must extend infinitely backwards.]

[Footnote 90: For the prevalence of the doctrine in mediaeval Bengal see B.K. Sarkar, _Folklore Element in Hindu Culture_, which is however sparing of precise references. The Dharma or Niranjana of the Sunya Purana seems to be equivalent to adi-Buddha.

Sometimes the adi-Buddha is identified with Vajrasattva or Samantabhadra, although these beings are otherwise cla.s.sified as Bodhisattvas. This appears a.n.a.logous to the procedure common in Hinduism by which a devotee declares that his special deity is all the G.o.ds and the supreme spirit.]

[Footnote 91: It would appear that some of the Tantras treat of five bodies, adding to the three here given others such as the anandakaya, Vajrakaya and Svabhavakaya. For this doctrine see especially De la Vallee Poussin, _J.R.A.S._ 1906, pp. 943-997 and _Museon_, 1913, pp.

257 ff. Jigs-med nam-mka, the historian of Tibetan Buddhism, describes four. See Huth, _Ges. d. Bud. in d. Mongolei_, vol. II. pp. 83-89.

Hinduism also a.s.signs to living beings three bodies, the Karan?a-sarira, lingas. and sthulas.]

[Footnote 92: Translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksha between 397 and 439 A.D.]

[Footnote 93: The prototype of the Sambhoga-kaya is found in the Pali Canon, for the Buddha says (Mahaparinib. Sut. III. 22) that when he appears among the different cla.s.ses of G.o.ds his form and voice are similar to theirs.]

[Footnote 94: Watters, vol. II. p. 38. ”Spiritual essence” is Fa-shen in Chinese, _i.e._ Dharma-kaya. Another pa.s.sage is quoted to the effect that ”henceforth the observances of all my disciples const.i.tute the Tathagata's Fa-shen, eternal and imperishable.”]

[Footnote 95: Mahaparinib. Sut. VI. i.]

[Footnote 96: Something similar might happen in English if think and thing were p.r.o.nounced in the same way and a thing were believed to be that which we can think.]

[Footnote 97: See Ashtasahasrika Prajna-paramita, chap. IV, near beginning.]

[Footnote 98: It is in this last point that no inferior intelligence can follow the thought of a Buddha.]

[Footnote 99: _The Awakening of Faith_, Teitaro Suzuki, p. 59.]

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