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SCRIPTURES PROM THE CHINESE. 371 was at Nalanda, the modern Baragaon, in Magadha, near Gaya. Between the time of Nagardjuna and Asangha this monastery had been destroyed by the opponents of Bud- dhism on three different occasions. Yet the establishment had revived after each overthrow^ and again estabHshed it- self as a great centre of learning. It was here that Aryadeva, a native of Ceylon, attached himself to the person of Nagardjuna^ and adopted his form of Doctrine. We know something about Aryadeva from the anecdote recorded of him, and related in a former part of this work.i It would appear from this, that he had a great contempt for external forms of worship, "A spirit," he said, " is spiritual." We are not surprised to find, there- fore, that his teaching was of a mystical character. But it was his successor, Eahulabhadra, who first began systematically to unite mysticism with scholasticism.^ "It is said of him that the Buddha called Amitabha appeared to him when on his death-bed, and on this, turning his face towards the happy land of Sukhavati, he died."^ If this record may be relied on, we have here one of the earliest notices of this peculiar doctrine, generally known as that of the "Western Para- dise," to be found in Buddhist history. It is from this cultus we intend to illustrate the period under consideration. It would be perhaps impossible from any existing work to ascertain accurately the origin of the name and attributes of the Buddha called Amitabha. His name signifies " bound- less light," and his attributes are infinite love and compas- sion for men. It would seem, however, that the idea of such a Being 1 Supra, p. 140, n. 2. ^ "]\Iysticism can enter into union with scholasticism by creating a desire for preserving the spring of Religion in the depth and ardour of the human heart, as the true seat of Religion, in order to supply that which could not be furnished by purely dialectical thinking." Baur, quoted by Hagenbach, Hist, of Doct., i, 438 (1). 3 Wassilief, § 203. bb2 372 A CATEXA OF BUDDHIST was suggested during the process of the development of the Buddhist Universe^ which was taking place about the time of Nagardjuna. At any rate, the Buddhavatanisaka Sutra, which is gener- ally attributed to him, contains an account of this expanded universe, and is appealed to as the most trustworthy author- ity on the subject.^ It will be remembered that the earliest idea of the Universe, which seems to have prevailed (if we may judge from the architecture of the Stupas), down to about the period of Kanishka, was, that it consisted of a central mountain, Mei'u, around which were the seas and continents and girdles of rocks, and above, the abode of Indra and the thirty-three gods (symbolising, as it seems, the year, the four quarters, and the twenty-eight days of the month) . But just at this time a remarkable expansion occurred ; and the names of worlds and systems of worlds were quickly invented, and these supposed localities placed above the abode of Indra, to figure out the supeinor excellence of ab- stract Mind over the anthropomorphic system then in vogue. In the second heaven of the second Dhyana of this system occurs a heaven called Apramanabha, that is the heaven of '' boundless light", or " light without measure" (pramana) . It would appear, therefore, that when this Heaven occu- pied the highest place in the process of expansion, that the theory respecting the existence of a Dhyana Buddha corre- sponding to Sakya, came into general acceptance, and the name which was already attached to the Dhyana heaven was referred to him as the ruler of it.~ This theory is borne out by the position which the 'Svestern paradise", the Sukhavati or happy land of this Bud- dha, actually holds in the mystic expansion of the universe, which occurred at a still later period. In this expansion, 1 Vide supra, p. 84, n. * The next heaven is called Abhasvara, wliich the Ch. Ed. of the Fa-kai-on-lih-to renders '-luminous voice," as stated in the note on p. 84 snpra. Compare with this the fable of Kwan-yin. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 373 instead of a super-position of heavens^ there is a succession of cliiliocosms^ or rather of systems of chiHocosms placed one over the other ; thei'e are twenty tiers of such systems springing from the particular Lotus with which wo are con- cerned, but the position of j^mitabha's Paradise retains precisely the same relative position as the Apramanabha heaven in the original plan of the universe ; it is found in the thirteenth tier, the one in which our own universe is placed, only at an infinite distance to the west. So again, when the idea of a universally diffused essence (dharmakaya) was accepted as a dogmatic necessity, a further question arose as to the relation which this "supreme ex- istence^^ bore to time, space, and number. And from this consideration appears to have proceeded the further inven- tion of the several names Vairochana (the Omnipresent), Amitabha (for Amirta) the Eternal, and Adi-Buddha (yih- sin) the " one form of existence." The connection between the Supreme, under the forms of *' boundless light", and the "Eternal" is not a difficult one to conceive.^ These two attributes therefore become finally united, and the Dhyana Buddha, known as Amitabha, be- came also the emblem of Eternity. Hence the confusion in the real meaning of this title ■ — in the first instance it denoted the analogue of Sakya, as he was supposed to exist in the heavens of bound- less light ; finally it became the expression of his eternal existence. It is under these two aspects he is i^everenced in China, but principally as the emblem of Eternity. In this charac- ter his title is " Wu-liang-sheu", and a Sutra bearing this title was one of the earliest translated into Chinese. Numerous passages, however, might be cited to show that the true idea of Amitabha is to be looked for in the "inner self" — this is the mystic form of the Belief. The *' Heart" (oneself) is said to be the same as Buddha. And from this belief, connected with the previous ideas of the ' The Sun. the soiu-ce of light, had long been regarded as tiie type of •' eternity." 374 A CATENA OP BUDDHIST glory and eternity of the Supreme, sprang the intense ado- ration paid by the Chinese to the idea of Amitabha under the title of the " compassionate and loving Father of men." For if the ''^ heart '^, the inner self, be the same as the "universal self/^ then such a close connection, or rather such an "identity", necessitates the idea of most intimate communion of interests; "the Great self" cannot be forgetful of all that which is but itself — thous'h under the delusion of separation from its source — and must finally bring it back to the condition itself enjoys. This mystical development led to one further form of be- lief. How is the " Seir' manifested ? — how is the inner mind of a man made known ? By speech ! Speech there- fore became the manifested form of Amitabha. And hence another popular phase of this mystical worship. Speech or Vach was regarded as the Son or the manifestation of the Eternal Self, and was adored under the name of Avalokit- eshwara, the manifested God. This name in Chinese took the form of Kwan-shai-yin, and the Divinity worshipped under that name (generally regarded as a female), has be- come the object of almost universal reverence both in China and Japan. We shall have occasion to speak on this part of our subject hereafter. I intend to illustrate the worship paid to Amitabha by two extracts, the first taken from a popular work known as the Tsing-tu-wan, and the second from the Sutra known as the Wu-liang-sheu-king, in which we have a full account of the Sukhavati, or Paradise in the West, over which Ami- tabha is supposed to preside. 1. THE INVOCATION^ OF BUDDHA AS A MEANS OP DELIVERANCE. What is this Buddha? The great master of the three worlds. The loving father of all that lives (the four forms of life). ^ Nim. Tliis word corresponds to Smriti, and moans generally the power of memory ; but in the connection of the text it refers to the in- tense application of mind to a consideration of the subject mentioned. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 375 And what is it to take refuge in him and to believe in him ? Nothing less than to secure the destruction of sins as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges. Now as to the term invocation (nim), this is the means by which we attain endless bliss.