An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c8.s2.t2.32

c8.s2.t2.32

§ 129. The second type of Mahāyāna doctrine is of a much simpler nature and may be described as the Paradise Mahāyāna.¹ It does not trouble to teach the doctrine of Vacuity, nor does it impose on its followers the long ages of discipline which are required for the career of the Bodhisattva. Every person may easily make certain of being born in his next birth in the Western Paradise, where under the fostering care of a great Buddha named Amitābha he will live for ever in joy and will reach final perfection. One of the chief texts of this school, the longer Sukhāvatīvyūha,² or ‘Description of the Land of Bliss’, was translated into Chinese before A.D. 170, and thus belongs to our period. In this book we hear of many hundred thousands of millions of Buddhas, and amongst them of one named Amitābha, ‘measureless light’, who lives and reigns in Sukhāvatī, a Paradise of glory and bliss far away to the West, beyond the limits of the world where Gautama lives. When this new Buddha was but a monk, he vowed and toiled for this Western Paradise, and prayed that he might never obtain the highest perfect knowledge, unless it should be possible for all creatures to be born in that Land of Bliss and there reach perfection, wisdom, perfect joy, and release. All has now been realized. Amitābha reigns in the wonderful land of bliss, and whoever struggles forward, seeking to make good karma, praying faithfully, worshipping Amitābha with deep devotional feeling, and uttering his name, will be born in that Western Paradise and will live in bliss for ever. A very large part of the book is given to descriptions of the beauties and pleasures of Sukhāvatī.