The History of Buddhist Thought c27.28

c27.28

For both schools of Mahāyāna full enlightenment and salvation are attained only by ages of striving and sacrifice in the career of the bodhisattva. That ideal remained, but the Jodo (Pure Land) school there is another tendency, although the final end remained the same. This was to aim at being reborn in Sukhāvatī, the Happy Land, the heaven of the Buddha Amitābha at the western point of space, and this was achieved, as has been seen, by devotion to Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara and sharing in their merits. It was not a substitute for the goal of enlightenment, for Avalokiteśvara’s vow was that he would go on taking beings to Sukhāvatī to hear the doctrine preached by Amitābha until all should be set in the highest enlightenment.