The History of Buddhist Thought c27.29

c27.29

The idea of sharing in the merits of a saintly being is not peculiar to Mahāyāna or even to Buddhism, and it contains an element of truth. No being is morally self-made. There is no calculating the extent to which the moral development of one individual may be due to the influence of others. But this is not the way in which Buddhism looked at it. Good karma produced a store of merit, which might be transferred to others. The idea is found even in the Pāli Jātakas, and it is much extended in the worship of the bodhisattvas, and can be seen in its fullest extent in the Scriptures of this school, the two *Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtras* and the *Amitāyurdhyāna-sūtra*. There we are told : “ Not on account of a mere root of goodness are beings born in the Buddha country of the Tathāgata Amitāyus. Whatever son or daughter of good family shall hear the name of the Lord Amitāyus, and having heard it shall reflect upon it, and for one, two, three, four, five, six, or seven nights shall reflect upon it with undisturbed minds, when they come to die the Tathāgata Amitāyus attended by the assembly of disciples and followed by a host of bodhisattvas will stand before them, and they will die with unconfused minds. After death they will be born even in the Buddha-country of the Tathāgata Amitāyus, in the world Sukhāvatī.” ¹