No. 2371. CATALOGUE OF BUDDHIST ART— CASANOWICZ 295 



to the haven of Nirvana), which pretends to have preserved the 

 original teachings of Buddha in greater purity and simplicity, pre- 

 vails in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, although even there Buddhism is 

 overlaid and interwoven with animistic notions and practices; the 

 second, the Mahay ana, or " greater vehicle," which arose in the 

 second or first century B. C. in India and spread northward to Nepal. 

 Tibet, China, Mongolia, and Japan, adopted many popular elements 

 of mysticism and magic and is permeated with metaphysical specu- 

 lations. After the regions in which the Hinayana and Mahayana 

 are dominant, they are also termed the southern and northern 

 school, respectively. Some of the distinctive doctrines between the 

 Hinayana school and that of the Mahayana are: (1) As regards the 

 endeavor of the believer, the aim in the former is individual salva- 

 tion by becoming an Arhat, or a perfected saint. Through contempla- 

 tion on the four excellent truths and by following the eight-fold path 

 he is freed from lust and desire and thus from undergoing rebirth; in 

 the latter the believer strives to emulate Buddha to save others by 

 becoming a Budhisattva, an aspirant to Buddahood. For accord- 

 ing to the Buddhist doctrine, Gautama Sakyamuni, the historical 

 founder of Buddhism, was only one of many Buddhas who appear in 

 the world at intervals of many ages (Kalpas), when there is special 

 cause for their presence, and they depart again when they have ful- 

 filled the purpose for which they came, have set in motion the wheel 

 of the law which they proclaim, and have founded an order destined 

 to last for some period of time. With each there is a period in which 

 the doctrine flourishes, then a gradual decline, when it is overthrown 

 till a new teacher appears and once more establishes the lost truths. 

 (2) In the Mahayana vehicle the founder was transformed from a 

 man who could be born and die into a supermundane self-existent 

 and everlasting being, surrounded by vast multitudes of Bodhisattvas, 

 numerous as "the sands of Ganges," who occupy various heavens as 

 their habitations. This is developed in the doctrine of the Adi- 

 Buddha, that is, the first, or primary Buddha, the Buddha unorigi- 

 nated, the principle and ultimate postulate of existence. By five 

 acts of contemplation (dhyani) he produced the five Buddhas of 

 contemplation (Dhyani-Buddhas), the celestial prototypes or counter- 

 parts of the five human Buddhas (Manuslii Buddhas), of whom 

 Gautama was the fourth, and the fifth, Matreya, the Buddha of love, 

 is still to appear (at the end of the present age). By the twofold 

 power of knowledge and contemplation they give birth to Bod- 

 hisattvas of contemplation (Dhyani-Bodhisattvas). These celestial 

 Bodhisattvas are charged with the providence of the world and with 

 carrying on the work of an earthly (Manushi) Buddha after his demise 

 until the arrival of a successor. The most known and most worshiped 

 Dhyani-Buddha is Amitabha — endless light — the celestial counter- 



