MA HAY AN A BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 263 



equal to bis. Avalokita is the more majestic ; this is due to his 

 vow to bring all beings, without exception, into the 'Happy 

 Land' . . . He never forgets for a moment his role as provider 

 of the Sukhavati. And it is he, rather than Amitabha himself, 

 who is the lord of the Sukhavati." 



Mention of Sukhavati, often styled the " Western Paradise," 

 is to be found in the last pages of The Awakening of Faith, 

 where, however, a reference is made to an unnamed Sutra, 

 possibly the larger or the smaller Sukhdvati-vyuha or the 

 Amitdyur-dhydna. The Awakening of Faith teaches also that 

 the way of access to that Paradise is an easy one. " It is said in 

 the Sutra* that if devoted men and women would be filled with 

 concentration of thought, think of Amitabha Buddha in the 

 world of highest happiness (Sukhdvati) in the Western region, 

 and direct all the root of their good work toward being born 

 there, they would assuredly be born there." The Saddharma 

 PundaHTca (a Sanskrit work which Kern says existed in or 

 about a.d. 250, but contains teaching that goes back for perhaps 

 a couple of centuries) is the chief authority for the descriptions 

 of Sukhavati now consulted in Japan as well as in China. It 

 contains long accounts of its somewhat sensual happiness. In 

 China it is taught that there Amitabha welcomes those who on 

 earth invoke his name, and that by so doing they may escape all 

 the numerous Buddhist hells and obtain eternal happiness. The 

 Chinese goddess Kwanyin, who is associated with him, is one of 

 the most popular deities in modern China among Buddhists. 

 Chinese legend connects her with a heroine who once lived in 

 the sacred island P'u-t'o, near the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang. 

 She is worshipped as the " Star of the Sea." 



It should be observed that, though early Buddhism denounced 

 all idol-worship, yet Mahayana Buddhism, which has admitted 

 all kinds of gods from the Chinese and other religions, especially 

 Hinduism, has adopted idolatry to the very fullest extent. 



Some are inclined to think that Nestorian Christianity in 

 Northern China produced considerable effect upon Mahayanism, 

 and in particular that some of the features of Amitabha owe 

 their origin to this source. If so, as Archdeacon A. E. Moule 

 says,f these Christian elements, with the exception of belief in 

 the efficacy of invoking Amitaoha, have almost altogether faded 

 away. There is no need to derive the " Western Paradise " from 



* Awakening of Faith, Suzuki's version, pp. 145, 146. 

 t The Chinese People, p. 184. 



