THE BUDDHAS OF MAHAYANISM
This mythology did not grow up around the Buddha without affecting the
central figure. To understand the extraordinary changes of meaning
both mythological and metaphysical which the word Buddha undergoes in
Mahayanist theology we must keep in mind not the personality of Gotama
but the idea that he is one of several successive Buddhas who for
convenience may be counted as four, seven or twenty-four but who
really form an infinite series extending without limit backwards into
the past and forwards into the future.[73] This belief in a series of
Buddhas produced a plentiful crop of imaginary personalities and also
of speculations as to their connection with one another, with the
phenomena of the world and with the human soul.
In the Pali Canon the Buddhas antecedent to Gotama are introduced much
like ancient kings as part of the legendary history of this world. But
in the Lalita-vistara (Chap. XX) and the Lotus (Chap. VII) we hear of
Buddhas, usually described as Tathagatas, who apparently do not belong
to this world at all, but rule various points of the compass, or
regions described as Buddha-fields (Buddha-kshetra). Their names are
not the same in the different accounts and we remain dazzled by an
endless panorama of an infinity of universes with an infinity of
shining Buddhas, illuminating infinite space.
Somewhat later five of these unearthly Buddhas were formed into a
pentad and described as Jinas[74] or Dhyani Buddhas (Buddhas of
contemplation), namely, Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha
and Amoghasiddhi. In the fully developed form of this doctrine these
five personages are produced by contemplation from the Adi-Buddha or
original Buddha spirit and themselves produce various reflexes,
including Bodhisattvas, human Buddhas and goddesses like Tara. The
date when these beliefs first became part of the accepted Mahayana
creed cannot be fixed but probably the symmetrical arrangement of five
Buddhas is not anterior to the tantric period[75] of Buddhism.
The most important of the five are Vairocana and Amitabha. Akshobhya
is mentioned in both the Lotus and Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha as the
chief Buddha of the eastern quarter, and a work purporting to be a
description of his paradise still extant in Chinese[76] is said to
have been translated in the time of the Eastern Han dynasty. But even
in the Far East he did not find many worshippers. More enduring has
been the glory of Vairocana who is the chief deity of the Shingon sect
in Japan and is represented by the gigantic image in the temple at
Nara. In Java he seems to have been regarded as the principal and
supreme Buddha. The name occurs in the Mahavastu as the designation of
an otherwise unknown Buddha of luminous attributes and in the Lotus we
hear of a distant Buddha-world called Vairocana-rasmi-pratimandita,
embellished by the rays of the sun.[77] Vairocana is clearly a
derivative of Virocana, a recognized title of the sun in Sanskrit, and
is rendered in Chinese by Ta-jih meaning great Sun. How this solar
deity first came to be regarded as a Buddha is not known but the
connection between a Buddha and light has always been recognized. Even
the Pali texts represent Gotama as being luminous on some occasions
and in the Mahayanist scriptures Buddhas are radiant and light-giving
beings, surrounded by halos of prodigious extent and emitting flashes
which illuminate the depths of space. The visions of innumerable
paradises in all quarters containing jewelled stupas and lighted by
refulgent Buddhas which are frequent in these works seem founded on
astronomy vaporized under the influence of the idea that there are
millions of universes all equally transitory and unsubstantial. There
is no reason, so far as I see, to regard Gotama as a mythical solar
hero, but the celestial Buddhas[78] clearly have many solar
attributes. This is natural. Solar deities are so abundant in Vedic
mythology that it is hardly possible to be a benevolent god without
having something of the character of the sun. The stream of foreign
religions which flowed into India from Bactria and Persia about the
time of the Christian era brought new aspects of sun worship such as
Mithra, Helios and Apollo and strengthened the tendency to connect
divinity and light. And this connection was peculiarly appropriate and
obvious in the case of a Buddha, for Buddhas are clearly revealers and
light-givers, conquerors of darkness and dispellers of ignorance.
Amitabha (or the Buddha of measureless light), rising suddenly from an
obscure origin, has like Avalokita and Vishnu become one of the great
gods of Asia. He is also known as Amitayus or measureless life, and is
therefore a god of light and immortality. According to both the Lotus
and the Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha he is the lord of the western quarter
but he is unknown to the Lalita-vistara. It gives the ruler of the
west a lengthy title,[79] which suggests a land of gardens. Now
Paradise, which has biblical authority as a name for the place of
departed spirits, appears to mean in Persian a park or enclosed garden
and the Avesta speaks of four heavens, the good thought Paradise, the
good word Paradise, the good deed Paradise and the Endless Lights.[80]
This last expression bears a remarkable resemblance to the name of
Amitabha and we can understand that he should rule the west, because
it is the home to which the sun and departed spirits go. Amitabha's
Paradise is called Sukhavati or Happy Land. In the Puranas the city of
Varuna (who is suspected of having a non-Indian origin) is said to be
situated in the west and is called Sukha (Linga P. and Vayu P.) or
Mukhya (so Vishnu P. and others). The name Amitabha also occurs in the
Vishnu Purana as the name of a class of gods and it is curious that
they are in one place[81] associated with other deities called the
Mukhyas. The worship of Amitabha, so far as its history can be traced,
goes back to Saraha, the teacher of Nagarjuna. He is said to have been
a Sudra and his name seems un-Indian. This supports the theory that
this worship was foreign and imported into India.[82]
This worship and the doctrine on which it is based are an almost
complete contradiction of Gotama's teaching, for they amount to this,
that religion consists in faith in Amitabha and prayer to him, in
return for which he will receive his followers after death in his
paradise. Yet this is not a late travesty of Buddhism but a relatively
early development which must have begun about the Christian era. The
principal works in which it is preached are the Greater
Sukhavati-vyuha or Description of the Happy Land, translated into
Chinese between 147 and 186 A.D., the lesser work of the same name
translated in 402 A.D. and the Sutra of meditation on Amitayus[83]
translated in 424. The first of these works purports to be a discourse
of Sakyamuni himself, delivered on the Vulture's Peak in answer to the
questions of Ananda. He relates how innumerable ages ago there was a
monk called Dharmakara who, with the help of the Buddha of that
period, made a vow or vows[84] to become a Buddha but on conditions.
That is to say he rejected the Buddhahood to which he might become
entitled unless his merits obtained certain advantages for others, and
having obtained Buddhahood on these conditions he can now cause them
to be fulfilled. In other words he can apportion his vast store of
accumulated merit to such persons and in such manner as he chooses.
The gist of the conditions is that he should when he obtained
Buddhahood be lord of a paradise whose inhabitants live in unbroken
happiness until they obtain Nirvana. All who have thought of this
paradise ten times are to be admitted therein, unless they have
committed grievous sin, and Amitabha will appear to them at the moment
of death so that their thoughts may not be troubled. The Buddha shows
Ananda a miraculous vision of this paradise and its joys are described
in language recalling the account of the New Jerusalem in the book of
Revelation and, though coarser pleasures are excluded, all the
delights of the eye and ear, such as jewels, gardens, flowers, rivers
and the songs of birds await the faithful.
The smaller Sukhavati-vyuha, represented as preached by Sakyamuni at
Sravasti, is occupied almost entirely with a description of the
paradise. It marks a new departure in definitely preaching salvation
by faith only, not by works, whereas the previous treatise, though
dwelling on the efficacy of faith, also makes merit a requisite for
life in heaven. But the shorter discourse says dogmatically "Beings
are not born in that Buddha country as a reward and result of good
works performed in this present life. No, all men or women who hear
and bear in mind for one, two, three, four, five, six or seven nights
the name of Amitayus, when they come to die, Amitayus will stand
before them in the hour of death, they will depart this life with
quiet minds and after death they will be born in Paradise."
The Amitayur-dhyana-sutra also purports to be the teaching of
Sakyamuni and has an historical introduction connecting it with Queen
Vaidehi and King Bimbisara. In theology it is more advanced than the
other treatises: it is familiar with the doctrine of Dharma-kaya
(which will be discussed below) and it represents the rulers of
paradise as a triad, Amitayus being assisted by Avalokita and
Mahasthamaprapta.[85] Admission to the paradise can be obtained in
various ways, but the method recommended is the practice of a series
of meditations which are described in detail. The system is
comprehensive, for salvation can be obtained by mere virtue with
little or no prayer but also by a single invocation of Amitayus, which
suffices to free from deadly sins.
Strange as such doctrines appear when set beside the Pali texts, it is
clear that in their origin and even in the form which they assume in
the larger Sukhavati-vyuha they are simply an exaggeration of ordinary
Mahayanist teaching.[86] Amitabha is merely a monk who devotes himself
to the religious life, namely seeking _bodhi_ for the good of others.
He differs from every day devotees only in the degree of sanctity and
success obtained by his exertions. The operations which he performs
are nothing but examples on a stupendous scale of parinamana or the
assignment of one's own merits to others. His paradise, though in
popular esteem equivalent to the Persian or Christian heaven, is not
really so: strictly speaking it is not an ultimate ideal but a blessed
region in which Nirvana may be obtained without toil or care.
Though this teaching had brilliant success in China and Japan, where
it still flourishes, the worship of Amitabha was never predominant in
India. In Nepal and Tibet he is one among many deities: the Chinese
pilgrims hardly mention him: his figure is not particularly frequent
in Indian iconography[87] and, except in the works composed specially
in his honour, he appears as an incidental rather than as a necessary
figure. The whole doctrine is hardly strenuous enough for Indians. To
pray to the Buddha at the end of a sinful life, enter his paradise and
obtain ultimate Nirvana in comfort is not only open to the same charge
of egoism as the Hinayana scheme of salvation but is much easier and
may lead to the abandonment of religious effort. And the Hindu, who
above all things likes to busy himself with his own salvation, does
not take kindly to these expedients. Numerous deities promise a long
spell of heaven as a reward for the mere utterance of their names,[88]
yet the believer continues to labour earnestly in ceremonies or
meditation. It would be interesting to know whether this doctrine of
salvation by the utterance of a single name or prayer originated among
Buddhists or Brahmans. In any case it is closely related to old ideas
about the magic power of Vedic verses.
The five Jinas and other supernatural personages are often regarded as
manifestations of a single Buddha-force and at last this force is
personified as Adi-Buddha.[89] This admittedly theistic form of
Buddhism is late and is recorded from Nepal, Tibet (in the Kalacakra
system) and Java, a distribution which implies that it was exported
from Bengal.[90] But another form in which the Buddha-force is
impersonal and analogous to the Parabrahma of the Vedanta is much
older. Yet when this philosophic idea is expressed in popular language
it comes very near to Theism. As Kern has pointed out, Buddha is not
called Deva or Isvara in the Lotus simply because he is above such
beings. He declares that he has existed and will exist for
incalculable ages and has preached and will preach in innumerable
millions of worlds. His birth here and his nirvana are illusory,
kindly devices which may help weak disciples but do not mark the real
beginning and end of his activity. This implies a view of Buddha's
personality which is more precisely defined in the doctrine known as
Trikaya or the three bodies[91] and expounded in the
Mahayana-sutralankara, the Awakening of Faith, the Suvarna-prabhasa
sutra[92] and many other works. It may be stated dogmatically as
follows, but it assumes somewhat divergent forms according as it is
treated theologically or metaphysically.
A Buddha has three bodies or forms of existence. The first is the
Dharma-kaya, which is the essence of all Buddhas. It is true knowledge
or Bodhi. It may also be described as Nirvana and also as the one
permanent reality underlying all phenomena and all individuals. The
second is the Sambhoga-kaya, or body of enjoyment, that is to say the
radiant and superhuman form in which Buddhas appear in their paradises
or when otherwise manifesting themselves in celestial splendour. The
third is the Nirmana-kaya, or the body of transformation, that is to
say the human form worn by Sakyamuni or any other Buddha and regarded
as a transformation of his true nature and almost a distortion,
because it is so partial and inadequate an expression of it. Later
theology regards Amitabha, Amitayus and Sakyamuni as a series
corresponding to the three bodies. Amitabha does not really express
the whole Dharma-kaya, which is incapable of personification, but when
he is accurately distinguished from Amitayus (and frequently they are
regarded as synonyms) he is made the more remote and ethereal of the
two. Amitayus with his rich ornaments and his flask containing the
water of eternal life is the ideal of a splendidly beneficent saviour
and represents the Sambhoga-kaya.[93] Sakyamuni is the same beneficent
being shrunk into human form. But this is only one aspect, and not the
most important, of the doctrine of the three bodies. We can easily
understand the Sambhoga-kaya and Nirmana-kaya: they correspond to a
deity such as Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna, and they are
puzzling in Buddhism simply because we think naturally of the older
view (not entirely discarded by the Mahayana) which makes the human
Buddha the crown and apex of a series of lives that find in him their
fulfilment. But it is less easy to understand the Dharma-kaya.
The word should perhaps be translated as body of the law and the
thought originally underlying it may have been that the essential
nature of a Buddha, that which makes him a Buddha, is the law which he
preaches. As we might say, the teacher lives in his teaching: while it
survives, he is active and not dead.
The change from metaphor to theology is illustrated by Hsuean Chuang
when he states[94] (no doubt quoting from his edition of the Pitakas)
that Gotama when dying said to those around him "Say not that the
Tathagata is undergoing final extinction: his spiritual presence
abides for ever unchangeable." This apparently corresponds to the
passage in the Pali Canon,[95] which runs "It may be that in some of
you the thought may arise, the word of the Master is ended: we have no
more a teacher. But it is not thus that you should regard it. The
truths and the rules which I have set forth, let them, after I am
gone, be the Teacher to you." But in Buddhist writings, including the
oldest Pali texts, Dharma or Dhamma has another important meaning. It
signifies phenomenon or mental state (the two being identical for an
idealistic philosophy) and comprises both the external and the
internal world. Now the Dharma-kaya is emphatically not a phenomenon
but it may be regarded as the substratum or totality of phenomena or
as that which gives phenomena whatever reality they possess and the
double use of the word dharma rendered such divagations of meaning
easier.[96] Hindus have a tendency to identify being and knowledge.
According to the Vedanta philosophy he who knows Brahman, knows that
he himself is Brahman and therefore he actually is Brahman. In the
same way the true body of the Buddha is prajna or knowledge.[97] By
this is meant a knowledge which transcends the distinction between
subject and object and which sees that neither animate beings nor
inanimate things have individuality or separate existence. Thus the
Dharma-kaya being an intelligence which sees the illusory quality of
the world and also how the illusion originates[98] may be regarded as
the origin and ground of all phenomena. As such it is also called
Tathagatagarbha and Dharma-dhatu, the matrix or store-house of all
phenomena. On the other hand, inasmuch as it is beyond them and
implies their unreality, it may also be regarded as the annihilation
of all phenomena, in other words as Nirvana. In fact the Dharma-kaya
(or Bhuta-tathata) is sometimes[99] defined in words similar to those
which the Pali Canon makes the Buddha use when asked if the Perfect
Saint exists after death--"it is neither that which is existence nor
that which is non-existence, nor that which is at once existence and
non-existence nor that which is neither existence nor non-existence."
In more theological language it may be said that according to the
general opinion of the Mahayanists a Buddha attains to Nirvana by the
very act of becoming a Buddha and is therefore beyond everything which
we call existence. Yet the compassion which he feels for mankind and
the good Karma which he has accumulated cause a human image of him
(Nirmana-kaya) to appear among men for their instruction and a
superhuman image, perceptible yet not material, to appear in Paradise.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 73: In Mahaparinib. Sut. I. 16 the Buddha is made to speak
of all the other Buddhas who have been in the long ages of the past
and will be in the long ages of the future.]
[Footnote 74: Though Dhyani Buddha is the title most frequently used
in European works it would appear that Jina is more usual in Sanskrit
works, and in fact Dhyani Buddha is hardly known outside Nepalese
literature. Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi are rarely mentioned apart
from the others. According to Getty (_Gods of Northern Buddhism_, pp.
26, 27) a group of six, including the Adi-Buddha himself under the
name of Vajrasattva, is sometimes worshipped.]
[Footnote 75: About the same period Siva and Vishnu were worshipped
in five forms. See below, Book V. chap. III. sec. 3 _ad fin._]
[Footnote 76: Nanjio, Cat. No. 28.]
[Footnote 77: Virocana also occurs in the Chandogya Up. VIII. 7 and 8
as the name of an Asura who misunderstood the teaching of Prajapati.
Verocana is the name of an Asura in Sam. Nik. I. xi. 1. 8.]
[Footnote 78: The names of many of these Buddhas, perhaps the
majority, contain some word expressive of light such as Aditya, prabha
or tejas.]
[Footnote 79: Chap. XX. Pushpavalivanarajikusumitabhijna.]
[Footnote 80: _E.g._ Yashts. XXII. and XXIV. _S.B.E._ vol. XXIII. pp.
317 and 344. The title Pure Land (Chinese Ch'ing-t'u, Japanese Jo-do)
has also a Persian ring about it. See further in the chapter on
Central Asia.]
[Footnote 81: Vishnu P., Book III. chap. II.]
[Footnote 82: See below: Section on Central Asia, and Gruenwedel,
_Mythologie_, 31, 36 and notes: Taranatha (Shiefner), p. 93 and
notes.]
[Footnote 83: Amitayur-dhyana-sutra. All three works are translated in
_S.B.E._ vol. XLIX.]
[Footnote 84: Pranidhana. Not only Amitabha but all Bodhisattvas
(especially Avalokita and Kshitigarbha) are supposed to have made such
vows. This idea is very common in China and Japan but goes back to
Indian sources. See _e.g._ Lotus, XXIV. verse 3.]
[Footnote 85: These Bodhisattvas are also mentioned but without much
emphasis in the Greater Sukhavati-vyuha.]
[Footnote 86: Even in Hinayanist works such as the Nidanakatha
Sumedha's resolution to become a Buddha, formed as he lies on the
ground before Dipankara, has a resemblance to Amida's vow. He resolves
to attain the truth, to enable mankind to cross the sea of the world
and only then to attain Nirvana.]
[Footnote 87: See Foucher, _Iconographie Bouddhique dans l'Inde._]
[Footnote 88: The Bhagavad-gita states quite clearly the doctrine of
the deathbed prayer (VIII. ad init.). "He who leaves this body and
departs remembering me in his last moments comes to my essence.
Whatever form (of deity) he remembers when he finally leaves this
body, to that he goes having been used to ponder on it."]
[Footnote 89: See art. Adi-Buddha in _E.R.E._ Asanga in the
Sutralankara (IX. 77) condemns the doctrine of Adi-Buddha, showing
that the term was known then, even if it had not the precise dogmatic
sense which it acquired later. His argument is that no one can become
a Buddha without an equipment (Sambhara) of merit and knowledge. Such
an equipment can only be obtained from a previous Buddha and therefore
the series of Buddhas must extend infinitely backwards.]
[Footnote 90: For the prevalence of the doctrine in mediaeval Bengal
see B.K. Sarkar, _Folklore Element in Hindu Culture_, which is however
sparing of precise references. The Dharma or Niranjana of the Sunya
Purana seems to be equivalent to Adi-Buddha.
Sometimes the Adi-Buddha is identified with Vajrasattva or
Samantabhadra, although these beings are otherwise classified as
Bodhisattvas. This appears analogous to the procedure common in
Hinduism by which a devotee declares that his special deity is all the
gods and the supreme spirit.]
[Footnote 91: It would appear that some of the Tantras treat of five
bodies, adding to the three here given others such as the Anandakaya,
Vajrakaya and Svabhavakaya. For this doctrine see especially De la
Vallee Poussin, _J.R.A.S._ 1906, pp. 943-997 and _Museon_, 1913, pp.
257 ff. Jigs-med nam-mka, the historian of Tibetan Buddhism, describes
four. See Huth, _Ges. d. Bud. in d. Mongolei_, vol. II. pp. 83-89.
Hinduism also assigns to living beings three bodies, the
Karana-sarira, lingas. and sthulas.]
[Footnote 92: Translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksha between 397 and
439 A.D.]
[Footnote 93: The prototype of the Sambhoga-kaya is found in the Pali
Canon, for the Buddha says (Mahaparinib. Sut. III. 22) that when he
appears among the different classes of gods his form and voice are
similar to theirs.]
[Footnote 94: Watters, vol. II. p. 38. "Spiritual essence" is Fa-shen
in Chinese, _i.e._ Dharma-kaya. Another passage is quoted to the
effect that "henceforth the observances of all my disciples constitute
the Tathagata's Fa-shen, eternal and imperishable."]
[Footnote 95: Mahaparinib. Sut. VI. i.]
[Footnote 96: Something similar might happen in English if think and
thing were pronounced in the same way and a thing were believed to be
that which we can think.]
[Footnote 97: See Ashtasahasrika Prajna-paramita, chap. IV, near
beginning.]
[Footnote 98: It is in this last point that no inferior intelligence
can follow the thought of a Buddha.]
[Footnote 99: _The Awakening of Faith_, Teitaro Suzuki, p. 59.]