ali@165: **************** INPUT ****************
ali@165: Among these was the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light,[1]
ali@165: who had made a wondrous vow in virtue of which a blessed future of
ali@165: righteousness and joy in the Western Paradise was secured for all who
ali@165: put their trust in him.  Carried into China, this devotion acquired
ali@165: great popularity, and centuries later it passed into Japan.  There,
ali@165: while Europe was sending its warriors to win back from the Crescent the
ali@165: city of the Cross, while Bernard and Francis and Dominic were awakening
ali@165: new enthusiasm for the monastic {17} life, two famous teachers, Honen
ali@165: (1133-1212) and Shin-ran (1173-1262), developed the doctrine of
ali@165: "salvation by faith."  Honen was the only son of a military chief who
ali@165: died of a wound inflicted by an enemy.  On his deathbed he enjoined the
ali@165: boy never to seek revenge, and bade him become a monk for the spiritual
ali@165: enlightenment both of his father and his father's foe.  So the lad
ali@165: passed in due time into one of the great Buddhist monasteries on mount
ali@165: Hiei.  Long years of laborious study followed, till in 1175 he reached
ali@165: the conviction that faith in Amida[2] was the true way of salvation.  A
ali@165: deep sense of human sinfulness and the belief in an All-Merciful
ali@165: Deliverer were the essential elements of his religion.  Three emperors
ali@165: became his pupils, and his life, compiled by imperial order after his
ali@165: death, resembles that of a mediaeval Christian saint.  Visions of Amida
ali@165: and of the holy teachers of the past were vouchsafed to him.  He
ali@165: preached--like another St. Francis--to the serpents and the birds.  His
ali@165: person was mysteriously transfigured, and a wondrous light filled his
ali@165: dwelling.
ali@165: 
ali@165: 
ali@165: [1] Also called Amitayus, the Buddha of Boundless Life.
ali@165: 
ali@165: [2] The Japanese form of the Sanskrit Amitabha.
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