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