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2 Among these was the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light,[1]
3 who had made a wondrous vow in virtue of which a blessed future of
4 righteousness and joy in the Western Paradise was secured for all who
5 put their trust in him. Carried into China, this devotion acquired
6 great popularity, and centuries later it passed into Japan. There,
7 while Europe was sending its warriors to win back from the Crescent the
8 city of the Cross, while Bernard and Francis and Dominic were awakening
9 new enthusiasm for the monastic {17} life, two famous teachers, Honen
10 (1133-1212) and Shin-ran (1173-1262), developed the doctrine of
11 "salvation by faith." Honen was the only son of a military chief who
12 died of a wound inflicted by an enemy. On his deathbed he enjoined the
13 boy never to seek revenge, and bade him become a monk for the spiritual
14 enlightenment both of his father and his father's foe. So the lad
15 passed in due time into one of the great Buddhist monasteries on mount
16 Hiei. Long years of laborious study followed, till in 1175 he reached
17 the conviction that faith in Amida[2] was the true way of salvation. A
18 deep sense of human sinfulness and the belief in an All-Merciful
19 Deliverer were the essential elements of his religion. Three emperors
20 became his pupils, and his life, compiled by imperial order after his
21 death, resembles that of a mediaeval Christian saint. Visions of Amida
22 and of the holy teachers of the past were vouchsafed to him. He
23 preached--like another St. Francis--to the serpents and the birds. His
24 person was mysteriously transfigured, and a wondrous light filled his
28 [1] Also called Amitayus, the Buddha of Boundless Life.
30 [2] The Japanese form of the Sanskrit Amitabha.
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