^125:1 It is said that the great Kobo Daishi is still awaiting in his tomb at Koya San the coming of Maitreya, the friendly one, to restore the old Faith to Japan. His body, it is said, does not decay, though from time to time he requires a new suit of clothes. Thousands of devout Buddhists lie buried round him at Koya San. They want to be present when Maitreya comes to wake Kobo from his sleep. That Maitreya and Avalokites'vara are connected may be shown from the following mantra in debased Sanskrit, which I do not pretend to be able to understand, but which evidently contains both names: Nobaratanno Tarayaya nomaku Aryavalokitei jimbaraya Bodhisattvaya Mahasattvaya Mahakiyaronikyaya taniyata on, Maitareyi, Maitararano sei maitarakiu babei maitroto banbei mahamammaya sovaka. Om Maitreya sovaka. Christian imagination has always fixed itself on Maitreya as the type of Christ; but the Buddhist sees more clearly the analogies in Avalokites'vara. Avalokites'vara, they say, is the spiritual son of Amitabha, and it is only through Avalokites'vara that Amitabha can manifest himself. Thus when Amitabha came down to fulfil his vow, he came as Avalokites'vara under the earthly name of Hozo Biku. And many Japanese have told me that Christ is an incarnation of this same Avalokites'vara, the son of Amida, who is the one, self-originated, Buddha.

^127:1 In connection with the A.D. 67 Mission to China, it must be remembered that early in the first century a rumour was current in China that Su Wang Mu, the goddess of the West, had given birth to a child who should be the Saviour of the world. This event is, as it were, crystallized in Buddhism, in the female Kwan-yin, the goddess of Mercy, who is so constantly represented with a babe in her arms. It is said of this babe that he was originally an enemy to Buddhism, but was afterwards converted. I seem to see in this a trace of that very early "heralding of the Son of Man" in China. It was merely a heralding, merely a preaching for a witness. The remaining converts of that early mission, or their descendants, may have offered some resistance to the Buddhist onslaught, and then in the end agreed to some compromise.

^127:2 Arhat is the Hinayana term for the full-blown disciple. In the Mahayana, such a person is termed a Bodhisattva, the distinction between the two consisting in the fact that the Bodhisattva's faith is the more altruistic.

^128:1 This work forms one of the great books of the Nepaulese Canon, which does not, however, seem to have been finally drawn up before the time of Vasubandhu, circ. A.D. 300.

^128:2 In a popular book called "Jusan Butsu no Yurai" (Tokyo, 1908).

^128:3 For As'vaghosha, see Suzuki's "Awakening of the Faith," p. 146. Nagarjuna is said to have died with his face directed to the Western Paradise.