^159:2 The three S'astras are (i) "the Madhyamika-s'astra, or "Book of the Mean" (Churon); (ii) the S'ata satra, or "Collection of one hundred Essays" (Hyaku-ron) and (iii) Dvadas'anikaya s'astra, or "Book of the Twelve Gates" (Juni mon ron). They were composed by the Bodhisattvas Nagarjuna and Deva to clear the confusion arising in men's minds from the distinctions between entity and non-entity. They expound, from a Mahayanistic standpoint, the whole teachings of Buddha's long life, with special emphasis perhaps on the "Twelve Gates" that lead to the Inmost Shrine of Perfect Enlightenment. They accepted the Kegon, the Agamas, the Saddharmapundarika as three periods in S'akyamuni's ministerial career, and placed the Saddharmapundarika last as being the crown of Buddha's personal teachings. It is not the object of this book to explain Buddhist philosophy. I leave these questions for discussion in a later volume.

^161:1 I have had no opportunities of verifying this statement, nor have I been able to find any account of the White Lotus Society in any publication accessible to me. The statement may be capable of verification by persons residing in China. I have discussed the question in the appendix to "Shinran and his Work."

A book of dialogues, mainly religious, between Eon and Kumarajiva exists in the library of the Shinshu Daigakko at Sugamo near Tokyo. The work is said to be unique, no other exemplar being known to exist. Through the kindness of the librarian of that institution, a copy is now being made for me.

^162:1 Their names in Sanskrit are Bhaishajyaraja, Avalokites'vara, Samantabhadra, and Gadgadasavara.

^166:1 With regard to the earliest extant Chinese translation of this work, the one made by Lokaraksha in A.D. 147, it is worthy of notice that Hozo Biku, the earthly phase of Amida, there makes his vow before not the last, but the first of his eighty-one predecessors, and that the Name of that Being is Lokes'vararaja, "the King, the Lord of the World." In the description of his Vow, the conditions of salvation are faith and obedience, not faith only, and the obedience required embraces the ordinary morality, which is largely common to all religions. In Sanghavarman's translation the twenty-four paragraphs of the original vow have been expanded to forty-eight; the chief stress being laid by subsequent teachers on the paragraphs which accentuate the importance of Faith alone as a means of salvation. But even in the earliest version it is laid down most distinctly that, though there are many Buddhas (as there are gods many and lords many), yet they all are summed up in Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Purity, whose vow was made countless ages ago in the presence of the Buddha whose name is "the King, the Lord of the World."