^237:2 See, for instance, what Dr. Nanjo says about Vajrabodhi, , Amoghavajra, and Bodhiruci ("Catalogue Trip.," App. ii., Nos. 150, 153, 154, 155). The Shingon of Japan is very similar to the Buddhism of Thibet. Yet it is not identical, and the three books on which the Japanese Shingonists mainly rely are not to be found in the Thibetan canon. The Japanese Shingon came from South India.

^238:1 It must be remembered that Buddhism never looks upon heaven as a place of moral or spiritual excellence. It is a world peopled by spiritual existences, but very much like our own, with good and bad in it. The least in the kingdom of Buddha is higher than the Buddhist heaven.

^238:2 Both Honen Shonin and Nichiren criticize Kobo's arrangement of the order of precedence assigned to the sects--the latter with considerable asperity, as is his wont. It was from Nichiren that I got the allusion to S'akyamuni not being, in Kobo's opinion, fit to be the cowherd of Vairoc'ana. Nichiren aptly says that if Vairoc'ana is a personage of so great importance, his existence should be proved as S'akyamuni's has been, and he roundly charges Kobo with being a liar (dai-mogo) for trying to palm off fictitious Buddhas on his countrymen.

A distinction is sometimes made between the Roshana of the Hosso, Kegon, and Tendai, and the Vairoc'ana (Beroshana) of the Shingon. It is of this latter that Nichiren seeks to have proofs. The fact seems to be that there are, as it were, two strains of cryptic teaching respecting Vairoc'ana. The one (Roshana) came overland, or from North-Western India, and is probably connected with Syrian Gnosticism. The second (Beroshana) came from Southern India, and has Alexandrine affinities.

The Japanese Tendai has its mantra or magic formulae (Jap. darani), as well as the Shingon. But it has no mudra, or manual gestures. These are peculiar to the Shingonism brought in by Kukai, or Kobo. Neither does the Tendai accept the secret books said to have been found by Nagarjuna at the Iron Tower in Southern India It gets its mantra and dharani from the Dragon Palace books, and from Maitreya's lectures in Asangha's lecture hall.

There were always certain differences between Syrian and Alexandrine Gnosticism. It is interesting to find them cropping up in Japan. They throw a flood of light on the obscure Book of Iao.