and things
immaterial, says:[7] "The former include all things that proceed from a
cause. This cause is Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space
and Nirvana alone excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the
last two are not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from
frailty. Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered
as being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from
misery."

In a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less a
religion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of metaphysics.
However, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in three Yanas or
Vehicles; for there are now, as in the days of Shaka, three classes of
being, graded according to their ability or power to understand "the
truth." These are:

(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers who
meditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in
understanding, they become free from confusion after three births; but
if they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas[8] or aeons before they attain
to the state of enlightenment.

(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, "singly enlightened," or
beings in the middle state, who must extract the seeds or causes of
actions, and must meditate on the twelve chains of causation, or
understand the non-eternity of the world, while gazing upon the falling
flowers or leaves. They attain enlightenment after four births or a
hundred kalpas, according to their ability.

(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise the six
perfections (perfect practice of alms-giving, morality, patience,
energy, meditation and wisdom) as preliminaries to Nirvana, which they
reach only after countless kalpas.

These three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha doctrine, are
said to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because understanding human
beings so thoroughly, he knew that one person could not comprehend two
ways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People were taught therefore to
practise anyone of the three vehicles at pleasure.

We shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese Buddhism
swept away this gradation, and declaring but the one vehicle (eka),
opened the kingdom to all believers.

The second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the
J[=o]-jitsu,[9] or the sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means
The Book of the Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and
expl