e
it still flourishes, the worship of Amitabha was never predominant in
India. In Nepal and Tibet he is one among many deities: the Chinese
pilgrims hardly mention him: his figure is not particularly frequent
in Indian iconography[87] and, except in the works composed specially
in his honour, he appears as an incidental rather than as a necessary
figure. The whole doctrine is hardly strenuous enough for Indians. To
pray to the Buddha at the end of a sinful life, enter his paradise and
obtain ultimate Nirvana in comfort is not only open to the same charge
of egoism as the Hinayana scheme of salvation but is much easier and
may lead to the abandonment of religious effort. And the Hindu, who
above all things likes to busy himself with his own salvation, does
not take kindly to these expedients. Numerous deities promise a long
spell of heaven as a reward for the mere utterance of their names,[88]
yet the believer continues to labour earnestly in ceremonies or
meditation. It would be interesting to know whether this doctrine of
salvation by the utterance of a single name or prayer originated among
Buddhists or Brahmans. In any case it is closely related to old ideas
about the magic power of Vedic verses.

The five Jinas and other supernatural personages are often regarded as
manifestations of a single Buddha-force and at last this force is
personified as Adi-Buddha.[89] This admittedly theistic form of
Buddhism is late and is recorded from Nepal, Tibet (in the Kalacakra
system) and Java, a distribution which implies that it was exported
from Bengal.[90] But another form in which the Buddha-force is
impersonal and analogous to the Parabrahma of the Vedanta is much
older. Yet when this philosophic idea is expressed in popular language
it comes very near to Theism. As Kern has pointed out, Buddha is not
called Deva or Isvara in the Lotus simply because he is above such
beings. He declares that he has existed and will exist for
incalculable ages and has preached and will preach in innumerable
millions of worlds. His birth here and his nirvana are illusory,
kindly devices which may help weak disciples but do not mark the real
beginning and end of his activity. This implies a view of Buddha's
personality which is more precisely defined in the doctrine known as
Trikaya or the three bodies[91] and expounded in the
Mahayana-sutralankara, the Awakening of Faith, the Suvarna-prabhasa
sutra[92] and many other works. It may be stated do