noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the
complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he
substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the
all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a
man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the
Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his
death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this
matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different
directions.

One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century,
contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the
King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling
weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure
Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of
the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha
says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought,
and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice,"
adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all."

How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one
goes into a Buddhist temple of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect in Japan, and hears
the constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the
sermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival
days, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy
the exposition of doctrine--"Namu Amida Butsu"--"Glory to the Eternal
Buddha!"[3]

The apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and
apostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal
duly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the
historical literature of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect. In Buddhism, as in
Christianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism,
the succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of
this or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature
of controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect
which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of
J[=o]-d[=o] was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of
the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-d[=o] (A.D. 600-650),
the great propagator of the J[=o]-d[=o] philosophy, H[=o]-nen