t
stand on such a basis. The human heart cried out for some divine helper,
some one to whom man could pray. Fortunately there were supposed to be
predestined Buddhas.--"Bodisats"--then living in some of the heavens,
and as they were preparing themselves to become incarnate Buddhas, they
must already be interested in human affairs, and especially the
Maitreyeh, who would appear on earth next in order.

So Buddhism, in spite of its own most pronounced dogmas, began to pray
to an unseen being, began to depend and trust, began to lay hold on
divine sympathy, and look to heaven for help. By the seventh century of
our era the northern Buddhists, whether influenced in part by the
contact of Christianity, or not, had subsidized more than one of these
coming Buddhas. They had a complete Trinity. One person of this Trinity,
the everywhere present Avolokitesvara, became the chief object of
worship, the divine helper on whom all dependence was placed. This
mythical being was really the God of northern Buddhism in the Middle
Ages, and is the popular sympathizer of all Mongolian races to the
present day. In Thibet he is supposed to be incarnate in the Grand Lama.
In China he is incarnate in Quanyen, the goddess of mercy. With sailors
she is the goddess of the sea. In many temples she is invoked by the
sick, the halt, the blind, the impoverished. Her images are sometimes
represented with a hundred arms to symbolize her omnipotence to save.
Beal says of this, as Banergea says of the faith element of the Krishna
cult, that it is wholly alien to the religion whose name it bears: it is
not Buddhism. He thinks that it has been greatly affected by Christian
influences.

Another mythical being who is worshipped as God in China and Japan, is
Amitabba, a Dhyana or celestial Buddha, who in long kalpas of Time has
acquired merit enough for the whole world. Two of the twelve Buddhist
sects of Japan have abandoned every principle taught by Gautama, except
his ethics, and have cast themselves upon the free grace of Amitabba.
They have exchanged the old atheism for theism. They have given up all
dependence on merit-making and self-help; they now rely wholly on the
infinite merit of another. Their religious duties are performed out of
gratitude for a free salvation wrought out for them, and no longer as
the means of gaining heaven. They live by a faith which works by love.
They expect at death an immediate transfer to a permanent heaven,
instead of