SOTERIOLOGY AND PANTHEON OF THE MAHAYANA 111The Buddha-k$etra (Buddha-lands, also Buddha-fields) differ from the heav-
ens of the gods in that they are presided over by a Buddha so that the inhabi-
tants can practice the Way, earn merit, and gain wisdom. Thus devotees practice
to be reborn in these lands-calling upon a Buddha's name, worshiping him,
expressing faith in him, and living a pure life-so that once they attain their
desired Buddha-lands, their Buddhas will help them to mature further in the
spiritual Paths. Although the Cosmic Buddha-lands are fully separate from
sarpsara, and residence there results in the full Awakening of the supreme Bud-
dhas, they are very similar to the heavens of the gods in earlier Buddhism in a
number of respects. The inhabitants are freed from labor, and the necessities of
life come to them for the mere wishing. Sex is attenuated or entirely elimi-
nated, as in the earlier Brahma-worlds, and birth takes place without coitus or
gestation. However, not all the Buddha-lands are the same, as the different
Buddhas who preside over them made different vows, as bodhisattvas, con-
cerning the features they would create in their Buddha-lands.
Certain features of these Mahayana paradises deserve comment. Their
many jewels, jewel-trees, and diamond bodies indicate a low opinion of or-
ganic matter as perishable and impure. In this penchant they follow an aes-
thetic that first appears in the Sutra Pi taka (D.17). Jewels, moreover, are
visionary substances, believed to possess occult properties and radiate spiritual
forces. Concentrating on them induces trances fostering visions of paradise
that tend to be bright, with gemlike colors and shapes.
This Mahayana space myth expressed a radical expansion of worldview
and a corresponding change in values from the earlier Buddhist texts. The
drama of salvation was no longer confined to this physical world-realm, and
help from outside might bet;xpected. Sakyamuni's followers were not spiritual
orphans, for extraterrestrial friends stood always ready to protect them: not
only gods such as Sakra, Brahma, and the Four Great Kings, but also great
bodhisattvas and Buddhas. This vision of endless space populated by spiritual
beings corresponds to the general worldview of classical Hinduism, which was
also developing at this time.
5.5.2 Sakyamuni According to the Lotus Sutra
Sakyamuni remained the foremost of the Cosmic Buddhas until Tantrism
transformed the Indian Buddhist pantheon. The Lotus ranks among the most
worshiped of the Mahayana Sutras not because of profound technical philoso-
phy, of which it contains only a few fragments, but because of its assertion in
graphic parables and concrete religious language that the historical Gautama is
in reality an everlasting, ever-present cosmic father. As the Sutra opens, Sakya-
muni enters samadhi, the earth quakes, and a ray shoots forth from the tuft of
hair between his brows, illuminating myriad Buddha-fields in the eastern di-
rection and revealing their inhabitants, from denizens of the hells up to the
Buddhas and their assemblies. This extraordinary apparition serves to establish
the Buddha's stupendous power and knowledge, and to set the scale for his
saving activities.