PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

194Pacific Worldthat admission was assured. 34 In the larger Sukhåvat∆vy¥ha, on the otherhand (in both earlier and later recensions), the possibility of reachingAmitåbha’s realm is presented as far easier, a development which pavedthe way for the view later expressed by Shinran that admission to the pureland is due to Amitåbha’s grace alone. In light of the description conveyedin the larger Sukhåvat∆vy¥ha, ordinary Buddhists could thus place theirfaith in the certainty of encountering Amitåbha after death. That suchbelievers were (and are) described as “bodhisattvas” involved radical newdevelopments in the concept of what a bodhisattva is, a fact that isparticularly evident in the text of the Wuliang shou jing.As these “pure land” notions made the prospect of becoming abodhisattva less daunting, they paved the way for the sweeping universalismof the “one vehicle” doctrine set forth in the Lotus S¥tra and other texts,according to which the bodhisattva path is appropriate to every Buddhistman, woman, and child. In a sense, then, one could see the JapaneseBuddhism of today—which, regardless of sect (sh¥), takes ideas found inthe Lotus as a central interpretive framework—as having come full circle,returning to the idea found in early Buddhism that “one vehicle” isappropriate for all.