To Say Nothing Of The Considerable Numbers Who Have Adhered
Faithfully To The Roman Catholic Church, The Large Number Of
Mahomedans in
China, of whom many must have been proselytes, indicates an interest in
religion; and that Buddhism itself was
In China once a spiritual power of
no small energy will, I think, be plain to any one who reads the very
interesting extracts in Schott's essay on Buddhism in Upper Asia and
China. (Berlin Acad. of Sciences, 1846.) These seem to be so little
known that I will translate two or three of them. "In the years Yuan-yeu
of the Sung (A.D. 1086-1093), a pious matron with her two servants lived
entirely to the Land of Enlightenment. One of the maids said one day to
her companion: 'To-night I shall pass over to the Realm of Amita.' The
same night a balsamic odour filled the house, and the maid died without
any preceding illness. On the following day the surviving maid said to the
lady: 'Yesterday my deceased companion appeared to me in a dream, and said
to me: "Thanks to the persevering exhortations of our mistress, I am
become a partaker of Paradise, and my blessedness is past all expression
in words."' The matron replied: 'If she will appear to me also then I will
believe what you say.' Next night the deceased really appeared to her, and
saluted her with respect. The lady asked: 'May I, for once, visit the Land
of Enlightenment?' 'Yea,' answered the Blessed Soul, 'thou hast but to
follow thy handmaiden.' The lady followed her (in her dream), and soon
perceived a lake of immeasurable expanse, overspread with innumerable red
and white lotus flowers, of various sizes, some blooming, some fading.
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