Many of the problems that are now being discussed by modern logicians are, unbeknownst to them,
 already in the ancient Indian books. Problems of semantics, problems of meaning, problems
 of the nature of time and of memory, all these were discussed with very, very meticulous
 scholarly sophistication. So that it is my opinion that this was a very, very fertile
 period of human history, and that the philosophy in which it eventually emerged, the philosophy
 of Mahayana Buddhism, is as yet the most mature and really intelligent theory of human life
 and of the cosmos that man has ever devised. It is characteristic of this point of view
 that it adheres to the Middle Way. And the Middle Way doesn't mean moderation. It means
 the bringing together of opposites, of what we might call in our world spirit and matter,
 mind and body, mysticism and sensuality, unity and multiplicity, conformity and individualism.
 All these things are marvelously wedded together in the worldview of Mahayana. And fundamental
 to Mahayana Buddhism is the idea of what is called the Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva means
 a person who has as his essence, sattva, bodhi, awakening. And it's usually used to mean a
 potential Buddha, someone who is, as it were, just about to become a Buddha. That was the
 original sense. And so part of the Pali Canon is a book called the Jataka Mala, the tales
 of the Buddha's previous lives, how he behaved when he was an animal, how he behaved when
 he was a man long before he became Buddha. And in all these stories, he is represented
 as sacrificing himself for the benefit of other beings. But since he had not yet become
 a fully-fledged Buddha, he's called in these stories a Bodhisattva. That really means a
 potential Buddha. But the point is that as a potential Buddha, as a Bodhisattva, he is
 always involved in situations where he's feeding himself for the hungry tigers and so on. Now
 in the course of time, the term Bodhisattva underwent a transformation. A Bodhisattva
 matures and becomes a Buddha. And what does that mean popularly? It means that whoever
 is fully awakened to the way things are is delivered from any necessity to be involved
 in the world any more. In other words, you can go on to a transcendent level of being
 where time is abolished, where all times are now, where there are no problems, where there
 is perpetual, eternal peace. Nirvana in the sense of the word parinirvana means beyond
 nirvana, super-nirvana. So that if you are fed up with this thing and you don't want
 to play the game of hide-and-seek any more, you can go in the parinirvana state and be
 in total serenity. However, and again I'm talking the language of popular Buddhism,
 a person who stands on the threshold of that peace can turn back and say, "I won't be
 a Buddha. I'll be a Bodhisattva. I won't make the final attainment, because I would
 like to go back into the world of manifestation they call samsara, go back into that world
 and work for their liberation." So then, when a Mahayana Buddhist does his formula for puja,
 he says, "Sentient beings are numberless. I take a vow to save them. Deluding passions
 are inexhaustible." Note this, inexhaustible. "I take a vow to destroy them. The gates of
 the method, the dharma, are manifold. I take a vow to enter them. The Buddha way is supreme.
 I take a vow to complete it." All this is impossible. You see, numberless sentient beings,
 because they are numberless, can never be delivered. Deluding passions, which are inexhaustible,
 can never be eradicated. So, this then, Mahayanists, you know, they go, "Shujo muhen se gandho,
 bonno mujen se gandhan, ho mon muryo se gangyaku, butsu do mujo se ganjo." And that's their
 formula. The bodhisattva who returns into the world and becomes involved again is in
 fact regarded as a superior kind of being to the one who gets out of it.
 The person who gets out of the rat race and enters into eternal peace is called Pratyekabuddha,
 which means "private Buddha," Buddha who does not teach, who does not help others. And in
 Mahayana literature, that is almost a term of abuse. Pratyekabuddha. Pratyekabuddhas
 are classed with unbelievers and heretics and infidels and fools. But the great thing
 is the bodhisattva. All beings are thought of in popular Buddhism as constantly reincarnating,
 again and again and again and again, into the round of existence, helplessly, because
 they still desire. They're therefore drawn back into the cycle. The bodhisattva goes
 back into the cycle with his eyes wide open, voluntarily, and allows himself to be sucked
 in. And this is normally interpreted as an act of supreme compassion, and bodhisattvas
 can assume any guise. They can get furiously angry if necessary, in order to discourage
 evil beings. Even could assume the role of a prostitute and live that way, so as to deliver
 beings at that level of life. Could become an animal, become an insect, become a maggot,
 anything, you know? All deliberately and in full consciousness, to carry on the work of
 the deliverance of all beings. Now that's the way the popular mind understands it. And
 therefore the bodhisattvas are all revered and respected and worshipped and looked upon
 as gods, as we look upon God in the West, and as saviours, as the Christian looks upon
 Jesus. But underneath this myth, there is a profound philosophical idea, and that is
 this. It goes back to the Hindu philosophy of Advaita, or non-duality. Namely, the apparent
 dualism of I and Thou, of the knower and the known, the subject and the object, is unreal.
 And so also the apparent duality between maya, the world illusion, and reality is unreal.
 The apparent duality or difference between the enlightened and the ignorant person is
 unreal. So the apparent duality of bondage and deliverance or liberation is unreal. The
 perfectly wise man is the one who realises vividly that the ideal place is the place
 where you are. This is an impossible thing to put in words. The nearest I could get to
 it would be to say that if you could see this moment, that you need nothing beyond this
 moment now, sitting here, irrespective of anything I might be saying to you, of any
 ideas you might have rattling around in your brains, that here and now is the absolute
 which than which there is no whicher. Only, we prevent ourselves from seeing this, because
 we're always saying, well, there ought to be something more. Aren't I missing something
 somehow? See? And nobody sees it. Now, then also, the most far-out form of Mahayana Buddhism
 is called the Pure Land School, Jodo Shinshu. Jodo means pure land, Shinshu, true sect.
 And this is based on the idea that there was in immeasurably past ages a great bodhisattva
 called Amitabha, and he made a vow that he would never, never become a Buddha unless
 any being who repeated his name would automatically, at death, be born into the pure land over which
 he presides, that is a kind of paradise. He did become a Buddha, and so the vow works.
 All you have to do is to repeat the name of Amitabha, and this will assure the fact that
 without any further effort on your part, you will be reborn in his paradise when you die,
 and in that paradise, becoming a Buddha is a cinch. There are no problems there. The
 Western paradise, you see, is some kind of a level of consciousness. But it's represented
 as a fact, as a glorious place. You can see the pictures of it in Koyasan, wonderful pictures,
 where the Buddha Amitabha, who is actually a Persian figure, he's related to Ahura Mazda,
 and he means "boundless light," and the Daibutsu at Kamakura, that enormous bronze Buddha in
 the open air, is Amitabha. So there he sits, surrounded with his court, and this court
 is full of Apsaras, and Apsaras are beautiful girls, playing lutes, and as you are born
 into the paradise, what happens when you die, is you discover yourself inside a lotus, and
 the lotus goes pop, and there you find yourself sitting, coming out of the water, and here
 on the clouds in front of you are the Apsaras sitting, strumming their lutes, with the most
 sensuous, beautiful faces, see? And to get this, all you have to do is say the name of
 Amitabha. The formula is Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu. And you can get this fast.
 Namu Amida Butsu. Namu Amida Butsu. Say it any many times, you see, so you're quite sure
 it's going to happen. But actually you only have to say it once. And you mustn't make
 any effort to gain this reward, because that would be spiritual pride. Your karma, you
 see, your bad deeds, your awful past, is so bad, that anything good you try to do is done
 with a selfish motive, and therefore doesn't affect your deliverance. Therefore, the only
 way to get deliverance is to put faith in the power of this Amitabha Buddha, and to
 accept it as a free gift, and to take it by doing the most absurd thing, saying Namu Amida
 Butsu, you see? Don't even worry whether you have to have faith in this, because trying