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Philosophy of Six Padas
107
making), and even Human Buddhas at various spiritual levels of development. All these Buddhas can help on the path to nirvana through knowledge, faith, and compassion. Amida or Amitabha Buddha can take one to a future heaven or "Pure Land" simply by having a faith in him and one does not need to leave the world, family, or emotional attachments. Whereas arhat is the ideal in Hinyana tradition, Bodhisattva is the ideal in Mahayana tradition and Bodhisattvas can appear in the form of human beings, trees, animals, or spirits. Out of their compassion for others, Bodhisattvas take on the task of guiding others to nirvana and nirvana here is attainment and not annihilation. Thus not only Mahayana scheme was elaborate and rivaled the Hindu metaphysical scheme, but within it also developed various schools of philosophy and their many branches. Some schools preached achievement of nirvana through the "Middle Path," others through different kinds of meditative and enlightenment practices, and still others through solving apparently insolvable mental/verbal riddles called koans. +2 Buddhism also became different according to the host country which adopted it. Sri Lanka, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos are some examples of the host countries.
Jainism
As indicated in Chapter 3, Buddhism and Jainism were born as reactionary responses to some of the corruptive practices in Hinduism and they were expected to be free of blind faith, ritualism, domination of priests, and other complexities prevalent in Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism developed similar principles and practices of daily conduct and for the attainment of nirvana or kevalya. However as time passed and through interaction with the more dominant Hindu tradition, priesthood, ritualism, idol worship, and many other complexities crept in the two traditions and today Buddhism and Jainism look very similar to Hinduism in crucial metaphysical and ritualistic aspects. Just as Buddhism got
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