true goal). This Tathâgata,[1] who has entered into the rest of his Paradise (for that is the true and literal meaning of the "Forest House"), we turn to Him and advance day by day in His foot-steps. This is, indeed, true progress in which there is no danger of falling back, and the happiness resulting from which can never change. It is a happiness which reaches into the future, which has no bounds, and is a true happiness. We can behold that true happiness, now, in the present.
13. Thus we see that there is now a line of light running through and threading together our lives, past, present, and future, which hitherto seemed to be but the confused visions of a dream. Our human life, which was but a waking dream, is one no longer: it is the gate which leads us to the precious Land of the Tathāgata. We ourselves, who were but a dream, are so no longer: we are the Saved, the Sons of Buddha. We stand at the gate of the Happy Land, which we have received as a gift more precious than our bodies, and we
- ↑ i.e. Amida.
