[101] “Purvapranidhânabala” is frequently translated “the power of original (or primitive) prayer.” Literally, pûrva means “former” or “original” or “primitive”; and pranidhâna, “desire” or “vow” or “prayer”; and bala, “power.” So far as literary rendering is concerned, “power of original prayer” seems to be the sense of the original Sanskrit. But when we speak of primitive prayers of the Dharmakâya or Tathâgata, how shall we understand it? Has prayer any sense in this connection? The Dharmakâya can by its own free will manifest in any form of existence and finish its work in whatever way it deems best. There is no need for it to utter any prayer in the agony of struggle to accomplish. There is in the universe no force whatever which is working against it so powerfully as to make it cry for help; and there cannot be any struggle or agony in the activity of the Dharmakâya. The term prayer therefore is altogether misleading and inaccurate and implicates us in a grave error which tends to contradict the general Buddhist conception of Dharmakâya. We must dispense with the term entirely in order to be in perfect harmony with the fundamental doctrine of Buddhism. This point will receive further consideration later. [102] “I am the father of all beings, and they are my children.” (The _Avatamsaka_, the _Pundarîka_, etc.) [103] To get more fully acquainted with the significance of the Sukhâvatî doctrine, the reader is advised to look up the Sukhâvatî sûtras in the _Sacred Books of the East_, Vol. XLIX. CHAPTER X NOTES. [104] What follows is selected from a short sûtra called _The Mahâvaipulya-Tathâgatagarbha Sûtra_, translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra of the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D. 371-420). Nanjo, No. 384. [105] _Niyuta_ is an exceedingly large number, but generally considered to be equal to one billion. [106] All these are unhuman forms of existence, including demons, dragon-kings, winged beasts, etc. [107] Âçrava literally means “oozing,” or “flowing out,” and the Chinese translators rendered it by _lou_, dripping, or leaking. Roughly speaking, it is a general name for evils, principally material and sensuous. According to an Indian Buddhist scholar, Âçrava has threefold sense: (1) “keeping,” for it retains all sentient beings in the whirlpool of birth and death; (2) “flowing,” for it makes all sentient beings run in the stream of birth and death; (3) “leaking,” or “oozing,” for it lets such evils as avarice, anger, lust, etc., ooze out from the six sense-organs after the fashion of an ulcer, which lets out blood and filthy substance. The cause of Âçrava is a blind will, and its result is birth and death. Specifically, Bhâvâçrava is one of the three Âçravas, which are (1) kâmâçrava, (2) vidyâçrava, and (3) bhâvâçrava. The first is egotistic desires, the second is ignorance, and the third is the material existence which we have to suffer on account of our previous karma.