At this the four pilgrims were very rejoiced to see the tortoise. He took them and the horse all on his back and swam across to the other side. As they neared the Eastern shore and it was getting dark, the tortoise said, ‘Master, when you went West I asked you to inquire of Buddha for me how I might return to my former state, and when I might get a human body. Did you remember to ask?’ But the master had been so absorbed in his own affairs that he had completely forgotten the tortoise and his request and so he had nothing to say. The tortoise, finding that he had been forgotten, turned a somersault, and threw all and everything into the river. Happily the mortal body of the master had been exchanged for an immortal one, and therefore he was safe in the water. The pig and the monkey, the boy and the horse, were also at home in the water, but the books were all soaked.”
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI Painting of the Seven Stars: Sukwang-sa [Page 92]]
The old allegory took a strong hold upon Eastern Asia and there must have been hundreds of pictures painted in the course of time representing its incidents.
As an example of the wall-paintings on plaster we may study a group of paintings, each representing an individual being, from one of the main temples at Sukwang-sa. None of these figures is haphazard, or without significance. Each would be recognized by the well-informed Buddhist. (Plate XXIII.)
Fifth are the idols or images. In the Buddhism taught by Sakya there was no room for them. The Great Teacher recognized no gods, and his followers should have no representations of deities. In Amida Buddhism, however, there are many gods, and a multitude of figures. The Buddhas, themselves are all represented among them including Sakya. When we examine the figures worshipped in Buddhist temples we find three groups, (a) Buddhas, (b) Bodhisattvas, (c) Arhats or Rakan. Sakya was not the first Buddha; in fact he was the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth in the line of those who attained enlightenment and gained _Nirvana_. The Indians reckoned time in long periods or _kalpas_; most of the Buddhas were in former _kalpas_, but even in the present _kalpa_, in which we live, Buddha had three predecessors; and before our _kalpa_ ends a successor will appear, Maitreya, or Miroku, the coming Buddha.[9]