{"collection":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_ami_ami04_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_ami_ami04_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_bud_ami_ami04_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/ami/ami04.htm","summary":"This is a didactic theological narrative from Paul Carus's 1906 work on Buddhist theology, written in a parable style that draws on both Buddhist and Hindu cosmological traditions. A Brahman priest, sincerely seeking to understand where the four material elements (earth, water, fire, air) utterly cease \u2014 and thus how Nirvana is possible \u2014 journeys through successive tiers of the Hindu heavenly hierarchy, from minor gods up through Ishvara and Yama to Brahma himself. Each deity defers upward, and when the priest finally reaches Brahma, the supreme creator god publicly evades the question by reciting his own grandiose titles \u2014 but privately confesses his ignorance and redirects the priest back to the Buddha on earth. The Buddha reframes the question entirely and answers that peace of heart (Nirvana) is not a metaphysical location where matter dissolves, but a state of mind achieved through self-discipline, wisdom, and the Eightfold Path. The story's most pointed claim is a systematic demotion of Hindu theology: Brahma is exposed as self-aggrandizing and fundamentally ignorant, prayer and sacrifice are declared useless, and even the highest divine authority cannot offer what only the Buddha's teaching can. The text functions as an apologetic argument for Buddhism's superiority over Brahmanical religion, dramatizing the thesis that liberation comes from inner effort guided by the Dharma, not from any god.","tags":["Amitabha Buddha","Mahayana Buddhism","Paul Carus","Pure Land Buddhism"],"text":null,"title":"Amitabha, A Story of Buddhist Theology: Kevaddha's Story","tradition":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","translated_text":null,"word_count":1590}