Note 27 — PREFACE.

The name Sukhâvatî, borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, is sometimes used instead of that of Devachan. Sukhâvatî, according to Schlagintweit, is "the abode of the blessed, into which ascend those who have accumulated much merit by the practice of virtues", and "involves the deliverance from metempsychosis" (Buddhism in Tibet, p. 99). According to the Prasanga school, the higher Path leads to Nirvâna, the lower to Sukhâvatî. But Eitel calls Sukhâvatî "the Nirvâna of the common people, where the saints revel in physical bliss for æons, until they reënter the circle of transmigration" (Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary). Eitel, however, under "Amitâbha" states that the "popular mind" regards the "paradise of the West" as "the haven of final redemption from the eddies of transmigration". When used by one of the Teachers of the Esoteric Philosophy it covers the higher Devachanic states, but from all of these the Soul comes back to earth.