MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Eternity
Discussing the view of Eternity advanced by Boethius in his Consolations of Philosophy, C. S. Lewis remarks: ‘Eternity is quite distinct from perpetuity, from mere endless continuance in time. Perpetuity is only the attainment of an endless series of moments, each lost as soon as attained. Eternity is the actual and timeless fruition of illimitable life. Time, even endless time, is only an image, almost a parody, of that plenitude; a hopeless attempt to compensate for the transitoriness of its 'presents' by infinitely multiplying them’. The Omniconsciousness of the Buddha is therefore not only perennial but eternal. The eyes of the Buddha painted on the four sides of the tower surmounting the Nepalese stupa behold everything simultaneously throughout the four directions of space in one ever-present Here-and-Now, for to the Comprehensor there is neither past nor future.
This golden Light of the Void also grants a Vision of Amida Buddha, is Amitabha, Buddha of Boundless Light or Consciousness, as well as Amitayus, Buddha of Endless Life or Being, both of which he bestows on his devotees, shining in all beings to dispel darkness and destroy Ignorance. Prajna, or Transcendent Insight, immediately sees his true spiritual nature or Sambhogakaya, penetrating through both the outer form of his sculptured icon and the inner form of his mental image. A Buddhist icon possesses the seemingly miraculous power of reflecting the hidden aspect of him who looks at it, for he sees mirrored therein his own other side, whether of dark or light, so that the true devotee views in it his own Buddha-nature and the man of secret evil his own wrathful ego.