Page:The Praises of Amida, 1907.djvu/51

 better than a picture. When we bow down before an image or a picture we have a dim and uncertain realization of the Tathāgata's Heart: the dimness is changed to bright certainty when we hear the Sacred Name and understand all that the Name implies. The Sacred Name is the True Image of the Tathāgata, the living photograph. Wherever we are we can worship it, and whenever we contemplate it we can see in it the movings of the Divine Heart. Nor is it the workmanship of some other human hand: it is the picture of Himself which He Himself has taken. Nay, it is not even a photograph: it is the Tathāgata Himself, it is His very Divine Heart. And when we hear the Name pronounced, it is the Tathāgata Himself who comes to us. Hence, when we listen to the import of the Divine Name, and when we reverently bow ourselves before it, though our bodies may be confined within the prison-walls of human life, yet the Tathāgata's Mercy and His Spirit descend straight into our hearts, lighten the darkness