REALER THAN REAL: THE COSMIC VISION OF THE MAHAYANA
HE MAHAYANA VISION can be ornate. Worlds upon worlds appear, each with bejeweled pagodas, within each pagoda a buddha (often the same buddha appearing simultaneously in each pagoda in each world), flowers raining down, delicate scents, beautiful sounds, magical beings; lengthy hagiographic descriptions of these beings; pages of praise of Buddhas and bodhisattvas so over-the-top that Yahweh herself would blush to be addressed that way. When I first stumbled into this literature, it seemed impossible to relate to. What did this complex cosmology have to do with, you know,?
