In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

235 The Pure Land Tradition Overview Like almost all forms of Japanese Buddhism, the Pure Land tradition was formulated in China in the sixth and seventh centuries, based on Indian scriptures that were interpreted according to indigenous Chinese thinking. The name “Pure Land” is used today to refer to either a line of Buddhist thinking or a cluster of Buddhist institutions. There are five or six major traditions within Japanese Buddhist thought, but Zen and Pure Land are given their own sections here because of their prominence in Japanese philosophical history since the thirteenth century. It should be noted that as a religion—and taken all together—Pure Land institutions in Japan in the early twenty-first century account for approximately sixty percent of the population. Yet, this form of Buddhism, which emphasizes faith, has not attracted the attention of western scholars who, at least until recently, have been more drawn to Buddhist traditions where faith is less explicit. Nevertheless, Pure Land Buddhist ideas and values have had a deep impact on Japanese thought from the very moment Buddhism arrived, and this has been no less true after western philosophy began to seriously impact intellectual discourse after the 1890s. It is often somewhat difficult to separate philosophical argument from the assertion of traditional Buddhist values in premodern Pure Land Buddhist writings. But in their efforts to distinguish themselves as embodying the most authoritative understanding of Buddhism, Pure Land thinkers often took considerable time to explain their views, often under duress, and these writings are typically rich in expression and will be the basis of this overview. The founding myth and historical development of this tradition are not well known in the West, however, and so to understand how the core symbols and metaphors work, we must begin there. Like the Zen School, the Pure Land form of Buddhism was embedded within other religious orders until the Kamakura period (1185–1333). But in contrast with Zen, which began as a separate institution only after individuals journeyed to China to receive direct transmission from recognized masters there, the Pure Land School in Japan did not look to that kind of external authority to legitimate its conception. Although there were many 236 | bu d d h i s t t r a d i t i o n s : p u r e l a n d learned treatises written earlier, the pivotal person in the history of Pure Land thought in Japan is the monk Hōnen* (1133–1212), and the entries included here all begin with Hōnen and the line of thought he initiated. Living at a time of political upheaval, Hōnen proposed a religious paradigm considered so radical by some that it led to his forced exile from the capital and the persecution of his followers for centuries. But one of the churches that sprang from Shinran* (1173–1263), Hōnen’s best-known disciple, grew so powerful by the fifteenth century that it was feared as a competing feudal fief of its own. From that point forward this was no longer a minority tradition within the Buddhist world. Since the ideas of Hōnen that incited the most controversy resonated deeply with the Japanese psyche, to understand Pure Land’s influence in Japan we need to begin with him. To do so, it may help to step back and consider how Buddhism worked as a system of ideas before it reached Japan. While the early teachings of Buddhism oft repeated the dictum that it followed a “middle path” of moderation rejecting the extremes of sensual indulgence on the one hand and asceticism for its own sake on the other, this Buddhist doctrine came to be used to justify its own monasticism while distancing itself from the rather extreme yogic forms of self-discipline sweeping India at that time. But in the absence of anything remotely like it in East Asia before Buddhism entered, this monastic tradition appeared austere in the extreme. Yet, the values of celibacy, poverty, vegetarianism, and living under strict precepts were readily accepted with the integration of Buddhist thinking as a whole because the core philosophical presumption—that greater forms of discipline would yield greater spiritual achievement—was already in place. It was this very presumption, however , that was called into question in seventh-century Chinese Buddhism, and this forms the basis of Pure Land thought in Hōnen and all those who followed in his philosophical footsteps. The term “pure land” is a...

Share