Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet

Notes

Notes Introduction 1 These observations were first noted by Fujita (1996, 3), known for his landmark 1970 study on the formation and development of early Pure Land Buddhism, Genshi Jōdo shisō no kenkyū (A Study of Early Pure Land Buddhism). His 1996 article draws from this earlier work. 2 Concerning Western attitudes, scholarly and popular, toward Buddhism, see Lopez 1996, 1998; Amstutz 1997; Almond 1988; Conze 1997, 206. 3 According to Gombrich, “there is plenty in the Pali Canon about faith. The word most used is pasāda, which indicates emotion as much as belief, a calm and happy confidence that something is so. In the Sutta-vibhanga, the canonical commentary on the pātimokkha which constitutes about half the Vinaya Piṭaka, Wijayaratna has counted 409 occasions on which the Buddha criticises conduct on the grounds that ‘it is not going to instil faith (pasāda) in those who lack it or increase the faith of those who have it.’ Calm and happiness are themselves ‘profitable’, ‘skilful’ states of mind, little steps along the path to nibbāna” (1998, 119). 4 Ritual and scholastic interpretations of Amitābha’s Western paradise have been anything but simple or naïve. Chappell has shown that there is nothing simplistic about Chinese Pure Land scriptures—in fact, the efforts of Buddhist thinkers to interpret pure lands “in the light of other Buddhist doctrines have generated rather intricate and complicated theories” (1977, 23). 5 “Transferring to the Land of Bliss: Among Texts and Practices of Sukhāvatī in Tibet,” DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. Chapter One: Indian Mahayana Origins and Departures 1 The term “soteriology” expresses any theory, doctrine, or system of salvation that aims toward the soteria (Greek, “salvation,” “liberation”) of the individual. The term is widely used in relation to Abrahamic religions and especially Christianity (redemption through Christ), but it also applies to other religious systems, including Buddhism. The aim of Buddhist soteriology is liberation from the fetters of causality that bind one to compulsive repetitions of suffering , illness, death, and rebirth. Ruegg reflects similar concerns: [A]nalytical distinctions are of course highly important for the historian of Buddhist religion and philosophy, for they relate to the distinction between 215 Notes to Chapter One 216 spiritual practice and philosophical position as understood in Buddhism. This distinction between mahāyāna as a set of teachings or texts and mahāyāna as spiritual practice and intellectual penetration appears to echo in part two established uses of the term dharma, namely (i) a verbalized teaching . . . and (ii) ethical practice and intellectual understanding . (2004, 29) Arguably, soteriology represents the main raison d’être of the world’s major religions . The formation of soteriological doctrines appears as a relational process that often leads religious movements to distinguish themselves from their rivals and develop their own identity. There appears to be a direct correlation between the degree of diffusion and the level of attractiveness of a soteriological system on the one hand, and the success of an emerging religion on the other. 2 In Mahayana scriptures the bodhisattva’s supreme and perfect “awakening” (Skt. bodhi) is ranked highest among spiritual accomplishments, followed by that of pratyekabuddhas and śrāvakas, who attain the pratyeka-bodhi and śrāvaka-bodhi respectively; see Dayal 1932, 9–18. Nattier (2003, 180) notes the name arhat in a Mahayana list as one of the ten epithets of Buddha Śākya muni . This designation recurs in many sutras that feature an audience of śrāvakas and where Śākyamuni is often referred to as a Tathāgata and Arhat—a label that demonstrates continuity between his own achievement and that of his bodhisattva followers. 3 In the Pāli Tripiṭaka, ten perfections (dasa pāramiyo) are listed; see the Successive Lives of the Buddha (Buddhavaṃsa). Ruegg notes that Mahayana came to be widely known as the Pāramitāyāna (phar-phyin gyi theg-pa), the “Vehicle of the Perfections,” “even though pāramitās are recognized also within the Śrāvakayāna and although the Mahāyāna may on occasion embrace in addition the Vajrayāna or ‘Adamantine Vehicle’” (2003, 5–6). 4 The conception of the term “bodhisattva” (Pāli bodhisatta) originates in Śrāvakayāna Buddhism. In the Ariyapariyesana-sutta, for example, the Buddha, in reference to his life prior to his enlightenment, refers to himself as bodhi satta ; Trenckner 1889; Majjhimanikāya 1.163. For a seminal survey of buddha fields in Mahayana literature...