By Dr. Charles B. Jones
Associate Professor of Religion and Culture and Religion
Culture Area Director
Catholic University of America
Introduction
Many people in the West interpret Buddhism as a path of meditation leading to enlightenment.
What many may not know is that this interpretation differs vastly from its practice in East Asia.
I have spent many years observing Buddhist temples in Taiwan and mainland China, and my research culminated in the book โChinese Pure Land Buddhism.โ This form of Buddhism teaches people to call upon a buddha named Amitฤbha in the expectation that when they die he will take them to his pure buddha-land, an ideal place to pursue the practices that will lead them to become buddhas, or fully enlightened and liberated beings.
This form of practice โ central to Pure Land Buddhism โ arose from Mahayana Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism that emerged in the first to sixth centuries A.D.
Buddhism in China
One of the innovative teachings of Mahayana Buddhism was that the cosmos is inhabited by millions of buddhas, not just the historical founder of the religion. Since all these buddhas had to reside somewhere, and their environments had to be as pure as they were, it followed that there are many buddha-lands.
Pure Land Buddhism taught that the pure land of Amitฤbha was accessible to regular people after they died. Prior to the development of Pure Land Buddhism, the only way to enlightenment lay through an arduous path of study and practice that was out of reach for most people.
In China, the Pure Land teaching made the prospect of liberation from suffering and the attainment of buddhahood feasible for ordinary people. While Pure Land Buddhism spread and became dominant in other East Asian countries, China is the land of its birth.
The Theory of Karma
Buddhists believe that all living beings are stuck in an endless loop of birth and rebirth and the good or bad fortune they experience results from karma. Karma is a moral force created by the deeds one does: Virtuous deeds give one better fortune, while evil or even just ignorant deeds bring misfortune.
Karma is said to determine the future life in terms of gender, intelligence and other personal attributes as well as oneโs environment.
As a buddha is believed to have completely purified his karma, his body and mind are free of all defects and the land he inhabits is perfect. Several Buddhist scriptures describe โbuddha-landsโ as paradises with no moral evil and free of all taints.
Many Buddhists hope for birth in a buddha-land so they can complete their path under a buddhaโs direct supervision.
The Founding Story
According to the Sutra, or scripture, on the Buddha of Infinite Life from no later than the third century, a monk named Dharmฤkara resolved to become a buddha. After much study and deliberation, he made 48 vows that detailed what kind of buddha he would be and what his buddha-land would look like.
Most of these vows laid out a scene familiar to believers: As a buddha, he would be powerful, wise and compassionate. His land would be magnificent, and the beings who shared it with him would be so accomplished that they would already have many of the powers and attributes of a buddha. These included perfect eloquence and the ability to see and hear from great distances.
But among the vows recorded in the Sลซtra, it was the 18th that changed everything. This vow stipulated that anyone who merely brought him to mind before death would be reborn in his buddha-land:
โIf, when I attain buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and think of me even ten times,โ Dharmฤkara is quoted as saying.
The fact that he realized his goal and became the buddha named Amitฤbha meant that the vow became reality. However, the term โten timesโ referring to thoughts of Amitabha was vague. Another scripture, the Sutra on the Visualization of the Buddha of Infinite Life, clarified that one had only to say this buddhaโs name ten times.
In addition, Dharmฤkara had also said that those who โcommit the five grave offenses and abuse the Right Dharmaโ would be excluded. This Sutra eliminated such restrictions. The two scriptures allowed ordinary Buddhists to aspire to a rebirth in this Pure Land.
Pure Land in China
Buddhism entered China around 2,000 years ago and developed a following slowly as scriptures became available in translation and missionaries learned to communicate their message.
The story of Dharmฤkaraโs vows proved especially popular. The Sลซtra on the Buddha of Infinite Life was translated into Chinese several times, and scholar-monks lectured and commented on the Pure Land sลซtras.
Monks and nuns chanted the Amitฤbha Sลซtra during their daily devotions. This sลซtra, along with the two already mentioned, became the โThree Pure Land Sลซtrasโ that anchored the emerging tradition.
The earlier Chinese commentators on these sลซtras held that one needed great stores of good karma from the past to even hear of these teachings. They also preached that if oneโs mind was not purified through prior practice, then one could not see the Pure Land in all its splendor.
Striving for Buddhahood
In the sixth and seventh centuries, three monks named Tanluan, Daochuo and especially Shandao provided new interpretations and practices that gave the ordinary believer complete access to the Pure Land without them needing to earn or deserve it.
First, they said that rebirth in the Pure Land is an โeasy pathโ compared to the โdifficult pathโ of traditional Buddhist practice.
Second, that the Buddha Amitฤbha helps the practitioner by adding his โother-powerโ to the believerโs โself-power.โ In other words, the buddhaโs power assisted the believer directly and brought him or her to the Pure Land. โSelf-power,โ or the believerโs own effort, might have beneficial effects but it was not enough for liberation. The addition of the buddhaโs power guaranteed liberation at the end of this life.
Third, they defined the main practice as calling Amitฤbhaโs name aloud. In the original texts it was not clear whether the practice consisted of difficult meditations or oral invocation, but they made it clear that just repeating โHail to Amitaqbha Buddhaโ would cause the buddha to transport one to the Pure Land.
The Pure Land was not a final destination, like heaven in Christianity. The point of rebirth there was to be in the perfect environment for becoming a buddha. One would still need to strive toward buddhahood, but oneโs own power with that of Amitฤbha would guarantee the final result.
Think about being on an escalator. If one cannot walk at all, it will carry one to the top, but if one can walk even a little, oneโs speed will combine with the motion of the escalator to get one there more quickly.
Chanting Buddhaโs Name
Pure Land believers may recite โHail to the Buddha Amitฤbhaโ silently or aloud while counting the repetitions on a rosary; they may participate in group practice at a local Buddhist temple; they may even take part in one-, three- or seven-day retreats that combine recitation with repentance rituals and meditation.
This remains the prevalent form of Buddhist practice in East Asia to this day.
Originally published by The Conversation, 01.08.2021, under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution/No derivatives license.
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