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Summary
Zen is one of the practices within Mahayana Buddhism, which aims at a higher state of being in relation to the early Buddhist teachings preached by the Buddha, and has a deeper philosophical and practical background than any other branch of Buddhism.
The central teaching of Mahayana Buddhism is the Bodhisattva path. The Bodhisattva path is to cultivate a mind of compassion to save all sentient beings and to continue to practice it at the expense of oneself. This can be said to be the practice of “altruistic acts” that avoid self-centered thinking and behavior, treat others with good will, and act to help others. At the root of this idea of altruism is the basic Buddhist idea that the distinction between self and others is blurred, and to practice these ideas, teachings using various sutras and practices such as contemplative meditation and recitation of the Heart Sutra, etc. are offered.
This altruistic behavior has been proven to be the optimal strategy from the perspective of game theory, which is a theory of maximizing one’s own profit, as a model called “Prisoner’s Dilemma. The results of experiments have also confirmed that altruistic behavior creates social trust and brings long-term benefits. In other words, Buddhist thought and practice can be one of the measures (strategies) to make society happy (maximize profits).
The following overview of Mahayana Buddhism is based on “NHK 100 de Meitaku: Mahayana Buddhism: How Buddha’s Teachings Transformed“.
In the previous article, I discussed the Lotus Sutra as a model change of the Prajnaparamita Sutra. This time, I will discuss Pure Land Buddhism, which introduced the concept of parallel worlds, and the power of Amitabha Buddha.
Pure Land Buddhism differs greatly from Mahayana Buddhism in this
In this article, I will discuss Pure Land Buddhism. Jodo-kyo teaches that one should “go to the Pure Land where Amida Buddha resides.” It is also called “Amida-buddha faith” because it is based on belief in the power of Amida Buddha.
The most famous Jodo sects in Japan are the Jodo sect taught by Honen, the Jodo Shin sect by Shinran, and the Jishu sect by Ippen. Ryonin’s Yutsu Nenbutsu sect and the Tendai sect also incorporate Jodo beliefs into their discussions. Three famous sutras are the “Muryōju Sutra,” the “Kanmuryōju Sutra,” and the “Amida Sutra,” which in Japan are collectively read as the “Three Pure Land Sutras. The difference between the three is that the teachings focus on faith in Amida Buddha rather than on the power of the sutras themselves, as in the Hannya Sutra and the Lotus Sutra.
The “Kan-Muyo-Ju Sutra” is doubtful to have been created in India and is said to have been created in China, but the “Muyo-Ju Sutra” and the “Amida Sutra” were created at about the same time as the “Lotus Sutra. These sutras were introduced to Japan during the Asuka period (710-794), but their teachings did not take root until after Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei was established, as was the case with the Lotus Sutra.
Ennin, who studied Gokai Nembutsu in China in the 9th century and returned to Japan to form the basis of Tendai Pure Land Buddhism, and Kuya, who made itinerant pilgrimages around the city of Kyoto in the mid-10th century to preach his teachings.
Genshin and others who wrote “Ojo-Yoshu” at about the same time can be said to be the roots of the Jodo sect in Japan, but the key figures in spreading it to the masses were Honen and Shinran. From the end of the Heian period to the Kamakura period, the Jodo sect of Honen and the Jodo Shin sect of his disciple Shinran were established, and the teachings of the Jodo sect expanded at an explosive rate, especially among the general population. This trend continues to this day, with Jodo Shinshu having the largest number of followers among the Buddhist sects in Japan today.
Among the many Buddhist sects, how did the Jodo sect come to win the hearts of so many people? The Ritsuryo system of government collapsed at the end of the Heian period (794-1185), weakening the power of the aristocrats and corrupting the Buddhist world. As society became increasingly difficult to live in, the “Latter Dharma Thought” (a Buddhist prophecy and historical view that after a short time after the Buddha’s death, the correct teachings of Buddha would decline and an age would come when it would be impossible to attain enlightenment in this life) began to prevail in the world.
In such a suffering world, people will have a strong desire to “escape to another world, not here,” and the Latter Dharma philosophy states, “There is no salvation in this world. The only way to escape from suffering is to go to another world (the Pure Land),” as stated in the Latter Day Sect.
In contrast, the Jodo sect teaches that there is no need for any training at all, and that anyone can be reborn in paradise as long as he or she prays the words “Namu Amidabutsu” (Amitabha). In other words, it shows a much easier and speedier way to become a Buddha than the “Prajnaparamita Sutra” and the “Lotus Sutra. What makes such a thing possible is largely related to the idea of altruism, that is, “Amitabha will save us without our own efforts. People suffering from poverty and starvation do not have the energy to practice asceticism, nor do they have the financial resources to donate to a temple. Because it showed that there was a way to salvation even for those in such rock-bottom circumstances, Pure Land Buddhism exploded among the people.
It can be said that Pure Land Buddhism is in the same bracket as Mahayana Buddhism, but it has a completely different direction from the “Hannya Sutra” and “Lotus Sutra,” which were oriented toward “read the sutras and chant the sutras.
Pure Land Buddhism focused on the expanse of the spatial axis, not the temporal axis.
The similarities between the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and Pure Land Buddhism are the basic process of attaining enlightenment. In the “Prajnaparamita Sutra” and “Lotus Sutra,” the idea is that “first we meet Buddha somewhere, then we make a vow in front of Buddha that both we and Buddha will strive to become Buddhas, then we become bodhisattvas (candidate Buddhas), then we continue our bodhisattva practice, and finally we attain enlightenment and become Buddhas. This concept is the same in Pure Land Buddhism. However, the method of becoming a Bodhisattva, which is the preliminary step before becoming a Buddha, differs greatly from the “Prajnaparamita Sutra” and the “Lotus Sutra.
In the “Buddhism of the Buddha,” after the Buddha’s death, a period of Buddha’s absence continues, and 5.67 billion years later Maitreya appears and becomes the next Buddha, during which time one must repeat an unimaginable number of reincarnations to become a bodhisattva. Therefore, in the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, it is assumed that one has already met Buddha at a point in the distant past and has already become a Bodhisattva, but in Pure Land Buddhism, one meets Nyorai in the future and becomes a Bodhisattva, so one must consider the parallel world “another world exists in parallel with this world,” and “an infinite The world in which Buddha exists is called “Buddha Land,” and if one can be reborn in Buddha Land immediately after death, one can start bodhisattva practice immediately without waiting billions of years.
In other words, by introducing the concept of a spatial axis (parallel world), which had not existed in previous teachings, Jōdō Kyo has become a teaching that provides more opportunities to attain enlightenment.
In addition to this idea of parallel worlds, Pure Land Buddhism considers the ideal world to be one in which there are many Buddhist lands, each of which is equipped with a device that allows one to freely travel to and from another Buddha’s land (the more one worships various Buddhas, the more energy one accumulates to become a Buddha), and such a world is the world in which Amida Nyorai Amitabha Buddha, and that one can go there by chanting “Namu Amitabha Buddha,” which is a word of gratitude to Amitabha Buddha.
The reason why the world in which Amida Nyorai lives is such a world is because Amida Nyorai, in his petition to become Buddha, vowed that even if he completed his training to become Buddha, he would not become Buddha until the land of Buddha became more wonderful than any other. This land of Buddha, which is more wonderful than any other, is the world where one can freely come and go to the land of Buddha, where there is another Buddha, and where all living beings can become Buddha, a world where living beings are not buried in hell, hungry ghosts, or animals.
Amitabha Buddha changed the world through Buddhist practice.
Originally, “karma” in “Sakyamuni Buddhism” was defined as something that only the person who performed it would receive the result, but when Mahayana Buddhism was born, there was a newly created concept called “Gugyo” (common karma) – the idea that in addition to individual karma, there exists karma that is shared by everyone, which influences the way the world is. (To put it simply, if everyone does only bad deeds, famine and disasters will occur, but if everyone accumulates good deeds, a peaceful and tranquil world will come to pass.
In the Jodo sect’s view, it is Amida Nyorai who changed this world (created a wonderful world), not through the collective power of everyone (karma together), but through the power of one person’s karma.
Furthermore, in the Muryodhana Sutra and the Amitabha Sutra, which are the scriptures of Pure Land Buddhism, the Buddha says, “You may not know it, but there is actually a wonderful world where there is a great person called Amitabha,” and there is a major conversion in that the Buddha only plays the role of a messenger who tells people about Amida and does not make him an object of faith. In other words, in Pure Land Buddhism, Amida is a Buddha of a much higher level than Shakyamuni. Thus, in Mahayana Buddhism, the idea that “Shakyamuni is the only Buddha” fades away, and a variety of Buddhas appear, including Amitabha, Dainichi, Yakushi, Akshobhya, and others. This is because the concept of parallel worlds was created, and the number of buddhas multiplied as the number of worlds became countless.
Just change “Namu Amidabutsu” to “Amitabha” and you’re good.
What should one do in order to go to the Pure Land where the Amida Buddha resides? In Jōdo Kyo, it is stated that “no practice is necessary to go to the Pure Land. In the early days of Pure Land Buddhism, it was said that one could not go to the Pure Land without practicing asceticism, but gradually the power of petition became absolute, and the necessity of asceticism was denied. The “Namu” in “Namu Amidabutsu” means “I leave it to you,” and “Namu Amidabutsu” means “I will bow down to Amida Buddha,” which means that anyone who does so can go to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss in a single leap. In other words, the crucial difference between Jodo-kyo and other religions is that Jodo-kyo believes that Amida Nyorai will take us to the Pure Land, not that we will go there by ourselves.
When Honen established the Jodo sect, he said, “It is important for us to wish for the Paradise of the New Land and recite the Nembutsu (the recitation of the Buddha’s prayer)” and that there was “self-reliance” to take some kind of action on our own. In contrast, Shinran’s Jodo-Shinshu view, the degree of “other power” became stronger, and he came to believe that “we don’t need to do anything because Amida will reach out to us and call us to the Pure Land. Then, “Namu Amidabutsu,” the recitation of the Buddha’s name, becomes a form of thanksgiving rather than a wish.
Akshobhya Buddhist Sutra, the original of Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism is a completely different kind of teaching from the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, and the Akshobhadrabhadra is the base scripture for the change to the Pure Land Buddhism. In order to go to the world where such a Buddha exists, it says, “You can be reborn in the Myoki-world (like the world of Amida Nyorai) by practicing the six paramitas (the six perfections). Here, since the six-pronged practice is the general practice in Mahayana Buddhism, such as fuse, mochi, nunshin, and devotion, the “Akshobhaktivism” acknowledges the existence of a parallel world but says that one must go there by oneself in order to go there.
Combining this with the concept of “other power” is the “Muryōbuddhist Sutra” and Pure Land Buddhism.
Purpose changed from “enlightenment” to “being saved.
However, in Pure Land Buddhism, the ultimate goal is no longer to “become a Buddha” but to “pass away in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. This goal of “passing away in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss,” which was not originally included in the Muryōjōkyō nor in the teachings of Honen and Shinran, is thought to have been changed to accommodate the growing number of believers who wanted to escape the suffering of the world by going to the Pure Land of Bliss.
The term “to be saved” here does not mean to attain enlightenment and nirvana, but rather to be able to lead a joyous, glorious, and unencumbered life forever. In the Muryōkyō (Sutra of Immeasurable Life), it is written that “the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss is a world without suffering or sorrow, where all people live in a palace adorned with jewels and enjoy the ultimate life in paradise,” and people began to focus only on that part, and eventually came to believe that reaching Paradise was the ultimate goal.
In Pure Land Buddhism, it was originally thought that even if a person passed away in Paradise, he or she would be reborn in another world (in order to break the cycle of reincarnation, one had to practice Buddhism and become a Buddha), but the ultimate goal was not to become an enlightened Buddha, but to continue living a comfortable life in Paradise forever. The original structure gradually came to be disregarded, and it was changed to a story that if one passes away in paradise, he or she can stay there forever.
This “paradise” was transformed into something similar to the “heaven” of Christianity.
This teaching is very different from the previous one, but people in poverty are so occupied with just surviving that they do not have time to think about doing good deeds for others, and they do not have time to practice. If Jodo Shinshu is the religion that was born based on it, it can be considered to have great meaning, no matter how different it may be from the original Buddhist teachings.
There is no right or wrong in religion.
This form of salvation can lead to dangerous thoughts if used in the wrong way. If people seriously believe in the existence of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, they will no longer be afraid to die, and if they think they can go to the Pure Land of Bliss, they will not be afraid to live, and they will be able to stand up against any strong opponents. When they rose up, no one could restrain them (the Ikkou Putsch that broke out in the Warring States Period).
Since Pure Land Buddhism is based on “altruism,” it seems to be a loose religion with no rules, but if one makes a mistake, it becomes one that has the danger of heading toward group violence. This is true of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism as well, and when one pursues the teachings as one’s own, there is a danger of more or less abandonment.
From another perspective, however, if one does not believe in one teaching unconditionally and become fanatical about it, it will not lead to true salvation. In other words, there is no right or wrong in religion, and the only thing that matters is whether or not the person who believes in it can be happy. Of course, from the standpoint of modern values, such restrictions should be applied, since harming others is unacceptable, even if it comes from a fervent faith.
In the next article, I will discuss the Internet and Vairocana Buddha – Kegon Sutra and Esoteric Buddhism.
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