The Pure Land Is No Heaven: Habian’s Myōtei Dialogues, Valignano’s Japanese Catechism, and Discourse on the Afterlife during Japan’s Christian Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-269
Author(s):  
James Matthew Baskind
Keyword(s):  
Pure Land ◽  
Christian Century

Ekottarika-?gama Discourse Without Parallels

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Anālayo Bhikkhu
Keyword(s):  
Main Topic ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Oral Transmission

With the present paper I study and translate a discourse in the Ekottarika-?gama preserved in Chinese of which no parallel in other discourse collections is known. This situation relates to the wider issue of what significance to accord to the absence of parallels from the viewpoint of the early Buddhist oral transmission. The main topic of the discourse itself is perception of impermanence, which is of central importance in the early Buddhist scheme of the path for cultivating liberating insight. A description of the results of such practice in this Ekottarika-?gama discourse has a somewhat ambivalent formulation that suggests a possible relation to the notion of rebirth in the Pure Abodes, suddh?v?sa. This notion, attested in a P?li discourse, in turn might have provided a precedent for the aspiration, prominent in later Buddhist traditions, to be reborn in the Pure Land.

O̅TA GYU̅ICHI. «SHINCHŌ-KŌ KI», BOOK IX (COMMENTED TRANSLATION INTO RUSSIAN)

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-248
Author(s):  
S. A. Polkhov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Russian Translation ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Unique Information

The article provides a Russian translation of the book IX of «Shincho̅-ko̅ ki». This part of the chronicle narrates the renewal of the war between Nobunaga and Honganji Temple. The followers of the True School of Pure Land besieged in Ozaka managed to inflict painful counterattacks against the forces of the “unifier of Japan”. Nobunaga detachments, trying to capture the Kizu fortress on the outskirts of Ozaka were surrounded and defeated. Ban Naomasa, one of his prominent military leaders, was killed, the army from Ozaka attacked the Tenno̅ji fortress, and only the help immediately rendered by Nobunaga saved the garrison from death. After that, Nobunaga blocked Ozakа on land and at sea. However, the fleet of the Mo̅ri house, which joined the ranks of Nobunaga opponents, and the allies of Mo̅ri were able to defeat the naval forces of Nobunaga and deliver provisions to Ozaka, which allowed Honganji to continue the struggle. Book IX also contains a description of the construction of Azuti Castle and its main tower (tenshu), Nobunaga’s residence. The unique information of the chronicle formed the basis for the further reconstruction of the tenshu’s appearance. The castle became the personification of the wealth and omnipotence of Nobunaga, a reflection of his claims to the role of supreme ruler of Japan. The wall paintings of the main tower halls manifest the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The key symbols of the images are taken from Chinese political ideology.

Genshin's Ojōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Central Portion ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Heian Period ◽  
Pure Land Buddhism ◽  
Time Part ◽  
India And China

The Ōjōyōshū, written by the Heian period Tendai monk Genshin (942-1017), played a pivotal role in establishing Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. This book is a study of the central teachings of the Ōjōyōshū. Furthermore, in order to situate this text in its historical background, a substantial portion of the volume is taken up with discussions of the development of Pure Land Buddhism before Genshin’s time and to Genshin’s event-filled life. Part One provides a brief survey of Pure Land Buddhism in India and China and then treats how it developed in Japan before Genshin’s time. Part Two focuses on the main events of Genshin’s life. Part Three turns to two main issues taken up in the Ōjōyōshū: its Pure Land cosmology and its nenbutsu teaching. In his description of the Pure Land cosmology, Genshin describes, in often graphic detail, the suffering inherent in the six realms of transmigration, including hell, and urges his readers to seek birth in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land, a realm beyond suffering. Furthermore, in the central portion of the Ōjōyōshū, Genshin presents a systematic analysis of the nenbutsu, or the practice of focusing one’s mind on Amida, which is the central practice for attaining birth in the Pure Land.

Right Thoughts at the Last Moment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline I. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Historical Records ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Ritual Performance ◽  
Medieval Japan ◽  
Religious Professionals ◽  
Devotional Practices ◽  
Evil Person ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Ideal

Buddhists across Asia have often sought to die, as the Buddha himself is said to have done, with a clear and focused mind. This study explores the reception and development in early medieval Japan (roughly, tenth through fourteenth centuries) of the ideal of “dying with right mindfulness” (rinjū shōnen) and the discourses and practices in which it was embedded. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha at the moment of death, it was said, even the most evil person could escape the round of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in the Pure Land; conversely, even the slightest mental distraction at that juncture could send the most devout practitioner tumbling down into the evil realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could help the dying to negotiate this crucial juncture. Examination of hagiographies, ritual manuals, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, diaries, and historical records uncovers the multiple, sometimes contradictory logics by which medieval Japanese approached death. Deathbed practices also illuminate broader issues in medieval Japanese religion that crossed social levels and sectarian lines, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals.

Pure Land, Real World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Anne-Marie Curley
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Critical Energy ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Modern Period

For a thousand years, Japanese Buddhists cultivated vivid images of utopia in the form of the Western Paradise, but in the modern period, this utopianism became troublesome. Shinshū modernizers reinvented the Pure Land: some molded it into something the nation-state could tolerate; others used it to secure their own autonomy. Their reinterpretations encouraged new engagements with the tradition; during the war years, as the Japanese state bore down upon its citizens, thinkers with no obvious connection to Shinshū seized upon the twinned images of Shinran in exile and Amida’s Pure Land. For economist Kawakami Hajime, the Pure Land represented an inner realm of peace, the discovery of which allowed him to remain committed to Marxism through years in prison and forced seclusion. For philosopher Miki Kiyoshi, it represented the proletariat’s historical mission of liberating humanity, making Shinshū proof positive of the possibility of a proletarian religion. For historian Ienaga Saburō, it represented sheer negation of this world, grounding Shinran’s confrontation with society; Ienaga himself sought to uphold this legacy of resistance, rallying against a state that failed to live up to its ideals. These radical readings reveal that the critical energy of medieval Pure Land has not been exhausted.

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