Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and Kierkegaard

Abstract

It was not until the Kamakura period (1185–1336) that Buddhism began to take firm root in Japan. While earlier Buddhism had, for the most part, been monopolized by the nobility, in the Kamakura period more popular schools of Buddhism arose. This reformation was largely a result of the great numbers of political disturbances and natural disasters that characterized the end of the Heian period (746–1185). People believed that the age of hopelessness had come. Buddhist eschatology expresses this through the idea of shōzōmatsu or the three periods of the teaching. These are the period of the shōbō (righteous law), the period of the zōbō (imitative law), and the period of the mappō (last law). The period of the righteous law is the time when Buddhist doctrines, practices, and enlightenment all exist. The period of the imitative law is the time when doctrine and practices still exist, but there is no longer any enlightenment. That is why it is called imitation of the law. The period of the last law refers to the time when doctrine alone is still alive, but there is neither practice nor enlightenment. After these three periods, the doctrine itself vanishes. In the Kamakura period it was believed that the last period (mappō) had begun at the end of the Heian period.KeywordsAbsolute GoodBuddhist DoctrineUnconditional LoveTrue LoveGreat AspirationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.