Pure Land Buddhism and The Buddhist Historical Tradition

In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, Yunqi Zhuhong 雲栖祩宏 and Ouyi Zhixu 蕅益智旭 integrated Zen thought and Pure Land Buddhism based on the fusion of various Buddhist sects, which facilitated the transition to Chan Jing He Yi (integration of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism 禪淨合一). In this context, Journey to the West 西遊記, published in the late Ming Dynasty, reflects the characteristic of Chan Jing He Yi (integration of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism 禪淨合一). Based on the historical fact that the monk Xuanzang 玄奘 journeyed to India to seek Buddhist scriptures during the Tang Dynasty’s Zhenguan period, four relatively complete literary works that recount the stories of this westward journey were published over nearly a thousand years, from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty: Da Ci En Si San Zang Fa Shi Zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳, Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua 大唐三藏取經詩話, the Journey to the West drama 西遊記雜劇, and Journey to the West. The Buddhist ideas in these four works went through a transformation from advocating yoga theory 瑜伽論 to advocating belief in Vaisravana 毗沙門天王信仰 and then to focusing on the “mind nature 心性” theory of Zen Buddhism. Finally, in Journey to the West, Buddhist thought is aimed at achieving rebirth in the Western Pure Land and supplemented with Chan Buddhist practices, which are aligned with the trend of Chan Jing He Yi (integration of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism 禪淨合一). In Journey to the West, the concepts of Ming Xin Jian Xing (find one’s true self 明心見性) and Ji Xin Ji Fo (the mind is the Buddha 即心即佛) differ from the Zen Buddhism concept of seeing one’s own nature. Instead, it requires seeking other Buddhas and ascending to the Western Pure Land to meet Amitabha Buddha in order to achieve complete spiritual cultivation. This had changed from the Wei Xin Jing Tu (mind-only Pure Land 唯心淨土) theory advocated by Zen Buddhism to the Xi Fang Jing Tu (Western Pure Land 西方淨土) theory advocated by the Pure Land School. The numerous depictions of Pure Land cultivation methods, such as Cheng Ming Nian Fo (chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha 稱名念佛), Chi Jie (commandment keeping 持戒), and the Pure Land reincarnation-type Guanyin faith 淨土往生型觀音信仰, also appear in Journey to the West, reflecting the profound influence of Chan Jing He Yi 禪淨合一 in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty on Journey to the West.

Looking at Pure Land Buddhism from the point of the Four-Wheels (Skt. Catvāri deva-manuṣyāṇāṃ cakrāṇi), we can see the relation between this concept beginning in Early Buddhism and the contents of practice in later Pure Land Buddhism. In this sense, a prototype of Pure Land Buddhism may be traced back to Early Buddhism.

How did Marx come to his materialist theory of history? Marx thought that practical human activity was needed to solve theoretical problems. ‘Alienation as a Theory of History’ examines how Marx came upon his theory of world history in which practical human activity, rather than thought, plays the crucial role. At this point in his life, Marx starts to make more use of historical data and less of abstract philosophical reasoning about the way the world should be. He continued to be interested in alienation. The materialist conception of history tells us that humans are completely subject to forces they do not comprehend and are unable to control. These forces are the productive powers of human beings themselves.

The basic intention of the medieval monk Daochuo was the exaltation of Pure Land Buddhism, which lay in an emphasis on sentient beings as the object of salvation. However, Daochuo had to clarify that Pure Land Buddhism did not contradict the principles of Mahayana Buddhism. Therefore, Pure Land Buddhism as Mahayana Buddhism was clarified by speaking of the Saint's birth in Amida's Pure Land. That is, Daochuo established Amida's Pure Land Buddhism as dedicated to ordinary beings in the age of the decay of the Dharma.Jiacai tried to clarify Pure Land Buddhism as for the sake of ordinary beings in his Jingtu-lun. He emphasized that Amida's Pure Land Buddhism is taught with the aim of liberating ordinary beings basing himself on the forty-eighth vow of the Larger Pure Land Scripture and the expression in the Mediatation Sutra “all ordinary beings of future ages.” He expressed this as “the original [vow] is for both ordinary beings and saints together.” In addition, Jiacai clarified that the object of liberation shifted from ordinary people and saints to ordinary people by reorganizing the Anleji. In a word, Jiacai understood the real intention of Daochuo's Pure Land Buddhism as Pure Land teaching for ordinary beings, and expressed it as, “the original [vow] is for both Ordinary Beings and Saints together”.

Reviewed by: Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture Richard M. Jaffe (bio) Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture. By Elisabetta Porcu. Brill, Leiden, 2008. xi, 263 pages. €119.00. Apart from a few notable exceptions, scholars of Japan not in the field of religious studies have paid little attention to the established Buddhist denominations after the Tokugawa period. English-language surveys of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese art, history, and literature lack in-depth analysis of the role of religion, particularly the established Buddhist denominations. If one looks at the now, admittedly, somewhat dated Cambridge History of Japan, for example, it is notable that the two volumes covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries do not have a single chapter devoted to religion, let alone Buddhism. More recent one-volume surveys of Japanese history do not do a much better job dealing with the topic. Historians are not unique in this regard. As Patricia Graham points out in her valuable recent survey of Buddhist art from the seventeenth century to the present, Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600–2005 (University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), most scholars of Japanese modern art and architecture have been equally dismissive of traditional Buddhist visual culture and the Buddhist sources that continue to inspire independent, secular artists. Elisabetta Porcu's Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture brings much-needed attention to Buddhism's impact on Japanese culture in the twentieth century. Although the main purpose of Porcu's work is to highlight the ongoing importance of Pure Land Buddhism, particularly Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, in modern Japanese culture, her book also demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Buddhism in literature and the arts. In this fine book, Porcu explores why one of the largest established Buddhist denominations in Japan, Jōdo Shinshū (True Pure Land) Buddhism, has been overlooked as a vital cultural force in Japan. Porcu limits her discussion of Pure Land Buddhism's influence to literature, "creative" (visual) arts, and traditional arts (primarily tea ceremony), so entitling the book Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture is somewhat misleading. Many other vital cultural arenas (for example, politics, economics, and social organization) in which Pure Land Buddhism has played a role receive no mention. Nonetheless, Porcu does an excellent job revealing the contributions of Jōdo Shinshū to literature and the arts in modern Japan. Given the relevance of this subject for most Japanologists, it would be a shame if the high price of the book and the apparent narrowness of the topic prevented a wide readership. [End Page 198] Porcu builds on the writing of scholars such as Galen Amstutz1 who have attempted to explain why scholars have paid so little attention to Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, despite its size and prominence. Porcu writes not as a partisan of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism but as one hoping to utilize the methods of the Study of Religion (Religionswissenschaft) to complicate mono-causal, essentialist understandings of modern Japanese culture that portray Buddhist creative arts and, particularly, traditional arts such as tea ceremony and flower arranging as solely the by-products of Zen Buddhist influence. In her useful first chapter, "Creating Images of Japanese Buddhism and Culture," the author traces how Orientalist and Occidentalist sentiments shaped the reconceptualization of Japanese Buddhism that took place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like many other scholars of this subject, Porcu places blame for this monolithic understanding of the traditional arts and the use of Zen as a synecdoche for an unchanging Japaneseness at the feet of Japanese intellectuals D. T. Suzuki, Nishitani Keiji, Hisamatsu Shin'ichi, and Abe Masao, along with many others. In this chapter, Porcu provides a thorough summary of two decades of scholarship concerning the ways these proponents marketed their repackaged Buddhism as the foundation of Asian culture and Zen as a free-floating, decontextualized system of thought that had influenced every aspect of Japanese cultural life. The chapter does not depart from the conclusions of scholars such as Bernard Faure, James Ketelaar, Robert Scharf, and Judith Snodgrass with regard to the ways Japanese Buddhism was used to promote Japanese cultural nationalism. However, the author's command of Italian...

usually centered upon the life and teachings of H6nen Sh6nin (II33I212 and Shinran Sh6nin (1173-1262), the founders of J6do Shti (Pure Land School) and J6do Shinshil (True Pure Land School) respectively. 1) At the same time, there have been significant attempts to understand Japanese Pure Land Buddhism within the context of its earlier developments in India and China. 2) In spite of this, the usual presupposition underlying current discussions of Japanese Pure Land thought and practice is that Shinran's use of the tradition in interpreting his own unique religious insights, especially his doctrine of faith, carried Pure Land tradition to its highest, and therefore doctrinally normative development. 3) It is precisely because there is much truth in this notion that little attention has been paid to the development of Pure Land thought and practice beyond the age of Shinran.

The exclusivist strand of Pure Land Buddhism that developed in China and took strong root in Japan stresses the inability of human beings to bring about their own liberation from the effects of karma through their own ethical practice, and instead views reliance on the working of Amitābha as the only possible path to liberation. Because of its denial of the efficacy of ethical action as a cause of Buddhahood throughout its history, this tradition has addressed a variety of delicate problems dealing with the relationship between ethical action and Buddhist attainment. This chapter explores how that tension played out in various recensions of the central sutra of the tradition, and the thought of two representative thinkers: Shandao (613–681) and Shinran (1173–1262). These considerations show that the Pure Land tradition offers many insights that might help advance discussions in the discipline of Buddhist ethics in the future.

Reconstructing Marxismexplores fundamental questions about the structure of Marxist theory and its prospects for the future. The authors maintain that the disintegration of the old theoretical unity of classical Marxism is in part responsible for what is commonly called the crisis of Marxism. Only a reconstructed Marxism can come to terms with this disintegration. Addressing a range of problems in historical materialism and class analysis, the authors compare historical materialism with Darwinian evolutionary theory, and identify what is distinctively historical in Marx s theory of history. Through an evaluation of G.A. Cohen s defense and Anthony Giddens s critique of historical materialism they suggest what a plausible, yet still Marxist, theory of history might be. They analyze the relationship of micro-analysis to macro theory and the assignment of causal primacy in explanations, and present a general assessment of the current state of Marxist theory and the prospects for its analytical reconstruction. Distinguished by the clarity of its presentation, the analytical rigor of its argument and its concern with fundamental philosophical and sociological issues, Reconstructing Marxismadvances, at this critical juncture in the history of Marxism, a challenging new research program.

The place of narrative in organizing our experience in world has been topic of much discussion in recent years. This paper starts from position developed by psychologist Jerome Bruner, who argues that there are two distinct modes of thought, paradigmatic (or logico-scientific) and and that they are equally important in ordering experience and constructing meaning. Texts written in both of these modes were crucial in establishment of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan during Heian Period. The Ojoyoshu, written by Genshin in 985, is perhaps single most important text in development of this form of Buddhism in Japan, but insofar as it presents a systematic and comprehensive outline of Pure Land cosmology, doctrine, and practice, it is an example of a text written in paradigmatic mode. But another text from this period written in narrative mode, Nihon Ojo Gokuraku-ki by Yoshishige no Yasutane, played an equally important role in spread of Pure Land Buddhism. This text is a collection of forty-two brief of people believed to have been born in Pure Land. These serve both to prove that Pure Land really exists and provide us with models with which to fashion our lives so we can gain birth in Pure Land. KEYWORDS: Ojoyoshu - Nihon Ojo Gokuraku-ki - Genshin - biography - Yoshishige no Yasutane - Pure Land Buddhism - narrative (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) IN ACTUAL MINDS, Possible Worlds, psychologist Jerome Bruner distinguishes two distinct modes of thought, paradigmatic (or logico-scientific) and both of which he argues are equally important in ordering experience and constructing reality. The paradigmatic mode is descriptive and explanatory, and categorization or conceptualization and operations by which categories are established, instantiated, idealized, and related to one another to form a system (Bruner 1986, 12). Bruner gives logic, mathematics, and modern scientific method as representative examples of this mode of thought. On other hand, narrative mode employs storytelling as a way of organizing our experience in world. Bruner concludes that two modes are complementary and that efforts to reduce one mode to other or ignore one at expense of other inevitably fail to capture rich diversity of thought (BRUNER 1986, 11). The distinction that Bruner makes above highlights increasing attention given to narrative construction of meaning in a wide range of disciplines, including literary studies, history, philosophy, theology, ethics, and psychology.1 If, as Stephen Crites (1971, 291) has argued, the formal quality of experience through time is inherently narrative, then attempts to describe such experience through time must also be undertaken in narrative mode. Following this line of thought, philosophers like Alasdair MacIntyre (1984) and Paul Ricoeur (1992) have stressed importance of storytelling in constructing personal identity and in shaping how we relate to world around us (that is, ethics). A similar point is also made by theologian Michael Goldberg. By allowing a particular story to direct our attention to world in some specific way, we let it direct our activity in world in a certain manner. As story shapes our understanding of reality, it simultaneously qualifies way we relate to reality. By articulating a certain vision of world, narratives provide us with a way of articulating what we are doing in world. (GOLDBERG 1991, 176-77) In other words, narratives both shape our perception of reality and provide guidelines or normative patterns to explain how we should behave in light of that reality. One example of way in which this new focus on narrative has manifested itself in field of religious studies is revival of interest in sacred biographies (which includes, but is not limited to, works belonging to long disparaged genre of hagiography). …

This paper provides new insights into the reception of Ketsubon-kyō (Bloody Pond Sutra) within the Sōtō Zen tradition, focusing on a recently-obtained anonymous manuscript titled Ketsubon-kyō Innen (Circumstances Surrounding the Emergence of Bloody Pond Sutra). Building upon previous research (Nakano Yūshin, Nakano Jūsai, Kōdate Naomi) that confirms strong associations between the Bloody Pond Sutra and Buddhist ceremonies of bestowing precepts (jukai-e), this paper argues that the manuscript contains a draft of a sermon delivered (or meant to be delivered) in two sessions to attendants of such a ceremony held at an unidentified temple – suggested by certain details to be located in Kyoto or its vicinity. Written by a person who identifies himself merely as a temple servant (jisha biku), it offers a unique synthesis of materials addressing women's impurity caused by blood and their potential for salvation. It primarily combines two texts with diverse origins: Ketsubon-kyō wage (Japanese Exposition of Bloody Pond Sutra), a lengthy commentary from 1713 by Shōyo Ganteki from the Pure Land School (Jōdoshū), and Ketsubon-kyō engi (An Account of the Origin of Bloody Pond Sutra) popularized in the late eighteenth century through woodblock-printed booklets by Shōsen-ji (previously known as Hosshō-ji), a prominent center of the Ketsubon-kyō cult within the Sōtō Zen School. With this presentation of the manuscript, this paper sheds light on the reception and interpretation of Ketsubon-kyō within the Sōtō Zen School. It demonstrates a common understanding of the role of the Bloody Pond Sutra, transcending sectarian differences to the extent of reusing exegetical materials from the Pure Land School in Zen preaching.

Lushan 廬山 and Wutaishan 五臺山 have long occupied important positions in East Asian Buddhism as sacred sites. The wuhui nianfo 五会念仏 and Pure Land philosophy initiated by Fazhao 法照 (746–838) on Wutaishan greatly influenced the development of both rituals and the philosophy of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. In this paper, I examine how Fazhao’s idea of the wuhui nianfo and salvation in Pure Land Buddhism influenced the transformational movement of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism in the 13th century. Hōnen’s 法然 (1133–1212) disciples, Seikaku 聖覚 (1167–1235) and Shinran 親鸞 (1173–1263), among others, wrote works in response to criticisms of Hōnen from Tendai 天台 and Hossō 法相 monks, in which they cited Fazhao’s wuhui nianfo thought to develop arguments in defense of Hōnen’s teachings. I examine how Hōnen, Seikaku, and Shinran were influenced by Fazhao’s Pure Land thought during the Kamakura-era (1185–1333) when the transformational Pure Land movement developed in Japan. Fazhao’s Pure Land thought responded to criticisms against Pure Land Buddhism of his own time. Similarly, Hōnen, Seikaku, and Shinran carried out their role in their own way, guided by Chinese Pure Land masters such as Shandao 善導 (613–681) and Fazhao. Shinran carefully interprets Fazhao’s thought so that it is not misunderstood as insisting on self-indulgence and antinomianism. Shinran intended to make clear that Fazhao’s intention was to reveal the universal working of Amida’s Vow. Furthermore, Shinran developed the ideas of shinjin 信心 and other power 他力 reflecting on it. Fazhao’s passages inspired Shinran’s deep religious awakening about the meaning of Amida’s Vow, shinjin, and other power. Shinran also composed Japanese hymns in the form of Imayō 今様, which were sung with melodies akin to the wuhui nianfo.

This article explores the apologetic discourse towards the convergence between Pure Land Buddhism and theoretical physics of the contemporary Chinese Buddhist monk, Da An (1959- ). Faced with the formidable challenge posed by contemporary science towards public acceptance of Buddhism, Da An endeavors to employ science as a medium for propagating Pure Land teachings, seeking to accommodate the preferences of scientifically inclined individuals. He utilizes several theoretical physics concepts to validate that certain ostensibly miraculous accounts within Pure Land Buddhist texts are not incompatible with contemporary science. Further, he asserts that certain supernatural narratives therein indicate that some physical principles still residing in theoretical conjectures on Earth have already been validated and can be utilized at will by the celestial beings in Sukhāvatī, thus asserting the supremacy of Pure Land teachings over science. The article endeavors to examine the contemporary dialogue between Pure Land Buddhism and science, which has been overlooked in the current research realm of the interaction between Buddhism and science.

German Idealism's Philosophy of History and its Contemporary Critique.- Schlegel's Theory of History and his Critique of Idealistic Reason.- History as the Control of Speculation: Schelling's Discovery of History and Baader's Critique of Absolute Historicity.- Absolute Historicity, Theory of the Becoming Absolute, and the Affect for the Particular in German Idealism and Historism: Introduction.- The Theory of History in German Historism.- Leopold von Ranke.- Droysen and Nietzsche: Two Different Answers to the Discovery of Historicity.- Philosophy of History and Theory of Historiography in Jacob Burckhardt.- Historiography as Political Activity: Heinrich von Treitschke and the Historical Reconstruction of Politics.- Literary Criticism and Historical Science: The Textuality of History in the Age of Goethe - and Beyond.- Social and Philosophical Theory in the 19th Century German Thought.- German Theory and Philosophy of History Today.- Philosophy of History After the End of the Formative Substantial Philosophy of History: Remarks on the Present State of the Philosophy of History.- Why Kant's Reflections on History Still Have Relevance.- Rehabilitating the Philosophy of History.- History and Subjectivity - The Relevance of a Philosophical Concept of History in the Kantian Tradition.- Towards a New Theory-Based History of Historiography.- Philosophy of History After the Philosophy of History: Toward a Cultural History with Historical-Philosophical Background.

Daochuo 道綽 (562–645) is revered as a patriarch of both the Pure Land and the True Pure Land schools of Buddhism in Japan. In his Anleji 安楽集 he makes a variety of arguments about the necessity and importance of relying on the “path of easy practice” whereby one aspires to enlightenment through birth in the Amituo’s Pure Land based on the working of the other power of Amituo’s vows. Daochuo’s prioritization of the Pure Land teachings in well know both inside and outside of Japan, but previous scholarship has focused particularly on Daochuo’s arguments that the Pure Land teachings should be taken as the centerpiece of Buddhism due to the degenerate nature of the age and the inferior capacities of the people. Therefore, previous scholarship in both Japanese and English on Daochuo has primarily characterized him as offering an easy practice for incompetent people who were unlucky enough to have been born at a time far removed from Śākyamuni.Through a careful analysis of passages in the second fascicle of the Anleji, in the first section of this paper I show that this understanding of Daochuo’s view of the “path of easy practice” fails to take into account the severity of his criticisms of the Buddhist practices that were preached in the Buddhist scriptures and prevalent at his time and therefore mischaracterizes the nature of his choice of Pure Land Buddhism as the most effective and excellent form of Buddhism and the only avenue for anyone at any time, regardless of their individual capacities or temporal relation to a Buddha, to genuinely fulfill the Mahayana ideal.Although Daochuo took a very broadminded stance toward practice, holding that any practice undertaken with a desire to be born in the Pure Land would qualify the practitioner to receive the benefits of the other power of Amituo’s vows, there are also several points in the Anleji where he singles out the practice of the nianfo 念仏, particularly vocal recitation of the nianfo, as the most appropriate and effective practice for people to engage in. In the second section of this paper, I introduce the passages where Daochuo encourages the practice of the nianfo and show that he prioritized it both because he held it was most appropriate for the sentient beings of the Latter Days of the Dharma and because it afforded practitioners with a variety of benefits that were not available to those who sought after birth in the Pure Land through other practices.

In the first chapter of Karl Marx's Theory of History, G. A. Cohen contrasts Marx's image of history with Hegel's, contrasts, that is, a powerful form of historical idealism with historical materialism. Historical idealism stresses the “dominion of thought” (Gedankenherrschaft); social change, on such an account, is to be explained principally in terms of changes in consciousness, the course of history being determined by fundamental ruling ideas and conceptions. This view is to be contrasted with historical materialism. The central vision of history in Hegel is formulated as follows by Cohen, “History is the history of the world spirit (and, derivatively of human consciousness) which undergoes growth in self-knowledge, the stimulus and vehicle of which is a culture, which perishes when it has stimulated more growth than it can contain” (26). Marx's vision, a historical materialist vision, is identical in structure with Hegel's, but endows the structure with a new content. This can be seen from the parallel formulation of it, given by Cohen: “History is the history of human industry, which undergoes growth in productive power, the stimulus and vehicle of which is an economic structure which perishes when it has stimulated more growth than it can contain (26).