The Establishment of the Approach of Chanting Amitābha’s Name and the Proliferation of Pure Land Buddhism in Late Chosŏn

Abstract

The establishment of the course of the Three Gates, incorporating meditation, doctrinal learning, and recitation of the name of Amitābha, as well as the organization of a monastic educational system characterized by the dual cultivation of meditation and doctrinal learning, demonstrates the synthetic character of Buddhism in the late Chosŏn period. The approach of reciting Amitābha’s name included in the system of the Three Gates encompassed both a meditative practice symbolized by the “Pure Land of the Mind-only” and the “Amitābha of the Self-nature” and as faith in the efficacy of chanting Amitābha’s name concentrated on the Pure Land of Extreme Bliss in the West. After the establishment of the approach of reciting the name of Amitābha, chanting Amitābha’s name gradually became prevalent and the gates to the Pure Land expanded. The publication of a number of Pure Land texts created diverse demands within the ritual, literary, and religious spheres. In addition, in relation to the spread of the approach of chanting Amitābha’s name, debates arose over the very existence of a Pure Land of Extreme Bliss or concerning the construct conceptually.