Pure Land Buddhism Case Study

2. Development of Pure Land Buddhism The idea of Pure Land Buddhism was raised in China and then spread to other countries, such as Japan and East Asia. (Wallace 2002, 43) It became famous in these countries but there are variations between the ideas. Take Indian and China as examples, Indian think that there would be separate life after rebirth as their present life may be suffering and the life after death should be happy and not connected to the present life. On the other hand, Chinese take rebirth as the continuation of life before death, which the human relations in the present life are connected to the life in Pure Land. So they think that people should try their best to behave good because their merits would shift to ancestors and

He believed that people would be punished if they did something wrong and their soul could not be destroyed. There was life after death. (Chan 1957, 110) The Chinese supported this idea at that time. Moreover, there were no special restrictions on practice. The believers only gathered and gave incense before the picture of Amitabha. (Andrews 1993, 21) Huiyuan was not only the founder but he facilitated the further spread of Pure Land. For instance he formed the White Lotus Society and this inspired the spread of Pure Land teachings to other countries in East Asia. Also, this facilitated the introduction of Sutra on the Samadhi of Seeing All Buddhas, to East Asia. Besides, Huiyuan formed the foundation of Pure Land practice, which was to fully devote in meditation for a long time, with traditional Pure Land teaching in mind.

2.2 Development Under the Leading of Tanluan

In the Sui Dynasty, he held some movements that focused on the Contemplation Sutra and it was a success. (Andrews 1991, 183) In brief, Daozhuo helped a lot in the development of Pure Land piety.

2.4 Development Under the Leading of Shandao (613-681) Shandao started preaching in the Tang Dynasty and he further promoted the idea of Pure Land Buddhism to the public. At that time, there were hymns and rituals for worshipping Buddha Amitabha. Pictures of Buddha Amitabha and the Pure Land were created as well. (Andrews 1991, 185) Shandao made the Pure Land doctrines and practices more systematic.

2.5 Development after Tang Dynasty In Tang Dynasty, the spread of Pure Land Buddhism was affected by political environment. For the people who supported the monastic tradition, they tried to combine Pure Land into Chan Buddhism’s teaching. One of the supporters Chuhung (1535-1615) once mentioned that there were no big differences between the Buddhists teaching because they were all based on Chan Buddhism. (Amstutz 1997, 4) At the same time, people did not like the monks and they doubted their actions. Additionally, smart people usually studied hard in examination to be the government officials. So people with high socio-economic status did not focus much on Buddhism while the ordinary groups were interested in Buddhism,