The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Pure Land Buddhism S 363

do it in one bound or not at all. Hence salvation is attained by a simple act of faith. In China ( see C HINA , RELIGIONS OF , K OREAN RELIGION , and V IETNAM ESE RELIGION ), Pure Land is the characteristic Bud dhism of ordinary laypeople, while Chan or Zen is the practice of monks. In Japan, Pure Land eventuated into two main denominations started in the Middle Age: Jodo-shu (Pure Land sect), founded by Honen (1133–1212), and Jodo-shinshu (True Pure Land sect), founded by his disciple Shinran (1173–1262). Both stress the importance of chanting the Nembutsu ( Namu Amida Butsu, “Hail Amida Buddha”) as the act of faith, and say that this faith is what is really important. Salvation, Honen and Shinran taught, comes from the GRACE or power of Amida, not from one’s own efforts. This is true Buddhism, they said, because to depend on the grace of another rather than on oneself is real egolessness, and the whole point of Buddhism is to realize the empti ness of the ego and the continuity of one’s whole being with the universe as a whole. Amida, some say, can be thought of as a personification of that universe. Shinran was even more radical than Honen. Sometimes called the Martin L UTHER of Japan, he understood that if Pure Land is true, faith alone is what matters, not rites or priesthood or anything else. Therefore, though a monk, like Luther he gave up monastic CELIBACY to marry and have chil dren. He emphasized that even the greatest sinner can be saved by simple faith expressed through the Nembutsu. Jodo Shinshu temples have mar ried priests and relatively simple temples with only an image of Amida and a statue of Shinran in front. Pure Land became particularly popular among Japan’s peasant population and its grow ing class of merchants and craftsmen. Often it took the form of colorful Nembutsu dances, per formed while singing the sacred chant. In all of East Asia, it has made Buddhism and the hope of salvation accessible to high and low alike. In the United States Pure Land Buddhism has been present since the late 1800s. During World War II it organized itself as the Buddhist Churches of America.

gods and ancestors, the ages of the worlds, and the history of the solar and lunar dynasties. In fact, the Puranas discuss much more. Although the number of Puranas is large, 18 are singled out as major. Some divide them into three groups of six, identified with the gods B RAHMA , V ISHNU , and S IVA . The most loved of all Puranas is the Bhagavata. It recounts in full the tales of the youthful K RISHNA . Pure Land Buddhism An important movement in East Asian B UDDHISM ; also called Amidism. In contrast to the emphasis on MEDITATION in some other forms of the religion, Pure Land may be called a Buddhism of SALVATION by FAITH alone. For the central idea is that the B UDDHA called Amitabha (Emiduo-fo in Chinese, A MIDA in Japanese) ages ago vowed out of compassion for all suffering sen tient beings that all who called upon his name in faith would be saved by being brought after death into his HEAVEN , called the Western Paradise or Pure Land. The teaching began in India, where it was first taught that great buddhas like Amida (not to be confused with the historical Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion) have a para disal universe extending around them as a kind of aura. Persons deeply attuned to one of these buddhas can enter this paradise through faith. Amida, out of infinite love for all creatures, made his paradise accessible simply by faith. His heaven or Pure Land is a wonderful place in itself, described in the old Indian Pure Land scriptures as filled with trees covered with jew eled nets and beautiful music played by angelic beings. Furthermore, in the Pure Land it is easy to do the final meditations that will lead to the ultimate liberation, N IRVANA . Coming to China in the early centuries C . E ., and thence to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, Pure Land was influenced by Taoist ideas of paradise ( see T AOISM ) and also by a Chinese perception that salvation cannot be divided up into stages but must be realized all at once, just as one can not leap over a canyon in several jumps, but must