Mater TaiXu’s innovative doctrine has great impact on modern engaged Buddhism, which has led Chinese Buddhism towards more concern for the secular world. This has greatly influenced the new aspect and the vitality of modern Buddhism. On top of the exploratory study of Master TaiXu’s life story and his doctrine regarding engaged Buddhism, this dissertation adopts the psychobiographical approach to investigate the Master’s psychodynamic in order to have deeper understanding of his personal experience and its impact on the formation of his doctrine. Besides, research findings also provide a reference point for future advancement in modern Buddhism via the investigation of the pivotal points in Master TaiXu’s psychological transformation.
This current study shows that after his Zen type peak experiences, Master TaiXu further reflects on the issue of Buddha-Nature and the emphasis on Sutra studies for Chinese Buddhism. He proposes the simultaneous propagation of the Eight Schools, in addition to the Buddhist emphasis of religious practices over theory. During that period, Chinese society was at the threshold of critical changes, and there were widespread threats of transforming temples to educational institutes. It was in this context that Master TaiXu was forced to convert to the revival of Buddhism, from his original focus on Enlightenment derived from introspection.
With his voluntary shouldering of the mission to revive Buddhism and his constant contact with new social/ political thoughts and different Buddhist schools, Master TaiXu continuously ponders ways to apply Buddhist doctrines to actual secular needs in the modern society. After the initial attempts to extract quintessence from sutra resources such as Bodhisattva Precepts and Maitreya studies, his doctrine of spiritual practice shifts from one yana (human vehicle) to five yanas. This eventually lays the foundation for combining engaged Buddhism with Buddhist practices.
Instead of using the traditional research methods in the psychobiographical field, the current researcher examines intersubjectivity in the present study. Actually, I explores Master TaiXu’s psychobiography in contrast to my personal life experience and religious practices. Conversely, I also reflects on his own experience based on the process of investigating Master TaiXu’s experience and its significance. It is hoped that findings in this dissertation can provide an opportunity to integrate existing literature, and to foretell future direction. All in all, new insights on Master TaiXu’s doctrine have actually been highlighted in this dissertation based on in-depth understanding of the subjectivity variation between the monks and the laymen, and that of the significance of religious experience and life mission.
