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Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitabha
Author Payne, Richard K. ; Tanaka, Kenneth Kenichi
Date2003.10.01
Pages304
PublisherKuroda Institute, University of Hawaii Press
Publisher Url http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/
LocationHonolulu, HI, US [檀香山, 夏威夷州, 美國]
SeriesStudies in East Asian Buddhism
Series No.17
Content type書籍=Book
Language英文=English
NoteRichard K. Payne is dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Kenneth K. Tanaka is professor of Buddhist studies at Musashino Women's University, Tokyo.

Contributors: Daniel A. Getz, Jr.; Hank Glassman; Richard Jaffe; Charles B. Jones; Matthew T. Kapstein; Todd T. Lewis; Richard K. Payne; Fabio Rambelli; James H. Sanford; Jacqueline I. Stone.
Keyword布教=弘化=Transmission of Buddhism=Propagation; 佛教人物=Buddhist; 佛學研究=佛教學=Buddhist Studies=Buddhology; 修行方法=修行法門=Practice; 菩薩=Bodhisattva; 彌陀淨土=西方淨土=西方極樂世界=The Western Paradise of Eternal Bliss=The Land of Bliss=the Pure Land Sukhavati
AbstractThe discourse of Buddhist studies has traditionally been structured around texts and nations (the transmission of Buddhism from India to China to Japan). And yet, it is doubtful that these categories reflect in any significant way the organizing themes familiar to most Buddhists. It could be argued that cultic practices associated with particular buddhas and bodhisattvas are more representative of the way Buddhists conceive of their relation to tradition. This volume aims to explore this aspect of Buddhism by focusing on one of its most important cults, that of the Buddha Amitabha. Approaching the Land of Bliss is a rich collection of studies of texts and ritual practices devoted to Amitabha, ranging from Tibet to Japan and from early medieval times to the present.

The cult of Amitabha is identified as an integral part of Tibet's Mahayana Buddhist tradition in the opening essay by Matthew Kapstein. Next Daniel Getz, Jr., locates the Pure Land patriarch Shengcheng more firmly in a Huayan context and his Pure Conduct society not so much in the propagation of Pure Land praxis but as a means of modifying anti-Buddhist sentiments. Jacqueline Stone's study of the practice of reciting nenbutsu at the time of death gives us an understanding of both the practice itself and the motivating logic behind it. Kakuban--the founder of the one major "schism" in the history of the Shingon tradition--is placed in a typology of Japanese Pure Land thought in James Sanford's study of Kakuban's Amida hishaku. Hank Glassman contributes an essay on the "subsidiary cult" of Chujohime, which derived from the cult of Amitabha but grew to such importance that it displaced the latter as the focus of worship in medieval Japan.

In his examination of "radical Amidism," Fabio Rambelli discusses different forms of Japanese Pure Land thought that constitute divergences from the mainstream or normative forms. Richard Jaffe examines the work of the seventeenth-century cleric Ungo Kiyo, who sought to match his teaching to the needs and capacities of his disciples. Todd Lewis highlights the importance of cultic life and finds traces of the desire for rebirth into Sukhavati in stupa worship among Newari Buddhists. Charles Jones' "thick description" of a one-day recitation retreat in Taiwan provides us with a closer look at how the cult of Amitabha continues in present-day East Asia.

Approaching the Land of Bliss moves beyond the limitations of defining Buddhism in terms of its textual corpus or nation states, opening up the cult of Amitabha in Nepal, Tibet, China, and Taiwan, and uncovering new aspects of Japanese Pure Land.
Table of contentsAcknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. Pure Land Buddhism in Tibet? From Sukhavati to the Field of Great Bliss, by Matthew T. Kapstein 16
2. Shengchang's Pure Conduct Society and the Chinese Pure Land Patriarchate, by Daniel Getz 52
3. By the Power of One's Last Nenbutsu: Deathbed Practice in Early Medieval Japan, by Jacqueline I. Stone 77
4. Amida's Secret Life: Kakuban's Amida hishaku, by James H. Sanford 120
5. "Show Me the Place Where My Mother !": Chujohime, Preaching, and Relics in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan, by Hank Glassman 139
6. "Just Believe as You Like; Prohibitions and Impurities Are Not a Problem": Radical Amida Cults and Popular Religiosity in Premodern Japan, by Fabio Rambelli 169
7. Ungo Kiyo's Ojoyoka and Rinzai Zen Orthodoxy, by Richard M. Jaffe 202
8.From Generalized Goal to Tantric Subordination: Sukhavati in the Indic Buddhist Traditions of Nepal, by Todd T. Lewis 236
9. Buddha One: A One-Day Buddha-Recitation Retreat in Contemporary Taiwan, by Charles B. Jones 264
Character Glossary 281
Contributors 289
Index 291
ISBN0824825780 (hc); 9780824825782 (hc)
Hits1044
Created date2005.09.29
Modified date2016.09.12



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