Dasabhumika-vibhasa sastra in the Teachings of Master Yinshun. The Easy Path and the Difficult Path of Nagarjuna in Contemporary Taiwan=印順導師之「中觀思想」在近代中國佛教傳承之龍樹法門
Master Yinshun (1906-) has played an important role in the development of Buddhism in Taiwan. One of the key points of Yinshun’s agenda was the re-evaluation of the Madhyamika teachings, so that he may be considered as the promoter of the revival of this school in modern China and Taiwan. Furthermore, even in his works on Pure Land doctrine and practice, Yinshun seemed to rely on Nagarjuna’s works, with special reference to Nagarjuna’s teachings of Easy and Difficult Path of practice. In these terms, Yinshun may recall the Pure Land tradition rooted in Master Tanluan (476-542) and Master Daochuo (562-645). This paper investigates Yinshun’s use of Dasabhumika-vibhasa sastra through four analytical studies. First, Yinshun’s adoption of this scripture as placed within the “Pure Land stream” started by Tanluan and Daochuo. The second analysis attempts to classify Yinshun’s interpretation of this text in the context of Pure Land practice within the Chinese Pure Land tradition of the 20th century. Then, Yinshun’s emphasis on Nagarjuna’s Pure Land teachings is contextualised within the whole corpus of the teachings and literary production of Yinshun. In conclusion, this study seeks to link Yinshun’s adoption of Dasabhumika-vibhasa sastra as reference text for the Pure Land practice to the so-called renjian fojiao (“Buddhism for the Human Realm”), in order to find a further definition of the latter.
