聖嚴法師=Sheng Yen; 淨土=Pure Land; 現代漢傳佛教=Modern Chinese Buddhism; Dharma Drum Mountain
摘要
The present study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the modernization process of Chinese Buddhism by examining the issue in relation to different understandings and practices of Pure Land (淨土), as exemplified by Pure Land as it is practiced at the Taiwanese/Chinese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM法鼓山) and the thought of DDM’s founder Ven. Sheng Yen (聖嚴, 1930-2009 CE). The Pure Land is a characteristic concept of East Asian Buddhism. It is closely linked with the practice of recollecting the Buddha’s name (念佛, hereafter referred to as nianfo) in order to ensure rebirth in Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land of Amitabha (極樂淨土). The concepts and practices of Pure Land Buddhism date back to the beginnings of Chinese Buddhism and its precursors lie in Indian Buddhism. Over time it became part and parcel of general Chinese Buddhist practice, and is particularly popular with the laity. It is also linked to Chinese notions of an afterlife and Chinese deathbed culture. Reciting Amitabha’s name ensures that the faithful escape from rebirth in one of the six realms of our world and are instead reborn in the Western Pure Land of Amitabha, said to be a place where conditions for Buddhist practice are ideal. It is also in the context of Pure Land Buddhism that the practice of End-of-Life Chanting Groups (助念團) developed, a practice that came to be widely popular in China. Clerics or relatives of the deceased themselves chant beside the deathbed on behalf of the dead. This will only be discussed very briefly in order to limit the scope of this study. In conclusion, the conception of the Pure Land as a place in which to achieve rebirth and the practice of nianfo as a way of attaining this goal have a long history in Chinese Buddhism, thus it is here understood as a traditional Pure Land practice. Yet Pure Land concepts have also been utilized in attempts by elite monastics like Taixu (太虛, 1890-1947 CE) to modernize Chinese Buddhism—most explicitly in creating the idea of a Pure Land on Earth (人間淨土). Here the Pure Land is not understood as a place far away in which to be reborn, but as a kind of Buddhist utopia to be realized in our world. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Taixu, other monastics, and a number of lay people perceived Buddhism to be in crisis and so attempted to save the religion by modernizing it. Thus I will understand the new approach they developed to Pure Land as modern or modernist. In other words, Pure Land’s concepts and practices and different interpretations thereof are where demarcations between elite and popular, modern and traditional, lie. Clarifying the relationship between these differing approaches to Pure Land will help us to understand the modernization of Chinese Buddhism. To do so, I aim to examine Pure Land as it is understood and practiced at a contemporary Buddhist group, Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), and as embodied by the life and thought of its founder Sheng Yen. The present study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the modernization process of Chinese Buddhism by examining the issue in relation to different understandings and practices of Pure Land (淨土), as exemplified by Pure Land as it is practiced at the Taiwanese/Chinese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM法鼓山) and the thought of DDM’s founder Ven. Sheng Yen (聖嚴, 1930-2009 CE). The Pure Land is a characteristic concept of East Asian Buddhism. It is closely linked with the practice of recollecting the Buddha’s name (念佛, hereafter referred to as nianfo) in order to ensure rebirth in Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land of Amitabha (極樂淨土). The concepts and practices of Pure Land Buddhism date back to the beginnings of Chinese Buddhism and its precursors lie in Indian Buddhism. Over time it became part and parcel of general Chinese Buddhist practice, and is particularly popular with the laity. It is also linked to Chinese notions of an afterlife and Chinese deathbed culture. Reciting
