seeing the Buddha; visualization; Buddhanusmrti; Buddhadarsana; nenbutsu; nianfo; bhakti; darshan; trikaya; Pure Land Buddhism; Amitabha; Buddha image; eye-opening ceremony; Buddhist iconography; Sukhavati; Buddhist meditation; Buddha recollection; guanfo
摘要
The opportunity to see and be in the presence of the Buddha was of paramount importance to the Buddhist faithful. While the Buddha Sākyamuni was still alive, this represented a chance to hear his teaching and, hopefully, progress along the path to Buddhist enlightenment. However, even after the death of the Buddha, the desire to see and be in the presence of the Buddha continued, and even intensified. In this study I explore the doctrinal developments and beliefs of the early Buddhist, Mahāyāna, and Pure Land traditions that justified this continued belief in the possibility of seeing and being in the presence of the Buddha. My approach to this topic is interdisciplinary, and brings to bear evidence from the Buddhist doctrinal, conceptual, and art historical traditions. The doctrinal developments discussed in this study that supported the belief in the possibility of seeing and being in the presence of the Buddha after Sākyamuni's parinirvāna include the three-body (trikāya) doctrine and the belief in multiple contemporaneous Buddhas residing in their respective Buddha-lands (buddhaksetra). These developments were informed by the glorification of the Buddha as perfect in wisdom and morality, which was expressed in early Buddhist literature by attributing to the Buddha lists of exemplary properties, or epithets, as well as the thirty-two major physical marks (laksana) of a great man (mahāpurusa). This glorification of the Buddha also played a seminal role in the development of meditative visualization techniques centered on the Buddha, and especially the technique of "Buddha recollection" (buddhānusmrti). In this study I explore the historical development of "Buddha recollection," as well as the closely related concepts of "seeing the Buddha" (buddhadarsana) and "Buddha contemplation" (guānfó), from their origins in the Indian Buddhist tradition through the Chinese Pure Land tradition centered on Amitābha Buddha. Finally, icons in the Buddhist tradition play an important role in the Buddhist tradition as supports for meditative visualization and "living" embodiments of the Buddha. Buddha images are brought to life through a ritual consecration process centered on an eye-opening ceremony, which, according to the Indian religious tradition, enables them to serve as objects of devotion (bhakti), and to bestow the "auspicious glance" (darsana) that is central to Indian religions' devotional practices. Despite the contentious art-historical theory that asserts that there was an early "aniconic period" during which no figural images of the Buddha were made, the art-historical evidence actually suggests a continuity between pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Indian beliefs about the role and function of religious icons. In any case, in the Buddhist tradition icons came to be entrusted with carrying on the mission of the Buddha, and iconography has played a prominent role in Buddhist practice. Therefore, the Buddhist iconographic tradition is drawn on in this study because it is particularly illustrative of the Buddhist tradition's understanding of visualization and the nature of the presence of the Buddha.
