Galen D. Amstutz (Ph.D. Religion and East Asian Studies 1992, Princeton University) has served in a variety of roles including librarian, ESL teacher, Buddhist minister, college professor in the United States, Germany and Japan, translator, journal editor, and administrator at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. He is currently an adjunct instructor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies (affiliate of Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California) and publishes on Pure Land Buddhism, starting with Interpreting Amida (1997).
摘要
Pure Land was one of the main fields of mythopoesis and discourse among the Asian Buddhist traditions, and in Japan of central cultural importance from the Heian period right up to the present. However, its range, inconsistency, variability, and complexity have tended to be misevaluated. The pieces reproduced in this set, organized both chronologically and thematically, have been chosen as linchpin works accentuating the diversity of what evolved under this heading of Buddhism. Special attention is given to the traps into which Western observers may fall, the role of the large True Pure Land (Jōdoshinshū) school, and the richness of Tokugawa and twentieth-century developments. These selections of previously published articles will serve as an essential starting point for anyone interested in this perhaps underestimated area of Buddhist studies.
目次
Introduction: Brill Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan 1 - 14
Part 1 Useful Overarching Perspectives Buddhism as a Religion of Hope: Observations on the “Logic” of a Doctrine and Its Foundational Myth 17 - 35 Pure Land Buddhism as an Alternative Mārga 36 - 76
Part 2 Early Presence in Japan The Development of Mappō Thought in Japan (I) 79 - 108 The Development of Mappō Thought in Japan (II) 109 - 126 The Growth of Pure Land Buddhism in the Heian Period 127 - 158 Ōjōyōshū, Nihon Ōjō Gokuraku-ki, and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan 159 - 181 With the Help of “Good Friends” Deathbed Ritual Practices in Early Medieval Japan 182 - 220
Part 3 Turn to the Nembutsu as the Sole Solution Hōnen on Attaining Pure Land Rebirth: the Selected Nenbutsu of the Original Vow 223 - 240 Hōnen and Popular Pure Land Piety: Assimilation and Transformation 241 - 254 Socio-Economic Impacts of Hōnen’s Pure Land Doctrines: an Inquiry into the Interplay between Buddhist Teachings and Institutions 255 - 301 Part 4 Shinran’s More Radical Turn to the Enlightenment Gift as an Involuntary Emergent Property Faith: Its Arising 305 - 321 “Rely on the Meaning, Not on the Words” Shinran’s Methodology and Strategy for Reading Scriptures and Writing the Kyōgyōshinshō 322 - 346
