Budhist Approach to Salvation

Initially introduced into Japan from China in A.D. 552 (Tsunoda, et al. xix), Buddhism began to develop along various sectarian lines within 100 years. However, there are certain features common to all Buddhist thought: "1) that all life is inevitably sorrowful; 2) that sorrow is due to craving; 3) that it can only be stopped by the stopping of craving; and 4) that this can only be done by a course of carefully disciplined and moral conduct, culminating in the life of concentration and meditation led by the Buddhist monk" (Creel 307).

First and always, Buddhism is religious and transcendent, but implicit in the idea of the holy contained in Buddhism is a whole range of standards for real-world (and therefore ethical) activity. The aim of an individual life is to finally and completely transcend the body (reality, existence). Until this is achieved, the being (not strictly the soul) will revisit (i.e., be reincarnated in) a variety of human forms until craving is fully expunged and one achieves nirvana, or the joining of right moral conduct, an absence of craving, a

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compassionates all living beings" (Lotus Sutra 123-4). As Tsunoda, et al. explain: Life was conceived of in terms of constant change, upwards to Buddhahood, or downwards to hell, when Mahayana compassion led the enlightened ones to seek the salvation of those still living as "butting goats." However, the esoteric teachings did not deny the importance of this world and of happiness in this life. By correct performance of the mysteries, material benefits could immediately be obtained (Tsunoda, et al. 139). The doctrine appears to have been corrupted into the superstitious equation of ritual and benefit, and Tsunoda, et al. say that this may have motivated dissent and reformist sects. Buddhism's fortunes in Japan shifted as idiosyncratic doctrines emerged. Tsunoda, et al. cite the appearance of "warrior monks," who flourished in the late 11th century, and the appearance of erotic sects such as the Tachikawa school (155), amid the persistence of aristocratic tendencies in classical Buddhism and in the social environment in which it flourished. The appearance of Pure Land and Nichiren sects in the 10th century came closest to bringing the peasantry, including women, salvation. Tsunoda, et al. say that doctrines of the Pure Land sect we
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Approximate Word count = 2517
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)