Buddhist Teachings

The four books discussed here deal with various aspects of Buddhism, primarily the offshoots of Mahayana Buddhism. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti is a Mahayana sutra in which, among other topics, Vimalakirti debates and clarifies the concept of nonduality. The Tannisho is an important record of the sayings of Shinran, the founder of Shin Buddhism--a Japanese form of Pure Land Buddhism. The third book, Zen: Tradition and Transition, is a collection of essays on various aspects of the history and practice of Zen Buddhism. The fourth work, Kitagawa's On Understanding Japanese Religion, consists of four extended essays on the history of Japanese religion, two of which deal with Shinto and Buddhist traditions and offer a great deal of insight into the way Buddhist thought and practice entered Japan and interacted with existing strains of religion. The subjects of the four books amplify the picture of the many facets of Buddhism, its adaptability, and its success as one of the most widespread of religions.

The Vimalakirti Sutra, or Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, claims to record events that happened during the life of the Buddha Sakyamuni (sixth to fifth century BC). But the text of the sutra does not appear in history until the revival of Mahayana Buddhism between 100 BC and 100 AD. All the Sanskrit versions have long disappeared but it was translated many times into Chinese, Tibetan, and other languages. The message of the sutra revolves around the concept of nonduali

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hich resulted in the creation of the nembutsu as "the ultimate gift to mankind" by means of which anyone can "become transformed and receive true enlightenment" (Unno 39). Birth in the Pure Land had previously been believed to depend on departure from this world and eventual arrival, through a series of steps, toward enlightenment, in the Pure Land. But, according to Shinran, the recital of nembutsu established the individual's enlightenment itself and even while remaining in the grip of the passions of samsara one still "attains 'birth in the Pure Land' here and now and not in some distant future after death" (Unno 63). As Shinran put it, either the evil or the good person attains birth in the Pure Land by virtue of the vow of Amida--the evil perhaps more so than the good because the vow was established precisely "out of deep compassion for us who cannot become freed from the bondage of birth-and-death through any religious practice, due to the abundance of blind passion" (6). This was a form of salvation based entirely on faith in the vow of the Buddha Amida. It did not require good works, though it did not denigrate them, and it took the view that the Buddhas pitied humanity for its enslavement by the passions of this wor

Category: Philosophy - B