The Land of Pure Bliss

The Land of Pure Bliss PDF Author: Peter Lunde Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Get Book

Book Description
The Land of Pure Bliss is an in-depth exploration of the nature and practice of faith as it has developed in Mahayana Buddhism over the past two thousand years. The heart of the book is a first-ever full English translation of Shandao's highly influential Commentary in Four Parts Explaining the Scripture About Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life (Amitayur Dhyana Sutra, 觀無量壽佛經), which was the inspiration for subsequent schools of 'Pure Land' Buddhism in East Asia. Also included is an introduction to the history and teachings of Pure Land thought as well as a sizable appendix of supplemental translations from other scriptures and discourses that provide insight into the nature and practice of faith as understood in Mahayana Buddhism. In addition to providing key terms in English, Sanskrit & Chinese, this work provides comprehensive footnotes and a thorough index to offer a background on Buddhist concepts and history relevant to the subject. Also included are translations of Pure Land thought from: The Longer Scripture on the Buddha of Infinite Life, The Scripture on the Great Garland of Universal Enlightenment, The Scripture on the Lotus Blossom of Sublime Purpose, The Scripture on the Meditation In Which the Buddhas All Stand Up Before One, 'On the Easier Practice of Faith' attributed to Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu's 'Commentary on the Longer Scripture About the Buddha of Infinite Life', 'On the Practice of Keeping the Buddha on Mind While Ever Walking' by Zhiyi of the Tiantai School, 'An Esoteric Explanation of the Name 'Infinite Life & Light' by Kakuban of the Japanese Mantra (Shingon) School. Honen's 'One Page Testament', and more ...

The Land of Pure Bliss

The Land of Pure Bliss PDF Author: Peter Lunde Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Get Book

Book Description
The Land of Pure Bliss is an in-depth exploration of the nature and practice of faith as it has developed in Mahayana Buddhism over the past two thousand years. The heart of the book is a first-ever full English translation of Shandao's highly influential Commentary in Four Parts Explaining the Scripture About Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life (Amitayur Dhyana Sutra, 觀無量壽佛經), which was the inspiration for subsequent schools of 'Pure Land' Buddhism in East Asia. Also included is an introduction to the history and teachings of Pure Land thought as well as a sizable appendix of supplemental translations from other scriptures and discourses that provide insight into the nature and practice of faith as understood in Mahayana Buddhism. In addition to providing key terms in English, Sanskrit & Chinese, this work provides comprehensive footnotes and a thorough index to offer a background on Buddhist concepts and history relevant to the subject. Also included are translations of Pure Land thought from: The Longer Scripture on the Buddha of Infinite Life, The Scripture on the Great Garland of Universal Enlightenment, The Scripture on the Lotus Blossom of Sublime Purpose, The Scripture on the Meditation In Which the Buddhas All Stand Up Before One, 'On the Easier Practice of Faith' attributed to Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu's 'Commentary on the Longer Scripture About the Buddha of Infinite Life', 'On the Practice of Keeping the Buddha on Mind While Ever Walking' by Zhiyi of the Tiantai School, 'An Esoteric Explanation of the Name 'Infinite Life & Light' by Kakuban of the Japanese Mantra (Shingon) School. Honen's 'One Page Testament', and more ...

The Land of Bliss, The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light

The Land of Bliss, The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light PDF Author: Luis O. Gomez
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824817602
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book

Book Description
This is a free translation of two Buddhist texts on what is arguably the most popular of all Buddhist conceptions of an ideal world, the "Land of Bliss" of the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. The two texts, known to Western students of Buddhism as the "Smaller" and "Larger" Sukhavatiyuha Sutra, explain the conditions that lead to rebirth in the Pure Land and the manner in which human beings are reborn there.

Approaching the Land of Bliss

Approaching the Land of Bliss PDF Author: Richard Karl Payne
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824825782
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description
The discourse of Buddhist studies has traditionally been structured around texts and nations (the transmission of Buddhism from India to China to Japan). And yet, it is doubtful that these categories reflect in any significant way the organizing themes familiar to most Buddhists. It could be argued that cultic practices associated with particular buddhas and bodhisattvas are more representative of the way Buddhists conceive of their relation to tradition. This volume aims to explore this aspect of Buddhism by focusing on one of its most important cults, that of the Buddha Amitabha. Approaching the Land of Bliss is a rich collection of studies of texts and ritual practices devoted to Amitabha, ranging from Tibet to Japan and from early medieval times to the present.

The Land of Pure Bliss

The Land of Pure Bliss PDF Author: Peter Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781792342080
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description


Luminous Bliss

Luminous Bliss PDF Author: Georgios Halkias
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780824871314
Category : Buddhist literature, Tibetan
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book

Book Description
Pure Land Buddhism as a whole has received comparatively little attention in Western studies on Buddhism despite the importance of 'buddha-fields' (pure lands) for the growth and expression of Mahayana Buddhism. In this religious history of Tibetan Pure Land literature, Georgios Halkias delves into a rich collection of literary, historical, and archaeological sources to highlight important aspects of this neglected pan-Asian Buddhist tradition.

Pure Land

Pure Land PDF Author: Charles B. Jones
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843447
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book

Book Description
An introductory guide to the beliefs and key concepts of Pure Land Buddhism, the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in East Asia. Pure Land is a brief introduction to the history and practices of Pure Land Buddhism, a popular and growing global tradition. Pure Land practices center on Amitābha Buddha, rebirth in his pure buddha-land, and the guaranteed attainment of buddhahood. It constitutes the dominant tradition of most Buddhists in East Asia and is the most common form of practice within immigrant Buddhist communities in America, yet it remains elusive to many general readers of Buddhism. This brief introduction summarizes the core teachings of this tradition and charts its growth throughout the world. Part of the Buddhist Foundations series, Pure Land covers the spiritual tenets behind the tradition before describing how prayer and devotion to Amitābha allow for rebirth in a realm free from suffering and ideal for progress on the path to enlightenment. It then outlines specific Pure Land practices, all the while providing historical context to account for its widespread popularity throughout East Asia. The author also covers contemporary Pure Land traditions, providing a useful touch point for modern readers. Pure Land practitioners and readers interested in Asian-American Buddhist communities now have a concise guide to the ideas, practices, and origins of this widely popular spiritual tradition.

The Land of Bliss

The Land of Bliss PDF Author:
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120818132
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book

Book Description
BUDDHISM

The Three Pure Land Sutras

The Three Pure Land Sutras PDF Author:
Publisher: BDK America
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book

Book Description
The larger sutra on Amitāyus (Taishō volume 12, number 360) -- The sutra on contemplation of Amitāyus (Taishō volume 12, number 365) -- The smaller sutra on Amitāyus (Taishō volume 12, number 366).

Pure Land, Real World

Pure Land, Real World PDF Author: Melissa Anne-Marie Curley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 082485778X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
For close to a thousand years Amida’s Pure Land, a paradise of perfect ease and equality, was the most powerful image of shared happiness circulating in the Japanese imagination. In the late nineteenth century, some Buddhist thinkers sought to reinterpret the Pure Land in ways that would allow it speak to modern Japan. Their efforts succeeded in ways they could not have predicted. During the war years, economist Kawakami Hajime, philosopher Miki Kiyoshi, and historian Ienaga Saburō—left-leaning thinkers with no special training in doctrinal studies and no strong connection to any Buddhist institution—seized upon modernized images of Shinran in exile and a transcendent Western Paradise to resist the demands of a state that was bearing down on its citizens with increasing force. Pure Land, Real World treats the religious thought of these three major figures in English for the first time. Kawakami turned to religion after being imprisoned for his involvement with the Japanese Communist Party, borrowing the Shinshū image of the two truths to assert that Buddhist law and Marxist social science should reinforce each other, like the two wings of a bird. Miki, a member of the Kyoto School who went from prison to the crown prince’s think tank and back again, identified Shinran’s religion as belonging to the proletariat: For him, following Shinran and working toward building a buddha land on earth were akin to realizing social revolution. And Ienaga’s understanding of the Pure Land—as the crystallization of a logic of negation that undermined every real power structure—fueled his battle against the state censorship system, just as he believed it had enabled Shinran to confront the world’s suffering head on. Such readings of the Pure Land tradition are idiosyncratic—perhaps even heretical—but they hum with the same vibrancy that characterized medieval Pure Land belief. Innovative and refreshingly accessible, Pure Land, Real World shows that the Pure Land tradition informed twentieth-century Japanese thought in profound and surprising ways and suggests that it might do the same for twenty-first-century thinkers. The critical power of Pure Land utopianism has yet to be exhausted.

Luminous Bliss

Luminous Bliss PDF Author: Georgios T. Halkias
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824837746
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book

Book Description
With an annotated English translation and critical analysis of the Orgyan-gling gold manuscript of the short Sukhāvativyūha-sūtra Pure Land Buddhism as a whole has received comparatively little attention in Western studies on Buddhism despite the importance of “buddha-fields” (pure lands) for the growth and expression of Mahāyāna Buddhism. In this first religious history of Tibetan Pure Land literature, Georgios Halkias delves into a rich collection of literary, historical, and archaeological sources to highlight important aspects of this neglected pan-Asian Buddhist tradition. He clarifies many of the misconceptions concerning the interpretation of “other-world” soteriology in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and provides translations of original Tibetan sources from the ninth century to the present that represent exoteric and esoteric doctrines that continue to be cherished by Tibetan Buddhists for their joyful descriptions of the Buddhist path. The book is informed by interviews with Tibetan scholars and Buddhist practitioners and by Halkias’ own participant-observation in Tibetan Pure Land rituals and teachings conducted in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. Divided into three sections, Luminous Bliss shows that Tibetan Pure Land literature exemplifies a synthesis of Mahāyāna sutra-based conceptions with a Vajrayana world-view that fits progressive and sudden approaches to the realization of Pure Land teachings. Part I covers the origins and development of Pure Land in India and the historical circumstances of its adaptation in Tibet and Central Asia. Part II offers an English translation of the short Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra (imported from India during the Tibetan Empire) and contains a survey of original Tibetan Pure Land scriptures and meditative techniques from the dGe-lugs-pa, bKa’-brgyud, rNying-ma, and Sa-skya schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Part III introduces some of the most innovative and popular mortuary cycles and practices related to the Tantric cult of Buddha Amitābha and his Pure Land from the Treasure traditions in the bKa’-brgyud and rNying-ma schools. Luminous Bliss locates Pure Land Buddhism at the core of Tibet’s religious heritage and demonstrates how this tradition constitutes an integral part of both Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism.