Buddhist Thought by Williams Paul Wynne Alexander Tribe Anthony

Author:Williams, Paul,Wynne, Alexander,Tribe, Anthony.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buddhas

As we have seen, Gregory Schopen suggested (1975) that early Mahāyāna may have involved a series of largely independent (though presumably in some as yet unclear sense linked) ‘book cults’ centred on particular sūtras and their teachings. The point in general is quite plausible. If true, then some of these book cults appear to have involved sūtras which set out to teach how in meditation and rebirth the Pure Land of a chosen Buddha can be reached.26 It is possible that the earliest Pure Land Buddha cult was centred on the Buddha Akṣobhya and his Buddha Domain in the East. This cult is reflected in the Akṣobhyavyūha Sūtra, a sūtra which was translated into Chinese as early as the second century CE and which may well have been written originally in Gāndhārī, the language of Northwest India (including Kashmir) at that time. The Pure Land of Akṣobhya is modelled rather on a heavenly realm. It is the ideal realm, the world as it ought to be, a world in which Māra (the ‘Devil’) does not interfere, a world without mountains, a world of flowers, gentle breezes, and music. There is no ugliness, no menstruation, no gross physical sexuality, and gestation and birth is gentle and pleasant. All is clean, and all are interested in practising the Doctrine. This Pure Land is so wonderful as a direct result of the merit deriving from great vows of morality made by Akṣobhya when engaged in the bodhisattva path. Rebirth in this wonderful Pure Land comes from following oneself the bodhisattva path and vowing to be reborn in Akṣobhya’s Pure Land (Abhirati). One should also dedicate all merit to being reborn there in order to become fully enlightened in the presence of Akṣobhya, and visualise the Pure Land with Akṣobhya within it teaching the Doctrine, while wishing to be like him (Chang 1983: 315 ff.).27

A further Buddha Domain cult seems to have been associated with the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha, and indeed it is possible that this cult originated outside the country and was subsequently introduced into India (Birnbaum 1980). But by far the most well-known of the Pure Land cults is that of Buddha Amitābha – sometimes known as Amitāyus and sometimes perhaps as Amita – and his Pure Land of Sukhāvatī in the West.28 The significance of the Pure Land cult of Amitābha is largely due to its considerable importance in China and particularly Japan. There is surprisingly little evidence for its widespread importance in Indian Buddhism.29 The specific cult of Amitābha, assuming there was such an identifiable cult in India and abstracting from the data contained in the key sūtras of the East Asian Amitābha tradition, is centred on two, or possibly three, sūtras. Principal among them is the longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, first translated into Chinese during the second century CE and like the Akṣobhyavyūha perhaps written originally in Gāndhārī. Again, rather as with the Akṣobhyavyūha, the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra tells of a previous time many years ago when the bodhisattva

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