Tag: Medicine Buddha

What is a Buddha Land?

This blog, and its blogger, have focused on the Pure Land tradition of Buddhism for many years. I didn’t really start practicing Buddhism seriously until I encountered the Jodo Shu-sect teachings of Honen way back in 2005. It really inspired something in me that’s never stopped even as my practice has taken many twists and turns.

But, strangely, I’ve never actually talked about what a “pure land” is. That’s the subject of today’s post.

The concept of a “Buddha land” or “Pure land” is actually a broad and rich tradition within Mahayana Buddhism, and well worth exploring. Here, I am not talking just about Amida Buddha and his Pure Land, but the general concept. It shows up a lot in Mahayana Buddhism and its many traditions, including the Zen tradition. It also shows up in contemporary Asian literature as well, including Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s famous short story “The Spider’s Thread” (蜘蛛の糸) as well as the Legend of Zelda series. Once you recognize it, references to Buddha lands show up in many unexpected places.

And yet, it all started long ago in India.

Traditional cosmology (i.e. “how the world is arranged”) in India tended to see a flat world with continents strung together in all directions, including above and below. Some of these continents would be anchored by a massive mountain in the middle, called Mount Sumeru (or Mount Meru). You can see this also in Buddhist architecture such as this famous temple in Bangkok, Thailand:

Phra Prang Wat Arun photo taken by Supanut Arunoprayote., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The tall structure in the middle is meant to symbolize Mount Sumeru.

Or the famous Borobudur temple in Indonesia:

Incidentially, people in India thought that they lived in one of these continents called Jambudvipa, which was on the southern end of Mount Sumeru. For example, in the Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra, you see text like so (chapter 4):

Thus, in this Saha world, on the continent of Jambudvipa, this Bodhisattva teaches and transforms beings by means of millions of billions of expedient devices.

Translation by City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

Anyhow, different continents were more peaceful and civilized than others. In some continents dwelt a living buddha, and by their sheer presence, the land would be purified, and all would be peaceful. Such lands are called buddhakṣetra in Sanskrit.

Let’s take a look this passage from the Amitabha Sutra:

At that time the Buddha told the Elder Shāriputra, “Passing from here through hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands to the West, there is a world called Ultimate Bliss. In this land a Buddha called Amitābha right now teaches the Dharma

Translation by City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

In this sutra, the Pure Land of Amitabha is just one of many such lands that exist to the west, but a particularly splendid Buddha land. Buddhas and Buddha lands were thought to exist in all cardinal directions, and the Amitabha Sutra above goes to great lengths to describe some of them, but highlights Amida Buddha’s Pure Land in particular.

Another example of a Buddha land is the realm of the Medicine Buddha, called Lapis Lazuli, which was thought as existing to the east (not west). The Medicine Buddha Sutra describes it at length. It even goes out of its way to say it’s easier to be reborn in the realm of Lapis Lazuli than the Pure Land of Amitabha:

“If their rebirth in the Pure Land is still uncertain, but they hear the name of the World-Honored Medicine Buddha, then, at the time of death, eight great Bodhisattvas, namely, [list of names] will traverse space and descend to show them the way. They will thereupon be reborn spontaneously in jeweled flowers of many hues. [i.e. be reborn in the Buddha land of the Medicine Buddha]

Translated and annotated under the guidance of Dharma Master Hsuan Jung by Minh Thanh & P.D. Leigh

If a person could be reborn in their next life in a Buddha land, any Buddha land, and thus be in the presence of a living Buddha, it is thought they would find refuge, but also they would advance much better along the Buddhist path. The idea of Pure Lands never supplanted or replaced more tradition Buddhism, but if your current circumstances prevented you from following the Buddhist path, you could opt to be reborn in a Buddha land and make up for it in the future.

… but then we come to another Buddha land worth noting: the Buddha land of Shakyamuni Buddha himself. The sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra drops a plot twist wherein the Buddha never really died, and exists for all time on Vulture Peak in India (a real place where historically he and the Buddhist community often dwelt), and preaching the Dharma to any who see him (details added by me in parantheses):

I live on Mt. Sacred Eagle (another name for Vulture Peak)
And also in the other abodes
For asaṃkhya (countless) kalpas (eons).

…”This world is in a great fire.
The end of the kalpa [of destruction] is coming.”
In reality this world of mine is peaceful.
It is filled with gods and men.

Translation by Rev. Senchu Murano

The Lotus Sutra version of the Pure Land is less about esoteric geography, and more about Shakyamuni Buddha always being here, whether we see them or not. It comes down to wisdom, clarity, and good conduct.

This viewpoint is found in Zen as well. When we look at the Hymn of Zazen by Japanese monk, Hakuin, who was a lifelong devotee of the Lotus Sutra, we can see the influence:

浄土即ち遠からず
Jōdo sunawachi tōkarazu

“Indeed, the Pure Land is not far away”

Amateur translation by me

and:

当所即ち蓮華国此身即ち仏なり
Tōsho sunawachi rengekoku, kono mi sunawachi hotoke nari

“This place is none other than the Land of Lotuses [the Pure Land],
this body is none other than the Buddha.”

Amateur translation by me

But this isn’t just Hakuin talking. As we saw with the Obaku Zen tradition (a cousin of Hakuin’s Rinzai tradition), they felt the same way, only replacing Shakyamuni with Amida Buddha. But the sentiment was the same. You’ll find similar sentiments in esoteric traditions too, but I have little experience with those and cannot explain in much detail.

So, that brings us to the point: how does one interpret all these Pure Lands, these Buddha lands? My views have gradually changed over time, but I don’t pretend to have the answer. I think in a way that all viewpoints are correct. It is like the famous parable of the blind men describing an elephant: everyone has some idea, but the big picture is beyond our grasp. So, there’s no wrong way to interpret it. If one believes it’s a faraway refuge to be reborn into, that’s totally fine.1 If one believes it’s all in the mind, that’s fine too.

Even the Buddhist sutras, including some I linked above, state that simply “hearing” of the Buddha lands is a merit unto itself. So, if you’ve made it this far, you’re already doing just fine. Just apply the teachings in the way that best fits you.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu

1 Maybe this is my background as a scifi fan or something, but I do like to imagine that instead of physical continents, the various worlds and Buddha lands are just planets and worlds across the entire Universe. But that’s a personal view, more fantasy than firm belief, so please take it with a grain of salt.

The Hidden Treasure of Horyuji

Much of our recent trip to the cities of Kyoto and Nara was planned ahead of time, however, we did have a couple unplanned visits we did that both worked out very well. One of them was the ancient Buddhist temple Horyuji. Horyuji is ancient, even by the standards of Buddhist temples in Japan. It was founded in 607, at a time when the early Japanese Imperial court was first establishing relations with China, and the Korean peninsula.

This is important because Horyuji shows a lot of elements imported from “Kudara” (百済), which was the Japanese word for the Korean kingdom of Baekje,1 and the wider Korean peninsula as a whole. This was a time when the Korean peninsula was not one country, but three major kingdoms, all ethnically Korean, along with several minor fiefdoms, each fighting for survival. Baekje was a particularly rich and developed country with close contacts with Tang-dynasty China, and also with the fledgling Japanese “Yamato” court. It was through Baekje that Buddhism first came to Japan, along with a lot of cultural and technical know-how from the continent. Japan, for its part, often sent military aid and such to help defend Baekje from its rivals.

In any case, Horyuji as a very old temple represents a snapshot in time when Chinese and Korean influences were very strong. The architecture, statues and such all show a combination of local, and imported influences. Further, because the temple was one of several founded by the semi-legendary Prince Shotoku, the temple is a testament to his forward-thinking efforts to reform Japan, in contrast to the reactionary Mononobé Clan whom he defeated in battle.

However, travel warning: Horyuji is kind of out of the way from modern Nara. We had just finished our trip to Todaiji, and with some time to spare, my wife remember a haiku she had learned in school that featured Horyuji. However, it turns out that Horyuji was in a pretty isolated area outside of modern Nara, so getting there from downtown took a 30 minute taxi ride at a cost of ¥7000. We decided to go late in the afternoon, and the taxi driver was noticeably concerned about us heading there so late in the day, but was our only chance to go, so we risked it.2

Horyuji contains several treasure houses, and a museum, with countless artifacts from early Japanese-Buddhist history. Unfortunately, like many temples in Japan cameras are often not allowed, however, the website has many excellent photographs, so I highly recommend perusing the English website.

The temple complex of Horyuji was considerably larger than I first expected:

Steps leading up to the front gate…
Temple courtyard

Because it was so hot, and so late on a weekday, there were very few people there, primarily a school field trip (in the photo above, you can see the teacher carrying an orange flag). To the left you can see a tall pagoda, which in Japanese is called a go-ju-no-tō (五重塔, lit. “five-storied tower”):3

The pagoda above (English description here) is said to be one of the oldest still standing, and buried underneath may be some ashes or bones of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, himself.

To the right, the Golden Hall (kondō, 金堂):

As the English description explains, this is one of the oldest, extant wooden buildings in Japan. Seeing the “triad” or “trinity” of Shakyamuni Buddha (photos here) enshrined there was amazing. I had often seen photos of it as an example of artwork of the period, but I honestly never imagined I’d see it face to face. I was definitely in awe.

Speaking of which, when people normally think of a trinity, they either think of The Matrix, or of the Holy Trinity in the Christian religion. However, Mahayana Buddhism often paired a particular Buddha with a pair of attendant Bodhisattvas into trinities of its own. Horyuji was unusual in having several such works of art, where most temples might have only one.

For example, in the photos above, you can see a building with white curtains over the entrance. That was the great lecture hall (daikōdō, 大講堂), where a trinity of the Medicine Buddha (photo here) and his two attendant Bodhisattvas was enshrined. I paid obeisance there to help with my gout, which was quite painful that day. I also took home special paper talisman (ofuda) the temple provided against Covid19.

Another statue that really stood out to me was the famous “Kudara Kannon”, a statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon either made in Baekje in the 6th century, or made by artisans imported from Baekje. You can see a photo of it here (scroll down a bit), but it was much taller than I expected. The Kudara Kannon was quite tall and slender, looking down over us, yet serenely beautiful too. It looked fragile, and yet had endured for countless centuries.

In the museum, I also saw an illustrated history of Prince Shotoku, the patron of Horyuji (and of Japanese Buddhism in general) from the 12th century:

Tokyo National Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Someday I will write more about Prince Shotoku, because as a religious figure he is well-known in Japan, but not outside the country. He’s a fascinating figure, but also the his origin story is pretty fascinating too, and shows further fusion of Korean immigrant culture in Japan.

Anyhow, I really wish I could have done more justice to this visit, but the temple website in English is excellent, and the experience was very fascinating as an amateur historian, and Buddhist-nerd.

1 Baekje ultimately fell to Silla, unfortunately. There are plenty of excellent K-Dramas about this historical period in time, by the way. There are plenty of excellent K-Dramas in general, I would argue.

2 Because we were in the middle of nowhere after the temple closed, and no taxis around, getting back to our hotel required some help from locals, who showed us some local buses to use, plus a few transfers. In short: be mindful of the time, and how you get back to Nara if you go to Horyuji. That said, it was definitely worth the visit.

3 The term “pagoda” is something many Westerners are vaguely familiar with, but are unaware of the significance. Many Buddhist temples in antiquity (and sometimes even modern ones), keep a Buddhist “storehouse” of relics, sutras, etc. This is based on the ancient Indian stupa, where relics of Shakyamuni Buddha and his followers were housed, and served as pilgrimage spots. The term pagoda is possibly based on Chinese language, but definitely shows misunderstanding by early European visitors.