Lotus and Pure Land

Jérôme DucorA

mongst world religions, Buddhism is distinguished by the first
three centuries of its history, a period in which it lacked both ascriptural canon and representations of its founder in images. In fact, we
had to wait until the dawn of the Christian era for its iconography todevelop and for the establishment of the Sanskrit canon in the Indian
subcontinent and the Påli canon in Sri Lanka. It was in conjunction with
their appearance that the Great Vehicle (Mahåyåna) developed, thisenlarged form of Buddhism proposing that enlightenment is available toall.

Double Dimension of Mahāyāna
The Great Vehicle is known, in particular, for its insistence on universal
emptiness, a view radicalised by the Mådhyamika school in its ‘double
emptiness’ formulation, that is, of the people (pudgala) and the elements (dharma) that constitute them. It is above all this philosophicaldimension that would—for decades from the 19th century onwards—
attract the attention of Western scholars. In doing so, they neglected, forthe most part, another dimension that was at least as crucial to the Great
Vehicle: its cosmology and Buddhology, which leaned more and more
towards a supra-mundane conception of the Buddha (lokottara).
This original double dimension of Mahåyåna—philosophical andBuddhological—is illustrated by a dozen sËtras that the specialist
Etienne Lamotte highlighted as having been translated into Chinese
between 147 and 297, marking the simultaneous establishment of theGreat Vehicle in China with the development of Buddhism in thatcountry.1
Among these texts arising from the early days of Mahåyåna we ofcourse find the Perfection of Wisdom SËtras (Prajñåpåramitå) in 8,000
and 25,000 stanzas, on which the Mådhyamika philosophy was founded.
But we also find there the SËtra of the samådhi of being in the presenceof all Buddhas (Pratyutpanna-buddha-samukhåvasthita-samådhi-sËtra)
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and the SËtra of the Adornments of the Land of Bliss (Sukhåvat¥vyËhasËtra), as well as the Vimalak¥rti-sËtra and the Lotus SËtra. It is thissecond group that is testament to the evolution of the Buddha as a supramundane being.
Let’s not forget that in general Buddhism considers, firstly, that there
can be only one buddha at a time in a given universe and, secondly, that
there were buddhas before Íåkyamuni and that there will be others afterhim. But the Great Vehicle stands out by maintaining the existence ofother buddhas in the universe around ours with whom it is possible tomake contact in various ways or to be born with them in the next life.
In this respect, the example of Dazhidulun (Treatise on the GreatSËtra of the Perfection of Wisdom) is particularly significant. It wastranslated into Chinese by Kumåraj¥va between 404 and 406, 406 also
being the year that he translated the Lotus SËtra. Now the Dazhidulun
provides a veritable treatise on the existence of the Present Buddhas (現在佛), those Buddhas residing in the ten directions (十方佛), ‘outside’ ourown universe (他方佛), each one reigning over their own realm, or ‘buddha field’ (佛土).2The Lotus S ūtra and Amida’s Pure LandAs we know, amongst these buddha fields is that of Buddha Amitåbha(Jap. Amida) who would win a popular following, from China to Japan.
However during this transmission, the Tiantai/Tendai school associatedit with the Lotus SËtra. Still today, the daily liturgy of this school focuses on the Lotus in the morning, and the commemoration of Amida in theevening (asa daimoku, yË nembutsu 朝題目 夕念佛).
The Lotus SËtra itself attests to this association. In Chapter XXIII(Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King), Íåkyamuni states:
If in the last five-hundred-year period after the Tathågata has enteredextinction there is a woman who hears this sutra and carries out its practices as the sutra directs, when her life here on earth comes to an end
she will immediately go to the world of Peace and Delight (Sukhåvat¥)where the Buddha Amida dwells surrounded by an assembly of great
bodhisattvas, and there will be born seated on a jewelled seat in the centre of a lotus blossom.

But the Lotus SËtra is even more famous for another reason. TheSukhåvat¥ is a buddha field purified by Amida and located outside of ourSahå world, the buddha field of Íåkyamuni, where the filth of passions

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No Image

Illustration of Devadatta Chapter (Chapter 12, the Lotus SËtra) known as the SËtra
Consecrated by the Heike. Japan; 12th century. Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima(Courtesy of Benrido Ltd.)

proliferates. However Chapter XI of the Lotus (The Emergence of theTreasures StËpa) will show a true epiphany: in order to open the stËpa ofthe Buddha Many Treasures, Íåkyamuni must first rally the beings separated from him who were preaching in the ten directions; and when they
return to the Buddha, “the Sahå world becomes pure.”
For its part, the SËtra of the contemplation of the Bodhisattva
Samantabhadra, the third text of the Lotus Trilogy as defined by Tendai,
names Íåkyamuni’s purified realm as the ‘Eternally Tranquil Light’(JØjakkØ 常寂光), the Buddha himself receiving the name ‘Vairocana’(Birushana 毘盧遮那). This therefore reminds us of another famous textof the Great Vehicle of the Far East: the Flower Garland SËtra with its‘cosmic’ Buddha Vairocana and his ‘Lotus Treasury World’ (RengezØ 蓮華藏).
However, this Mahåyåna doctrine that Íåkyamuni’s kingdom is not so
impure as it first appears is eloquently expressed in the first chapter ofthe Vimalak¥rti-sËtra, entitled ‘buddha kingdoms’, where the Buddha
states:If a Bodhisattva wants to get a pure land, he must purify his mind!
When his mind is pure, the buddha land is pure.

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In China this famous statement gave birth to an immanent interpretation of Amida Buddha and his Pure Land. But during the same sermonof the Buddha, it caused confusion for his disciple Íåriputra: if the purity of a buddha land is based on the purity of mind, then Íåkyamuni’sintention was not pure when he built his own buddha field—our universe. So that is the moment when Íåkyamuni showed him its
fundamental purity, but in a more immediate and prosaic manner than in
the Lotus:
The Buddha pressed the earth with his toe. Immediately, the great universe of a billion worlds was adorned with hundreds of thousands ofrare jewels, like the land of Buddha RatnavyËha, adorned with jewels ofinfinite merits.

The Buddha also explained to Íåriputra:
My Buddha realm is always of this purity! It is from my desire to liberate the weakest people that I show it as an unclean land with all its ills.

Then, ‘The Buddha lifted his sublime foot and this world reappeared as
before.’The Pure Land canon also presents this land as being close at hand.
For while the Amida SËtra maintains that it is “west of here, beyond atrillion other buddha lands,” the SËtra of Infinite-Life Contemplations
declares for its part that “Amida Buddha is not far from here.” TheInfinite-Life SËtra also shows how the audience was rewarded with avision of the Pure Land of Amida: “The assembly here saw all of it in an
instant; and those assembled there [in the Pure Land] also saw our landin this way.” Suffice to say that with the yardstick of the transcendence
of enlightenment, everything is relative!

The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Hymns on the Pure Land
In Japan, at the turn of the 11th century, the work of the monk Genshin
源信 (942–1017) brought a significant contribution to the Tendai doctrine, including its links with Amida’s Pure Land tradition. It is throughhim that another Tendai monk, HØnen 法然 (1133–1212), was to discover the teachings of a Chinese master from another stream of the Pure
Land than Tendai: Shandao 善導 (613–681). After a quarter of a century
in the Tendai school, HØnen then undertook to establish Shandao’s
teaching in Japan through an independent school: the Pure Land School

lotus and pure land155(JØdoshË).
He developed the argument that the Lotus SËtra was concomitant to
the SËtra of Infinite-Life Contemplations, on which Shandao was mainly
based.3 Without going into detail, we recall that it was HØnen who was
the main target of the Lotus’s ultimate advocate, Nichiren 日蓮(1222–1282).
Finally, HØnen is known as the master of Shinran 親鸞 (1173–1263),
who, for his part, rediscovered another Chinese master Tanluan 曇鸞
(476–542) whose work had such a strong influence on him that his own
teaching formed a new current, the true school of Pure Land (JØdoShinshË). Yet, from the age of nine, Shinran had spent twenty years in
Tendai before meeting HØnen. It is therefore all the more surprising that
his voluminous work does not mention the Lotus SËtra even once.
However, there is an important reference in his Japanese Hymns on thePure Land (JØdo Wasan), where Shinran says:
Having really become (jitsujØ 實成) Amida Buddha in the remote past(kuon 久遠)
Out of compassion for foolish ordinary beings within the five defilements,
He revealed himself as Íåkyamuni Buddha
Appearing in the city of Gayå.

This takes us back to one of the most famous teachings of the Lotus.
In Chapter XV (Emerging from the Earth), Bodhisattva Maitreya repeatedly noted that Íåkyamuni’s attainment of enlightenment was “not sodistant” (未久), and even that it was “extremely close” (甚近) since it
took place forty years before the Buddha preached the Lotus.
But in the following chapter, the famous chapter XVI (The Life Spanof the Tathågata), the Buddha makes this revelation:
In all the worlds the gods, human beings and asuras all say that the present Íåkyamuni Buddha left the palace of the Íåkyas, seated himself inthe place of enlightenment not far from the city of Gayå, and there
attained anuttara-samyaksaµbodhi (supreme perfect enlightenment).
But Good Sons, it has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I really became
buddha (jitsujØ butsu 實成佛). (…) Thus, since I became a buddha in theremote past (kuon 久遠), my longevity is of infinite and immeasurable
aeons, and I still abide here without entering extinction.

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lotus and pure landThis shows that, without explicitly referring to the Lotus, Shinran
nevertheless drew from it to present Íåkyamuni as the transformationbody of Amida (nirmåˆakåya). While Shinran never spoke of the Lotus,
it fell to his descendant Zonkaku 存覺 (1290–1373) to reveal the interpretation of JØdo-ShinshË by explaining the identification of Íåkyamuniof the Lotus SËtra’s essential teaching (honmon 本門) with Amida
Buddha.4
To conclude, after revealing his immeasurable longevity, Íåkyamunicontinues with these stanzas in the Lotus:
While living beings see the end of a kalpa
And all is consumed in a great fire,This, my land, remains safe and tranquil. (…)
My pure land (jØdo 淨土) is not destroyed,
Yet the multitude sees it as consumed in fire.

Here we find a sort of recap of Mahåyåna doctrine of the supramundane dimension of enlightenment balanced with that of the illusionof our universe, as in the relationship between the Two Truths—absoluteand relative.
Notes
1
La concentration de la marche héroïque (ÍËraµgamasamådhisËtra), 1965, Institut
belge des hautes études chinoises, pp. 44–45.
2
Le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Någårjuna, Mahåprajñåpåramitåßåstra,
traduit en chinois par Kumåraj¥va, tr. Étienne Lamotte, Bureaux du Muséon, Louvain,
vol. 1, 1944, pp. 300–306, 485, 531–557.
3
Jérôme Ducor, Hônen: Le gué vers la Terre Pure (Senchaku-shû), Paris, Librairie
Arthème Fayard, 2005, pp. 168–169.
4
Jérôme Ducor, La vie de Zonkaku, religieux bouddhiste japonais du XIVe siècle,Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 1993, pp. 181–183.

Author Biography
Jérôme Ducor began his Buddhist studies at the University of Lausanne with Prof.
Jacques May and received his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. He teaches at theuniversities of Lausanne and Geneva, and is the curator at the Asia department of theMuseum of Ethnography of Geneva (MEG). In addition, he received ordination andmastery of the Jodo-Shinshu Buddhist school at Hompa-Honganji (Kyoto). He is basedat the Shingyôji Temple in Geneva and is the President of the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Paris. Bibliography: www.pitaka.ch/ducbio.htm