Mahayana in China and Japan / Vajrayana Flashcards
Define the Ullambana / Yulanben Sutra
is a Mahayana sutra concerning filial piety.
Define the Scripture on the Ten Kings
- East Asian apocryphal
- Making offerings to the dead doesn’t work anymore we have to do it to the monks and nuns
- Takes a full year to be reincarnated thus the living must transfer merit through the 10 courts and improving their karma for a better rebirth. Each of the 10 courts is associated with a ritual that is made on behalf of the dead
- Redefinition of the Buddhist mortuary cosmology in light of Chinese social mores (judgement and record of right and wrong)
- Textual practice
- Central concepts and practices
- Division of the mourning period (10 courts of the underworld): Courts: 1-7 weekly ritual, 8: 100 days, 9: 1 year, 10: 3 years (supposed to mourn your dead parents for 3 years because that is thought to be the time you are dependent on your parents)
- Link between posthumous judgements
Who is the Buddha of Infinite Life (Amitabha / Emituo / Amida)?
Creator and overseer of the western pure land [SK: sukhavati]
What is the pure land?
- Characteristics of the pure land (no food, no drink, no sex) + connection to this worldly practice (this sutra acknowledges that it’s hard to live a Buddhist life so the chant alone is enough to get you into the pure land)
- Characteristics of a pure land birth (saying a chant)
- Amitabha’s forty-eight vows (these vows allow him to create the pure land)
- one is no longer in the cycle of rebirth. Born from a lotus flower, surrounded by indulgences surrounding hearing, smells, and looks.
What is the Japanese pure land traditions?
- Doctrine: the decline of Dharma (CH:mofa/ Jp: mappo)
- Simple, accessible devotional practice: chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha
- Universally popular among the Chinese Buddhists
- Ubiquitous practice in early Japanese Buddhism
- Kamakura Period (1192-1333) –> New Buddhist Schools
- –Jodo Shu (pure land school) and Jodo shnshu (new pure land school). Both focus on nembutsu
What is funeral buddhism in Japan?
- The Danka system and “funeral buddhism”
- Every family needed to be linked to a specific buddhist temple, this is often described as the creation of funeral buddhist (social system whereby funerals were a system of revenue)
- a system of voluntary and long-term affiliation between Buddhist temples and households in use in Japan. In it, households (the danka) financially support a Buddhist temple which, in exchange, provides for their spiritual needs
- New ways of being buried are being proposed, no space for burial plots in family’s temple and its very expensive
Discuss “greater filial piety” in the Ghost Festival ritual
-The ghost Festival (celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month- the idea of the ghost festival is that at this time the ghosts of the dead can wander the earth and it is the responsibility of the living to take care of the dead. During the ghost festival you support all of the dead, not just your ancestors. Make offerings to the unnamed and the wandering dead
Discuss the rituals associated with the Scripture on the Ten Kings
- 1-7 weekly ritual
- 8: 100 days
- 9: 1 year
- 10: 3 years (supposed to mourn your dead parents for 3 years because that is thought to be the time you are dependent on your parents)
Discuss the connection between the “decline of the dharma” and Pure Land Practice in Japan
3 stages (decline of the Dharma)
- The dharma (Chinese = 500/ Japanese= 1000 years)
- Semblance dharma (Chinese = 500/ Japanese= 1000 years).
- End of dharma (people did not remember the teachings of the buddha/ did not believe they could follow Buddhism in its doctrinal way). When Buddhism started to become popular in China and Japan this is when the semblance dharma was going to be eradicated, thus it was thought that it was no longer possible to practice Buddhism in its doctrinally or specific point. The only thing that was possible to do then, was a simple form of Buddhism or practice and Pure land Buddhism offered this, Amitabha buddha created a pure land that was easily accessible to all beings, if they cited a simple chant they could be born into the pure land and out of the cycle of samsara and listen to Amitabha’s teachings forever. The chant was just simply repeating his name over and over.
Discuss the role of miracle stories in promulgating Buddhist doctrines and practices in East Asia
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Define Mandala
mats of celestial images, they sit on them and imagine they are one with the deities
Define Vajra
the thunderbolt vehicle
Define delok
The delok tradition (delok lit. means return from death) (individuals who claim they have the experience of dying and descend into the realms of ghosts and hells and then to come back and talk about it)
Define tulku
- a tulku is a person who has been identified as the emanation of a deceased master (reincarnated)
- Leadership under lamas –> esp. tulkus
- E.g., tenzin gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (when a tulkus dies they look for his rebirth in a child, the child under goes tests and if it is the dalai lama it is consistent with the idea of the boddhisattva path, keeps taking on human rebirths to save all people)
Define Bardo Thodol
The bardo (lit. intermediate state) thodol (lit. time of death)
