Pure Ground or Amidisme indicates one of the forms of Bouddhisme Mahayana the most practiced in China (, jingtu ), with the Japan (, jôdo ) and with the Vietnam (), whose central deity is the Buddha Amitabha, also named Amitayus (" Life-Infinie"). It is primarily based on the faith, the devotion and the practice of the recitations, with for objective reaching after death the ground of Buddha (will buddhakshetra) of Amitabha, left paradise named in Sanscrit Sukhavati " Bienheureuse" (chin. Jile; jap. Gokuraku 極樂), sometimes called Western paradise .

Outwards even of the schools Pure Ground, the Soutras of the infinite life , the Soutra of meditation , Amitabha and its paradise influenced the whole of Buddhism native of the Far East.

Origin

The first mention of Amitâbha in the gun is in the Pratyutpanna-samâdhi-sûtra probably writes at first century BC with the Gandhara. Translated by the monk kouchanais Lokaksema in 179 with Luoyang, then capital of the empire Han, it would be at the origin of the diffusion of the Pure Earth in China, area where these doctrines took its rise. The first archaeological mention of Amitâbha is a dedication on a Piédestal of statue discovered close to Mathura in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is dated from the 2nd century, 28e year of the reign of Huvishka, sovereign of the Empire kouchan, which makes of it the oldest document gone back to all Mahâyâna. One proposed an influence Persian to explain the appearance of Amitâbha among the Buddhas and the importance given to his field of Buddha, but without no convincing conclusion.

Pure Earth in China

Inspired by the Pratyutpanna-samadhi-sûtra , the monk Huiyuan (334-416) bases in 402 with his companions with the monastery of Donglin (東林寺) on the mount Lu a group of devotion with Amitabha, the Société of the white lotus (bailianshe 白蓮社), regarded as the departure of the school Chinese Pure Ground, which sees in Huiyuan its patriarch founder. However, the visualization ( guanxiang 觀想) of the Buddha is for him especially a help with the meditation dhyana or chan (禪), and the true departure of the amidism will intervene a little later. Huiyuan will remain always nevertheless a guardian figure; its memory will in addition inspire under the Song of the South the founder of very an other school, the Secte of the white lotus, promised with an agitated destiny.

The Pratyutpanna-samadhi-sûtra , Soutra of the meditation which makes it possible to contemplate all the Buddhas (般若三昧經) also inspired Zhiyi (智顗 538-597), founder of the school Tiantai.

The second patriarch, with whom the movement started to take a real development, is Tanluan (曇鸞 476-542) monastery Xuanzhong (玄中寺) with the Shanxi. Then the monks Daochuo (道綽 562-645) come and Shandao (善導 613-681) from the Tang dynasty, which format the doctrines of the school. It will be pressed to Japan on four texts, three will soutras grouped in a Sūtra Triparti of the Pure Earth (淨土三經) and a treaty:

• Large Sukhavati-vyuha Sūtra , or large Soutra of Life-Infinite (佛說無量壽經);
• Small Sukhavati-vyuha Sūtra , or small Soutra of Life-Infinite , still called Sūtra d' Amita (佛說阿彌陀經);
• Sūtra Amitayurdyhana or Soutra of contemplations (佛說觀無量壽經);
• the treaty of Vasubandhu on the Sukhavati-vyuha Sūtra .

During the era Xianfeng of the dynasty Qing, the monk Weiyuan (魏源) adds to it the Vœu of Samantabhadra of the Sūtra Avatamsaka . At the beginning of the Republic of China, Yinguang (印光) joined to the unit the Recitation of Mahasthamaprapta of the Sūtra Shurangama . For the Chinese schools which accept this tradition, the texts of the Pure Earth thus consist of five will soutras and a treaty.

Since the whole beginning with Huiyuan, devotion with Amitabha and meditation are associated. In China, the currents Pure Ground and Chan never hesitated to borrow one from the other. Thus, the monk Chan Hung-Jen (601-674) regarded the recitation as a good exercise of preparation for the beginners. Cimin Huiri (慈愍慧日 680-748), which lived 12 years with the Gandhara, is at the origin of a current Pure Ground integrating much Chan and monastic tradition. Buddhists of all the currents were interested in Jingtu and commented on its doctrines. The school besides developed by the means of " transfuges" syncretistic that strictly structured lines.

Both centered on the practice more than on the philosophical speculation, being able to do without great monastic structures, Pure Ground and Chan held good at the time of persecutions of the dynasty Zhou and 845, as under the reign of the Mongolian emperors where the Buddhism tantric had the exclusiveness in the official favor. From this dynasty, the Chinese Buddhist landscape will be made up almost exclusively of the three currents Ground Pure, Chan and tantric, the two first being most widespread.

In a general way, a certain degree of syncretism always remained the standard in the Chinese world. The union of the two practices (jingchanyizhi 淨禪一致) there is sometimes promoted like a version of the duality compassion (Pure Ground) and concentration (Chan).

Pure Earth in Japan

The doctrines of the Pure Earth (Jōdo-kyō 淨土教) penetrated in Japan as of the time of Nara (8th century) with the school Tendai. Until the end of the 12th century, it was spread first of all especially in the aristocracy. One of its more famous promoters was Genshin (源信 942-1017), holding of a vision millenarist which saw in Amida (Amitabha) the only help in a world promised with the destruction. Little by little, of many currents integrated Jōdo elements, of which yamabushis, Kegon and particularly Shingon under the impulse of Kakuban (覚鑁 1094-1143) which tried a synthesis of Amitabha and Vairocana. The courroucée form of this last, Fudo Myoo, was equipped with the capacity to support the entry with the Gokuraku paradise and was included in paintings raigo , representations of Amida with its assistants.

The first school individualized Pure Ground, Jōdo-shū (淨土宗), was rested by the monk Honen Shonin (法然上人 1133-1212), former monk of the mount Hiei (比叡山) disappointed by lesson of the Tendai. Inspired by Shandao, it centered the practice on the invocation of formulate 南無阿弥陀仏 (Namu Amida Butsu), known as 念仏 (nenbutsu), sufficient to reach the pure ground " Suprême" happiness; 極楽 (Gokuraku).

Shinran Shonin (親鸞聖人 1173-1263), its disciple, did not insist for its part on the importance of the faith in Amida, only ready to save, the recitation not being any more but one expression of gratitude. Its disciples founded after his death the school Jōdo-Shinshū (淨土眞宗). The orientation taken by these the first two schools drew aside clearly Jōdo of the Zen.

With the era Edo appeared two new schools, Yuzu-nembutsu-shu (融通念仏宗) being claimed of the monk Tendai Ryonin (良忍 1072-1152) and Ji-shu (時宗) being claimed of Ippen (Ippen (一遍 1239-1289).

The school Obaku (黃檗) founded by Ingen-Ryuki (隱元隆琦 1592-1673), Chan monk having fled China on arrival of the Manchus, preserved until aujourdhui the Chinese tradition of union of the practices Zen and Jōdo.

Doctrines and practices

Amitabha forms part of the historical succession of various Buddhas, each one exerting its influence over one era, ours being that of the Shakyamuni Buddha. Still Bodhisattva, they practice the dharma near the Buddha of which they will take the succession. Thus the Buddha Shakyamuni was the pupil of Dipankara and will be in its turn the Master of Maitreya, the Buddha to come. Thus the bodhisattva Dharmakara studied at Lokesvararaja and became Amitabha.

According to the Soutra of Life-Infinite , whereas he still studied the Dharma, Amitabha had made 48 wishes describing its future world, of which four (Nos 18,19,20 and 22) contain the essence of the promise made with the faithful ones: if those make at least ten times in their life the wish reappear in its pure ground located at the west, and endeavor to keep the Buddha in spirit, particularly at the moment of their death, it will appear to them and they will reach in its kingdom; they will be able to continue there the study of the dharma under its direction, becoming bodhisattvas, then Buddhas.

There exist theological alternatives between the various branches of the Pure Earth, but much recommend these five practices:

• Veneration and incantations: regarded as only essential per many Japanese schools, they constitute in the Chinese movements only part of the practice, exercise personal as much as magic incantation.
• Visualization: there exist sixteen forms of the Buddha described in the Sutra of contemplation .
• Reading and recitation of will sutras: they constitute an asceticism which makes it possible to keep the Buddha present at the spirit. Moreover, the names of the deities contained inside exert their intangible effect when they are marked.
• Wishes for the rebirth in the ground of Amitabha: they must be expressed with faith.
• Acquisition of merits by the practice of the compassion and the continuation of wisdom

Faith in the effectiveness of the wishes of Amitabha, desire to enter its paradise and practical are the three pillars of the Pure Ground .

See too

Related articles

• Buddhism Mahâyâna
• Schools of Buddhism
• History of Buddhism

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