Encyclopedia of Buddhism

The focus upon the events surrounding a devotee’s
death similarly gave rise to prognosticatory practices
aimed at discerning evidence confirming the success-
ful attainment of rebirth. Among the numerous signs
accompanying the death of a devotee, deathbed and
postmortem accounts report apparitions, DREAMS, the
presence of fragrances or auras at the moment of death,
the preservation of the devotee’s body, or the discov-
ery of relics (s ́arlra) in the ashes of the adherent’s cre-
mated body. The narration of these auspicious signs
became a central element in collections of Pure Land
biographies that proliferated in China and Japan with
the development of Pure Land belief.

These compendia offer windows through time on
Pure Land adherents from a wide range of religious
and social positions. The biographical collections in-
clude hagiographies of monks and laity, men and
women, elite and poor. Besides their edificatory role,
the collections were historically instrumental in creat-
ing a sense of Pure Land as a unified tradition, a per-
ception that was reinforced by the Chinese Pure Land
biographical collections of the Song period, which con-
structed a patriarchal lineage for the tradition.

Pure Land societies
Although the meditative practices enumerated above
could be understood as suited for solitary cultivation,
it is equally important to emphasize the communal set-
tings in which Pure Land came to flourish. Chinese
Buddhists traditionally traced the origins of Pure Land
in China back to the aforementioned Huiyuan, who in
402 C.E. on Mount Lu organized a society of 123 mem-
bers drawn from the monastic community and the
gentry elite. The members of this society took a solemn
vow before an image of Amitabha that whoever
achieved the Pure Land first would aid those remain-
ing behind in attaining rebirth. This association, which
was later named the White Lotus Society (Bailian she),
became a paradigm in the formation of societies
(jieshe) that proliferated particularly during the Song
dynasty. Many of these later societies differed from
Huiyuan’s confraternity in a number of significant
ways. Their membership was drawn not from the elite
alone but from a wider societal spectrum, including
women and people of the lower classes. The size of
these societies was sometimes in the thousands, far
exceeding the modest size of Huiyuan’s society. Fur-
thermore, these associations often engaged in practices
that did not always explicitly or exclusively address
Amitabha and the Pure Land or that differed from the
meditative emphasis in Huiyuan’s group. Lastly, some

of these societies were founded and led by lay people

rather than monks. This is notably the case of the

White Lotus movement founded by Mao Ziyuan (d.u.)

in the twelfth century.

This period in which Pure Land associations mul-

tiplied in China also witnessed a proliferation of sim-

ilar associations in Korea and Japan. The Korean monk

CHINUL(1158–1210), who is best known for the Ko-

ryo ̆period (918–1392) revival of the So ̆n (Chan) tra-

dition, is credited with initiating a movement of

religious societies (kyo ̆lsa; Chinese, jieshe) that drew in-

spiration from the Chinese movement of the same era.

In Heian Japan, the scholar Yoshishige Yasutane (d.

1002), who is famous for compiling the first Japanese

collection of Pure Land biographies, and the Tendai

monk Genshin (942–1017), renowned for his seminal

work on Pure Land, the Ojoyoshu (Essentials of Re-

birth), were active in establishing and participating in

societies such as the Kangakue(Society for the Ad-

vancement of Learning) and the Nijugozammaie

(Twenty-five [Member] Samadhi Assembly) that had

a Pure Land orientation. Besides regular gatherings in

which the name of Amitabha was recited, the Niju-

gozammaiealso provided support for sick and dying

members, adopting many of the deathbed practices

discussed above. In contrast to these associations with

elite membership, groups with members from all so-

cial strata were enlisted by the itinerant holy men (hi-

jiri) who spread Pure Land practice among the masses.

Perhaps the most famous of these was Kuya (903–972),

who proclaimed the vocal recitation of the Buddha’s

name from street corners.

See also:Buddhanusmr

ti (Recollection of the Bud-

dha); Decline of the Dharma; Nenbutsu (Chinese, Ni-

anfo; Korean, Yo ̆mbul); Pure Lands; Pure Land

Schools

Bibliography

Dobbins, James C. “Genshin’s Deathbed Nembutsu Ritual in

Pure Land Buddhism.” In Religions of Japan in Practice,ed.

George J. Tanabe, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press, 1999.

Foard, James; Solomon, Michael; and Payne, Richard M., eds.

The Pure Land Tradition: History and Development.Berke-

ley: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, Univer-

sity of California at Berkeley, 1996.

Getz, Daniel A. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation

of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung,ed.

Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz. Honolulu: University

of Hawaii Press, 1999.

PURELANDBUDDHISM