A Study On Zen Master Mengdong's Pure Land Thought

Active as a representative figure of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism in Qing Dynasty,Zen Master Mengdong(1741-1811)held his pure land thought as an important bridge and belt connecting the pure land thought held by Zhuhong and Zhixu active previously in the late Ming Dynasty and Yinguang active posterior in the Republic of China,and therefore constituted as one important link in the history of Chinese pure land thought.Hereby its important role in the history of Chinese pure land thought manifests itself as a valuable Buddhist cultural resource worthy of further exploration.Unfortunately,there is not any systematization of these far enough research on his pure land thought.On the basis of previous studies,this paper intends to make a comprehensive,in-depth and detailed discussion on its background,texts,theoretical foundation as well as corresponding characteristics,basic contents,evaluation and lastly its subsequently coming influence,in order to show its overall style.Chapter One,the background and texts.The formation and dissemination of Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought was influenced by the social and religious circumstances at that time,and moreover was closely related to his personal experience.The texts of Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought consists mainly in two books,namely G?th? of Chanting Amitabha(one volume,1796)and the Collected Works of Zen Master Mengdong(two volumes,1818).Besides the hand-deleted manuscript by Zen Master Mengdong further highlights the texts of the pure land thought in a special way.The editions of the Collected Works of Zen Master Mengdong can be divided into two major systems: Northern versions and Southern versions.Among them,the system of Southern versions represented by Qian Yi'an edition(1819)and Yang Renshan edition(1871)pays more attention to the texts of pure land thought itself.Chapter Two,the theoretical foundation as well as corresponding characteristics.Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought is mainly based on the ontology of mind-nature,the theory of causality as well as the view of middle way,bears such characteristic as strong fusion and practicality.Its fusion is not only manifested in using Zen Buddhism theory to explain the Pure Land,but also in making the chanting Amitabha embracing Zen Buddhism and Teaching Buddhism and even all dharmas;While its practicality is mainly manifested in offering a more perfect set of guidelines for Chinese Pure Land Buddhism.Chapter Three,the ontology of the pure land.Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought belongs to the theory of Amitabha's Pure Land and the theory of mind-only Pure Land.Generally its content includes three aspects: the view of Amitabha's Pure Land,the view of pure land of rebirth and non-rebirth,the view of chanting Amitabha,or the ontology of Pure Land,the superiority of Pure Land Buddhism,and at last the practice of Pure Land Buddhism.The ontology of Pure Land of Zen Master Mengdong emphasizes the “real existence” of Amitabha and his Pure Land,unravels the meaning of “existence” from multiple perspectives,and meanwhile advocates mind and land non-duality,nature and Buddha non-duality.Chapter Four,the superiority of Pure Land Buddhism.Zen Master Mengdong declares that chanting Amitabha is just the special methodology of “The easiest and the most stable,the most perfect and the fastest".He often compares it with Zen Buddhism and Teaching Buddhism in order to highlight the superiority of chanting Amitabha.The superiority of Pure Land Buddhism caters to the general psychological needs of the civils on advocating simplicity,stability,perfection,and quickness.It clearly,intensively and comprehensively points out the four advantages of chanting Amitabha,and provides an authoritative paradigm or template for future generations to carry forward Pure Land Buddhism.Chapter Five,the practice of Pure Land Buddhism.Zen Master Mengdong believes that chanting Amitabha has a four-fold purpose,i.e.mind-only oriented,Amitabhaand his Pure Land-only oriented,transcendence of all oppositions to perfect interpenetration oriented,surpassing emotions and leaving aside opinions oriented.Every one of these above four-fold purpose of chanting Amitabha are interlinked into each other,among which,"the true mind as purpose" is the primary and fundamental position,and the remaining three are to be fully derived from it.This said four-fold purpose has deepened the cognition of chanting Amitabha and enriched the theory of chanting Amitabha.It is an important contribution of Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought.Zen Master Mengdong advocates such points as developing Bodhicitta for truly going beyond life and death,chanting Amitabha of sixteen-character with deep faith and vows,which is namely “sixteen-character program” of chanting Amitabha.The program inherited and developed Zhixu's concept of "chanting Amitabha with faith and vows",also organically combined between the "self-interest with altruism" of Mahayana bodhisattva spirit and the Pure Land Sect's chanting Amitabha,which exerted a strong guiding significance for Pure Land practice.The said program is the core and major contribution of Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought,which has a great influence on later generations.Based on this program,Zen Master Mengdong illuminated the "eight things" as a detailed guide for Pure Land practitioners.From the perspective of the perfect harmony of phenomenon and ontology,Zen Master Mengdong mainly interprets the two sentences of Tianyi Yihuai in Song Dynasty which goes like " live,then decisively to live;pass away,then actually not to let go ".Holding the middle way of Tiantai Sect,he took a step back and thought that“be attached to phenomena is better than to principle”.His ontology of the pure land is related to the view of born without reborn of pure land while the existence of pure land in a sense determines the nature of rebirth.Chapter Six,the evaluation and influence.The main contribution of Zen Master Mengdong's pure Land thought lies in thus: it interprets the four-fold purpose of chanting Amitabha,proposes the “sixteen-character program” of chanting Amitabha and the “eight things” for Pure Land practitioners,which provides a complete program of practice for Chinese Pure Land Buddhism.The style or characteristic of Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought mainly lies in its fullness of the harmony spirit of Tiantai Sect.It is supposed to say Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought occupies an important position in the history of Chinese pure land thought.Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought holds a wide and profound influence on later generations.He exercised a direct influence on Damo's view of Amitabha's Pure Land,of chanting Amitabha,of pure land rebirth and non-rebirth,as well as on Gukun's theory on rebirth without samadhi,on the superiority of chanting Amitabha,on causality and mind and nature.Yinguang inherited and developed Zen Master Mengdong's pure land thought,while Zen Master Mengdong wielded a profound influence on Yinguang's "eight-sentence program",and the theory on the nature of mind regarding causality.In short,Zen Master Mengdong is an important figure in the history of Chinese pure land thought.He has inherited the pure land thought of Zhuhong and Zhixu,and also showed himself as no lack of independent thinking and original ideas;he upholded the superiority of chanting Amitabha on the premise of the equality of methods,and performed good use of various Buddhist sects teachings,especially of Tiantai sect teachings to interpret chanting Amitabha.Moreover,he proceed to work hard to justify the name of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism that lasted for more than a thousand years by establishing its purpose,improving its program,deepening its theory,consolidating its status,last but not the least,laying the ideological foundation for the revival of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism in modern China.