What is Pure Land Buddhism?

Question

i have a project due and need help...

Answer 1

Pure Land Buddhism is a tradition within the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. It appears in China, Korea, and Japan as Pure Land Buddhism and has also influenced other traditions.

Briefly, Pure Land Buddhists chant the name of Amitabha Buddha in hopes of being reborn into the "pure land" in which enlightenment is guaranteed.

The link below provides more detail.

Answer 2

Pure Land Buddhism is of the Mahayana Buddhism or the great vehicle,it is one of the sect of Buddhism,to know more hear what this great monk has to say,http://youtube.com/watch?v=owq_ougaikU,you can go here to know more-,http://www.cloudwater.org/pureland.html,and one of the great monk of our time,at, , http://www.amtb-usa.org/ , good luck and may Buddha be with you.

Answer 3

There's a Pureland Sect here in Toowoomba.

I'd suggest doing a search for "Pureland College" & see if you can find anything suitible.

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Answer 4

u better run to a library and open the encyclopedias. Or buy a CD of Britannica encyclopedia. The second suggestion is rather serious.

Now I'll give the answer from this CD. I don't know your age and how serious you are so I provide some of them.

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Pure Land Buddhism

Chinese (Wade–Giles romanization) Ch'ing-t'u, Pinyin Qingtu, Japanese Jōdo, devotional cult ofthe Buddha Amitābha (“the Buddha of InfiniteLight”). Known in Chinaas O-mi-t'o-fo and in Japan as Amida, it is one of the most popular forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism in eastern Asia today. Pure Land schools believe that rebirth in Amitābha's WesternParadise, SukhāvatÄ« (known as the Pure Land, or Pure Realm), is ensured all thosewho invoke Amitābha's name with sincere devotion (nembutsu, referring to the Japanese formula of invocation, namu Amida Butsu).

The Pure Land belief is based on three Sanskrit scriptures, the Amitāyus-vipaśyana-sÅ«tra (“Discourse Concerning Meditation on Amitāyus”) and the “larger” and “smaller” Pure Land sutras (SukhāvatÄ«-vyÅ«ha-sÅ«tras [“Description of the Western Paradise SÅ«tras”]). These texts relate the story of the monk Dharmākara, the future Amitāyus, or Amitābha, who made a seriesof vows that were meant to be fulfilled with the certainty of natural law when he became a buddha. The most important of these, the 18th, promised rebirth in the Pure Land to all the faithful who called upon his name, who would then remain in that beautiful land, free from pain and want, until they were ready for final Enlightenment.

In the larger Pure Land sutra, Buddha tellsthe story of Amitābha: many eons ago, as a monk, he learned from the 81st Buddha about the glories of innumerable Buddha Lands, whereupon he vowed to create his own Buddha Land (which he is now doing),making it 81 times more excellent than all the others and drawing into it all creatures who invoked his name. According to this sutra, in addition to calling upon Amitābha,one needs to accumulate merit and concentrate on Enlightenment. In the later,smaller Pure Land sutra, however, the Blessed Land is not a reward for good works but is accessible to anyone who invokes Amitābha at the hour of death.

In China the beginnings of the Pure Land cult can be traced back as far as the 4th century, when the scholar Hui-yüan formeda society of monks and laymen who meditated on the name of Amitābha. T'an-luan and his successors Tao-ch'o and Shan-tao systematized and spread the doctrine in the 6th and 7th centuries and are recognized as the first patriarchs of the school. In art, new emphasis was given representation of Amitābha, together with his attendant bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta. It has survived as an independent sect in China and has had its beliefs accepted by many members of other Buddhist sects in that country.

The Pure Land teaching was transmitted to Japan by monks of the Tendai school butby the 12th–13th century had separated asa distinct sect, mainly through the efforts of the priest Hōnen, founder of the Japanese Pure Land sect. Hōnen believed that most men were, like himself, incapable of obtaining buddhahood on this earth through their own efforts (such as learning, good deeds, or meditation) but were dependent on Amida's help. Hōnen stressed the recitation of nembutsu as the one act necessary to gain admittance to the Pure Land.

Hōnen's disciple Shinran is regarded as the founder of the Shin, or True, sect, the largest of the Pure Land groups. According to the Shin school, faith alone is sufficient. Mere recitation of the name of Amida (as practiced by the Jōdo school) is still indicative of a certain reliance on self-effort, just as are other forms of works such as doctrinal studies, austerities, meditations, and rituals. Shin interprets thecontinued repetition of the name as an expression of gratitude for the salvation that is assured from the very moment faithis first expressed. The school insists on exclusive devotion to Amida; the other Buddhist deities are not worshiped. The Shin sect has abandoned monastic practice, contrary to the usual Buddhist tradition.

The Jōdo sect itself split up into five branches of which two are still in existence—the Chinzei, the larger of the two and often referred to simply as Jōdo, and the Seizan. The Ji, or Time, sect was another variant; its name derived from the sect's rule of reciting the hymns of Shan-tao (Japanese: Zendo) six times a day.


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Sukhāvatī
(Sanskrit: “Pure Land”), in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitābha, described in the Pure Land sutras (SukhāvatÄ«-vyÅ«ha-sÅ«tras). According to followers of the Pure Land sects, which are widespread throughout East Asia, rebirth in SukhāvatÄ« is ensured by invoking the name of Amitābha (q.v.), particularly at the moment of death. No woman, however virtuous, may enter SukhāvatÄ« until she has first attained masculinity through rebirth. SukhāvatÄ« is expressively described in the Pure Land sutras as being a joyous world, soft and glowing, filled with the music of birds and the tinkling of trees adorned with precious jewels and garlands of golden bells. Amitābha sits on a lotus in the midst of a terraced pond, attended by the bodhisattvas (“buddhas-to-be”) Avalokitésvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta. The newly dead enter into lotus buds, which unfold when the occupants have become entirely purified. They remain eternally in this land of bliss until the time of their final enlightenment. See also Pure Land Buddhism.

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Amidism

sect of Mahāyāna Buddhism centring on worship of Amida (in Japanese; Sanskrit Amitābha; Chinese O-mi-t'o-fo), Buddha (Buddha of Infinite Light), whose merits can be transferred to a believer. Amidism holds that the faithful—by believing in Amida, hearing or saying his name, or desiring to share in his Western Paradise—can be reborn in the Pure Land (see Pure Land Buddhism). Originating in India, Amidism emerged in China in the 4th century and by the 9th century was brought to Japan, where, in the 20th century, the Pure Land sects compose one of the two largest Buddhist groups. See also Amitābha.
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Amitābha
(Sanskrit“Infinite Light”)

Japanese Amida , Chinese O-mi-t'o in Buddhism, the great saviour deity worshiped principally by members ofthe Pure Land sect in Japan. As related in the Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra (the fundamental scripture of thePure Land sects), many ages ago a monk named Dharmākara made a number of vows, the 18th of whichpromised that, on his attaining buddhahood, all who believed in him and who called upon his name would beborn into his paradise and would reside there in bliss until such time as they had obtained nirvana. Having accomplished his vows, the monk reigned as the buddha Amitābha in the Western Paradise, called Sukhāvatī, the Pure Land.

The cult of Amitābha, which emphasizes faith above all else, came to the fore in China about AD 650 and from there spread to Japan, where it led in the 12th and 13th centuries to the formation of the Pure Land school and the True Pure Land school, both of which continue to have large followings today. Depictions of the Western Paradise and of Amitābha descending to welcome the newly dead are beautifully expressed in the Raigō paintings of Japan's Late Heian Period (AD 897–1185).

Amitābha as a saviour figure was never as popular in Tibet and Nepal as he was in East Asia, but he is highly regarded in those countries as one of the five “self-born” buddhas who have existed eternally (see Dhyāni-Buddha). According to this concept he manifested himself as the earthly buddha Gautama and as the bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”) Avalokiteśvara. His colour is red, his posture one of meditation (dhyāna-mudrā), his symbol the begging bowl, his mount the peacock, his consort Pāṇḍarā, his family Rāga, his element water, his sacred syllable “ba,” or “āh,” his skandha (element of existence) saṇjnā (perceptions of sense objects), his direction the west, his sense perception taste, his sense organ the tongue, and his location in the human body the mouth.

As a bestower of longevity, Amitābha is called Amitāyus (Sanskrit: “Infinite Life”). In China and Japan the two names are often used interchangeably, but in Tibet the two forms are never confounded, and Amitāyus is worshiped in a special Lamaist ceremony for obtaining long life. He is depicted wearing ornaments and a crown and holding the ambrosia vase from which spill the jewels of eternal life. See also Amidism; Pure Land Buddhism.

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unfortunately, I can't provide pictures so go and search online.