Ancient
Japan
Kukai and Shingon Buddhism
In part as a response to the esotericism of Heian Buddhism,
and in part as a response to the collapse of the emperor's
court at Kyoto and the subsequent rise of individual, feudal
powers in Japan, medieval Japanese Buddhism moved towards
more democratic and inclusive forms, of which the most important
was Pure Land Buddhism. Pure Land or Amida Buddhism was oriented
around the figure of Amida Buddha. Amida, the Buddha of Everlasting
Light, was a previous incarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha. In the previous incarnation, as a bodhisattva, he
refused to accept Buddhahood unless he could grant eternal
happiness in the Pure Land to whoever called on him; 1 this
compassionate promise was called the "Original Vow."
Anyone who calls his name, "Namu Amida Butsu,"2
with sincere faith, trust, and devotion, will be granted by
Amida an eternal life of happiness in the Pure Land which
has been set aside specifically for those who call on Amida.
Buddhism
 Mahayana
Buddhism
Amidism was not a Japanese invention; Pure Land develops out
of Mahayana Buddhism in India and became wildly popular in
China, where the invocation of Amida (in Chinese, A-mi-t'o-fo
) became the most common of all religious practices. But the
spread of Pure Land through Japan signals a profound change
in Japanese thought; above all else, the shift to Amidism
represents a shift from a religion which stresses individual
effort aimed at enlightenment to an exclusive reliance on
salvation by the Amida; this opened up Buddhism to all classes,
including women, who had previously been excluded from the
various Buddhist priesthoods. Because of its democratic nature,
the priesthood became evangelical rather than retiring; Buddhism
began to become, in late Heian Japan and medieval Japan, a
religion of the streets. Because of Pure Land, Japanese art
also profoundly changed; the art of Heian Japan is placid
and rigid; the Amidists began to produce more involved and
animated artworks which portrayed such subjects as the tortures
of all ten levels of hell, the pleasures of Paradise, and
the transcendent and resplendent beauty of the Amida Buddha.
On a single, esoteric idea: all humans have a Buddha nature
inside them and to realize this nature all a human being has
to do is search his or her inner self. The key to Buddhahood
in Zen is simply self-knowledge. The way to gain self-knowledge
is through meditation (which is what the word "zen"
means). Now, "meditation" is one of the cornerstones
of Buddhism, where, under the name dhyana , it forms the final
and most important aspect of gaining enlightenment. But Zen
(in Chinese, Ch'an ) or Meditation Buddhism granted meditation
an exclusive importance not ascribed to it in other Buddhist
schools. This is indicated by its very name: all other Buddhist
schools either take their names from important Scriptures
(such as the Lotus sect, which takes its name from the Lotus
sutra) or from a philosophical position (such as the Consciousness-only
sect) or an individual philosopher (such as Nichiren), whereas
Zen takes its name from the practice of meditation. Meditation,
which was a means to an end in other Buddhist schools, became
the end in itself in Zen: meditation was Truth realized in
action. As a result, Zen readily dispenses with the Buddhist
scriptures and philosophical discussion in favor of a more
intuitive and individual approach to enlightenment. Meditation,
however, is a strict religious discipline: the mind must be
made sharp and attentive in order to intuit from itself the
Truth of Buddhahood. Part of this discipline involves waking
up the mind of the disciple, making it aware of the things
around it. There are several ways of doing this: motorcycle
maintenance, hard labor, travel, and, in Japan, the koan,
which is a question and answer session between disciple and
master which involves sudden beatings and illogical answers
all in an attempt to wake or stimulate the disciple's mind
to make it ready for the discovery of the Truth inside.
 Nichiren
Buddhism was one of the key sects in medieval Japan. Nichiren
(1222-1282) was a Tendai Buddhist monk who left the monastery
and invented what was truly a Japanese version of Buddhism;
rather than focus on the saving power of the Amida, Nichiren
stressed that the Lotus Sutra, upon which Tendai doctrine
was based, was the key to all enlightenment and fully embodied
the truth of the Buddha Trinity (Vairochana, the Eternal Buddha
(in Japanese: Dainichi); Amitabha, the Body of Bliss or Eternal
Buddha (which is what the Amidists worshipped); Shakyamuni,
the historical Buddha). Nichiren required that all boddhisattvas
(those striving to become a Buddha) recite the Lotus sutra
rather than the name of Amida; unlike Amidism, Nichiren Buddhism
laid emphasis on individual effort rather than salvation through
the action of the Buddha.
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