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A Comparison Of Zen Buddhism And Pureland Buddhism

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Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism are considered as two popular schools in Mahayana Buddhism. The two are regarded as polar opposites. In this paper, I argue that Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism are not entirely different, they still have underlying similarities instead. Firstly, I am going to talk about the two themes, Bodhisattva’s compassion and emptiness in Mahayana. Bodhisattva is a practitioner who experiences millions of rebirths before becoming Buddha. However, in order to make sure that others are also enlightened, Bodhisattva put off his chance to enter nirvana (liberation). For Bodhisattva, it’s selfish that you only want to attain the perfection of awakening for yourself instead of being compassionate to the people who haven’t …show more content…

They are Zazen and Kōan meditation. Zazen is simply sitting meditation and Kōan is mainly the stories of conversation between master and disciples. Both of them are difficult and are performed in the monastery. As Victor Hori (4) said “the Kōan as irrational instrument”, Kōan is “using poison against poison”. The importance of Kōan is to be unsolvable in order to obtain what is rational. As the story of questioning the sound of one-hand clapping shown, you can only find the answer if you stop intellectualizing, abandon rationality but beyond your consciousness. No matter how hard you are looking for the one sound of one hand, you cannot find it because you only see the duality but not the non-duality. (Li, March 21, …show more content…

Firstly, they both emphasize on naturalness. D.T. Suzuki creates a term of “isness” which is the same as what a Zen master said “if you want to see, see right at once. When you being to think, you miss the point.” This depicts that things are all in itself naturally not from something added outside. Also, there is a term called jinenhoni (naturalness) in shinran’s teaching representing our deep entrusting to Amida Buddha. (Li, March 21, 2016; Li, April 6, 2016) Secondly, both of them reject religious practices and magical benefits. According to D.T. Suzuki, Zen is not a religion and there are no god or eternal soul existing. As for Shinran, he refuses the reliance on prayer and divination. (Bloom 231; Li, March 21, 2016). Thirdly, shinran believes that emptiness is beyond language. This is the same as a Zen master story. Master Yunmen stuck a monk after he asked about what was the primary phrase. Yunmen’s purpose to strike is to teach him without using language. (Li, March 18, 2016; Shinran 144) Lastly, Shinran said his teaching is transcending or immediate which is the same as Zen’s sudden awakening. (Bloom, 231; Li, March 21,

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