On Saṃbhogakāya and the Pure Land: Focus on the Debate Texts of the Shingon School of Esoteric Buddhism

Abstract

　Although debates on the Shi moheyan lun continue to be staged at Mount Kōya (Nanzan) as part of memorial services till today, very little comprehensive academic research has been carried out on the subject. While Buddhist debates (rongi) distinguish Shingon doctrine from the doctrines of other Buddhist schools as well as the obligations of the priesthoods of the various sects and temples of Shingon esoteric Buddhism, based on catechisms, for example, they are also a type of learning system for learning details about the doctrine of one’s own school through these catechisms.

　The debate with which my paper is concerned, known as “hōjin-hōdo [Saṃbhogakāya and the Pure Land],” is one among the Shakuron saihō rongi jūjō [Ten Western Debates on the Shi moheyan lun] and addresses the question of whether the Pure Land of Amitabha is a hōjin-hōdo, that is, a Pure Land of “reward bodies” (saṃbhogakāya) or a keshin-kedo, that is, a transformation realm of transformation bodies. The theory of busshin-butsudo (“Buddha-body” [Buddhakāya] in the “Buddha-realm”) has already been discussed in Chinese Buddhist circles and in Japan, as well; the Jōdo school argues for hōshin-hōdo, while the Tendai school argues for keshin-kedo.

　Even at the Shingon school, both the old and new interpretations stipulate the body and environment of the Pure Land of Amitabha as hōjin-hōdo. However, it seems this may stem from a reliance on the Jōdo doctrine or the Shi moheyan lun itself, and it is also conceivable that this argument is a rebuttal against the Tendai school.