The Background to Pure Land Beliefs in Huiyuan’s Order

Abstract

This paper reexamines the Pure Land beliefs of Lushan Huiyuan, a monk active in the Eastern Jin dynasty, to present the possibility that Huiyuan did not develop his Pure Land belief based on the Pratyutpannabuddha-saṃmukhāvasthita-samādhi sūtra, but on other Pure Land sūtras. By examining the materials Huiyuan often presented as proof texts referring to his Pure Land belief, we find such beliefs are mentioned only in the Yu yinshi Liu Yimin deng shu 与隠士劉遺民等書 （Text given to hermits like Liu Yimin） simply as the “plan to attain birth [in the Pure land] 來生之計,” so that it is difficult to confuse Huiyuan’s usage of the term nienfo sanmei 念仏三昧 （mindfulness of the Buddha samādhi） with the Pure Land beliefs used by the followers of Huiyuan’s Order. Additionally, in examining the biographies of the monks Sengji 僧済 and Sengjui 僧叡 mentioned in the Gaoseng zhuan 高僧伝 （Biographies of Eminent Monks）, it is notable that both based their Pure Land belief on the teaching of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra.