Reconsider the Quintessential Word Dhāraṇī in Pure Land Buddhism

Abstract

This paper considers how the quintessential term dhāraṇī was received in Pure Land Buddhism in Japan.

In Pure Land Buddhism, a doctrine which promotes the wish to be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha, dhāraṇī are not included in the original vow of the bodhisattva who became Amitābha. From where, then, did the dhāraṇī now used in Pure Land temples come from?

Many of the Jōdo tenets currently used have their origin in Tendai Esoteric Buddhism （Taimitsu）, as is evident from the Genji Monogatari, and a number of Buddhist texts.

From the middle of the Heian period onwards, there was a cross-over between the popular penetration of Pure Land Buddhism among common people and the acceptance of dhāraṇī by Hōnen.

A plaque preserved in the Byōdōin has written on it in a clockwise manner two dhāraṇī of Amida Buddha in Sanskrit script, and the associated ritual is connected to the rituals of visualization drawn from the tradition of Enchin.