PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism:Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of theLarger Sukhåvat∆vy¥haJan NattierIndiana UniversityMASATOSHI NAGATOMI WAS a panoramic thinker. Raised in a JødoShinsh¥ family, he chose the distant world of Indian Buddhism as hisresearch field. Educated at Kyoto University, he went on to complete hisdoctorate at Harvard University, spending time studying in India as well.When thinking about Indian Buddhist literature he could call upon analogiesfrom East Asia; when discussing Buddhist rituals in China he coulddraw upon his knowledge of Tibet. In sum, for him Buddhism was not aregional or sectarian entity but a worldwide and multi-faceted tradition,and no student of his could fail to be impressed by the broad rangeof his perspective.Most students of Pure Land Buddhism, by contrast, have approachedtheir topic within a far narrower frame. Generally this form of Buddhismhas been treated as an East Asian phenomenon, and indeed it is oftenstudied (with, one should recognize, many valuable results) within theparameters of a single school or sect. This paper, however, is intended asa small attempt to emulate Professor Nagatomi’s sweeping cross-culturalvision of Buddhist history by examining the evidence for Pure LandBuddhism not in East Asia, but in India.To understand how Amitåbha was viewed by Indian Buddhists,however, requires beginning with a sketch of the circumstances withinwhich scriptures devoted to this figure emerged. I will begin, therefore,with a brief overview of some of the key developments that preceded—and indeed, may have elicited—the composition of scriptures devotedto Amitåbha.* * *Early Indian Buddhism, as best we can reconstruct it from existingsources, was a “one-vehicle” religion. The vehicle in question was not, ofcourse, the “one vehicle” (Sanskrit ekayåna) found in texts like the LotusS¥tra, where the Buddha recommends three distinct paths to liberation,though only one of these—the bodhisattva path leading to buddhahood—179