Buddhism & China

Buddhism is VERY influential in East Asia. It is actually one of the things that binds the differentiated populations of this region together.

Han Dynasty (206 - 220 CE)

 * Fall comes from factionalism at the court
 * With combination of natural disasters and peasant uprisings

Period of Disunion

 * No central authority on the North China Plain
 * To the North, rulers were non-Han -> "Barbarian" rulers (barbarian meaning non-chinese)

Introduction of Buddhism

 * Believed that Buddhism introduced to China in 1st Century BCE
 * Silk Road travelers bring it in


 * Doesn't really sink into society until "Period of Disunion"

Siddhartha Gautama & Early History

 * Siddhartha was born around 586 BCE
 * Born as the son of the King
 * Had three palaces w/ many servants


 * Occasional escape from the Palace made him confront human suffering:
 * 1) Crippled Man
 * 2) Sick Man
 * 3) Man Dying


 * This problematized his understanding of life
 * An forced him to desire new understanding and meaning of life
 * Became and Acestic


 * Spent 6 Years searching for meaning
 * No luck -> Tries to go home
 * On his way home, stops under a Bo Tree -> Achieves Enligthenment

Principles

 * Human individuals are re-incarnated
 * Status of next life determined by this one
 * Deeds and Intentions are both measured by 'karma' that


 * Poor men/women had probably been low status/bad karma
 * So they needed to work even harder


 * Re-birth & re-incarnation are situations of suffering
 * The idea is to ESCAPE the turn of the wheel, no longer be re-incarnated


 * Life is a delusion -> We have no real experience
 * We are not actually individuals, we are all connected
 * Desire for material goods is very misguided -> no real possesions no need for them


 * GOAL: Realize your part of the cosmic spirituality
 * See yourself as one with the cosmos

Nirvana

 * Meaning highest form of Englightenment
 * Comes from the word for putting out a candle -> "extinction"
 * You must become "nothingness"
 * And at this moment you are escaped.

Four Noble Truths

 * 1) Life is suffering
 * 2) Suffering is caused by craving and desires
 * 3) To rid life of suffering, stop cravings
 * 4) To way to get rid of cravings is to follow the 8 Fold Path

EIGHT FOLD PATH

 * 1) Right views
 * 2) intentions
 * 3) speech
 * 4) action
 * 5) mindfulness
 * 6) livelihood
 * 7) concentration
 * 8) effort

Sangha (Monastic Community)

 * Number of people follow Buddha
 * Buddha (enlightened one) attracts a number followers who live with him.

Theravada (Hinayana)

 * Elitist Tradition
 * Older version
 * Harsh
 * Requires that all people become like the Buddha in their dedication to the spiritual practices
 * Once they have achieved enlightenment -> they must leave the monastery, travel on their own
 * Dominated First century after Buddha's death

Mahayana

 * From word meaning "the greater vehicle"


 * Buddha becomes deified
 * Nirvana/Enlightenment becomes known as unification with the Buddha
 * Anyone who becomes enlightened -> becomes the buddha, so become gods
 * Free to worship


 * Longmen Caves

Bodhisattva

 * Buddhists on the verge of achieving nirvana, hold back to help the people on earth
 * Not to rise up to the space of the Buddha


 * Enlightenment can be achieved by living according to faithfulness and honor and goodness


 * Buddhist paradises
 * Imagined constructions of happiness and fulfilment
 * Overturned idea of Nirvana as a nothingness
 * Promised instead a space where people could feel filled by those things that they have never had

Domestication of Buddhism in China

 * Introduced through the Silk Road
 * Slow to sink in, because it overthrows ideas of family structure (filial piety)
 * Also idea of "life is suffering" was hard to swallow
 * Shaving the head was considered a form of mutilation that shamed your family


 * Only in 4th - 5th Century (CE) did Buddhism take hold


 * Buddhism was modified for China
 * Texts reconsidered and reset as a pro-Chinese experience
 * Women were lowered in value
 * Kissing practices (considered taboo in China at the time, were overturned


 * Buddhist Sutras -> Religious Texts


 * Chinese adapt Buddhism, making it more Chinese


 * Popular among the wealthy and the elite


 * Many Schools develop

Pure Land School

 * Dates back to 5th - 6th Century CE
 * Very Popular
 * Doesn't require high level of experience or knowledge or education
 * Plebian
 * The Believer, reciting the name of the the Buddha, will be certain of salvation


 * AMITABHA


 * Western Paradise


 * You must be *COMPLETELY SINCERE* to achieve Nirvan
 * You also must be clean in deed and actions


 * Bodhisattva: Guanyin
 * Very popular in China
 * Widely worshipped in pre-modern Buddhist china


 * Popularity of the sect
 * Likely dependent on the fact that ANYONE could practice this form of Buddhism
 * Which isn't to say that it was not popular among wealthy or elite (it was)

Chan (Zen) Meditation School

 * Huineng (638 - 713) -> Major thinker of Buddhism, develops this school
 * Monastic tradition re-establishes
 * Meditation becomes THE WAY of achieving Nirvana
 * Introspection will allow for self-iterrogation and understadnding the Buddha within
 * Chan masters rip up the Sutras
 * No need for written word
 * Sutras actually distance the believer from reality and religious truth


 * Art very impressionistic


 * "The most important thing is to express your nature in the simplest way"


 * Persimmons by Muqi as an example of this


 * Focus/Recovery of Sense of Nature through LOTUS POSITION MEDITATION