VISION AND PRESENCE: SEEING THE BUDDHA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST AND PURE LAND TRADITIONS Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Gregory J. Shonk, M.L.I.S. Graduate Program in East Asian Studies The Ohio State University 2012 Thesis Committee: Thomas P. Kasulis, Advisor John C. Huntington Youn-mi Kim Copyright by Gregory J. Shonk 2012 ABSTRACT The opportunity to see and be in the presence of the Buddha was of paramount importance to the Buddhist faithful. While the Buddha Śākyamuni was still alive, this represented a chance to hear his teaching and, hopefully, progress along the path to Buddhist enlightenment. However, even after the death of the Buddha, the desire to see and be in the presence of the Buddha continued, and even intensified. In this study I explore the doctrinal developments and beliefs of the early Buddhist, Mahāyāna, and Pure Land traditions that justified this continued belief in the possibility of seeing and being in the presence of the Buddha. My approach to this topic is interdisciplinary, and brings to bear evidence from the Buddhist doctrinal, conceptual, and art historical traditions. The doctrinal developments discussed in this study that supported the belief in the possibility of seeing and being in the presence of the Buddha after Śākyamuni’s parinirvāṇa include the three- body (trikāya) doctrine and the belief in multiple contemporaneous Buddhas residing in their respective Buddha-lands (buddhakṣetra). These developments were informed by the glorification of the Buddha as perfect in wisdom and morality, which was expressed in early Buddhist literature by attributing to the Buddha lists of exemplary properties, or epithets, as well as the thirty-two major physical marks (lakṣaṇa) of a great man (mahāpuruṣa). ii This glorification of the Buddha also played a seminal role in the development of meditative visualization techniques centered on the Buddha, and especially the technique of “Buddha recollection” (buddhānusmṛti). In this study I explore the historical development of “Buddha recollection,” as well as the closely related concepts of “seeing the Buddha” (buddhadarśana) and “Buddha contemplation” (guānfó 觀佛), from their origins in the Indian Buddhist tradition through the Chinese Pure Land tradition centered on Amitābha Buddha. Finally, icons in the Buddhist tradition play an important role in the Buddhist tradition as supports for meditative visualization and “living” embodiments of the Buddha. Buddha images are brought to life through a ritual consecration process centered on an eye-opening ceremony, which, according to the Indian religious tradition, enables them to serve as objects of devotion (bhakti), and to bestow the “auspicious glance” (darśana) that is central to Indian religions’ devotional practices. Despite the contentious art-historical theory that asserts that there was an early “aniconic period” during which no figural images of the Buddha were made, the art-historical evidence actually suggests a continuity between pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Indian beliefs about the role and function of religious icons. In any case, in the Buddhist tradition icons came to be entrusted with carrying on the mission of the Buddha, and iconography has played a prominent role in Buddhist practice. Therefore, the Buddhist iconographic tradition is drawn on in this study because it is particularly illustrative of the Buddhist tradition’s understanding of visualization and the nature of the presence of the Buddha. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my academic advisors, Dr. Tom Kasulis and Dr. John Huntington, for their instruction and guidance in writing this thesis and throughout my career as a student of East Asian Studies at The Ohio State University. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Youn-mi Kim for graciously agreeing to serve on my Thesis Committee on fairly short notice, and despite being a relative newcomer to the world of East Asian Studies at The Ohio State University. Second, I would like to thank my Japanese language instructors. What use I’ve been able to make of Japanese resources in this study has been made possible only by their patience and dedication, and in spite of my nearly absolute lack of aptitude. I would especially like to express my gratitude to Dr. Yuasa Etsuyo, Ms. Terada Ai, Ms. Kuwai Yuko, Mr. Kiyosue Teppei, and Ms. Suzuki Kaori. Finally, I would like to thank everyone at the Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art, including, Dr. John Huntington, Dr. Susan Huntington, Aimee Phillips, and Ankur Desai. In addition to providing all the photographs used in this study, the Huntington Archive has supported my academic studies over the past two years. But more importantly, it has provided an invaluable learning experience of a different, though no less stimulating, nature than my academic studies. iv VITA June 1996 ………………………………… Bishop Ready High School June 2002 ………………………………… B.F.A. Drawing and Painting, The Ohio State University August 2006 ……………………………… M.L.I.S., Kent State University June 2010 to present ……………………… Graduate Research Assistant, The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art Fields of Study Major Field: East Asian Studies Specializations: Japanese and East Asian Philosophy, Religion and Art History v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract …………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………… iv Vita ……………………………………………………………………………… v List of Figures ………………………………………………………………… viii Abbreviations …………………………………………………………………… ix Introduction Subject …………………………………………………………………………… 1 A Typology of ‘Seeing the Buddha’ ………………………………………… 2 Scope, Methodology, and Previous Scholarship ……………………………… 4 Outline and Chapter Summaries ……………………………………………… 6 Chapter 1: Seeing the Historical Buddha, Śākyamuni Seeing Śākyamuni Buddha in Buddhist Literature …………………………… 8 Accounts of Buddha Images Made During the Life of the Buddha ……………… 13 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 21 Chapter 2: Vision and Knowledge in Indian and Buddhist Thought Vision and Knowledge in Indic Languages and Buddhist Discourse ………… 24 Darśana ……………………………………………………………………… 27 Smṛti and Anusmṛti …………………………………………………………… 29 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 31 Chapter 3: Vision and Veneration of the Buddha after Śākyamuni’s Parinirvāṇa The Parinirvāṇa of Śākyamuni Buddha and Relic Veneration ………………… 34 Buddhist Image Consecration Rituals and the Buddha Image as Reliquary …… 36 The Beginning of the Buddha Image Tradition after the Parinirvāṇa ………… 38 Bhakti …………………………………………………………………………… 41 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 43 Chapter 4: Calling the Buddha to Mind and Visualizing the Bodies of the Buddhas Buddhadarśana ……………………………………………………………… 46 Buddhānusmṛti ……………………………………………………………… 47 Jiànfó 見佛, Niànfó 念佛, and Guānfó 觀佛 ……………………………… 51 Visualizing the Buddha’s Body: The Thirty-Two Major Physical Marks ………… 57 Visualizing the Buddhas’ Bodies: Toward the Trikāya Doctrine ……………… 63 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 72 vi Chapter 5: Seeing the Buddha Amitābha in the East Asian Pure Land Tradition The Doctrinal Foundations of Pure Land Buddhism …………………………… 75 From Buddhānusmṛti to Niànfó 念佛 and Nenbutsu 念仏 …………………… 78 Visualization in the Pure Land Tradition ……………………………………… 87 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 91 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 95 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………… 99 Appendices Appendix A: The Thirty-Two Major Physical Marks of the Buddha …………… 107 Appendix B: The Sixteen Contemplations of the Guan Wuliangshou jing ……… 109 Appendix C: Multilingual Glossary ………………………………………………… 111 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure1: Sculpture of a standing Shakamuni (Śākyamuni) Buddha …………… 23 Location: Seiryō Temple (Seiryōji 清凉寺), Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan; originally from China. Date: 985; Material: wood; Height: 160cm Source of Photograph: Akiyama Terukazu et al, ed. Genshoku Nihon no Bijutsu. Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1969. Figure 2: Sculpture of a seated Śākyamuni Buddha with attendants …………… 45 Location: Government Museum, Mathurā, Uttar Pradesh, India Date: ca. 2nd century CE; Material: stone; Height: 72cm Copyright: John C. Huntington Figure 3: Sculpture of a seated Buddha ………………………………………… 45 Location: Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal, India; originally from Swat region of present-day Pakistan (former region of Gandhāra) Date: ca. mid-1st to mid-3rd centuries CE; Material: stone; Height: 76cm Copyright: John C. Huntington Figure 4: Mural depicting scene from the Guan Wuliangshou jing ……………… 94 Location: North Wall, Cave 45, Mogao Grottoes (Mògāo kū 莫高窟), Dunhuang, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of China Date: Tang Dynasty (618-907); Material: pigment on stone Source of Photograph: Dunhuang yanjiuyuan. Dunhuang shiku yishu. Jianghang sheng: Jianghang meishu chubanshe, 1993. Figure 5: Detail of Figure 4 …………………………………………………… 94 All photographs are provided courtesy of the Huntington Photographic Archive at The Ohio State University. viii ABBREVIATIONS The English translations of the primary sources consulted in this study are referenced in the notes by the following abbreviations, which are generally followed by numerical references to subdivisions of the work (i.e., part, chapter, section, etc.), if applicable. This should help the reader to locate the citation regardless of which version of the text they consult. Information to the right of the colon, below and in the notes, refers to the English