Mahayana Buddhism in China

Special lecture Note for Mahayana Buddhism

This eight school in China, Thus are name of list as below..

1.       Vinaya School

2.       The Sonlun Zong or Theree-Treatise School

3.       Pure Land School

4.       Chan School

5.       Tian-Tai School

6.       Hua Yan School or Avatamsa School

7.       Faxian School or Dharma-Character School

8.       Vajrayana School

1.       Vinaya School

A school of Chinese Buddhism that specialized in study of all aspects of the Vinaya, or rules of conduct for clergy and laity. Established by the monk Tao-hsüan (596-667), this school began by establishing which of the several redactions of the monastic regulations that had been translated into Chinese would become the standard. Tao-hsüan chose the Vinaya of the Dharmaguptaka school in India, in Chinese called the ‘Vinaya in Four Divisions’ (Chinese, Ssu fen lü), as the standard. After this had been settled, the school went on to function as a sort of canon law department for Chinese Buddhism, producing commentaries on the Vinaya, establishing procedures for handling difficult cases, defining what constituted an infraction of a rule and setting up sanctions and mitigating circumstances, and so on. They also dealt with matters of clerical status, setting criteria for valid ordinations and expulsion. The school was never large, but because of this gatekeeping function, had extraordinary influence over the character of the Chinese Saṃgha.[1]

n  Sutras

1.       The Vinaya of the Four Categories or  Dharmagupta-vinaya

2.       The Mahasamghika Vinaya

3.       The Vinaya of the Five Categories

4.       Samantapasadika

2.       The Sonlun Zong or Three-treatise School

Three-Treatise School also known as The school of Middle path is from the Indian Madhyamika school Based its tenets on the Madhyamika Sastra, Dvadasanikaya Sastra by Nagarjuna and the Sata Sastra by Aryadeva. These three Sastras were translated by Kurnarajiva (5th century). It teaches one to dispose of the Eight Misleading Ideas (birth, death, end, permanence, identity, difference, coming, and going) and establish correct thinking. One will discover the truth between the relative sense and the absolute sense, for the truth lies between them. Rev. Yin-sun propagates this school, and has published a modern commentary on the Madhyamika.[2]

n  Sutras

1.       Madhyamika-sastra

2.       Sata-sastra

3.       Dvadasanikaya-sastra

3.       Pure Land School

Pure Land school, chief tenet is salvation by faith in Amitabha Buddha. The Pure Land school, which taught relatively simple methods of recitation of the Buddha's name for the purpose of attaining rebirth in the Western Heaven (Pure Land), this school was founded by Hui Yuan (334 - 416) on the Lu shan mountain.

n  Sutras

1.       Sutra of Infinite Lif or  Larger Sukhavati-vyuha

2.       Sutra of the Meditation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life

3.       Amitabha-sutra also known as the Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha

4.Chan school

The school was founded with the arrival of a somewhat legendary Indian monk named Bodhidharma , ostensibly the twenty-eighth patriarch in a lineage that extended all the way back to Sakyamuni. Bodhidharma is recorded as having come to China to teach a "separate transmission outside of the texts" which "did not rely upon textuality." His special new form of religion was then transmitted to through a series of Chinese patriarchs, the most famous of whom was the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng.

After the time of Huineng, Chinese Chan began to branch off into numerous different schools, each with their own special emphasis, but all of which kept the same basic focus on meditational practice, personal instruction and grounded personal experience. During the late Tang and the Song periods, the tradition truly flowered, as a wide number of eminent teachers, such as Mazu , Baijang, Yunmen and Linji developed specialized teaching methods, which would become characteristic in each of the "Five Families" of mature Chinese Chan

n  Sutras

1.       Lankavatara-sutra

2.       Diamond Sutra or Vajracchedika-prajnaparamita sutra

3.       Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch

4.       Tian-tai school

Established by Zhiyi (538-597) of Tiantai mountain. Zhiyi, taking the Lotus Sutra  as his basis, classified the other Buddhist sutras into five periods and eight types of teachings; he discussed the theory of perfect interpenetration of the triple truth  and taught the rapid attainment of Buddhahood through the practice of observing the mind. The Chinese line of transmission starts with Huiwen  of the Northern Chi and follows with Huisi .

Tian-tai school focus on practice meditation, especially Zhi-Guan practice, and the philosophical concepts of Tian-tai school has been considered combined with Nagarjuna's Middle Way, Tian-tai use the term 'Triple Truths' to explain reality in three aspects, which are Emptiness Truth Provisionallity Thrth and Middle Way

1.       Gradual Zhi-Guan

2. Round-Sudden Zhi-Guan
3. Indeterminate Zhi-Guan

5.       Huayan  school

The Huayan school or Avatamsa school, one of the major schools of Chinese Buddhism,. Established during the period of the end of the Sui and beginning of Tang dynasties, this school centered on the philosophy of interpenetration and mutual containment which its founders perceived in the  Avatamsaka-sutra

Yet despite basic reliance on this sutra, much of the technical terminology that the school becomes famous for is not found in the sutra itself, but in the commentarial works of its early founders. The founding of the school is traditionally attributed to a series of five "patriarchs" who were instrumental in developing the schools doctrines. These five are: Dushun , Fazang , Chengguan and Zongmi.

6.       The Faxiang zong school (dharma laksana school)

One of the Chinese eight Buddhist school, Fa xiang zong or Dharma-character school,This school was founded in China by Hsuan-tsang , who, on his return from China, brought with him a wagonload of the most important Consciousness-only texts. These, with government support and many assistants, he translated into Chinese.

1.       Hsuan-chang (602-664)

2. In 629 he travelled  through Central Asia to India in order to look for the Buddhist texs in the original Sanskirt.
3. In 645 he returned to China with more than 650 Buddhist texts which contained 224 sutras, 192 sastras of the Mahayana and works belonging to different Hinayana schools. and translating 75 Buddhist texts.

n  Sutras

1.       Samdhinirmocana sutra

2.       Yogacara-bhumi-sastra

3.       Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only

7.       vajrayana school

vajrayana, tantrayana, mantrayana  this broad range of Buddhist teachings is usually named with this term, whereas in Japan, it is usually called mikkyo . Also known as the True Word Sect , the Yoga Sect , Adamantine Peak Sect, the Sect of Vairocana , the Sect of Revealing the Origin , and the Secret Vehicle .

Note for exam

18 –Nikaya Buddhism  ( saravakayana )

According to our Ajen Toun jan , he talk about 18 Nikaya Buddhism but he didn’t mention name of lists. However I want to know that is why I search and found it eighteen Nikaya Buddhist school in Mahayana Buddhism But we have twenty schools according to Mahayana scriptures in Chinese.

The two person who are very great and important in Mahayana Buddhism they are ..

1.       Kumarajiva ( India translator )

2.       Ariyadava ( Ceylon- the best translator)

Ajan Toung Jan explained several general knowledge ideas regarding with Mahayana teachings. It is are as below..

Early Buddhism

1.       Unity of Buddhism

2.       Pure belief

3.       Following Buddha’s teaching

4.       Alms around ( Paindapata)

5.       Same teaching

Buddhism in India

1.       Early Buddhism

2. Early Buddhist Schools
3. Mahayana period
4. Indian Vajrayana

Buddhism in China

1.       Buddhism came to China

2. The clash and fusion of Indian and Chinese Cuture
3. Buddhist reformation by Ven.Dao an
4. The form of Eight Schools

Five point of Mahadeva

1.       An Arhat is able to be seduced by others.

2.       An Arhat can be subject on ignorance

3.       An Arahat may have doubt.

4.       An Arahat may be instructed by other person

5.       Empty in to the noblepath by an Arat can be accompanied

Eight Negations

1.       Neither arising nor ceasing

2.       Neither eternal nor not eternal

3.       Neither one nor many

4.       Neither coming or going

There are only two schools mhayana in early period

1.       Mādhyamika school

2.       Yogācāra school

1.       It's a Mahayana school in India which systematized by Nāgārjuna circa in the 2nd century, The foundational stand point of Mādhyamika is the term Śūnyatā or emptiness. Sunyata is the core concept in Madhyamika School, which in English as emptiness or voidness. The concept of "emptiness" as the true nature of all things is called sunyata, and  it's the main teaching of the Maha prajnaparamita Sutra. This emptiness neither nothingness nor a particular essence characterisitci of  phenomenons

Sutras or literatures in Madhyamika school

1.       Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra

2. Madhyamika-sastra                                     -Nāgārjuna
3. Sata-sastra                                                  -Nāgārjuna
4. Dvadasanikaya-sastra                                -Nāgārjuna
5. Maha prajnaparaita-sastra                        -Nāgārjuna
6. Diamond Sutra
7. Lotus Sutra
8. Heart Sutra

2.       Yogācāra school,  Wei shi zong ( ,Consciousness-Only )

the school founded by the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu in the 4th century,yogacara school mainly focuses on the mind and three types consciousness, such as the cittamatra (mind only), alayavijnana (storehouse-consciousness) .

n  Sutras

1.       Mahavairocana-sutra

2. Vajrasekhara-sutra
3. Mahavairocana-sutra
4. which became the most important text for the East Asian Vajrayana school. This scripture presents the world as a stage on which Vairocana reveals the three mysteries of the Esoteric school by which one may discover one's innate pure mind of enlightenment.

Questions 11

1.       Explain three vehicles briefly.

1.       Saovakayana

2.       Pratyekabuddhayana

3.       Boddhisattavayana ( buddhayana).

2.       Parajnaparamita sutra brig from Naga( pannaparami –perfection of wisdom).

1.       Nagarijuna is the most important in mahayanabuddhism-(  Maharaja parimit sutra, community of prajnapramita sutara)  thus two are very important

2.       Mudhyamika karika (verse) teaching about emptiness- sunyanta by Nagarajuna.

3.       A. Dasubhimika vibhasa

4.       B. Madhayamika karika( founder-mental of text  - emptiness, sunyata

5.       C. Dvadasadvara sastra

Thus,a-b-c, three are all Madhyanika school.

1.       Why is pure land Buddhism so popular in the east Asia Buddhist countries?

Pure Land comprises the schools of East Asia which emphasize aspect of Mahayana Buddhism stressing faith in Amida, meditation on and recitation of his name, and the religious goal of being reborn in his "Pure Land," or "Western paradise In practice, the most common technique of the Pure Land school is the recitation of Amitabha Buddha's name. Along with this popular form of Pure Land, there is also a higher aspect, in which Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life, is equated with our Buddha Nature, infinitely bright and everlasting (Self-Nature Amitabha, Mind-Only Pure Land).

In time, a number of schools arose within Mahayana Buddhism in accordance with the capacities and circumstances of the people, the main ones being the Zen, Pure Land and Esoteric schools. Among these schools, Pure land has the greatest number of adherents, although its teachings and methodology are not widely known in the West. Its teachings are based on compassion, on faith in the compassionate Vows of Amitabha Buddha to welcome and guide all sentient beings who so desire to His Pure Land; It is an easy method, in terms of both goal (rebirth in the Western Pure Land as a stepping-stone toward Buddhahood) and form of cultivation (can be practiced anywhere, any time with no special liturgy, accoutrements or guidance); There shall be no distinction, no regard to male or female, good or bad, exalted or lowly; none shall fail to be in his Land of Purity after having called, with complete faith, on Amida.

2.       Discuss mahayan Buddhism conening in the following countries?

In china –

Minority of Chinese became a Buddhist in china. Buddhism was first brought to China from India by missionaries and traders along the Silk Road that connected China with Europe in the late Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD). By then, Indian Buddhism was already over 500 years old, but the faith didn't begin to flourish in China until the decline of the Han Dynasty and an end to its strict Confucian beliefs. The Buddhism that took hold in China was Mahayana Buddhism, which includes various forms such as Zen Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism - also known as Lamaism.

Mahayana Buddhists believe in the broader appeal to Buddha's teachings compared to the more abstract philosophical questions posed in Theravada Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhists also accept contemporary buddhas like Amitabha, which Theravada Buddhists don't.  Despite China's shift to atheism after the Communists took control of China in 1949, Buddhism continued to grow in China, especially after the economic reforms in the 1980s.Today there are an estimated 100 million followers of Buddhism in China and over 20,000 Buddhist temples. It is the largest religion in China. Mulam, jingpo, maonan ( also pratice polytheism ), blang, aching, jing or gin (also practice Taoism), de’ang or derung who are Buddhist ethic group people in china.

3.       Discuss the similarities and diffeernces between Theravada and mahayan tradition.

There is hardly any difference between Theravada and Mahayana with regard to the fundamental teachings of the Buddha. The following are the most important teachings of the Buddha which are all accepted by both schools: 
(a) Both accept Sakyamuni Buddha as the Teacher.
(b) The Four Noble Truths are exactly the same in both schools.
(c) The Eightfold Path is exactly the same in both schools.
(d) The Paticca-samuppada or the Dependent Origination is the same in both schools.
(e) Both rejected the idea of a supreme being who created and governed this world.
(f) Both accept Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta and Sila, Samadhi, Panna without any difference.

Basic Differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism:
Though there are many similarities, but there are some important aspects in which both schools of Buddhist thoughts differ from each other. The major aspects of these are – Bodhisattva Concept
Many people believe that Mahayana is for the Bodhisattvahood which leads to Buddhahood while Theravada is for Arahantship. It should be noted here that the Gautoma Buddha himself was also an Arahant. The ideal of the Mahayana school is that of the Bodhisattva, a person who delays his or her own enlightenment in order to compassionately assist all other beings and ultimately attains to the highes Bodhi.

The main goal of Theravada Buddhism is personal liberation from suffering and that of Mahayana Buddhism is liberation of all living beings from suffering. There is considerable variation in ritual, texts, culture, etc. between the two traditions, but also within each tradition. However, the primary differences are mainly cultural and not spiritual.

4.       Explain the Mahayana theaching of buddha-nature and bodhistattava ideal

Buddha Nature is a term used often in Mahayana Buddhism that isn't easy to define. To add to the confusion, understanding of what it is varies from school to school. Very basically, Buddha Nature is the fundamental nature of all beings. Because this is so, all beings may realize enlightenment. Beyond that, one can find all manner of commentaries and theories and doctrines about Buddha Nature that may be difficult to understand. This is because Buddha Nature is not part of our conventional, conceptual understanding of things, and language doesn't function well to explain it. The origin of the Buddha Nature doctrine can be traced to something the historical Buddha said, recorded in the Pali Tipitika  (Pabhassara Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 1.49-52):

Bodhisattva ideal

Avoided five precepts expect from surameraya but consisting thes “ selling intoxicant. And broadcasting the faults of the assembly , praising oneself- disparaging others, stinginess and abuse, anger and resentment, slandering the three jewels.

Buddhist nun -- as well as whatever level of bodhisattvahood one may have reached, whether the Ten Dwellings, the Ten Practices, the Ten Dedications, the Ten Grounds -- and the fruits of undying Buddha Nature.

Therefore, Buddha's disciples should avoid breaking any of these major precepts. All bodhisattvas should study and observe the Ten Precepts, which have been observed, are being observed, and will be observed by all bodhisattvas.

5.       Explain the theory of madhyamaka philosophy and theory of yogacara philosopy briefly.

The theory of the two truths has a twenty-five century long history behind it. It has its origin in the sixth century BCE^, India with the emergence of the Siddhārtha Gautama became a buddha “awakened one” because he fully understood the meaning of the two truths . The theory of the two truths is the heart of the Buddha's philosophy. It serves as the mirror reflecting the core message of the Buddha's teachings and the massive philosophical literature it inspired. At the heart of the theory of the two truths is the Buddha's ever poignant existential and soteriological concerns about the reality of things and of life. Nirvāṇa, ultimate freedom from the suffering conditioned by desires, is only ever achieved, according to the theory of the two truths, from a correct understanding of two truths. .In later years, Sarvāstivādin (Vaibhāṣika) and Sautrāntika, Madhyamaka (from the first century CE onwards) and Yogācāra (ca. sixth century CE onwards) became the dominant schools. Our investigation of the theory of the two truths will briefly focus on how these schools have received, interpreted and understood it. Although all these schools regard the theory of two truths as the centrepiece of the Buddha's philosophy, all have nevertheless adopted very different approaches to the theory. As we shall see each understood and interpreted the two truths in different ways, and are often fundamentaly and radically opposed to each other.

• 3. Yogācāra -.1 Conventional Truth    -2 Ultimate truth
• 4. Madhyamaka    -1 Svātantrika Madhyamaka
• -.2 Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka

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