A Study of the Formation, Spread and Acceptance of Pure Land Thought

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There are still many continuoysly unresolved problims in Pure Land Thought, one of the main branches of Mahayana Buddhism. This prject is aimed at systematically elucidating all aspects of the formation, spread and acceptance of Pure Land Thought. It deals not only with the formation and evolution of Pure Land Thought in India, but also with the process of its development in Cental Asia and East Asia according to a philological and historical method in modern times.1. The Study of MaterialsIn This study, the Larger Sukhavatiyyuha and the Smaller Sukhavativyuha, which are the basic texts of Pure Land Thought, were considered philologically. Partucylarly, in the Larger Sukhavativyuha, the author romanized all the thirtyfour copies of the Sanskrit manuscripts and finished recording them by computer, In the Vow of the Larger Sukhavatiyyuha, the copies were compared and contrasted with each other and processed according to a newly developed program. Though various studies on the Sanskrit manuscripts by using computers have tried recently, they have not gotten standard results yet. Hence, the data processing system established in this study will make a new contribution to the field.2. The Study of ThoughtThe author studied the history of thought in the Larger and the Smaller Sukhavatlvyuhas and the Kuan-wu-liang-shou-ching which aer the main sutras of Pure Land Buddhism. At first, several problems in Early Pure Land Buddhism in India were examined and considerd, such as the process in which Pure Land Thought was propagated and accepted in Central Asia, China, Kores and Japan. In particular, the author took note of the unique view on man in Pure Land Buddhism that man is a "foolish being" and his true nature is "evil." The formation and development of that thought was studied on the basis of its relevant literature from India, China and Japan.