Master Yinshun and the Pure Land Thought
Master Yinshun and the Pure Land Thought

Summary/Abstract: The Chinese scholar-monk Yinshun (1906-), who is conceived as the founder of the renjian fojiao which is spread in Taiwan, dedicated quite a large part of his literary production to the Pure Land doctrine. This paper is divided into three main parts. The first section is an introduction to Yinshun's works on Pure Land and includes the criticism that those writings received. The second part discusses the concepts of purity and pure land in Yinshun's writings. Finally, the third and main part includes monographies on the main Pure Land in Mahayana Buddhism (the Pure Lands of Amitabha, Aksobhya, Maitreya and the Medicine Buddha), as concerned and analysed by Yinshun. This study aims to define Yinshun's philosophy through the analysis of his interpretation of the Pure Land doctrine, and provides a portrait of the Pure Land school in the contemporary Taiwan through questioning Yinshun's hermeneutics of Dharma. In addition, this work touches the issue of the relationship between tradition and innovation, by taking Yinshun and his Pure Land philosophy as case-study.

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