Christian Pureland Parallels

QUESTION: A coincidence between Pure Land Buddhism and Christianity is the way the practice of Nembutsu goes, which, as far as I know, is extremely close to that of praying the Rosary. Other common features are Heaven on Earth/Pure Land, but particularly the fact that both are religions for the masses and the poor. Extraordinary coincidences.

DHARMAVIDYA: Yes - and probably more than coincidences, but in which direction lies the influence? Buddhism is older than Christianity. Where did the Christian ideas come from? - not just from Judaism. It is possible to see Christainity as an adaptation of Pureland Buddhism to a theistic ambiance. In all probability religions have been influencing each other back and forth throughout human history. Religions are human artefacts. They reach for something beyond human contrivance, but they are made by people and the process of borrowing goes on all the time in all directions. For instance, despite the rhetoric about purity of tradition and lineage, the schools of Buddhism that co-exist in the West are borrowing from one another all the time. Through this a certain degree of concensus has grown up and on some issues Pureland challenges this concensus. Broadly speaking, Western concensus Buddhists (WB) believe in and (over-)emphasise Buddha nature, oneness, meditation, mindfulness and non-duality while neglecting faith, moral discipline, and deluded nature. Purelanders are closer to original Buddhism. We have doubts about the sacred cows of WB. It is actually very difficult to establish the WB position from the texts. Buddha nature is not an idea deriving from Shakyamuni. Buddha says a lot more about "standing against" than about oneness, non-duality or merging - he simply was not a "go with the flow" kind of guy. Meditation plays a large role in his teaching but it is not the be-all-and-end-all and mindfulness in the texts does not mean acute awareness, it means (just as it does in standard English) keeping wholesome things in mind (which is what nembutsu is about). The idea of mindfulness as dwelling in the here and now in everyday life has no reference in the Buddhist sutras to my knowledge, but is a later (Zen) extrapolation. Regarding the practices and teachings you single out:
- the mala or rosary has always been used by Buddhists since long before Christianity was invented. A closer analogue to nembutsu in Christianity, however, is the Jesus prayer. It seems much more likely that the Eastern Orthodox Christians got the idea from Buddhism than the other way around.
- Heaven and the Pure Land are well established in the earliest Buddhist texts which again antedate Christianity by a long time.
- Mass religion: Buddhism must have been a mass movement from an early stage. Pureland in the Japanese form particularly became a mass religion as a result of the preaching of Honen (1133-1212) but it is very unlkely that this had anything to do with connections with the West - tho some people have seen remarkable parallels between medieval iconography in Japan and Europe so we cannot rule out influence altogether. This was, however, well before Marco Polo opened up trade between Europe and East Asia.