buddhistethics posted: "ISSN
1076-9005 Volume 27, 2020 Can an Evil Person Attain Rebirth in the Pure Land?
Ethical and Soteriological Issues in the Pure Land Thought of Peng Shaosheng
(1740-1796) Hongyu Wu Ohio Northern University In Pure Land literature in
China, it is n"
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New post on Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 27, 2020
Can an Evil Person Attain
Rebirth in the Pure Land? Ethical and Soteriological Issues in the Pure
Land Thought of Peng Shaosheng (1740-1796)
Hongyu Wu
Ohio Northern University
In Pure Land
literature in China, it is not uncommon to find accounts about morally
flawed or evil persons attaining rebirth in the Pure Land. The rebirth
of evil persons in the Pure Land, in fact, is an issue that can work
both for and against Pure Land proponents. On the one hand, the
soteriological inclusiveness of evil persons can be employed by
promoters to prioritize Pure Land belief and practice over other forms
of Buddhist thought and practice. On the other hand, belief in the
saving power of Amitābha Buddha might discourage people from doing good
or, even worse, legitimize evil behavior—a point that critics both
within and outside the Buddhist community were quick to point out. The
moral failures of Pure Land practitioners surely garnered criticism and
hostility that were directed both toward the individual and toward the
Pure Land teachings—and, as Pure Land beliefs and practices in China
were not sectarian, the misconducts of the Pure Land practitioners
could eventually damage the reputation of the whole Buddhist community.
This paper focuses on Peng Shaosheng, a Confucian literatus turned
Buddhist layman and a prominent advocate of Pure Land practice, to
examine how he employed a syncretic approach by drawing on concepts
such as karmic retribution, sympathetic resonance (ganying),
no-good (wushan),
and ultimate good (zhishan)
to develop a scheme that neither denied the saving power of Amitābha
Buddha and supremacy of Pure Land practice nor endorsed “licensed
evil.” Read article
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