Shandao (; ; 613–681) was a Chinese Buddhist scholar-monk who is considered a great sage and patriarch in East Asian Pure Land Buddhism.Cui, Yuqing [崔玉卿]. "A Study on Shan-dao's Thought" [善导思想研究]. Wutaishan Research [五台山研究], no. 1, 2010, pp. 18-23. Several modern scholars consider Shandao to be the central figure of the Chinese Pure Land tradition.Cheung, Tak-ching Neky. and . “A comparative study of the pure land teachings of Shandao (613-681) and Shinran (1173-1262).” (2001). According to Alfred Bloom, Shandao "systematized Pure Land thought and brought it to its highest peak of development in China."
Shandao was one of the first Pure Land authors to argue that all ordinary people, even the most evil persons, can be reborn in the Pure Land by relying on the karmic power of Amitābha Buddha's past vows. Shandao was also one of the earliest Pure Land authors to teach the primacy of faithfully reciting Amitābha's name (). Shandao saw this practice as sufficient for birth in the Pure Land, and as the supreme practice (even more important than meditation), though he also wrote on and promoted other ritual practices. Shandao's efforts to teach common laypeople in various ways, like disseminating paintings of the Pure Land, made Pure Land Buddhism much more accessible and popular among the common people.
Shandao's writings had a strong influence on later Pure Land masters, especially his teachings on recitation of the Buddha's name and his explanations of the nature of faith (xìnxīn). His close students include other important Pure Land figures of the time, like the Pure Land patriarch Huaigan (懷感) as well as Huaiyun (懷惲, 640-701). Shandao is also very important for Japanese pure land founders Hōnen and Shinran. In Jōdo Shinshū, he is considered the Fifth Patriarch, while in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, he is considered the second patriarch after Lushan Huiyuan. Shandao was so influential to the Pure Land tradition that he eventually came to be seen as a manifestation of the Buddha himself (a nirmāṇakāya).
Biography There are various sources for Shandao's biography, the earliest and most reliable is Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (T 2060) by Daoxuan (596–667), a contemporary of Shandao who also resided with him at Mount Zhongnan.
Shandao (lay name: Chu) was most likely born in 613, in what is now the Linzi county of China's Shandong Province. He became a buddhist monk (bhiksu) early in life under master Master Mingsheng of Mizhou (about whom little is known). With his teacher, Shandao studied the Lotus Sutra and Vimalakirti Sutra.Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (eds.)
The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism,Princeton University Press, p. 797, 2013.
According to some sources, he once saw a picture of the pure land and this inspired him to attain birth in the pure land for the first time. After receiving the full monastic precepts, Shandao (now twenty years old) read the Contemplation Sutra together with his Vinaya Master Miaokai and concluded that Buddhist practices other than the pure land method were too uncertain and difficult. He then spent some time traveling, visiting temples and teachers. He is said to have visited Mount Lu during this period.
In around 633, Shandao also studied at Wu chen Monastery on Mount Zhongnan near the capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an), a center of pure land meditation practice. This monastery had been built by the followers of Ching yeh (564 616), a direct disciple of Jingying Huiyuan (c. 523–592). Jingying Huiyuan was a great scholar-monk who had written commentaries on the Amitayus Sutra and the Contemplation Sutra. According to Tanaka, Shandao's training at this monastery gave him the opportunity to the study the works of this scholar and Shandao's works do show the influence of Huiyuan. He is also said to have meditated on the visualizations of the Pure Land and attained deep samadhi.
At some point between 633 and 645 (the sources disagree on the dating), Shandao visited the famous Xuanzhong Temple, a major temple of the Pure Land Buddhist masters Tanluan and Daochuo (562–645). Shandao met Daochuo, and was inspired to become Daochuo's disciple. Shandao stayed at Xuanzhong Temple for a few years listening to the lectures of Daochuo, practicing repentance rites and Buddha name recitation and achieving nianfo samadhi.
After Daochuo's death in 645, Shandao returned to Wu-chen temple and also traveled to the imperial capital at Chang'an (modern Shaanxi) to preach Pure Land Buddhism. For 30 years, Shandao preached Pure Land teachings to the lay population of the city, teaching them to chant the nianfo (the name of Amitabha), copying the Pure Land sutras numerous times, distributing copies of the Amitabha sutra, making many paintings of the pure land, restoring monasteries and writings books. He stressed that reciting the Buddha's name was the easiest practice for attaining birth in the pure land. Shandao taught men and women of all classes equally, and even butchers and wine sellers are said to have followed his teachings.
Shandao lived in Chang'an for more than 30 years propagating the Pure Land teachings. Chinese sources indicate that he was a strict practitioner of nianfo (reciting the Buddha's name) and pratyutpanna samadhi meditation, as well as spending much of his time spreading the Pure Land teachings and performing devotional practices to the Buddha, such as circumambulation (around a Buddha statue), and reciting the sutras. He also strictly observed the Buddhist ethical precepts. In spite of his strict and demanding spiritual practice, Shandao still thought of himself as an ordinary worldly person (pṛthagjana), writing: "certainly, I myself am a sinful prthagjana". Thus, he still believed that he (along with most people) needed to rely on the compassionate power of Amitabha Buddha to attain Buddhahood. Nevertheless he became famous as the "Master of Radiant Light" (Guangming Heshang) due to the belief that people had seen rays of light streaming from his mouth when he recited the Buddha's name.
Shandao's activities in the Chang'an capital area centered around four main monasteries: Wuzhen Temple () on Mount Zhongnan (40 km southeast of Chang'an city), Guangming Temple (), Daci'en Temple (; during the time that Xuanzang would have resided here) and Shiji Temple (). Using the wealth donated by his patrons, Shandao undertook the repair of dilapidated temples and stupas. He also worked to create copies of over 100,000 volumes of the Amitabha Sutra. One of these copies was discovered by Tachibana Zuicho in 1909, alongside other fragments of Shandao's works.
According to the Historical Biographies of the Pure Land, Shandao painted "painted more than three hundred murals of Pure Land transformation tableaux." These "transformation tableau" (Bianxiang) were paintings illustrated Pure Land stories which were used to teach others. Shandao's paintings were used as prototypes for later tableaux in other temples. In 672, Shandao traveled to Luoyang to oversee the sculptures of the Fengxian Cave Temple ensemble at the Longmen Grottoes, one of China’s greatest Buddhist rock art sites. This particular project was supported by Empress Wu Zetian.
Chinese sources describe Shandao as a man who lived a very simple ascetic life. He preferred begging for his food and did not have a room to himself. He kept the monastic rules strictly and gave away all possessions and gifts. He ate the simplest and coarsest food, and gave the best to others, avoiding even milk products. The Chronicle of Buddha and Patriarchs (Fozu Tongji) states that: "He maintained the precepts flawlessly, without the slightest violation; he offered fine food to the public while living on sparse fare himself."
In his lifetime, Shandao wrote five major works on Pure Land Buddhism, with his commentaries on the Contemplation Sutra being among the most influential.
Shandao had many followers and eminent disciples including Huaigan and Huaiyun. In 681, Shandao passed away and Huaiyun then built Xiangji Temple south of Chang'an, directly north of the Zhongnan Mountains.
Teachings Key ideas
Shandao synthesized much of the teachings of earlier Chinese Pure Land Buddhists, such as Tanluan and Daochuo, however, he also introduced new ideas that became central to both Chinese and Japanese Pure Land traditions. The key four ideas of Shandao's thought are: All ordinary people (pṛthagjana) can attain birth in the pure land, no matter how evil or deluded they are, by saying the name of the Buddha Amitabha with faith and relying on the Buddha's Original Vow. Once born there, all beings can equally perceive the pure land (Sukhāvatī) in its true form (as a “reward land”). This attainment does not depend on the meditative qualities or level of purification of the practitioner, instead it depends on the Buddha's vows and merit. The primary practice is oral recitation of the Buddha's name (chiming nianfo). According to Shandao, the ten nianfos cited in both the Infinite Life Sūtra and the Contemplation Sutra (as the bare necessity for attaining rebirth in the pure land) are oral recitations (, also called the “ten sounds”, ). Previous interpretations were more ambiguous in interpreting the meaning of the term . Shandao was the first to define these as . Shandao even applies this interpretation in cases where a text does not clearly state that nian refers to oral repetition. All nine levels of rebirth in the Pure Land discussed by the Contemplation Sutra were accomplished by ordinary people not advanced āryas (noble sages). The lowest level includes even people who have committed the worst of evils but have converted and said the nianfo wishing to be reborn in the Pure Land. Rebirth in the Pure Land comes primarily through Amitabha Buddha's vow rather than one's own efforts. Shandao writes that the vows are of rebirth in the Pure Land. Most previous authors (except Tanluan) had held that Amitabha merely creates the Pure Land, but that it is our own deeds and merit that takes us there.
The causes of birth in the Pure Land According to Shandao, birth in the Pure Land arises from an external condition and from internal conditions. The external condition is the other-power of Amitabha Buddha and the internal conditions are the triple mind of faith (三心) and the right Pure Land practices which include nianfo recitation and Buddha contemplation.
Shandao's Pure Land thought is based on the theory of the vow-power of Amitabha's Original Vow (本願), which had previously been discussed by masters like Tanluan and Daochuo. According to this view, all ordinary beings, good or bad, can attain birth in the Pure Land through Amitabha Buddha's power.Wu, Xianlin. "The Characteristics of Shandao's Pure Land Thought" [善导净土思想之特色]. Buddhist Studies [佛学研究], no. 12, 2003, pp. 66-70. This position different from that of previous masters like Jizang and Jingying Huiyuan. For Shandao, all the lotus grades of rebirth in the Contemplation Sutra refer to various grades of ordinary beings (pṛthagjana).
Even though they are all ordinary beings with many defilements, the karmic power (業力) of the Buddha can lead them to the Pure Land, as Shandao states:The ability of ordinary people, both good and bad, to attain birth [in the Pure Land] happens for no other reason than being carried by the karmic power of the great vows of Amitabha Buddha as the dominant karmic condition. The true mind and its three aspects