Richard D. McBride II

 10.18399/acta.2015.18.1.002

Wŏnhyo (617–686) Pure Land Buddhism buddhānusmṛti yŏmbul (Ch. nianfo) simnyŏn (Ch. shinian) Silla Buddhism

Wŏnhyo (617–686) should not be classified as a member of a “Pure Land tradition” or “Pure Land school.” Instead, he, like many of his intellectual forebears and contemporaries in medieval China, such as Tanluan (ca. 488–554), Jingying Huiyuan (523–592), Tiantai Zhiyi (538–597), Jizang (549–623), and Shandao (613–681), was more concerned with the way in which the doctrines and practices presented in the Pure Land sūtras integrated with other aspects of Sinitic Mahāyāna Buddhism. Wŏnhyo’s writings demonstrate an intimate knowledge of the state of doctrinal Buddhism in China, and he wrote to participate in the larger Sinitic Buddhist intellectual discourse. Although Wŏnhyo’s Muryangsu-gyŏng chongyo (Doctrinal Essentials of the Wuliangshou jing) treats the Wuliangshou jing ([Larger] Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra), he did not ignore the Guan Wuliangshou jing (Sūtra on the Visualization of the Buddha Amitāyus). He was able to treat with precision the crucial passage of the latter scripture that deals with the meaning of the “ten recollections” (simnyŏn, Ch. shinian) and its relation to the practice of buddhānusmṛti (yŏmbul, Ch. nianfo) from within the context of the former sūtra. Wŏnhyo conceptualized both the ten recollections of the Mile fawen jing (Scripture on Questions asked by Maitreya) and the practice of chanting the name of the Buddha Amitābha for ten thought-moments as practices for people with inferior spiritual capacity. This probably reflects his belief that all people are capable of arousing the bodhicitta because all beings possess the Tathāgatagarbha. Succeeding monastic scholiasts of Silla adopted many of Wŏnhyo’s views but none completely shared his belief that the ten recollections of the Mile fawen jing are for people with limited mental capacity who hope to be reborn in the lowest order of rebirth in the Pure Land.