Japanese Buddhism Essay

Buddhism is the fourth largest religion, and has millions of followers worldwide. However, people cannot assume modern Buddhism as the same as its origin in ancient India. Buddhism has evolved into different branches. Japan has strong influence under Mahayana Buddhism. Japanese Buddhism differs from early Buddhism in the belief of emptiness which results in different interpretation nirvana.

Early Buddhists view emptiness as denial of human bodies. Early Buddhists believe that Gautama discovery emptiness “after first enjoying the pleasures of the senses can give” (33). The legend of Buddha states Gautama’s early life as “live in the upper stories of the palace, without access to the ground” (Legend of Buddha, 32). His royal parents provides

Japanese Buddhism believes that emptiness represents the whole reality. Chido, one prominent monk in Japanese Buddhism history, supports this idea by comparing dream to the reality in his book Dreams of Buddhism. He says that dream is “no different from ones waking reality” (Dreams of Buddhism, 237). Chido argues that people can experience the same sensation while dreaming as one awake, and denies the existence of reality. Thus dream and reality are essentially equal. This implies that reality can be interpreted as an imagery experience in a dream. Each cycle of life and birth is a dream and he refers this as “transmigration” (Dreams of Buddhism, 237). The dream analogy supports Japanese Buddhists’ definition of Buddha as one who is awakened. Ordinary humans do not see dream and reality as one, but Buddha do so because he is awakened from the dream of reality. He then says, “everything seen in dreams, even type of element, are all emptiness” (238). Objects in dreams are illusions of minds, and they vanish as one awakes. Since dream and reality are the same in Japanese Buddhists belief, everything in real life is another illusion and will vanish as well. Thus, all things in reality are emptiness. Japanese Buddhist also rejects the idea of past and future as they are imagery experience in the dreams. Japanese Buddhism differs from early Buddhism belief which does not regard the whole reality as emptiness. This difference also causes Japanese Buddhists hold different meaning of Buddha than early Buddhists. Chido states that “fundamental nature of mind is emptiness” (Dreams of Buddhism, 242) and “one’s own mind is Buddha” (Dreams of Buddhism, 237). The two statements mean that Buddha is the existence of emptiness. Chido states that if one acknowledge emptiness, one simple act is “powerful enough to produce Buddhahood” (Dreams of Buddhism , 239). Japanese Buddhists rejects Buddha as Gautama, and believe