Pure Land Buddhism and its World View. Social Sciences Essay (Essay Sample)

Pure Land Buddhism and its World View
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Pure Land Buddhism and the World View
The concept that builds the pure land Buddhism belief dates back to the sixth century where the teachings were first introduced by the Korean emissaries to Japan. This period is termed as the Asuka period and is marked by the years between 552 and 710. The period has since been admired by generations that came after that period and is considered as Japan’s Golden Age due to the fact that it signified development of Japanese culture. The Asuka period comes into existence after the Emperor moved Japan’s capital to Nara. The pure land Buddhism concepts were first presented in form of images and texts and while these were just submitted to the Japanese court, their influence were felt across the west with the land held by Zen traditions. Although marginally recognised, the pure land teachings are lauded to be a philosophical tradition based on the teachings of emptiness. Empress Suiko encouraged the development of Buddhism and the establishment of temples one of which is the Asuka temple in japan, one of the oldest Buddhist temple. Basing on the Chinese imperial state type of governance, the Japanese sought to develop their form of governance in which they centralised power under the leadership of the Yamoto ruler.[Shirane, H., Suzuki, T., & Lurie, D. (2015). The ancient period (beginnings to 794). New York: Cambridge University Press.]
The Japanese religion experienced shifts from the archaic view to what has been termed the historic type of religion marking two sides of world view, affirmative and world rejecting religious view. The world rejection, as asserted by Max Weber, represents a type of religious withdrawal from the world in the aspect of how institutions impact religion in both the political and social perspective. The Heian period represents a stage in Japanese history where Buddhism started to influence the population with the middle class being the largely affected.