Korea, Japan, Zen and the Pure Land
Buddhism passes from China to Korea and Japan, and in medieval Japan new schools of Zen meditation, Pure Land faith and the Lotus Sutra make it a religion of ordinary people.
- Zen Buddhism: A History (2 vols.) — Heinrich Dumoulin, World Wisdom (2005)
- Jōdo Shinshū: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan — James C. Dobbins, Indiana University Press (1989)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
Buddhism reached the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo in 372, and later became the state faith of unified Silla, whose capital Gyeongju is full of Buddhist treasures. From Korea it travelled to Japan in the sixth century, where it was blended with the worship of kami (see Shinto roots and the coming of Buddhism).
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
In China, the Chan school taught that awakening comes through meditation and direct insight into one’s own Buddha-nature, “not depending on words”. In Japan’s Kamakura period (1185–1333), new movements brought Buddhism to ordinary people. Hōnen (1133–1212) taught from 1175 that in a degenerate age anyone could be reborn in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land simply by reciting Namu Amida Butsu; his disciple Shinran went further, teaching total reliance on Amida’s grace. Eisai brought Rinzai Zen from China (1191) and Dōgen brought Sōtō Zen (1227), with its “just sitting” meditation. Nichiren (1222–1282) proclaimed the Lotus Sutra alone as the true teaching.
- Jōdo Shinshū: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan — James C. Dobbins, Indiana University Press (1989)
- Zen Buddhism: A History (2 vols.) — Heinrich Dumoulin, World Wisdom (2005)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
These schools, especially the Pure Land denominations, remain the largest in Japan, and Korean Buddhism today is dominated by the Seon (Zen) Jogye Order.
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
Why it matters today
Zen shaped much of what the world knows as Japanese culture, from rock gardens to the tea ceremony, and was the form of Buddhism most Westerners first met. Pure Land, less famous abroad, is followed by far more people in East Asia: reciting Amida Buddha's name remains one of the most common Buddhist practices on earth.