Taixu's 'On the Establishment of the Pure Land in the Human Realm': A Translation and Study

Charles B. Jones provides the first English language translation of Taixus 'On the Establishment of the Pure Land in the Human Realm, incorporating Western thought into a reconstruction of the idea of the 'Pure Land in the human realm. He argues that the essay promotes visions of both paradises and utopias and supports his ideas with many sutra quotations.

Format: Hardback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 14 January 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Charles B. Jones offers the first English translation of Taixus's 'On the Establishment of the Pure Land in the Human Realm,' a significant text in modern Chinese Buddhism. Written in 1926 as part of Taixus's effort to revive Chinese Buddhism with a Humanistic Buddhist approach, the essay blends Western thought into a reconstruction of the concept of the 'Pure Land in the human realm.'

In his commentary on the text, Jones argues that it has been widely misunderstood and mischaracterized. He demonstrates that, beyond establishing the modern idea of the Pure Land in the human realm as a slogan for Buddhist engagement with the challenges of the modern world, the essay does not discourage practices leading to rebirth in the Pure Land, as commonly assumed. He also shows that the 'human realm' in Buddhist cosmology can refer to any place where humans reside, and that Taixu's attempts to reconcile Buddhism with modern science are tentative and incomplete.

Jones reveals that the essay promotes visions of both paradises and utopias, and that Taixu supports his ideas with numerous lengthy sutra quotations. The book concludes with an examination of how Taixus's followers developed the idea of the Pure Land in the human realm into a more coherent and modernized ideal.

Weight: 414g
Dimension: 163 x 240 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350140561