1999 Meeting Abstracts A246 Regional Buddhisms, Universal Discourses

A246 Jōkei and Hōnen: Debating the Universal and Particular in Medieval Japanese Buddhism
James L. Ford, Wake Forest University

This paper will explore the controversy between Jōkei (1155-1213), of the Hossō school, and Hōnen (1133-1213), founder of the Japanese Pure Land sect (Jōdo-shu). While Hōnen, the founding father of "new" Kamakura Buddhism, has been the subject of countless research volumes, Jōkei remains relatively obscure; this despite that fact that he was clearly one of the most prominent monks during in his lifetime. The dispute between these two scholar-monks revolves around the relationship between the universal Dharma and the particular teachings and practices embraced by the Buddhist tradition inherited from China and India. Through a textual analysis of the writings these eminent monks, I compare and contrast their understanding of the relationship between the universal and the particular. More specifically, I will examine the role played by the doctrine of "skillful means" in the radically different perspectives of these monks.

A246 A Regional Perspective on Buddhism at Mt. Nanyue
James Robson, Stanford University

In this paper I will explore the nature of the relationship between Buddhism and Daoism, and between the different Buddhist lineages at a particular site in China, Mt. Nanyue [The Southern Marchmount], in Hunan province. I hope to show that this site was of central importance to both Buddhism and Daoism, and that, given the rich textual resources, it also provides a unique opportunity to consider the Buddhist history of the site from a regional perspective. In line with the theme of the panel, I will situate my study of Mt. Nanyue within the Buddhist context of that region which was in Medieval China referred to as Jiangnan Xidao. It is my contention that it was precisely due to Nanyue's location in the far south that helped the different Chan lineages that developed there, namely those of Huairang and Shitou, to survive the devastating Huichang persecutions.

A246 Ling-yü (516-605 CE): Local Practice and Universal Doctrine
Bruce C. Williams, University of California, Berkeley

Ling-yü (516-605) was an important sixth century Chinese Buddhist monk andinfluential Ten Stages, or Ti-lun (Daśabhūmika vibhāṣā), scholar. His branch of Ti-lun scholarship is regarded as a forerunner of early Hua-yen thought. Inscriptional evidence alsoattests to Ling-yü's connections with Hsin-hsing (540-594), the founder of the Three StagesTeaching. This paper examines Ling-yü's regional associations and investigates the ritualand meditative contexts of a cave temple carved for him in 589 at Ling-ch'üan Monasteryon Mt. Pao (near Anyang, Honan). That Ling-yu and his disciples shared a common ritualand meditative paradigm with the Three Stages lineage, together with the close connections these two lineages shared with the early Hua-yen masters, suggest that the early Hua-yen masters shared a similar meditative practice. Their cultic congruence with the Three Stages lineage fails, however, at the doctrinal level. Such continuities and discontinuities suggest new ways of examining regional and "universal" discourses in Buddhism.