Collected Essays on the World of Peace and Delight
Collected Essays on the World of Peace and Delight, The
[安楽集] (Chin An-lo-chi; Jpn Anraku-shu )
A work by Tao-ch'o (562-645), a patriarch of the Pure Land school in China. The "World of Peace and Delight" in the title is another name for the Pure Land of Perfect Bliss created by Amida Buddha. In this work, Tao-ch'o divides all of Shakyamuni's teachings into two categories—Sacred Way teachings and Pure Land teachings—based on the Meditation on the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra. He asserts that the people of the Latter Day of the Law should embrace only the Pure Land teachings and rely solely upon Amida Buddha in order to be reborn in his Pure Land of Perfect Bliss in the west. Referring to the difficult-to-practice way and the easy-to-practice way set forth in Nagarjuna's Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra, he identifies the difficult-to-practice way with the Sacred Way teachings, and the easy-to-practice way with the Pure Land teachings. Thus Tao-ch'o urges people to abandon the difficult-to-practice way, or the Sacred Way teachings that teach the attainment of Buddhahood in this world through one's own power, and embrace the easy-to-practice way, or the Pure Land teachings that lead one to rebirth in the Pure Land of Perfect Bliss simply through recitation of the name of, and reliance upon, Amida Buddha. This work formed the basis of Shan-tao's Commentary on the Meditation on the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra. Honen, the founder of the Pure Land ( Jodo) school in Japan, used The Collected Essays on the World of Peace and Delight and Shan-tao's commentary as major references in writing his Nembutsu Chosen above All.
