Pai-lien-she
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Pai-lien-she
白蓮社 (PY Bailianshe; Jpn Byakuren-sha)
"White Lotus Society." A Chinese religious group that practiced meditation on the Buddha Amida, established in 402 by Hui-yüan at Tung-lin-ssu temple on Mount Lu. Hui-yüan, a leading disciple of Tao-an, went to Mount Lu in 384 with a group of his disciples. In 402 he along with 123 priests and lay practitioners made a vow before an image of Amida, and tradition identifies this with the founding of Pai-lien-she, or White Lotus Society. The group was so named after the white lotus flowers that grew in the ponds of the temple. The Pai-lien-she is regarded as a precursor of the Pure Land school of Buddhism.
