Buddhism Lecture notes of Chan Buddhism- Oriana

Chinese Religion.
--
At the first part of the semester, we looked at three different movements. The first was the notion of the Dharma king, and we talked about it in terms of the political background of what’s going on in China, that it is divided between North and South. And also the Chinese start to take seriously the notion of the impermanence of everything, including the dharma itself. And how’s that brings a notion that maybe we are in the final age, or maybe the final age is approaching. And one response to that is, somewhat ironically, an accommodation between the Buddhist Sangha and the son of heaven, where the son of heaven becomes not just a cosmic regulator of heaven on earth but also a regulator of the dharma, and in return to that – a sponsor of the dharma. So basically the monasteries become government officials, they need to be licensed, and yet on the other hand China becomes represented as Buddhist nation, and eventually they began to give emperors the title of “Bodhisattva”.
Dharma king= very politically oriented Buddhism.

We also talked about another popular religious movement – the three stages school, which begins to grapple with the question of how do you practice if this is the final age, what do you do when the scriptures don’t work, and we ended up with public-service Buddhism – social welfare Buddhism, talking about giving and not just to a stupa or to the sangha but giving to your neighbor, working for your community.
And this becomes probably the most popular form of lay Buddhism in China at the time.
Three stages school= shares with the Dharma king Buddhism it’s understanding that the Dharma is going to pass through different stages, there’s the teleology Buddhism. And it’s all about giving and being devotional.

And finally we talked about the finale curdle