Abstract

Daochuo has long been hailed as the Buddhist thinker who, by connecting theories of the decline of the Buddhist dharma with Pure Land Buddhist teachings, argued that meditation on the Buddha Amituofo, or nianfo, was the only practice with soteriological efficacy in an age far removed from the time of the historical Buddha, Śākyamuni. By focusing on Daochuo’s references to the concept of the Latter Days of the Dharma in his Anleji, modern scholars in Japan and the West have presented his Pure Land Buddhism as an inferior teaching for an inferior age, a less than desirable shortcut for beings incapable of engaging the proper practices of the Buddhist path. A careful reading of the Anleji, however, reveals that Daochuo’s reliance on the concept of mofa in making his case for the primacy of the Pure Land teachings is less pronounced than these scholars indicate. This paper, by pointing out the severe criticisms that Daochuo makes of traditional Buddhist practices, shows that he held that the Pure Land path is the only possible option for sentient beings to attain Buddhahood, regardless of the time period in which they live or their level of attainment. That is to say, in the Anleji, Daochuo presents Pure Land Buddhism as the superior Buddhist teaching for all people and all ages.