A Tang esoteric manual for rebirth in the Pure Land: rites for contemplation of and offerings to Amitāyus Tathāgata

This essay takes up the question of how new practices and religious ideologies spread by reinterpreting preexisting ideologies and practices. Written for a volume honoring Roger Corless (1938-2007) a scholar of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, “A Tang Esoteric Manual for Rebirth in the Pure Land” illustrates how Esoteric or Tantric Buddhist texts appearing in China from the seventh century onward were integrated with or even hijacked pre-existing Buddhist Mahāyāna literature and practice. The manual under discussion is a particularly apt example of such appropriation. The aim of traditional Pure Land soteriology is to have a vision of the paradise of Amitabha and to attain rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land at the time of death. Esoteric soteriology, in contrast, seeks the realization of Buddhahood here and now. The manual I study here advances traditional Pure Land goals but in doing so appropriates them for Esoteric ideology by presenting Esoteric ritual as a kind of supercharger for attaining a vision of the Pure Land and eventual rebirth there. The article is also significant for treating Esoteric ideology and practice in the late Tang period (9th century). Most treatments of Esoteric Buddhism have been influenced by Japanese sectarian interests and therefore ignore developments in China after the eighth century