Four Schools of Buddhism - Essay Example

As a consequence of Mou Zi and others’ defense of Buddhism, numerous Chinese started to take in the features of Buddhism that they contemplated could enhance life, contentment, and happiness. As a result, various schools emerged emphasizing definite stress of practice and principles more than others in harmony with what they take into account were the most advantageous and pleasant. This focus on various features of Buddhism led to the emergence of various schools of Chinese Buddhism, four of which turned out to be the most extensively practiced and longest enduring (Peach, 2002).   

T’ien-t’ai

The T’ien-t’ai school was founded on the Lotus Sutra as interpreted by Chih-k’ai who was a Chinese monk in the sixth century. The T’ien-t’ai school was doctrinal and is portrayed by its stress on reflection in addition to philosophical substance. It viewed the Lotus Sutra as holding the paths for deliverance through practice. It hence was a connection between the dominant Northern Chinese progress of Buddhism as a religion of conviction and discipline and the Southern scholastic tradition (ibid).

Hua-Yen

The Hua-yen school was based on the Indian Avitamsaka Scripture. The primary principle of the school is dharmadatu, the general causation of the dimension of the law. The dimension of the law is the dimension of the whole universe in all domains. The philosophical development of general causation was natively Chinese. It was an expansion of the Buddha’s account of the dependent beginning so as to explain the emergence of the universe as synchronized (Lai, 2007).      

Ch’an

Ch’an emphasized dhyana or deliberation. Deliberation was a general practice in all kinds of Buddhism, Chinese, and Indian. Numerous of the initial texts interpreted into Chinese were because of the enthusiasm of the Chinese intelligentsia and several Taoist’s appreciations of deliberation. Nevertheless, numerous of these texts were difficult and occasionally conflicting which resulted in a definite exposure to Chinese practice (ibid).

Pure Land

The Pure Land School was above all conviction based and devotional in custom. Its focus was on faith in Amitabha Buddha. The foremost form of custom was in dedication and calling the name of Amitabha so as to acquire his deliverance and hence rebirth in the pure land of the West. This school substantially abandoned the essentiality of self-improvement through the Buddha’s principles of the path to salvation (Peach, 2002).   

If I were to choose among the four schools of Buddhism, I will prefer Pure Land Buddhism because its central teaching is that eternal happiness is not any more practical or even possible to achieve in the contemporary period. Instead, an individual should concentrate on a commitment to Amida, which will grant an individual sufficient karmic value to go to the Pure Land or Heaven. The Pure Land is not an everlasting destination, yet an attractive place in which all fate vanishes and eternal happiness is trouble-free to achieve (ibid).

Personally, I preferred Pure Land Buddhism to the other three schools because it holds a striking similarity in its beliefs and principles with Judaism. Judaism, akin to Pure Land Buddhism, also put emphasis on devotion and strict observance of the written law of the Torah to assure one of eternal deliverance (Green, 2007). Moreover, Judaism adheres strictly to orthodox beliefs and customs because its followers believe that they will attain eternal happiness only through upholding the principles of the Torah.