Shandao

Shandao (simplified Chinese: 善导大师; traditional Chinese: 善導大師; pinyin: Shàndǎo Dàshī; Japanese: Zendō Daishi; 613–681) was a Chinese Buddhist scholar monk and an influential figure of East Asian Pure Land Buddhism.

Shandao was one of the first Pure Land authors to argue that all ordinary people, and even the most evil person, can be reborn in the Pure Land by relying on the karmic power of Amitābha Buddha's past vows. Shandao was also one of the earliest Pure Land authors to teach the primacy of faithfully reciting Amitābha's name (nianfo). Shandao saw this practice as sufficient for birth in the Pure Land, and as the supreme practice (even more important than meditation). This, along with Shandao's efforts to teach common laypeople in various ways, like disseminating paintings of the Pure Land, made Pure Land Buddhism much more accessible and popular among the common people.

Several modern scholars consider Shandao to be the central figure of the Chinese Pure Land tradition. According to Alfred Bloom, Shandao "systematized Pure Land thought and brought it to its highest peak of development in China."

Shandao's writings had a strong influence on later Pure Land masters, especially his teachings on recitation of the Buddha's name and on faith. His close students include other important Pure Land figures of the time, like the Pure Land patriarch Huaigan (懷感) as well as Huaiyun (懷惲, 640-701). Shandao is also very important for Japanese pure land founders Hōnen and Shinran. In Jōdo Shinshū, he is considered the Fifth Patriarch, while in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, he is considered the second patriarch after Lushan Huiyuan. Shandao was so influential to the Pure Land tradition that he eventually came to be seen as a manifestation of the Buddha himself (a Nirmāṇakāya).

There are various sources for Shandao's biography, the earliest and most reliable is Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (T 2060) by Daoxuan (596–667), a contemporary of Shandao who also resided with him at Mount Zhongnan.

Shandao (lay name: Chu) was most likely born in 613, in what is now China's Shandong Province. He became a buddhist monk (bhiksu) early in life under master Master Mingsheng of Mizhou (about whom little is known). With his teacher, Shandao studied the Lotus Sutra and Vimalakirti Sutra.

According to some sources, he once saw a picture of the pure land and this inspired him to attain birth in the pure land for the first time. After receiving the full monastic precepts, Shandao (now twenty years old) read the Contemplation Sutra together with his Vinaya Master Miaokai and concluded that Buddhist practices other than the pure land method were too uncertain and difficult. He then spent some time traveling, visiting temples and teachers. He is said to have visited Mount Lu during this period.

In around 633, Shandao also studied at Wu chen Monastery on Mount Zhongnan near the capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an), a center of pure land meditation practice. This monastery had been built by the followers of Ching yeh (564 616), a direct disciple of Jingying Huiyuan (c. 523–592). Jingying Huiyuan was a great scholar-monk who had written commentaries on the Amitayus Sutra and the Contemplation Sutra. According to Tanaka, Shandao's training at this monastery gave him the opportunity to the study the works of this scholar and Shandao's works do show the influence of Huiyuan. He is also said to have meditated on the visualizations of the Pure Land and attained deep samadhi.