Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?
The question came up while I was making my way through “A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra,” edited by Gene Reeves and published in 2002 by Kōsei Publishing.
The suggestion that Chih-i believed in rebirth in the Western Pure Land comes from Lucia Dolce’s essay, “Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren.” (Aren’t titles of academic essays just so precious?)
Here’s the context in Dolce’s discussion of One Buddha-land (p:232-233):
According to Nichiren, in the second section of the Lotus Sutra Śākyamuni speaks of this Sahā world as the original land, a pure Buddha realm compared to which the other lands of the ten directions are mere conventional worlds. In Chih-i’s exegesis the “original land” is the land in which the original Buddha attained enlightenment, therefore the realm of only one type of Buddha. This “Sahā world of the original time” contrasts with the Sahā world where human beings live, which retains the characteristics of a “trace-land.” For Nichiren, on the contrary, there is only one Sahā world. Vulture Peak, the place where the Lotus Sutra is taught, represents both this world of ours and the most perfect world, the only possible “paradise.” There is no other reality, neither for humanity, nor for the Buddha. Whereas Chih-i apparently believed in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hoped to reach it after his death*, Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our Sahā world into a “resplendent land.”
* Dolce’s note supporting the idea that Chih-i “apparently” longed for Amida’s Western paradise: Cf. Tetsuei Satō, Tendai daishi no kenkyū, 556-59.
I understand that centuries before Nichiren, the Tendai school adopted the Invocation of Amida’s Name. As the monk Chingen of Yokawa on Mount Hiei wrote in his “Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan“:
“In the fourteenth year of Shōwa [848], Jikaku returned to Japan [from China]. It is said that Jikaku’s efforts were responsible for half of the transmission of the Law to Japan. He introduced the Invocation of Amida’s Name, the Hokke Repentance Rites, the Kanjō Consecration Rites, and the Shari Relics Meeting.” (Page 34)
According to Chinden, Jikau, on his deathbed, “told Priest Enjun to recite and pay his respects to the Hokekyō [Lotus Sutra] which preaches the great and fair knowledge of Amida.”
One can understand why Nichiren lamented what he considered to be the most deplorable false doctrine of Grand Master Jikaku, who denigrated the Lotus Sūtra and regarded the Shingon teaching to be supreme. (See translator’s note to Jikaku Daishi no Koto, Concerning Grand Master Jikaku, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 215.)
So, back to my question: Did Chih-i believe in the Western paradise of Amitābha and hope to reach it after his death?