Common Knowledge in Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
The Commentaries Explaining Lineages – a lineage is like a bloodline. It refers to the teaching of a school or sect that is inherited from and transmitted through its lineage. It is very much like inheriting genetic traits from one’s parents and ancestors.
It is the same source, same substance, all the same throughout. “Commentaries” are written by Bodhisattvas. Exegeses are explanations written by the patriarchs. Both of them explain the Sutras. There are two kinds of lineages, one is “the lineage through a person.” It follows the “genealogy” of the patriarchs in a lineage. The other is “the lineage through the Dharma.” It follows the commentaries of the patriarchs in a lineage. A person is the one who transmits the teaching, and the teaching is to be unfolded by persons. So, the two are inseparable.
The inauguration of the Pure Land School is based on the commentaries and exegeses written by the five patriarchs: Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu in India, and Tanluan, Daochuo and Shandao in China. The genealogy of the 13 patriarchs of the Pure Land School in China, though commonly known, was formulated with reference to the performance and morality of the respective patriarchs. So, they lack “the lineage by Dharma” in terms of the teaching.
相承論釋 - 「相承」又稱法脈相承,指一宗一派教法的遞相承接,如生命體之血脈運行,同源,同質,始終一貫。
「論」為菩薩所造,「釋」為祖師所解。論與釋共同解釋正依經典。相承一般表述為兩方面:一、人相承,也稱相承祖師系譜;二、法相承,即相承祖師有關論著。人以傳法,法由人顯,二者不離。
淨土宗的創立,以印度龍樹、天親菩薩,中國曇鸞、道綽、善導大師共五位祖師相關論釋為相承,而一般習知的中國淨土宗十三祖系譜,以「功高德盛」為立祖原則,在法義上並無相承關係。
Namo Amituofo!
