Tianru Weize
Tianru Weize was a Chinese Buddhist monk of the Yuan dynasty known for his synthesis of Chan and Pure Land practices and beliefs.
Biography
Tianru Weize was born in 1268 in the town of Luling, Lianhua County, Jiangxi Province, China. At the age of 18, he ordained for the first time as a monk, and at 21 became a student of the famous Chan-Pure Land master Zhongfeng Mingben at Tianmu Mountain. During his time there, Weize purportedly achieved enlightenment and became one of Mingben's most respected disciples. Upon Mingben's death in 1323, Weize left Tianmu Mountain to live itinerantly, preaching the dharma in a number of locations across China without accepting an official position at any temple. After multiple decades of this lifestyle, he established a temple within Lion Grove Garden in Suzhou. After teaching there for 13 years, Weize died in 1354.
Teachings
Tianru Weize is known for carrying on the synthesis of practices and philosophy from the Chan and Pure Land sects of Buddhism begun by his predecessor Mingben and Yongming Yanshou before him. Weize expounded his views in the Leng-yen hui-chieh and the Ching-t'u huo-wen. In his works, he applied the Chan doctrine of "mind only" to Pure Land teachings. Among the ideas presented in his Ching-t'u huo-wen, Weize asserted that "all of the pure lands which lie outside the tens of millions of universes are also pure lands which are "mind only," and the lord who resides in the middle of the Pure Land is the Amitabha of our own natures." In this way, Weize held to the Chan principle of non-dualism, that the human mind and Buddha are fundamentally one, and that both are ultimately empty of self-nature. He saw Chan practice devoid of Pure Land practices such as nian-fo and visualization meditation as unsustainable and prideful, as well as ignorant of precedents set by salient Indian Buddhist philosophers like Nagarjuna or Asvaghosa.
References
Jianchun Shao, Hongyun Wu, Zen Thought of Monk Tianruweize in the Yuan Dynasty, International Conference on Social Science and Education Research, 2019 Shinko Mochizuki, Pure Land Buddhism in China: A Doctrinal History Volume 1: Translation, BDK America, 2016
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