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영어

There are various practice divisions in carrying on a faithful Buddhist life. For example, mantra sect's tradition emphasizes on a practice of enchantment, Zen sect's tradition emphasizes on a practice of contemplation, Avatamska sect's tradition insists on a practice of bodhisattva way, Pure Land sect's tradition insists on a practice of a prayer to Amitabha. These ways of practicing Buddhism are able to be classified into two divisions, that is, the one is a self-power practice division and the other is an other-power practice division. It is said that the practice of enchantment, that of contemplation, and that of bodhisattva way are included in the self-power practice division while the practice of a prayer to Amitabha belongs to the other-power practice division. From ancient times, they called that the self-power practice division as the holy path of Buddhism or hard way, while they called that the other-power practice division as the pure land division or easy way.
This research paper studies on the following four issues arising from the controversy between the self-power practice division and the other-power practice division from a view of the Avatamska Doctrine.
The Avatamska doctrine based on the Avatamska Sutra is a thought of philosophy, logic and self-power practice division. The doctrine of Amitabha Pure Land based on Three Name Sutras of Pure Land could be mentioned as a thought of religion, faith, and other-power practice division. It seems that the above two thoughts are taken opposite side to each other. Hence, the first question is whether the seemingly conflicting two thoughts could be comparable to each other in the realm of the Avatamska Sutra or that of the Avatamska doctrine.
There are following phrases such as a prayer to Amitabha, an invocation samadhi, a primal vow, a west pure land of elysium, a pure land, an Amitabha, an immeasurable bliss, an immeasurable light, and etc. in the Avatamska Sutra. What are the contextual meanings of these phrases? Are these phrases described in a context of the Amitabha Pure Land thought that belongs to the other-power practice division? Or, are these phrases described in a context of the Avatamska doctrine that belongs to the self-power practice division?
The second question is to study the contextual implications of the phrases described in the Avatamska Sutra.