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영어

This paper is to examine the conception of nirvana which means the Buddhist salvation, and its characteristics related to the social practice, and to see how they are related to the actual social activities. The Hinayanist nirvana has two characteristics. First, it is realistic and experiential. Attaining the liberation in order to realize mutual causality without subject-object opposition is very realistic; that it means the psychological state free from greed, craving, curse, anger is experiential. Second, it may have a very passive and individualistic aspect in that by eliminating attachment of the phenomenal world which is expressed as six sense-base and six sense-sphere, it aims ultimately to cut off the real world represented as pain and unsatisfaction. Yet the Hinayanist nirvana has changed with apparence of the Mahayana Buddhism. Stcherbatsky defines the Mahayanist nirvana as ‘transforming consciousness.' (大智度論) explains that nirvana means to stay in the world of six-senses and think of the condition of nirvana, and asserts that dreams and nirvana are neither two nor different (幻夢涅槃不二不 別). It may be a creed of an idea that since no ideal world separate from the real world exists, we should establish a pure land in the real world. Different from the Hinayanist view, the Mahayanist nirvana is realistic, positive, and expresses a strong social inclination. The 's view of nirvana belongs to the one of Mahayana at large, sharing similar conceptions. The characteristics of the 's view are as follows. First, it presents two kinds of nirvana thought: The thought of ultimate(究竟) nirvana and means(方便) nirvana. It is the thought of means nirvana which appears to lead all the sentient beings to the world of the ultimate nirvana. It is said to be completed by practice of the Bodhisattva who has given up oneself for the benefit and comfort of the sentient beings. Second, to logically connect the relation between social activity and nirvana, the relates nirvana with the Bodhisattva's 'wish to be born'(願 生) and 'basic wish'(本願). The former is that the Bodhisattva volunteers to be born in a secular world and practices the Bodhisattva way, giving up the pure land of nirvana; the latter is that the Buddha appears in the world to lead all sentient beings to the buddha world by helping them to see the truth and attain enlightenment. Third, the emphasizes the 'giving record‘(授記); it is to predict one's attaining Buddhahood for which the prerequisite is practice the Bodhisattva way. It is also called as the 'cause record' (因記), which makes the greatest of social practice. Without concrete activities for the social well-being or benefit and comfort of the people and heavens, the insists that the true nirvana is impossible. It is the consistent point of the that nirvana is to be attained by activities, and the pursuit of nirvana cannot exist solely without practice.