Political Science

1. A person can become Buddhist by formally reciting the Triple Refuge. The person desiring to become a Buddhist must recite aloud three times in Pali the words To the Buddha I go for refuge to the Dharma I go for refuge to the Sangha I go for refuge (Trainor 107). For a monastic Buddhist, taking refuge of the Sangha means severing of conventional social ties and close adherence to the code of monastic discipline (Trainor 106). The Mahayana branch of Buddhism places greater emphasis on the equality between the laity and the monastic. The relationship between the laity and monks in all form of Buddhism is that the laity depends on the monastics to guide them on their spiritual progress along the Middle Path (Trainor 107). On the other hand, the monks depend on the laity for their daily alms.

2. Western scholars often overlook the tradition of devotion in Buddhism because it is considered a late development and a result of the demand from laity. However, in reality, devotion has always been an integral part of Buddhism and its central aim is to accumulate merit. All Buddhist traditions venerate relics and images. Another tradition is of observing special days, especially on the full moon day when the laity spend the day listening to sermons and reading devotional literature. It is hoped that this kind of devotion will help the laity to concentrate on the higher ideals of the Buddha, even if for a limited time. Another form of devotion is Dana or donation. The practice of giving Dana is widespread and all Buddhist practice it. Dana emphasizes the Buddhist ideals of compassion for other beings and insight into the truth of non-self (Trainor 110). Since Buddhism lays heavy stress on religious renunciation, giving donation is considered a way to gain merits to help achieve Nirvana. Pilgrimage is also a form of devotion. In Buddhism, some places are considered holier than others. According to the teachings of Buddha himself, the places associated with his birth, enlightenment, first teachings and death are important enough to be considered important pilgrimage sites. Also, special emphasis is placed on his relics and those of other buddhas after him and these are placed in especially constructed monuments called stupas. These stupas are considered holy sites and every year millions of pilgrims visit these holy sites as a form of devotion.

3. The original title of the first primary source is Record of Divine Responses from the Sarira relics (Sheli ganying ji). It was written by Wang Shao, a high official in the Sui Dynasty, in the year 601 AD to record the first relic enshrinement of the dynasty.

4. Sarira are the Buddhist relics. These relics are essentially the ashes and pieces of bone of The Buddha or of other past buddhas. They are enshrined in the Buddhist stupas. Even though these stupas contain only bones and ashes, they are said to contain the Buddha himself.

5. The Record of Divine Responses from the Sarira relics records the relic enshrinement by Wen Di, the first Sui Emperor. The enshrinement took place in 601 CE and is said to contain the Sarira relics that were given to the emperor by an Indian monk. Wen Di constructed thirty such stupas throughout his realm. These construction of stupas coincided with the reunification of China under Sui and as the news of the enshrinement spread throughout Northeast Asia, so did the political fact of Chinas reunification. In a shrewd move, Wen Di used the act of laying the foundation stones of these stupas to garner respect and compassion for himself and get the people of his dynasty to vow allegiance to him.

6. The Record of Divine Responses from the Sarira relics is an interesting document which tells about the laying of the foundation stones of thirty relics throughout the Sui dynasty. As the emperor sent people to various cities with the sarira relics they helped to establish his reign in these cities. The relics were kept in gold jars and the as news of their impending enshrinement spread among the people of the various cities, the town folk gathered in large numbers to see it. Emperors messengers exploited these opportunities to let the town people know that Wen Di was their Emperor. Of course, this was not said directly but in the form of a speech wherein the emperor asked the Buddha for forgiveness for all his sins and promised commits no more sins. These speeches had a profound impact on the people who heard them and they vowed to remain subjects of the great Sui dynasty for generations. Thus the laying of the foundation stone of the stupas and the sarira relics helped establish Wen Di as the Emperor of the realm. The stupas also allowed the Sui dynasty to remain in power for a long time.

By building these stupas and declaring himself a Buddhist, Wen Di established the Sui dynasty as a Buddhist one. And as he erected these stupas all across his realm, more and more people were affected by it and converted to Buddhism. Thus the sarira relics help Wen Di establish the Sui dynasty as a primarily Buddhist state. This relationship between the state and Buddhism proved to be mutually beneficial one as the dynasty helped spread the religion throughout China and the religion ensured that subjects remained loyal to the dynasty.

7. The original title of the second primary reading is Rite For Releasing Living Creatures (Fangsheng yi). It was composed by the Chinese monk Yunqi Zhuhong between 1535 and 1615. The work was based on a tract by Tiantai master Siming Zhili (Lopez 395).

8. The text of Rite For Releasing Living Creatures is the description of a Buddhist ritual which is performed in the hope to gain merit.

9. The purpose of Rite For Releasing Living Creatures is to describe the procedure which must be used by officiating priests when they release animals. This rite is important for Buddhist because Buddhism teaches about refraining from evil deeds to produce merits. However, there is another way to gain merit according to Buddhist teachings. A person can produce merits by actively doing virtuous deeds. Since animals are considered lowly creatures who are unable to defend themselves, helping them is considered a virtuous deed in Buddhism. So the act of releasing imprisoned animals can help produce merit for Buddhist. However, to get its full benefit, this act must be performed using proper rites. The primary text titled Rite For Releasing Living Creatures gives details of one such rite. This rite must be performed by a monk for the disciple who wishes to set animals free and the rite helps the disciple get merits for his good deeds.

10. The purpose of the text is to elaborate the rites which must be carried out to release imprisoned animals so that they may be born as humans in their next birth and can carry out good deeds to help them achieve nirvana. In order to do this, the animals are first converted to Buddhism. This is done by first giving them the three refuge which is used for conversion to Buddhism. After that, the names of the ten Ratnabhavas are recited followed by the preaching of the law of dependent origination. Finally, the animals are asked to confess their sins. Through this process, the animals are symbolically converted to Buddhism. It is assumed that once converted to Buddhism, these animals will be reborn as humans when they can once again join the Middle Path and achieve nirvana.

11. Once the rites to release the animals are completed, the final step is dedication of the merits. Here the merits are for both the animal being released as well as the disciple who is releasing the animal. For the animal, the merits are that it will not be preyed upon for the rest of its life and die a natural death to ascend to the Heaven of Thirty-Three or be reborn as a human and take refuge in the three jewels to achieve nirvana. For the disciple, the act of releasing the animals increases his merits so that he comes closer to nirvana. This is quite a significant step of the rite because it helps the disciple get the merits for his act.