Invisible Buddhism in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Invisible Buddhism in China - Essay Example In the meantime, Taoism, another primary religion in the Chinese society, also presented some differences and challenges to Buddhism. For instance, while Taoism advocated peace with nature, Buddhism sought to manage the inner society. Therefore, in order to develop in China, Buddhism transformed itself to the local way of life, by incorporating the worship of fore-furthers and showing a high level of respect to China’s political system. The timely transformation made Buddha religion an ‘invisible’ but invincible religious organization across the society. The invisibility of Buddhism According to Adler, the classical translators of Buddhism experienced some challenges in getting the exact expressions to elaborate Buddhist philosophies in Chinese, so they preferred to use Taoist language in their texts (41-57). This made the religion ‘invisible’ as the original Buddhism terms were increasingly abandoned for the local ones. As a result, people began to a ssociate Buddhism with the existing Taoist tradition. It took the Chinese society several decades to fully appreciate the scriptures and teachings of Buddha. After the regime of the Han Dynasty caved in the beginning of the third century, the society faced a myriad of political challenges and social disunity. Regardless of the challenges, the translations of the religious texts continued, though silently. During this period, both alien and local monks were aggressively involved in setting up monasteries and spreading the Buddhist philosophies.... The timely transformation made Buddha religion an ‘invisible’ but invincible religious organization across the society. The invisibility of Buddhism According to Adler, the classical translators of Buddhism experienced some challenges in getting the exact expressions to elaborate Buddhist philosophies in Chinese, so they preferred to use Taoist language in their texts (41-57). This made the religion ‘invisible’ as the original Buddhism terms were increasingly abandoned for the local ones. As a result, people began to associate Buddhism with the existing Taoist tradition. It took the Chinese society several decades to fully appreciate the scriptures and teachings of Buddha. After the regime of the Han Dynasty caved in the beginning of the third century, the society faced a myriad of political challenges and social disunity. Regardless of the challenges, the translations of the religion texts continued, though silently. During this period, both alien and local monks were aggressively involved in setting up monasteries and spreading the Buddhist philosophies. Among the local Chinese religious leaders, Dao-an who spent the better part of his life in the fourth century, stood out among the crowd. Though he was prompted to adopt a ‘nomadic’ life in the wake of political disunity, he wrote extensively and gave many lectures on Buddha religious practices and values. He also established the first literary catalogues of the work he was doing. The extensive expansion of the religion, despite the fact that the society was concerned with the unfolding political events was in itself another case of ‘invisible’ spread of the religion. Dao-an had invited Kumarajiva, a celebrated