英 亮

This paper examines the traditional Buddhist cosmology centered on Mount Sumeru and explores how Shinran experienced this worldview. It situates this cosmology within the broader intellectual framework of yojōgaku (supplementary scholastic studies) in the Ōtani-ha tradition. The study first contrasts the modern heliocentric worldview with the premodern Buddhist cosmos, in which Mount Sumeru stands at the center of a structured universe shared by monks and laypeople alike. This worldview shaped religious imagination, language, and temple architecture. The core of the paper presents the Sumeru cosmology as systematized in the Abhidharmakośa by Vasubandhu. It describes a universe composed of multiple realms (hells, human world, heavens), governed by karma, and structured into the “three realms” and vast world systems. The text also explains cycles of cosmic formation and destruction, the rarity of a Buddha’s appearance, and the mechanics of rebirth and affliction. The paper then outlines the path to liberation: through ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom, practitioners eliminate afflictions and attain nirvāṇa. However, this path is extremely long and difficult. In contrast, Mahāyāna Buddhism expands the cosmological vision by introducing countless Buddhas across the ten directions and presenting the bodhisattva path. Within this framework, Pure Land teachings emphasize “other-power,” asserting that rebirth in Pure Land (Sukhāvatī) enables all beings to attain Buddhahood more directly. Shinran interprets this as a decisive transcendence of the limitations of the Sumeru world. Finally, the paper argues that although the Sumeru cosmology lost its empirical plausibility in modern times, it was a lived reality for Shinran. Understanding this worldview allows us to better appreciate the depth of his religious experience—especially his sense of encountering the Buddha’s teaching within an immense cosmic and temporal framework.