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Ōbakushū. (黄檗宗). In Japanese, “Ōbaku school”; one of the three main ZEN traditions in Japan, along with the RINZAISHŪ and SŌTŌSHŪ. The émigré Chinese CHAN master YINYUAN LONGQI (1594–1673) is credited with its foundation. In 1654, Yinyuan fled the wars that accompanied the fall of the Ming dynasty and the establishment of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, where he first served as abbot of the monastery of Kōfukuji. With the support of the shōgun Tokugawa Ietsuna (1639–1680) and Emperor Gomizunoo (r. 1611–1629), in 1661, Yinyuan traveled to a mountain he named Ōbaku (after Mt. Huangbo in China), where he began construction of a new monastery that he named MANPUKUJI (C. Wanfusi), after his old monastery in Fujian, China. The monastery and the broader Ōbaku tradition retained many of the exotic Chinese customs that Yinyuan and his Chinese disciples MU’AN XINGTAO, Jifei Ruyi (1616–1617), and Huilin Xingji (1609–1681) had brought with them from the mainland, including the latest monastic architecture and institutional systems, the use of vernacular Chinese as the official ritual language in the monastery, and training in Chinese artistic and literary styles. In addition, for thirteen generations after Yinyuan, Manpukuji’s abbots continued to be Chinese, and only later began to alternate between Chinese and Japanese successors. These Chinese monastic customs that Yinyuan introduced were met with great ambivalence by such Japanese Rinzai leaders as Gudō Tōshoku (1577–1661) and later HAKUIN EKAKU. Although Yinyuan himself was affiliated with the YANGQI PAI in the Chinese LINJI ZONG, Chinese Chan traditions during this period had also assimilated the widespread practice of reciting of the Buddha’s name (C. NIANFO; J. nenbutsu) by transforming it into a form of “questioning meditation” (C. KANHUA CHAN; J. kannazen): e.g., “Who is it who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” Raising this question while engaging in nenbutsu was a technique that initially helped to concentrate the mind, but would also subsequently help raise the sense of doubt (C. YIQING; J. gijō) that was central to Linji school accounts of authentic Chan meditation. However, since buddha-recitation was at this time closely associated in Japan with pure land traditions, such as JŌDOSHŪ and JŌDO SHINSHŪ, this approach to Chan practice was extremely controversial among contemporary Japanese Zen adepts. The Chinese style of Zen that Yinyuan and his followers promulgated in Japan prompted their contemporaries in the Rinzai and Sōtō Zen traditions to reevaluate their own practices and to initiate a series of important reform movements within their respective traditions (cf. IN’IN EKISHI). During the Meiji period, Ōbaku, Rinzai, and Sōtō were formally recognized as separate Zen traditions (ZENSHŪ) by the imperial government. Currently, the monastery Manpukuji in Uji serves as the headquarters (honzan) of the Ōbaku school.
Obermiller, Eugène. (1901–1935). Noted Russian scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, born in St. Petersburg to a family devoted to music and the arts. He studied English, French, and German as a youth and was planning to become a musician. However, when he was eighteen years of age, he was stricken by syringomyelia, a disease of the spinal cord, which deprived him of the full use of his hands and fingers. After the Russian Revolution, he attended FYODOR IPPOLITOVICH STCHERBATSKY’s lectures on Sanskrit at the University of Petrograd (later Leningrad and St. Petersburg) and studied Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian. He became Stcherbatsky’s student, preparing Sanskrit-Tibetan and Tibetan-Sanskrit indexes to the NYĀYABINDU and assisting him in editing the Tibetan text of the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA. Obermiller spent a great deal of time in Buryatia in the Transbaikal, studying at Mongolian monasteries of the DGE LUGS PA tradition, where he learned to speak Tibetan. In working closely with learned Buddhist monks, Obermiller anticipated what would become a common model of scholarship after the Tibetan diaspora that began in 1959. In 1928, Stcherbatsky formed the Institute of Buddhist Culture (later to become part of the Institute of Oriental Studies), and Obermiller was appointed as a research scholar. In 1929, the two colleagues published an edition of the ABHISAMAYĀLAṂKĀRA. Obermiller continued to suffer from syringomyelia throughout this period. By the age of thirty, he had become incapacitated to the point that he was not able to write and died four years later. Despite his debilitating illness, during his last years, he remained committed to his scholarship and published a number of pioneering translations, including BU STON’s “History of Buddhism” (BU STON CHOS ’BYUNG) and the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA (Uttaratantra) in 1932. In his articles (several of which have been republished), he focused especially on the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ exegetical literature, relying largely on Dge lugs expositions.
Odantapurī. (T. O tan ta pū ri). Sometimes called Uḍḍandapura, Odantapurī is thought to be the second oldest of India’s large monastic universities. It was located some six miles from NĀLANDĀ, in modern Bihar State. It was founded during the seventh century CE by King Gopāla (660–705), who also served as its main patron. Gopāla was the first king of the Pāla dynasty, which would continue to support Buddhism in this region for centuries. Odantapurī reached its peak around the eighth century CE and, according to some Tibetan sources, had approximately twelve thousand students at its height. The monastery was highly influential in the larger Buddhist world; the architectural layout of BSAM YAS monastery in Tibet is believed to have been modeled on Odantapurī. Odantapurī flourished until the turn of the thirteenth century, when it and VIKRAMAŚĪLA were destroyed in the 1199 and 1200 CE invasion of the Ghurid Muslims, who were said to have mistaken the monasteries for fortresses. The Ghurid military governors erected their administrative headquarters for the region at the site where Odantapurī had stood.
Oḍḍiyāna. (T. O rgyan/U rgyan). Also spelled Oḍiyāna and Uḍḍiyāna; a region northeast of India known for its early tantric Buddhist activity, often identified by modern scholars with the Swat Valley of Pakistan. It is fabled as the birthplace of PADMASAMBHAVA and is the place of origin of numerous tantric texts and lineages, including the GUHYASAMĀJATANTRA. Several Tibetan masters wrote accounts of their travels through Oḍḍiyāna, including O RGYAN PA RIN CHEN DPAL, whose name literally means “the man of Oḍḍiyāna,” as well as Stag tshang ras pa (Taktsangrepa), and Buddhagupta. Because the Tibetan name O rgyan is almost synonymous with Padmasambhava (who is often referred to in Tibetan as O rgyan rin po che, O rgyan chen po, O rgyan pa, O rgyan pad ma, etc.), O rgyan is found in the names of many Tibetan temples and monasteries.
Oḍra. (S). One of the twenty-four sacred sites associated with the CAKRASAṂVARATANTRA. See PĪṬHA.
ogha. (T. chu bo; C. baoliu; J. boru; K. p’ongnyu 暴流). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “floods,” “currents”; forces whose pull is so strong that, like a flood or strong current, they overwhelm the hapless ordinary person (PṚTHAGJANA). A list of three is typically found in the literature: greed for sensual experience (KĀMARĀGA), greed for continuing existence (BHAVARĀGA), and ignorance (AVIDYĀ), with a fourth, views (DṚṢṬI), sometimes added.
Ogyo Kusan. (五教九山). In Korean, “Five Doctrinal [schools] and Nine Mountains [school of Sŏn]”; a designation for the five major doctrinal schools (KYO)—viz., Nirvāṇa (Yŏlban chong; see NIEPAN ZONG), Vinaya (Kyeyul chong; cf. NANSHAN LÛ ZONG), Dharma-Nature (Pŏpsŏng chong), Hwaŏm (alt. Wŏnyung chong; see HUAYAN ZONG), and Yogācāra (Pŏpsang chong; see FAXIANG ZONG)—and the Nine Mountains school of SŎN (KUSAN SŎNMUN); this designation is presumed to have been used from the late Silla through the mid-Koryŏ dynasties to refer to the major sectarian strands within the Korean Buddhist tradition. This is a retrospective designation; there is little evidence that all five of these doctrinal schools ever existed as independent traditions in Korea, or that they identified themselves as belonging to an independent and separate doctrinal strand of Korean Buddhism. See KUSAN SŎNMUN; KYO; OGYO YANGJONG; SŎN; SŎN KYO YANGJONG.
Ogyo Yangjong. (五敎
宗). In Korean, “Five Doctrinal [schools] and Two [Meditative] Traditions”; a designation used from the mid-Koryŏ through early Chosŏn dynasties to refer to the major strands of KYO and SŎN within the Korean Buddhist tradition. See KUSAN SŎNMUN; KYO; OGYO KUSAN; SŎN; SŎN KYO YANGJONG.
Ōjō yōshū. (C. Wangsheng yao ji 往生要集). In Japanese, “Collection of Essentials on Going to Rebirth” [in the pure land]; one of the most influential Japanese treatises on the practice of nenbutsu (C. NIANFO) and the soteriological goal of rebirth in the PURE LAND, composed by the Japanese TENDAISHŪ monk GENSHIN at the Shuryōgon’in at YOKAWA on HIEIZAN in 985. The Ōjō yōshū offers a systematic overview of pure land thought and practice, using extensive passages culled from various scriptures and treatises, especially the writings of the Chinese pure land monks DAOCHUO and SHANDAO. Genshin’s collection is divided into ten sections: departing from the defiled realm, seeking (rebirth) in the pure land; evidence for (the existence of) SUKHĀVATĪ; the proper practice of nenbutsu methods for assisting mindfulness; special nenbutsu (betsuji nenbutsu); the benefits of nenbutsu; evidence for the results forthcoming from nenbutsu; the fruits of rebirth in the pure land; and a series of miscellaneous questions and answers. Genshin contends that the practice of nenbutsu is relatively easy for everyone and is appropriate for people during the degenerate age of the final dharma (J. mappō; see MOFA), especially as a deathbed practice. Genshin also recommended the chanting of the name of the buddha AMITĀBHA to those of lower spiritual capacity (a total of nine spiritual capacities are posited by Genshin; cf. JIUPIN), and he regarded this practice as inferior to the contemplative practices described in the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING. Genshin’s work was also famous for its description of SAṂSĀRA, especially its vivid depiction of the hells (cf. NĀRAKA); his description inspired lurid paintings of the hells on Japanese screens. The Ōjō yōshū became popular among the Heian aristocracy; the text’s view of the degenerate age (J. mappō; cf. C. MOFA) may have provided an explanation for the social upheaval at the end of the Heian period. The text also exerted substantial influence over the subsequent development of the pure land movements in the Tendai tradition on Mt. Hiei. The Ōjō yōshū also played an important role in laying the groundwork for an independent pure land tradition in Japan a century later. Several important commentaries on the Ōjō yōshū were prepared by the Japanese JŌDOSHŪ monk HŌNEN. In addition, the Ōjō yōshū was one of the few texts written in Japan that made its way to China, where it influenced the development of pure land Buddhism on the mainland.
Olcott, Henry Steel. (1832–1907). Cofounder of the Theosophical Society and a key figure in the modern history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Born in Orange, New Jersey, to a Presbyterian family, Olcott developed an interest in spiritualism during his twenties. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and subsequently was appointed to the commission that investigated the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Working as a journalist in New York City, he traveled to the Eddy Farm in Chittenden, Vermont, in 1874 to investigate paranormal events occurring in a farmhouse. While there, he met HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATKSY. Together, they founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875, an organization that was responsible for bringing the teachings of the Buddha, at least as interpreted by the Society, to a large audience in Europe and America. With the aim of establishing links with Asian teachers, they traveled to India, arriving in Bombay in 1879 and proceeding to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) the next year. Enthusiastically embracing his new Buddhist faith and shocked at what he perceived to be the ignorance of the Sinhalese about their own religion, Olcott took it upon himself to restore true Buddhism to Ceylon and to counter the efforts of Christian missionaries on the island. In order to accomplish this aim, he adopted some of the techniques of Protestant missionaries, founding lay and monastic branches of the Buddhist Theosophical Society to disseminate Buddhist knowledge (and later assisted in the founding of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association), designing a Buddhist flag, and publishing in 1881 A Buddhist Catechism. The book was printed in some forty editions in twenty languages and was long used in schools in Sri Lanka. Buddhist leaders (including his former protégé, ANAGĀRIKA DHARMAPĀLA) eventually grew alarmed at his rejection of traditional devotional practices and feared that he was misappropriating Buddhism into a universalist Theosophy. In 1885, Olcott set out for Burma and Japan on a mission to heal the schism he perceived between “the northern and southern Churches,” that is, between the Buddhists of Ceylon and Burma (southern) and those of China and Japan (northern). In subsequent years, Olcott was involved in often acrimonious debates within the Theosophical Society, failing to prevent a schism in 1895 into an American section and the international headquarters in Adyar, India.
Oldenberg, Hermann. (1854–1920). An important scholar in the early history of Buddhist Studies in the West. Oldenberg was born in Hamburg, Germany, the son of a Protestant minister. He studied Sanskrit and Indology in Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1875. During his career, he held positions at Berlin, Kiel, and Gottingen University, teaching comparative philology and Sanskrit. He traveled to India for the first time in 1912 and also worked in the India Office in London. Oldenberg was arguably the most influential German scholar of Buddhism of the nineteenth century. He published an edition of the Pāli VINAYAPIṬAKA in five volumes between 1879 and 1883. He also published an edition of the DĪPAVAṂSA and collaborated with THOMAS W. RHYS DAVIDS in translating the pāṭimokkha (S. PRĀTIMOKṢA), MAHĀVAGGA, and CŪḶAVAGGA for FRIEDRICH MAX MÜLLER’s “Sacred Books of the East” series. He also contributed translations of Vedic works to the same series. His most influential work, however, was his 1881 Buddha: sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde, published in English as Buddha: His Life, His Doctrine, His Order. In Oldenberg’s view, the majority of the texts included in the Pāli canon had been compiled prior to the second Buddhist council (SAṂGĪTI) in Vesālī (S. VAIŚALĪ), said to have taken place c. 380 BCE (see COUNCIL, SECOND). He also believed that these texts had been accurately preserved in Sri Lanka. Oldenberg is therefore (together with THOMAS RHYS DAVIDS and CAROLINE RHYS DAVIDS) largely responsible for the view that the Pāli canon is the most accurate record of the Buddha and his teachings, and that it contains reliable historical information about the events in the Buddha’s life. Paralleling the search for the historical Jesus, Oldenberg attempted to strip away the legends of that life, in order to offer a demythologized, historical portrayal of the Buddha. In this effort, his work is often contrasted with that of the French scholar ÉMILE SENART, who, working largely from Sanskrit texts, took a more mythological approach to the accounts of the Buddha’s life. For Oldenberg, the Buddha of the later Sanskrit texts was a superhuman figure; the Buddha of the Pāli was historical and human. Oldenberg also disagreed with Senart on the nature of Buddhism, seeing its true religious significance only in the aspiration to achieve NIRVĀṆA; Senart saw Buddhism as largely a popular movement that emphasized achieving happiness in the world and rebirth in the heavens. Oldenberg was the first scholar seriously to compare Pāli and Sanskrit versions of texts, a project that EUGÉNE BURNOUF had planned but was unable to undertake due to his untimely death. Based on these studies, Oldenberg sought to identify the older (and thus, in his view, the more reliable) stratum of textual materials. Oldenberg’s views on both the centrality of the Pāli canon and the nature of Buddhism have remained influential in modern presentations of the religion.
Oldenburg, Sergey. (1863–1934). Russian scholar of Buddhism, known especially as the founder of the Bibliotheca Buddhica, based in St. Petersburg. The series, published in thirty volumes between 1897 and 1936, was composed primarily of critical editions (and in some cases translations) by the leading European and Japanese scholars of some of the most important texts of Sanskrit Buddhism, including the ŚIKṢĀSAMUCCAYA, MŪLAMADHYAMAKAKĀRIKĀ, AVADĀNAŚATAKA, and ABHISAMAYĀLAṂKĀRA. The series also included indexes as well as independent works, such as FYODOR IPPOLITOVICH STCHERBATSKY’s Buddhist Logic. In the 1890s, Oldenburg published Sanskrit fragments discovered in Kashgar, and he led Russian expeditions to Central Asia in 1909–1910 and 1914–1915 in search of Buddhist manuscripts and artifacts. His research interests were wide-ranging; he published articles on Buddhist art, on JĀTAKA literature, and on the Mahābhārata in Buddhist literature.
oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ. (T. oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ; C. an mani bami hong; J. on mani padomei un; K. om mani panme hum 唵嘛呢叭彌吽). In Sanskrit, “homage to the Jewel-Lotus One”; the most famous of all Buddhist MANTRAs and important especially in Tibetan Buddhism, where it is the mantra most commonly recited and most often placed in prayer wheels; indeed, the Tibetan term rendered in English as “prayer wheel” is MA ṆI ’KHOR LO, or “MAṆI wheel.” This phrase is the renowned mantra of the bodhisattva of compassion, AVALOKITEŚVARA. The mantra seems to appear first in the KĀRAṆḌAVYŪHA, a MAHĀYĀNA SŪTRA presumed to have been composed in KASHMIR sometime around the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century CE. The sūtra exalts Avalokiteśvara and praises the mantra at length, referring to it as the “six-syllable spell” (ṢAḌAKṢARĪVIDYĀ). Contrary to the widespread view, the mantra does not refer to “the jewel in the lotus.” Instead, it is a call (in the vocative case in Sanskrit) to Avalokiteśvara, using one of his epithets, Maṇipadma, “Jewel-Lotus One.” The mantra receives extensive commentary in Tibetan Buddhism. For example, according to the MAṆI BKA’ ’BUM, the six syllables correspond to the six rebirth destinies (ṢAḌGATI) of divinities, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell denizens, so that by reciting the mantra, one is closing the door for all sentient beings to any possibility of further rebirth. See also QIANSHOU JING.
once-returner. See SAKṚDĀGĀMIN.
one-hand clapping kōan. See SEKISHU KŌAN.
Ŏn’gi. (K) (彦機). See P’YŎNYANG ŎN’GI.
Ongi kuden. (御義口傳). In Japanese, “Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings”; transcription of the lectures on the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA (“Lotus Sūtra”) by NICHIREN, compiled by his disciple Nichikō (1246–1333). See NAMU MYŌHŌRENGEKYŌ.
Onjōji. (J) (園城寺). See MIIDERA.
opening the eyes ceremony. See DIANYAN; KAIYAN; NETRAPRATIṢṬHĀPANA.
ordination. See PRAVRAJITA; UPASAṂPADĀ.
O rgyan gling pa. (Orgyen Lingpa) (1323–1360). A Tibetan treasure revealer (GTER STON) and master of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. At the age of twenty-three he is said to have discovered treasure texts (GTER MA) at BSAM YAS monastery. He is credited with discovering numerous treasure cycles, including the “Five Chronicles” (BKA’ THANG SDE LNGA). He is also responsible for revealing a well-known biography of PADMASAMBHAVA, the PADMA BKA’ THANG YIG, also referred to as the “Crystal Cave Chronicle” (Bka’ thang shel brag ma) due to its extraction from Padmasambhava’s meditation site at “Crystal Cave” (Shel brag) in the Yar klungs valley of central Tibet.
O rgyan pa Rin chen dpal. (Orgyenpa Rinchenpal) (1229/30–1309). A Tibetan Buddhist master venerated as a lineage holder in the early BKA’ BRGYUD tradition. Also known as Seng ge dpal, he was a disciple of the renowned “upper” (stod) ’BRUG PA BKA’ BRGYUD teacher RGOD TSHANG PA MGON PO RDO RJEs and became famous as a highly accomplished meditator; for this reason, Tibetan literature frequently refers to him as a MAHĀSIDDHA, or great adept. He is said to have made a journey to the fabled land of OḌḌIYĀNA (O rgyan), believed by some modern scholars to lie in the Swat region of modern-day Pakistan. He thus became known as O rgyan pa, “the man of Oḍḍiyāna,” and he later authored a pilgrimage guide to the location, the O rgyan lam yig. Some Tibetan historians have identified a separate transmission lineage stemming from O rgyan pa: the Service and Attainment of the Three Vajras (Rdo rje’i gsum gyi bsnyen sgrub), frequently known as the O rgyan bsnyen sgrub. Rin chen dpal is also known for his transmission of practices relating to the six-branch yoga of the KĀLACAKRATANTRA, a system of instructions he is said to have received from the ḌĀKINĪ VAJRAYOGINĪ during his travels in Oḍḍiyāna. These traditions appear to have largely disappeared in Tibet several centuries after his death. O rgyan pa officially recognized the young RANG ’BYUNG RDO RJE as the third KARMA PA and then served as the hierarch’s principal teacher.
original enlightenment. See BENJUE; HONGAKU.
original face. See BENLAI MIANMU.
oshō. (和尚). One of the common Japanese pronunciations of the Chinese term HESHANG, which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit term UPĀDHYĀYA, meaning “preceptor.” The term is now used generally in the Japanese Buddhist tradition to refer to an abbot, teacher, or senior monk. The pronunciation of the term varies according to tradition. In the ZENSHŪ, the term is pronounced “oshō,” in the TENDAISHŪ “kashō,” in RISSHŪ, SHINGONSHŪ, and JŌDO SHINSHŪ “wajō.” In the Zen context, oshō refers to those monks who have been in training for ten years or more. In the SŌTŌSHŪ of the Zen school, monks who have received formal dharma transmission are referred to as oshō.
Ōtaniha. (大谷派). Also known as Ōtanishū and Higashi Honganjiha, the second largest subsect of JŌDO SHINSHŪ in the Japanese PURE LAND tradition. After SHINRAN’s founding of Jōdo Shinshū, the HONGANJI emerged as the dominant subsect and was administered by the descendants of Shinran’s patriarchal line. During the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) grew suspicious of Honganji, which during the fifteen and sixteenth centuries had not only grown to be the largest sect of Japanese Buddhism but also one of the largest landholding institutions in Japan. By involving himself in a succession dispute, the shōgun was successfully able to blunt its power by causing a schism within the Honganji into east (higashi) and west (nishi) factions, with Kyōnyo (1558–1614) heading the Higashi faction and Junnyo (1577–1631) leading the Nishi faction. Because the eastern faction maintained control of Shinran’s mausoleum in the Ōtani area of Kyoto, HIGASHI HONGANJI has also come to be called the Ōtaniha. Ōtani University developed from the Higashi Honganji seminary, which was founded in 1665. Several of the most important Buddhist thinkers of the Meiji period were affiliated with the Ōtaniha, including NANJŌ BUN’YŪ (1849–1927), Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), and KIYOZAWA MANSHI (1863–1903). DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI (1870–1966) founded the journal The Eastern Buddhist at Ōtani University, and the author Kanamatsu Kenryō (1915–1986) was also affiliated with the Ōtaniha. See also NISHI HONGANJIHA.
Ōtani Kōzui. (大谷光瑞) (1876–1948). Modern Japanese explorer to Buddhist archeological sites in Central Asia, and especially DUNHUANG; the twenty-second abbot of the NISHI HONGANJIHA, one of the two main sub-branches of the JŌDO SHINSHŪ of the Japanese pure land tradition. Ōtani was sent to London at the age of fourteen by his father, the twenty-first abbot of Nishi Honganji in Kyōto, to study Western theology. Inspired by the contemporary expeditions to Central Asia then being conducted by European explorers such as SIR MARC AUREL STEIN (1862–1943) and Sven Hedin (1865–1952), Ōtani decided to take an overland route on his return to Japan so that he could survey Buddhist sites along the SILK ROAD. Ōtani embarked on his first expedition to the region in 1902, accompanied by several other Japanese priests from Nishi Honganji. While en route, Ōtani received the news of his father’s death and returned to Japan to succeed to the abbacy; the expedition continued and returned to Japan in 1904. Even though his duties subsequently kept him in Japan, Ōtani dispatched expeditions to Chinese Turkestan in 1908–1909 and between 1910 and 1914. The artifacts recovered during these three expeditions include manuscripts, murals, sculpture, textiles, etc., and are known collectively as the “Ōtani collection.” These materials are now dispersed in Japan, Korea, and China, but they are still regarded as important sources for the study of Central Asian Buddhist archeology.
Ouyi Zhixu. (J. Gōyaku/Gūyaku Chigyoku; K. Uik Chiuk 
益智旭) (1599–1655). One of the four eminent monks (si da gaoseng) of the late-Ming dynasty, along with YUNQI ZHUHONG (1535–1615), HANSHAN DEQING (1546–1623), and DAGUAN ZHENKE (1543–1604); renowned for his mastery of a wide swath of Confucian and Buddhist teachings, particularly those associated with the TIANTAI, PURE LAND, and CHAN traditions. In his youth, he studied Confucianism and despised Buddhism, even writing anti-Buddhist tracts. He had a change of heart at the age of seventeen, after reading some of Zhuhong’s writings, and burned his previous screeds. According to his autobiography, Zhixu had his first “great awakening” at the age of nineteen while reading the line in the Lunyu (“Confucian Analects”) that “the whole world will submit to benevolence” if one restrains oneself and returns to ritual. After his father’s death that same year, he fully committed himself to Buddhism, reading sūtras and performing recollection of the Buddha’s name (NIANFO) until he finally was ordained under the guidance of Xueling (d.u.), a disciple of Hanshan Deqing, at the age of twenty-four. At that time, he began to read extensively in YOGĀCĀRA materials and had another great awakening through Chan meditation, in which he experienced body, mind, and the outer world suddenly disappearing. He next turned his attention to the bodhisattva precepts and the study of vinaya. Following his mother’s death when he was twenty-seven, Zhixu rededicated himself to Chan meditation, but after a serious illness he turned to pure land teachings. In his early thirties, he devoted himself to the study of Tiantai materials, through which he attempted to integrate his previous research in Buddhism and began to write commentaries and treaties on Buddhist scriptures and on such Confucian classics as the Zhouyi (“Book of Changes”). In the late-sixteenth century, Jesuit missionaries such as Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) had reintroduced Christianity to China and sought “to complement Confucianism and to replace Buddhism.” This emerging religious challenge led Zhixu to publish his Bixie ji (“Collected Essays Refuting Heterodoxy”) as a critique of the teachings of Christianity, raising specifically the issue of theodicy (i.e., why a benevolent and omnipotent god would allow evil to appear in the world); Zhixu advocates instead that good and evil come from human beings and are developed and overcome respectively through personal cultivation. After another illness at the age of fifty-six, his later years were focused mostly on pure land teachings and practice. In distinction to Japanese pure land teachers, such as HŌNEN (1133–1212) and SHINRAN (1173–1262), who emphasized exclusively Amitābha’s “other-power” (C. tali; J. TARIKI), Zhixu, like most other Chinese pure land teachers, advocated the symbiosis between the other-power of Amitābha and the “self-power” (C. jiri; J. JIRIKI) of the practitioner. This perspective is evident in his equal emphasis on the three trainings in meditation (Chan), doctrine (jiao), and precepts (lü) (cf. TRIŚIKṢĀ). Ouyi’s oeuvre numbers some sixty-two works in 230 rolls, including treatises and commentaries on works ranging from Tiantai, to Chan, to Yogācāra, to pure land. His pure land writings have been especially influential, and his Amituojing yaojie (“Essential Explanations” on the AMITĀBHASŪTRA) and Jingtu shiyao (“Ten Essentials on the Pure Land”) are regarded as integral to the modern Chinese Pure Land tradition.
ovādapāṭimokkha. (S. *avavādaprātimokṣa). In Pāli, “admonitory discipline”; the designation in Pāli materials for a foundational disciplinary code (PRĀTIMOKṢA) handed down by the past buddha Vipassī (S. VIPAŚYIN), which is believed to summarize the teachings fundamental to all the buddhas: “Not doing anything evil, / Undertaking what is wholesome,/Purifying one’s mind,/This is the teaching of the buddhas” (P. sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ/kusalassūpasampadā/sacittapariyodapanaṃ/etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ) (MAHĀPADĀNASUTTANTA [DĪGHANIKĀYA no. 14]; DHAMMAPADA, v. 183). This verse has been widely incorporated into THERAVĀDA Buddhist rituals and ceremonies. See also AVAVĀDA.
Oxhead School. See NIUTOU ZONG.
Oxherding Pictures, Ten. (C. Shiniu tu; J. Jūgyūzu; K. Sibu to 十牛圖). A varied series of illustrations used within the CHAN (J. ZEN; K. SŎN, V. THIỀN) schools to depict the process of religious training, a process that leads ultimately to awakening and the perfect freedom of enlightenment. The series show a young herdsman who goes out into the wild in search of a wild ox that he can tame. The “herdsman” represents the religious adept who seeks to tame the “ox” of his unchecked thoughts, so that he may put his mind to use in the service of all sentient beings. There are several different versions of the oxherding pictures found in the literature, but two are best known. The first is by the Song-dynasty adept Puming (d.u.): (1) not yet found, (2) training begun, (3) disciplining, (4) turning its head, (5) tamed, (6) unimpeded, (7) wandering freely, (8) each forgotten, (9) moon shining alone, and (10) both disappear. A second set of ten pictures, which became normative within the Chan tradition, was made later by the Song-dynasty YANGQI PAI teacher KUO’AN SHIYUAN (d.u.): (1) searching for the ox; (2) seeing its footprints; (3) finding the ox; (4) catching the ox; (5) taming the ox; (6) riding the ox home; (7) ox forgotten, but not the person; (8) person and ox both forgotten; (9) returning to the origin and going back to the fount; and (10) entering the marketplace to bestow gifts. This second set of pictures is often found painted sequentially around the outside walls of the main shrine hall (TAEUNG CHŎN) in Korean monasteries.