Submitted by: Submitted by Mack
Views: 10
Words: 1347
Pages: 6
Category: World History
Date Submitted: 03/07/2016 12:47 PM
Rise of Warrior Monks in Japan
Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development providing an insight into the true nature of reality. Buddhist practices like meditation are means of changing yourself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom.
Taking into consideration the above stated basic philosophy of Buddhism, its hard to believe that the Sohei or Buddhist Warrior Monks existed in Japan. This research essay would explore the possible reasons of transformation of a fundamentally peaceful religion into a violent one with its followers becoming armed.
Buddhism was born in the Indian subcontinent and then it spread across East Asia. Its journey through East Asia featured countless reinventions and by the time it reached Japan it had splintered into several distinct schools. In its birth country, Buddhism suffered due to brahminical caste system, and the invasions of Muslim conquerors from Middle East. Finally, it was kicked out of India by 7th century1. However, by that time its roots were deeply entrenched in rest of the East Asian countries. Buddhism was introduced to Japan by China in 6th century. For the first few centuries, the ideology of religious thought was not the main driving force of Buddhism’s ascendancy and it could not become a religion for the masses. But after the great political upheaval and expansive civil war, Buddhism emerged as a religion of the commoners in the traditional sense.
In its earlier phases of its ascendancy in Japan, it became a vogue in Nara, the capital city of Japan at that time. But by the year 700, numerous temples, shrines, and monasteries had sprung up in whole of Japan. Emperors, Empresses, and all sorts of noble persons openly vied against each other to show how pious Buddhist they considered themselves to be. The number of lay-priests and members of sisterhood and brotherhood in monasteries kept rising. Besides Nara, neighboring provinces such as Osaka and Ise, were...