Regular Miracles: Buddhist View of the Wondrous in Konjaku monogatari-shū. Part II
Stories about miracles in Japanese Buddhism show the effect of the universal law of retribution on single examples, describe various ways to bring a living being to salvation, confirm the validity of prayers and rituals. “Miracle” means an event that is meaningful in several worlds at once: in the world of humans and buddhas, humans and bodhisattvas, and often also in hell, and in the worlds of animals, demons, etc. The miracle is “incredible” in the framework of the habitual in a single world, but completely “naturally” as the realization of the conditions necessary for the transition from one world to another. It is possible to create these conditions on purpose, and by observing them in action, the heroes, and after them the listeners, make sure that the same attitudes of everyday experience lead to involvement in the circulation of suffering, and to liberation from it. The Japanese medieval collections of setsuwa tales contain almost no theoretical arguments, but they reinforce the main points of the teaching with series of examples where the repetition of the subjects and the differences between any two similar cases are important. Konjaku monogatari-shū (1120s) occupies a central place among such collections; it includes legends about the miracles of the sacred books, about the rebirth in the Pure Land, about the merciful deeds of bodhisattvas. Reading the stories arranged in a well-thought-out manner – from miracles expected to ever more surprising, or vice versa – the reader here can rethink his experience, including ideas about the usual course of things, and hopes to change it. The second part of the article discusses the “belief in miracles”, traces the order of stories about the revival in the Pure Land and the mercies of bodhisattvas and gods.