This is just
for pure fun. Every language, culture, or religion may have its own words and
concept of paradise or heaven. Buddhism is no exception. In course of time, it
has developed various notions of paradise or heaven. By the way, nivāṇa is
not a paradise or heaven. There are, in general, concepts of “higher
realms” and “lower realms,” “good or happy existences” and “bad or miserable
existences,” “worldly spheres” and “Buddhaic spheres,” “pure realms” and
“impure realms,” and so forth. Impure realms are usually said to be karmically
produced, whereas pure realms may be produced through the previous resolutions
of certain Buddhas and which serve as kinds of temporary stations of relief
that would enable one to pursue one’s onward journey towards becoming a buddha.
Not all higher realms are heavenly realms. Human realm, for example, is a
higher realm but not a heavenly or celestial realm. Not all lower realms are
hellish realms (be they hyperthermic or hypothermic hells). Animalic realm is a
lower realm but not a hellish realm. Paradisical realm of the Buddha Amitābha
is called Sukhāvatī (“[Realm] Endowed with Bliss].” Based on East-Asian
tradition and sources, it came to be known as the “Pure Land of Amitābha,” and
the Buddhist tradition that is associated with it is known as
“Pure-Land Buddhism,” although one is tempted to call it “Land-of-Bliss
Buddhism” instead. In the Tibetan tradition, there is no such a thing
“Sukhāvatī Buddhism” although followers of each school might believe that
birth in the Sukhāvatī is a possible (albeit only temporary) option.
Paradisical realm of a Buddha is not limited to that
of Buddha Amitābha alone. Akṣobhya and the like, too, have their own
paradisical realms. Tārā, too, has her own paradisical realm. Padmasambhava’s paradisical realm
is very popular among his followers. In the end, we also encounter the idea
that heaven or hell is one’s own projection or construction, and thus one
should rather aspire to cleanse one’s own intellectual emotional defilements
and other obscurations. Such a paradisical realm in Buddhism may be called a
“Buddhist Elysian Field” or “Buddhist Elysium” or “Buddhist Edenic Abode.” The
theory or study of paradise-like realms or spheres in Buddhism may be called
“Buddhist Paradiseology” or “Buddhist Edenology.” Just a random thought!
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