This study aims to explore the meanings of the time and space used in the Lotus Sutra to examine what the ideal world described by Buddha is reflecting such time and space. It also explores the Pure Land mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, and compares and analyzes the similarities and differences between the Pure Land and the worlds mentioned in other Utopianism. Through the concept of time and space implied in the Lotus Sutra, the characteristics of the Pure Land contained in the sermon of Sakyamuni Buddha would be identified.
In Buddhism, time and space are not independent entities separated from all living things, but can be said to be the basis of interdependence that defines the way of living people. There is a regulation of time and space on the basis of a series of processes in which all people are born, die, suffer, and escape from it. The meaning of temporality in the Lotus Sutra was discussed centering on the concept of time called “kalpa” and the concept of number as a form of expressing time.
The Lotus Sutra described the meaning of "Kronos" and "Kairos" together with time. The attempt to understand time as one of these two is fictional, and based on a understanding of objective and subjective time, which is non-homogeneous, fluid, and reversible, the connection between the time mentioned by Buddha and the time recognized by people can be formed.
The current study examined the meaning of space in the Lotus Sutra, focusing on ten directions and the world of ten directions. Since the question of whether or not time and space exist is a matter of perception, it may vary depending on the paradigm of perception. In the Buddhist culture, ontology is accompanied by the concept of time and space, and time is said to be no beginning and no end and space is said to be never ending.
However, the concepts of time and space, which have become common objects of objective recognitions in the Buddhist culture, are developed as a cultural phenomenon in everyday life based on space, time, place, and boundary. Since infinite and homogeneous time and space are considered as abstract concepts unrelated to human life, they become an existential place where humans perceive them as being finite and inhomogeneous time space.
Therefore, by grasping the space, place, center and aspect described in the Lotus Sutra, the study speculated that the world mentioned by Buddha would not be an abstract and ambiguous place, but a world that forms a relationship with existing humans.
The space and place mentioned in The Lotus Sutra are a world that can be experienced by the assumed object of Bodhisattva, but for ordinary people, it is a space of symbol that can only be represented and a world that can be experienced through representation. Therefore, it establishes itself as a space of relationships that is always open to the people who are likely to achieve the status of being Buddha.
In addition, this study examined Utopianism contained in the world of the Pure Land in the Lotus Sutra, focusing on the Future Destiny which was given to the disciples by Sakyamuni Buddha. Considering the Pure Land mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, the study found out how the ideal world the existing humans aim for was described by Buddha.
The Pure Land described in the Future Destiny, is an environment when existing humans become Buddha. As existing humans become Buddha in the future, they become the masters who make up the world of the Pure Land, through which they have an inherent meaning of moving into one world.
Lastly, based on the contents related to the Buddha in the past and the Buddha in the future, it is possible to grasp the ideal world of the existence, which would permanently exist in the past, present, and future. The Pure Land contained in the Future Destiny shows the possibility for all people to achieve Buddha, and is also in line with the meaning of ekabuddhayāna. On the one hand, the contents related to Buddha in the past in this study show that existing humans can become an object that aims for the existence of the ideal world by recognizing and aspiring to the transcendent world of Buddha.