Sickness (and Birth, Old Age, and Death) in Chinese Buddhism: Perspectives from Art and Ritual

Canonical Buddhist texts proclaim that sickness is one of the four signs of sentient existence: birth, aging, sickness, and death. In this view, only perfect beings such as the Buddha are capable of evading the clutches of impermanence. At the same time, Buddhists all over the world engage in practices to cure illness and secure a happier fate. They imagine a robust, healthy life in Buddhist terms. This lecture reviews some of the broader Buddhist understandings of illness, drawing particularly on the ritual texts and paintings of medieval Chinese Buddhism.