Obaku Zen draws upon a body of scripture that reflects both its Zen heritage and its affinity with Pure Land devotion. On the Zen side, it reveres the great Mahayana Prajñāpāramitā texts, especially the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra, which articulate the wisdom of emptiness and non-duality. The Lotus Sutra also holds an honored place, expressing the universality of Buddhahood and the inclusive scope of the Mahayana path. These sutras form a doctrinal backdrop for contemplative practice, shaping the way insight into emptiness and compassion is understood and cultivated.

Alongside these, Obaku Zen gives significant place to the core Pure Land scriptures. The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sutra, the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha Sutra (often known as the Amitābha Sutra), and the Contemplation Sutra together describe Amitābha Buddha, the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī, and the practices of recollection and visualization associated with it. These texts provide the scriptural foundation for faith in Amitābha and for the aspiration to be born in the Pure Land, themes that are woven into Obaku’s devotional life. In this way, the school allows the language of vow, grace, and rebirth to stand alongside the language of direct insight and meditative realization.

Obaku Zen also preserves and studies the records and writings of its own lineage and related Chan masters. The teachings and recorded sayings of Huangbo (Obaku in Japanese), together with the works of Ingen Ryūki, who established the school in Japan, serve as concrete expressions of how this synthesis of Zen and Pure Land took shape in lived practice. Compilations of Ming dynasty Chinese Zen masters’ teachings further root the school in a particular historical style of Chan, with its characteristic balance of strict monastic discipline, ritual, and contemplative training. These texts do not replace the classical sutras but rather interpret and embody them in the idiom of Obaku’s tradition.

Finally, the school’s liturgical and regulatory texts give form to its daily rhythm of practice. The Obaku Shingi, its monastic code, and related ritual manuals set out a Chinese-style pattern of communal life, integrating meditation, sutra chanting, and devotional observances. Nembutsu recitations invoking Amitābha Buddha and Chinese-style sutra chanting texts exemplify the Pure Land elements that are not merely doctrinal but enacted in sound, posture, and communal ritual. Through this layered use of sutras, lineage writings, and liturgical texts, Obaku Zen manifests a path where meditative insight and devotional trust are not seen as rivals, but as mutually illuminating dimensions of the same Dharma.