Shinran

Shinran(親鸞) (1173-1263)

Shinran Shonin (親鸞) (May 21, 1173 – November 28, 1262) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the close of the Heian Period and lived during the Kamakura Period, a time when the Shoguns lost their rule to their militaries. Shinran was a pupil of Hōnen and the founder of the Jodo Shinshu (or True Pure Land) sect in Japan. It was during this era that Japanese Buddhism, which had been declining into formalism for several centuries, underwent intense renewal, giving birth to new paths to enlightenment and spreading to every level of society.

Biography

Shinran Shonin had been born as part of the aristocratic elite in Kyoto during the end of the Heian Period. Shonin's family held low positions at the imperial court. Because of all the turmoil in Japan during this period, many people in the court pursued careers as Buddhist scholar monks. In 1181, Shinran's uncle entered him into Mt. Hiei at age 9, in order for Shinran to climb the ranks of society through the religious hierarchy, rather than through marriage.

Like many famous Japanese Buddhists at the time, including Hōnen, Dogen, and Nichiren, Shinran had been a monk of the Tendai school of Buddhism at Mt. Hiei. Shinran studied as a low-rank monk, and later in life, he wrote how he felt disillusioned by the convoluted, difficult practices at Mt. Hiei.

According to his own account, he had a vision in which Kannon Bosatsu appeared to him, directing Shinran to another disillusioned Tendai monk named Hōnen. In 1201, Shinran met Hōnen and became his disciple. Together, they and other disciples of Hōnen spread a new doctrine based on singular faith in Amida Buddha in the streets of Kyoto. In 1207, The Buddhist establishment in Kyoto persuaded the military to impose a nembutsu ban, prohibiting the teachings of Hōnen and Shinran from being spread about. Soon after, Hōnen and Shinran were exiled, with Shinran being sent to Echigo Province (contemporary Niigata Prefecture). They never met each other again. Hōnen would die later in Kyoto in 1212.

Although Shinran was critical of the motivations that ultimately lead to the exile, and the disruption of Hōnen's practice community, the exile itself proved to be a critical turning point in Shinran's religious life. Having been stripped of his monastic name, he renamed himself Gutoku or "foolish, bald-headed one," coming to understand himself as neither monk nor layman. Confronting the religious hegemony of his time from this standpoint outside the structures of state and monastic power, Shinran worked to re-interpret the Pure Land teaching as the supreme expression and representation of the truth of Buddhism. He re-wrote commentaries by other Buddhists at the time using simple Japanese, rather than Classical Chinese, so that the peasant class could read these texts. He composed a number of hymns in simple Japanese as well.

Shinran married his wife, Eshinni, and had six children with her. This helped to maintain the new Jodo Shinshu faith. Five years after being exiled in Echigo, in 1211, the nembutsu ban was lifted and Shinran was pardoned. Shinran left for an area known as Inada, a small area in Kantō just north of Tokyo. In 1224 Shinran authored his most significant text, Kyogyoshinsho, which is a series of selections and commentaries on Buddhist sutras pertinent to Pure Land Buddhism. In 1234 Shinran left the Kantō area and returned to Kyoto, where he died in the year 1263 at the age of 90.

A portrait of Shinran can be found here.

Timeline

• 1173 Shinran is born in Hino
• 1175 Hōnen founds Jodo Shu
• 1181 Shinran become a monk
• 1201 Shinran becomes a disciple of Hōnen and leaves Mt. Hiei
• 1207 The nembutsu ban and Shinran's exile
• 1210 (?) Shinran marries his wife Eshinni
• 1211 Shinran is pardoned
• 1212 Hōnen passes away in Kyoto & Shinran goes to Kantō
• 1224 Shinran authors Kyogyoshinsho
• 1234 (?) Shinran goes back to Kyoto
• 1256 Shinran disowns his son Zenran
• 1262 Shinran dies in Kyoto

Doctrine

Essentially Shinran said that because we are all defiled by greed, hatred and delusion, we have no chance of gaining enlightenment by ourselves. Many Buddhists at that time felt that the Dharma of the Buddha had declined to such a point that people could not do it themselves anymore, a concept called mappo in Japanese, a Mahayana eschatology that claims that the ability to practice Dharma properly declines over time. Instead the Pure Land School of Buddhism encouraged its practitioners to rely on the vow of the Buddha Amitabha (Sanskrit, Amida in Japanese) to save all beings from suffering. According to three particular sutras Amitabha vowed to ensure that anyone who chanted his name would be reborn in his Pure Land of Sukhavati (Sanskrit, lit. Land of Bliss) and once there would easily be able to gain enlightenmnent, because they would not be hindered by the problems of day to day life.

Shinran's innovation in Pure Land Buddhism was to take this teaching to its logical extreme. He taught that awakening to the saving grace of Amida Buddha is the central matter. Continuous chanting of the nembutsu (namu amida butsu) , is not necessary, as Hōnen, his mentor, had believed. Instead, Shinran taught his followers that the nembutsu should be said as a form of gratitude rather than a way of achieving rebirth in the Pure Land. Faith in Amida Buddha would lead to a deep spiritual awakening, called shinjin, which severs the practitioner forever from birth and death in the world of samsara, and erases karma accumulated through many rebirths. Shinran taught that the advantage of the Path of the Nembutsu can be experienced here and now. The arising of shinjin also assures the devotee of birth in the Pure Land, and the attainment of enlightenment there.

Another aspect of Shinran's doctrine was the emphasis on gratitude and humility. Thus, Shinran taught that it was important to be humble and thankful for one's life. This gratitude could be expressed through the nembutsu, but also through a general sense of appreciation.

Statue

A statue of Shinran Shonin stands in Upper West Side Manhattan, in New York City. Located on Riverside Drive between 105th and 106th Streets, in front of the New York Buddhist Church, the statue depicts Shinran in a peasant hat and sandals, holding a wooden staff, as he peers down on the sidewalk.

Although this kind of statue is often found at Jodo Shinshu temples, the statue is notable because it survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, standing a little more than a mile from ground zero. It was brought to New York in 1955. The plaque calls the statue “a testimonial to the atomic bomb devastation and a symbol of lasting hope for world peace.”

See also

• Faith in Buddhism

References

• Shinran: an Introduction to His Thought - by Yoshifumi Ueda & Dennis Hirota (1989, Hongwanji International Center, Kyoto)

External links

• The Official English Site of the Nishi Honganji Temple
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Shinran
• Works by Shinran at Project Gutenberg
• The Collected Works of Shinran
• The Official English Site for the Jodo Sect of Hōnen
• Tendai Buddhism