Cultivating Spirituality: A Modern Shin Buddhist Anthology

Chapter 8: Shinran's View of Buddhist History

117 A SAVIOR ON EARTH Notes 1. Kaneko Daiei. 2. Presently the city of Jøetsu 上越 in Niigata Prefecture. 3. Akegarasu Haya 暁烏敏 (1877–1954). Akegarasu was born in a Shinsh¨ temple in Ishikawa Prefecture. Under his teacher, Kiyozawa Manshi, he assisted in the publication of the journal Seishinkai. In 1950, Akegarasu became      ]     as the author of the Tannishø køwa 歎異抄講話 (Lectures on the Tannishø). His writings are collected together in Akegarasu Haya Zensh¶ 暁烏敏全集 (Complete Works of Akegarasu Haya) in twenty-seven volumes. 4. Presently Ishikawa Prefecture. 5. This simile derives from Tanluan’s Jingtulunzhu 浄土論註 (Commentary on the Pure Land Treatise). In this text, the recitation of the nenbutsu is likened to light shining into a room that has been dark for one thousand years. See Inagaki 1998, 199–200. 6. Refers to a column in Seishinkai where Soga published a series of short essays from 1908 to 1913. The essays can be found in SRS 4: 203–380. The word “bøf¶shiu” (literally “violent winds and sudden rain”) comes from Daochuo’s Anleji 安楽集 (Collection of Passages on [the Land of] Peace and Bliss) (T 47: 13c), where deluded existence is likened to a storm fraught with violent wind and rain. 7. A journal published by Shinsh¨]‚  # %  from 1895 to 1920, when its name was changed to Bukkyø kenky¶ 仏教研究 (Buddhist Studies). 8. A hymn, written by Shinran, which is a compendium, as it were, of Shinsh¨ doctrine. It is found at the end of the “Chapter on Practice” in the Kyøgyøshinshø and often is recited in Shinsh¨ religious services. 9. According to the Sutra of Immeasurable Life, after arousing the       %    " «  åja Buddha, Dharmåkara                      Subsequently, he set forth his forty-eight vows and embarked on his practice to construct his pure land. 10. Buddhist doctrines are often systematized by means of the categorical scheme: “causal stage” (inni 因位) and “resultant stage” (kai 果位). In this case, the same entity, in the causal stage, is called Dharmåkara and, in the resultant stage, Amida Buddha. 11. An alternate name for Amida Buddha, frequently used by Shinran. 12. In the preface to the “Chapter on Faith” in the Kyøgyøshinshø, Shinran criticizes those Buddhists who attacked his teacher Hønen’s understanding of ! "  _     ¥ ` ^¥` only’.” See CWS 1: 77. 13. The “path of sages,” also called “the path of self-power,” refers to the way for attaining buddhahood by practicing the arduous bodhisattva path in this world over a period of numerous lifetimes. This is contrasted to the “Pure Land path,” also called “the path of other-power,” in which one 118 SOGA RYŌJIN    % %  % |^ !  Land and undertaking bodhisattva practices there. 14. North, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, zenith, and nadir. 15. Past, present, and future. 16. Amida Buddha’s saving power often is likened in Pure Land Buddhism to a ship that carries the believer across the ocean of transmigration to the Pure Land. 17. Dharmakåya (Dharma-body, Jpn. hosshin 法身) is the Buddha as absolute reality, identical with the Dharma-nature, in contradistinction with, mainly, the nirmåna-kåya }  %    øjin 応身) or the Buddha appearing in the world. 18. A term originally taken from chapter 4 of the Daodejing 道徳経, which  _¢ ! " 23. According to the Sutra of Immeasurable Life, ten kalpas have elapsed since Amida Buddha attained buddhahood. See Gómez 1996, 176. Chapter 8 Shinran’s View of Buddhist History* Soga Ryøjin Translated by Jan Van Bragt Lecture I: What Is a True History of Buddhism? To all gathered here to celebrate my sixtieth birthday by these three days of lectures my heartfelt thanks. #          #  %  ;   “Shinran’s View of Buddhist History” to these lectures, it has something to do with the founding of our Shinsh¨. Most people consider it only common sense to say that Shinran is its founder, that Shinran started Jødo Shinsh¨ (True Pure Land School). Still, there are people nowadays who doubt whether Shinran ever had the intention of founding Jødo Shinsh¨. They ask where Shinran himself ever expressed that intention, and argue that Shinran always says that he wants nothing but to follow and believe the doctrine of his master Hønen, and that therefore it is rather Hønen who is the founder of Jødo Shinsh¨. We must confess that these arguments sound reasonable enough. However, to discuss   $    %               establish Jødo Shinsh¨ and therefore what Jødo Shinsh¨ is all about, what its concrete content is...