On Finding the Pure Land: Shinran Shonin's Confession

[rug]

February 21, 2017
by James Ford

Over at Project Gutenberg I stumbled upon S. Yamabe & L. Adams Beck’s translation of the Buddhist Psalms of Shinran Shonin.

While I’m a Zen person, I’m fascinated with Pure Land Buddhists, as they are in fact the most popular forms of Buddhism in East Asia. And, Shinran is the second founder of Pure Land in Japan. So…

Shinran Shonin was born into Feudal Japanese nobility in 1173. However, like many spiritual figures he was visited with suffering early in life. His father died when he was four, his mother when he was nine. Driven by grief and the burning questions of life and death he entered the monastic life, joining the Tendai sect and practicing on the holy Mount Hiei. He practiced intensely for twenty years, but was unable to resolve his doubts.

Then in 1201 he met Honen. Also, originally a Tendai monk, Honen studied the Pure Land scriptures and came to believe that all one needed do was call upon the Buddha’s name to be saved. He left the mountain and moved to Kyoto where, as Wikipedia tells us he “started addressing crowds of men and women, establishing a considerable following. Hōnen attracted fortune-tellers, ex-robbers, samurai and other elements of society normally excluded from Buddhist practice.”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2017/02/shinran-shonins-confession.html