Thinker · TH-0381
Shinran
Shinran was a Japanese Buddhist monk who trained on Mount Hiei, became a disciple of Hōnen, and after a period of exile in Echigo…
親鸞
Also known as Shinran Shōnin
1173 – 1263 · Kyoto; Mount Hiei; Echigo; Kantō (Hitachi)
Traditions: Japanese & Korean
Schools: Pure Land
Shinran was a Japanese Buddhist monk who trained on Mount Hiei, became a disciple of Hōnen, and after a period of exile in Echigo taught in the Kantō region before returning to Kyoto. He is regarded as the founder of Jōdo Shinshū (True Pure Land Buddhism). He taught that birth in the Pure Land comes entirely through the other-power (tariki) of Amida Buddha's vow, not through one's own efforts (jiriki). Translating this as "grace" is an approximation, not an equivalence with the Christian concept.
Key ideas
- Liberation depends on the other-power of Amida's vow, not on self-power.
- Even the entrusting heart (shinjin) is given by Amida rather than produced by the self.
- If good people attain birth in the Pure Land, how much more so evil people, who cannot rely on their own merit.
- Monastic discipline is not required; he married and lived as neither monk nor layman.
Major works
- Kyōgyōshinshō (教行信証)
- Tannishō (record of his sayings compiled by his disciple Yuien)
In the conversation
- Question Epictetus says some things are up to us. What did that depend on for him?
- Discussion Camus and the Buddhists: two ways of refusing the question of life’s meaning
- Discussion Guo Xiang said things are ‘self-so’. Does that mean uncaused, or caused by everything?
- Discussion Zhaozhou’s dog, Dōgen, and a robotics engineer: does a robot have buddha-nature?
- Question Does a Carmelite’s prayer of union and a Zen kenshō report the same experience?
- Discussion My grandmother’s Jōdo Shinshū, and why “grace” is not quite the word for other-power
- Question What does ziran, “self-so”, actually mean, and why do people call it the centre of Daoism?