Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think about and Discuss Theology by Tennent Timothy C

Author:Tennent, Timothy C. [Tennent, Timothy C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

Shinran and the Rise of True Pure Land Buddhism

Shinran Shonin lived during one of the most remarkable transitions in Japanese history: from the Heian age (794 – 1185) to the Kamakura period (1185 – 1333). A breakdown of the peace that had characterized the Heian age, a weak central government, and increased social turmoil stimulated the rise of some of the most remarkable Buddhist reformers and thinkers, such as (1143 – 1212), Shinran (1173 – 1262), (1200 – 1253), and Nichiren (1222 – 1282), all of whom lived on the seam between these two major periods of Japanese history.

At eight years old, Shinran was sent to Mount Hiei, where he became a Buddhist priest and learned all of the traditional disciplines of Buddhist practice. After twenty years at Mount Hiei, Shinran became disillusioned with traditional Buddhism and entered a period of inner turmoil and dissatisfaction with his spiritual condition, despite his mastery of Buddhist philosophy and the advanced techniques that were supposed to lead to enlightenment. In response to some mystical experience, perhaps a vision,22 he left Mount Hiei and the formal priesthood in 1201 and moved to the capital, Kyoto. There he met and for the next six years lived in hermitage.

During this time he became deeply influenced by the teaching of Pure Land with its emphasis on the nembutsu and trusting in Amida Buddha for salvation. It was during his first year with that Shinron, in his own words, “abandoned the difficult practices and took refuge in the Original Vow.”23 Shinran became a devoted disciple of and, despite his own later innovations to Pure Land, never wavered in his devotion to and admiration of his master.

In 1207 and all of his disciples, including Shinran, were exiled from the capital. Shinran was banished to the northern Japanese seacoast city of Echigo, where he remained until he was pardoned in 1211. Shinran stopped wearing the saffron robe and shavipng his head and lived among the common, unlearned people. This was a formative period for him because he was living in a kind of ecclesiastical no-man’s land. He was no longer a priest, but his entire life had been spent in rigorous Buddhist training, so he could hardly fit in as a layperson. It was after his pardon that Shinran married a woman named Eshinni, raised a family, and “claimed for himself the status of ‘neither priest nor layman.’ ”24 He realized the challenges ordinary people felt in trying to live as Buddhists in the midst of all the normal challenges of life.

More important, Shinran became increasingly aware of his own wickedness. Alfred Bloom sums up this period in Shinran’s life well when he says, “It is in this world that passion-ridden beings are encountered, where Shinran encountered himself, and became aware of the ineradicable sinfulness and desperate character of sentient existence.”25 Gradually, Shinran realized that the strong emphasis on the nembutsu had itself become another means of earning merit and justifying one’s entrance into the Pure Land. Why else would

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