Early Years
Shinran Shonin was born at the close of the Heian period, when political power was passing from the imperial court into the hands of warrior clans. It was during this era when the old order was crumbling, however, Japanese Buddhism, which had been declining into formalism for several centuries, underwent immense renewal, giving birth to new paths to enlightenment and spreading to every level of society.
Shinran was born into the aristocratic Hino family, a branch of the Fujiwara clan, and his father Arinori at one time served the Imperial Court. At the age of nine, however, Shinran entered the Tendai temple on Mt. Hiei, where he spent twenty years in monastic life. From the familiarity with Buddhist writings apparent in his later works, it is clear that he exerted great effort in his studies during this period. He probably also performed such practices as continuous recitation of the Nembutsu for prolonged periods.
Awakening to the Nembutsu
After twenty years of study, however, Shinran despaired of attaining awakening through such discipline and study; he was also discouraged by the deep corruption that pervaded the mountain monastery. Years earlier, Honen Shonin (1133-1212) had descended from Mt. Hiei and begun teaching a radically new understanding of religious practice, declaring that all self-generated efforts toward enlightenment are tainted by attachments and therefore meaningless. Instead of such practice, one should just say the Nembutsu, not as a contemplative exercise or means for gaining merit, but wholly entrusting oneself to Amida’s Vow to bring all beings to enlightenment.
When he was 29 years of age, Shinran undertook a long retreat at Rokkakudo temple in Kyoto to determine his future course. At dawn, on the ninety-fifth day. Prince Shotoku appeared to him in a dream. Shinran took this as a sign he should seek out Honen and he went to hear Honen’s teaching every day for one hundred days. He then abandoned his former Tendai practices and joined Honen’s movement.
Exile
At this time, however, the established temples were growing jealous of Honen, and in 1207 they succeeded in gaining a government ban on his Nembutsu teaching. Several followers were executed, and Honen and others, including Shinran, were banished from the capital and sent into exile.
Shinran was stripped of his priesthood, given a layman’s name, and exiled to Echigo on the Japan Sea coast (in modern day Niigata Prefecture). About this time he married Eshinni and began raising a family. He declared himself “neither monk nor layman,” incapable of fulfilling monastic discipline or good works, and yet precisely because of this, he was grasped by Amida’s compassion activity. He therefore chose for himself the name “Gotoku” (Foolish/shaven), indicating the futility of attachment to one’s own intellect and goodness.
Shinran would be pardoned after five years, but decided not to return to Kyoto. Instead, in 1214, at the age of forty-two, he made his way into the Kanto (Tokyo) region, where he spread the Nembutsu teaching for twenty years, building a large movement amongst the peasants and lower samurai.
Return to Kyoto
Then, in his sixties, Shinran began a new life, returning to Kyoto to devote his final three decades to writing. He did not give sermons or teach disciples, but lived with relatives, supported by gifts from his followers in Kanto. After his wife Eshinni returned to Echigo to oversee family property there, he was tended in Kyoto by his youngest daughter, Kakushinni.
It is from this point that Shinran produced most of his writings. He completed his major work, popularly known as Kyogyoshinsho, and composed hundreds of hymns in which he rendered the Chinese scriptures accessible to ordinary people of the countryside. At this time, problems in understanding the teaching arose among his followers in Kanto, and he wrote numerous letters and commentaries seeking to resolve them.
There were people who asserted that one should strive to say the Nembutsu as often as possible, and others who insisted that true trust is manifested in saying the Nembutsu only once, leaving all else to Amida. Shinran rejected both sides as human contrivance based on attachment to the Nembutsu as one’s own good act. Since genuine Nembutsu arises from true entrusting that is Amida’s working in one, the number of times the Nembutsu is said is irrelevant.
Further, there were some who claimed that since Amida’s Vow was intended to save people incapable of good, one should feel free to commit evil. For Shinran, however, emancipation means not freedom from bondage to the claims of egocentric desires and emotions. He therefore wrote that with deep trust in Amida’s Vow, one comes to genuine awareness of one’s own evil.
Final Years
Near the end of his life, Shinran was forced to disown his eldest son, Zenran, who caused disruption among the Kanto followers by claiming to have received a secret teaching from Shinran.
Nevertheless, his creative energy and awakening continued until his death at age ninety. Shinran’s teachings manifest an increasingly rich, mature and articulate vision of human existence that reveals him to be one of Japan’s most profound and original religious thinkers.
In deepest gratitude, let us remember Shinran Shonin, our greatest Teacher!
Namo Amida Butsu