Why Anarchists Like Zen? A Libertarian Reading of Shinran (1173–1263)^93
contested issue within Jodo Shinshu, it seems clear that Shinran’s
view of mappo is not ultimately fatalistic as it entails the promise
of liberation or transformation. Another phrase commonly used
by Shinran to refer to assurance of Buddhahood is “the stage of
no-retrogression” implying that people of shinjin are on a contin-
uous journey forward towards enlightenment.^53 From a Buddhist
anarchist perspective, the dialectic of self-criticism / transforma-
tive assurance offers a paradigm of critical progression that never
stops questioning itself, as I will elaborate at length later.^54
Furthermore, in social terms, ondobo ondogyo or the people
of shinjin can become an embodied space of transformation and
resistance to the empty hierarchies of mappo. The fellow practi-
tioner’s heart-minds are already beyond the control of both state
and monastic authority, being equal with the Buddhas and hav-
ing received assurance of reaching the Pure Land. Consequently
the actions flowing from such hearts, despite being often filtered
and expressed through selfish delusion, can introduce a disruptive
and spontaneous element within a network of hierarchical rela-
tionships. Gustav Landauer’s insight into the relational nature of
the state is very relevant to this analysis, along with his idea that
revolution comes from within and moves expansively outwards.^55
The same principle is expressed in the poetical formulation of the
Spanish anarchist Buenaventura Durruti, who when asked about
the ruins that a destructive revolution would leave behind replied:
“Llevamos un mundo nuevo en nuestros corazones y ese mundo
está creciendo en este instante” [We carry a new world in our
hearts and that world is growing right now].^56 Although the world
in Durruti’s heart is different from the Pure Land, his utopian
imagination runs parallel to Shinran’s imagining of the relation-
ship between the Pure Land and the person assured of birth in the
Pure Land.
The strong relational quality that animates Shinran’s conception
of mappo and the interplay between the realms of enlightenment
and delusion has structural similarities to certain formulations of
anarchist thought and if translated to the realm of politics can be
read in an anti-authoritarian direction. Because of these features
Shinran’s thought has the potential to contribute to Buddhist an-
archist discourses a model for a community of equals and some