BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 255sary to repeat the name of Amida in order to be assured a place in his par-
adise? (See Strong EB, sec. 8.3.2.) The Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra (see Section
5.5.4), which had formed the basis for the Pure Land school, stated that one
need repeat Amida's name only 10 times to qualifY for the benefit ofhis saving
vow, whereas Shan-tao had recommended repeating the Nembutsu as many
times as possible, as a mantra, throughout the waking day. Shinran's position-
formulated in his work Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Attainment (1224)-was
that the original question had been misconceived. The Nembutsu was not to
be viewed as a means of earning one's way to the Pure Land, for such a view
implied a lack of total faith in the saving power of Amida's grace and deceived
one into believing that one's own efforts could actually effect salvation.
Rather, one Nembutsu was enough to acknowledge and accept Amida's grace;
the remaining repetitions were simply to express gratitude. Human effort was
in no way sufficient to achieve salvation. Even one's ability to accept Amida's
grace had nothing to do with one's own merit, but was a result of Amida's
grace as well. Whereas Honen had stripped meditation and merit making away
from the teaching, leaving only faith and the Nembutsu, Shinran stripped it
down still further, leaving only faith in tariki (other-power), with no trace of
jiriki (self-power) at all. By doing so, he took the abstract Yoga6irin teaching
that Awakening is possible only because of the seeds of the Buddha-nature
implanted in the consciousness, and gave it a personal cast.
Shinran's frequent references to himself as having sinned in taking on a
wife must be viewed in the context of his radical emphasis on faith. Evil indi-
viduals who recognize their evil nature, he said, are more likely to be born
into the Pure Land than good individuals, for the good are deluded by the
pride they tak~ in their virtue, and thus are blocked from accepting the gift of
grace.
Shinran's doctrine, similar to Honen's, opened itself to all sorts of abuses
and misinterpretations. His own son, Zenran, preached such an inflammatory
version of the teaching as to make it an outright invitation to sin. Shinran
eventually had to sever all relations with him. Dojo leaders became autocratic,
treating the sect's funds as their own, and government officials intervened in
- Shinran returned to Kyoto in that year and lived quietly until his death
at the age of ninety. Only after his death did his followers organize themselves
into a sect.
1"0.5.3 Nichiren {Strong EB, sec. 8.9)
Nichiren-sho-shu, the third Mapp6 sect formed during the Kamakura period,
was the first major sect of Japanese Buddhism with no foreign antecedents. It
was also the first to be named after its founder. The son of a fisherman,
Nichiren (1222-82) was ordained at the age of 15 and given the name Ren-
cho (Eternal Lotus). As he grew older, he became greatly concerned with the
calamities befalling the nation and the imperial family, convinced that they
had a religious cause. Thus he resolved to study all of the Buddhist teachings
then available so as to find the solution to this problem and to save the nation
from what he saw as sure disaster.