Why Anarchists Like Zen? A Libertarian Reading of Shinran (1173–1263)^99
signifies excommunication in Japanese Buddhist communities)
denying that he has any power over the objects or the students.^71
It is impossible to determine the exact power relations at work
in the many disputes that took place in Shinran’s community,
however there seems to be a difference in the way he deals with
difference of opinion in doctrinal matters and the way he address-
es aggressive or deceitful behaviour that compromised Shinran or
disrupted the community. Furthermore, the advice to not become
familiar with “wrongdoers” ambiguously reads in context both
as an informal excommunication and as a refusal to impose his
views on those antagonizing them.^72 Among fellow practitioners,
the slander of the three treasures (teacher –freely used to refer to
Honen, Shinran or the Buddha– the teachings and the community
of fellow practitioners) is likely to have been regarded as express-
ing the wish to leave the community and Shinran’s “respectful dis-
tance” can thus be read as a tacit acknowledgment of that wish. In
any case, the correspondence recording these disputes never goes
into detail as to what specific acts or words entailed “slander” or
were deemed beyond the pale.
Shinran is at his most severe when he disowns his son, who had
been claiming his father’s authority to seemingly create his own
power base in the Eastern provinces. In this case, Shinran resorts
to his social authority as a father, rather than his loosely defined
authority as a teacher, to curtail his son’s attempt to speak on his
behalf. However, neither in Jishin-bo’s case nor in the other in-
stances that involve conflict, Shinran issues any form of spiritual
condemnation. No pronouncement is made about his opponents’
future destiny, although he at times rationalizes their behaviour
in the following manner: “such thoughts arise because they fail
to entrust themselves to the Buddha dharma”.^73 Ultimately, how-
ever, Shinran seems to regard relations with his loosely defined
followers as ruled by karmic conditions, which escape both the
student and the teacher’s conscious will: “We come together when
conditions bring us to meet and part when conditions separate
us. In spite of this, some assert that those who say the nembutsu
having turned from one teacher to another cannot attain birth.
This is absurd”.^74