Shinran
No one can reach salvation by their own effort; it comes entirely from trusting the Buddha Amida – and even the wicked are saved.
Placement
Founder of True Pure Land Buddhism: no self-power leads to awakening – only entrusting oneself to Amida’s “other-power”; even the wicked are saved.
Key ideas
- Other-power (tariki)
- Entrusting (shinjin)
- Salvation of the wicked
Influence
Influenced by 2
Nagarjuna
influenced by
Shinran honoured Nagarjuna as first of seven Pure Land masters and took from the ‘Chapter on Easy Practice’ ascribed to him the easy path of calling Amida’s name. Shinran, Kyōgyōshinshō, Shōshinge; D. Hirota et al. (tr.), The Collected Works of Shinran (1997)
Evidence: AI draft
Nagarjuna › c. 150–250
Vasubandhu
influenced by
Shinran honoured Vasubandhu as second of the seven Pure Land masters and read the Treatise on the Pure Land ascribed to him as teaching single-hearted entrusting to Amida. Shinran, Kyōgyōshinshō, Shōshinge; Vasubandhu (attr.), Jingtu lun, with Tanluan’s commentary; D. Hirota et al. (tr.), The Collected Works of Shinran (1997)
Evidence: AI draft
Vasubandhu › c. 350–430
Influenced 1
Tanabe Hajime
influenced
In Philosophy as Metanoetics (1946) Tanabe built on Shinran’s other-power: reason, having failed, passes through repentance (zange) and is reborn through a power not its own. Tanabe Hajime, Zangedō to shite no tetsugaku (1946), tr. Takeuchi Yoshinori, Philosophy as Metanoetics (1986); SEP “Tanabe Hajime”
Evidence: AI draft
Tanabe Hajime › 1885–1962
Works
Shinran’s main work, a compilation of scriptural passages with commentary: awakening is wholly the gift of Amida’s vow.
Position
Shinran radicalised Hōnen’s teaching. In the age of the decline of the Dharma, he held, no one can reach awakening by self-power (jiriki); birth in the Pure Land comes entirely from the other-power (tariki) of Amida Buddha’s vow to save all beings. Even the entrusting heart (shinjin) is Amida’s gift, and reciting the nembutsu becomes an expression of gratitude rather than a means. The Tannishō, compiled by his disciple Yuien, records his famous paradox: if even the good are born in the Pure Land, how much more the wicked, who know they cannot save themselves. His school became one of Japan’s largest; Tanabe later built his metanoetics on Shinran.
Life & context
Born in 1173 near Kyoto into minor nobility, Shinran trained for some twenty years as a Tendai monk on Mount Hiei. In 1201 he became a disciple of Hōnen, who taught reliance on the nembutsu alone. When the court suppressed the movement in 1207, Shinran was defrocked and exiled to Echigo, where he married. After decades of teaching in eastern Japan he died in Kyoto in 1263.
Further main works
- Hymns of the Pure Land (Jōdo wasan, 1248)
- Lamenting the Deviations (Tannishō, late 13th century, recorded by his disciple Yuien)
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