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The Jodo or Pure Land School, were founded by the teacher Honen Daishi based on the Pure Land Sutras written about Amithaba Buddha (The Buddha of the East), who had made a vow to save all who call his name. To learn about Honen visit my page: honen.html. For more about Tendai see my page or Tendai Sect
The Pure land School started life as practices taught in China by monks such as Shan Tao. In Japan these teachings were introduced as a supplemental practice for lay believers and itinerant monks by Tendai Monks such as Annen and Eshin. The Pure land teachings tell us that we need only have faith in the Buddha and call on the name of Amida to find salvation. For Pure land believers, enlightenment is not something even worth aspiring to in this life, but something for the 'life to come." In that sense they sound very much like Christian teachings, which also emphasize salvation in the "World To come." According to the pure land sutras, one will be reborn inside a lotus in a calm and smoothing pond. To me, it seems that if this were taken literally it would be a hell to be confined to a Lotus Plant. Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of his own school based on "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" criticized this otherworldly approach telling people that one can't expect to be born into the Pure Land unless one acts towards achieving Buddhahood, and that Amida's vow exempted people who slander the Dharma. For him, practicing this teaching was tantamount to slandering the Dharma. Unless one takes concrete steps to purify this world, one is taking no steps towards achieving Buddhahood. For him the appropriate connection should be with the Lotus Sutra
Honen Daishi taught that the Buddha Amida had vowed to save anyone who called his name. He derived from that notion the idea of "exclusive practice of the Nembutsu" and divided his practice into two categories. Proceeding from the theory that in this evil later day of the Law, people's capacities are too "dimmed" for the "hard to practice ways" of formal Buddhism (exotericism) and the even harder practices of esotericism.
Jodo and the Lotus Sutra
Unfortunately, When Honen wrote the Senchaku Shu he may not have thought he was committing slander of the Dharma. But since he considered all practices other than the Nembutsu to be the "Hard to practice way" then discards them, his teachings, if they were to be widely practice and replace the general canon of Shakyamuni denigrate the capacity of human beings to gain enlightenment through their efforts or achieve any kind of wisdom on their own. They also, thus contradict other teachings such as those of the Lotus Sutra that teach that enlighenment is achievable by common mortals in this Saha world. They specifically contradict the words and admonitions found in the venerable Lotus Sutra. The Tendai School roundly criticized him and his disciples for this, and the monk, Nichiren, followed
The Senchakushu
up on this with a devastating criticism of his teachings.Honen's seminal writing was the Senchakushu in which he says:
Long ago, I [a monk of humble accomplishment] chanced to read this book [Commentary on the Meditation Sutra (Kuan wu-liang-shou ching) ] by Shan-tao and came to learn something of its teaching. Thereupon, I resolutely abandoned the other practices and took refuge in the nembutsu. (Senchakushu, Chapt. 16)
Honen lived a long time. His last writing was a transfer document to his disciple Genchi. In which he says:
"Reciting the nembutsu does not come from studying and understanding its meaning. There is no other reason or cause by which we can utterly believe in attaining birth in the Pure Land than the nembutsu itself."
For Honen, there was no way to enlightenment through the wisdom of the mind, only faith, other power, could open the portal. His understanding of pureland was based on his readings of the sutric passages when said things like "this teaching can only be understood between Buddhas." and various teachings about the evil later day of the Law, when the teachings of the Buddha would loose their effectiveness. He felt that "wisdom" was simply an obstacle to enlightenment.
By teaching "exclusive practice of the Nembutsu" and criticizing the 'hard to practice' ways of mainstream Buddhism, Honen came into conflict with the authorities during his life time and his disciples continually after his death as well. The mainstream Tendai Teachers had Jodo proscribed as heretical. Eventually his death his teachings were to be severely critiqued by the teacher Nichiren for "slandering", particularly the very same Lotus Sutra.
Honen believed that what he was doing was a good thing and didn't believe he was doing anything meant to hurt anyone. During his persecution, during 1204, at the age of 72, he wrote the following:
"For a long period, I have recited the nembutsu and followed Shakyamuni's teachings on it. In this time, I have not said anything to go against people's hearts or to shock their ears. In the thirty years since I have begun teaching people about the nembutsu, nothing unfortunate has happened to them in their daily lives."
- Sources for this section:
- http://www.jodo.or.jp/jodo-e/pure/message2.html
- http://www.jodo.or.jp/jsri/English/Honen/life.html
- His final statement:http://www.jodo.or.jp/jsri/English/Honen/WRITINGS/ichimai.html
- Quotes from the Rissho Ankoku Ron by Nichiren Daishonin
- http://www.jodo.or.jp/jsri/English/Honen/LIFE/Last%20Days/kofukuji.html
Nichiren explained Honen's errors in the Kaimoku Sho. He writes:
The Maka shikan says:"If one lacks faith [in the Lotus Sutra], one will object that it pertains to the lofty realm of the sages, something far beyond the capacity of one�s own wisdom to comprehend. If one lacks wisdom, one will become puffed up with arrogance and will claim to be the equal of the Buddha."For Nichiren the error Honen was guilty of, was the first one. That comes through clearly in Honen's own writings.
Nichiren critiqued the Senchaku Shu in this passage from his Rissho Ankoku Ron as well as in other Gosho that he wrote, both as formal treatises and to his disciples. He says:
"The Dharma Teacher T�an-luan in his Commentary on 'The Treatise of Rebirth in the Pure Land' (Ojo ron chu) states:
"I note that Bodhisattva Nagarjuna�s Commentary on the Ten Stages Treaty(Jujubibasha ron) says:
"There are two ways by which the bodhisattva may reach the state of avaivartika or non-retrogression. One is the difficult-to-practice way, the other is the easy-to-practice way."
"The difficult-to-practice way is the same as the Sacred Way, and the easy-to-practice way is the Pure Land Way. Students of the Pure Land sect should first of all understand this point. Though they may previously have studied teachings belonging to the Sacred Way, if they wish to become followers of the Pure Land teachings, they must discard the Sacred Way and give their allegiance to the Pure Land teachings."
As you can see, the teachings of Jodo Shin are motivated by a severe doubt that anyone can reach enlightenment any other way.
Honen also says:
"Regarding
the passage in which Priest Shan-tao distinguished between correct and sundry practices and urged people to abandon the sundry practices and embrace the correct practices:"Concerning the first of the sundry practices, that of reading and reciting sutras, with the exception of the recitation of the Kammuryoju Sutra and the other Pure Land sutras, the embracing, reading and recitation of all sutras, whether Mahayana or Hinayana, exoteric or esoteric, is to be regarded as a sundry practice...."
Concerning the third of the sundry practices, that of worshipping, with the exception of worshipping the Buddha Amida, the worshipping or honoring of any of the other Buddhas, bodhisattvas or deities of this world is to be regarded as a sundry practice....
In the light of his statement, I declare that one should abandon such sundry practices and concentrate upon the practice of the Pure Land teachings. What reason would we have to abandon the correct practices of the Pure Land teachings, which insure that, out of a hundred persons, all one hundred will be reborn in the Pure Land, and cling instead to the various sundry practices and procedures, which could not save even one person in a thousand? Followers of the Way should ponder this carefully!"
Honen further states:
"In the Jogen nyuzo roku or Chen-yuan Era Catalogue of the Buddhist Canon we find it recorded that, from the 600 volumes of the Daihannya Sutra to the Hojoju Sutra, the exoteric and esoteric sutras of Mahayana or the great vehicle total 637 works in 2,883 volumes. The phrase [from the Kammuryoju Sutra] of �reading and reciting the great vehicle� should be applied to all these works. You should understand that, when the Buddha was preaching according to the capacity of his various listeners, he for a time taught the two methods of concentrated meditation and unconcentrated meditation. But later, when he revealed his own enlightenment, he ceased to teach these two methods. The only teaching that, once revealed, shall never cease to be taught is the single doctrine of the Nembutsu."
Honen also states:
practitioner of the Nembutsu must possess three kinds of mind: It is found in the Kammuryoju Sutra. In his commentary on that sutra,[Shan-tao says:]"If there are those who differ in understanding and practice from the followers of the Nembutsu, persons of heretical and mistaken belief, [how should we confront them?]"
I will now make certain that their perverse and differing views will not cause trouble. These persons of evil views with different understanding and different practices are compared to a band of robbers who call back the traveler who has already gone one or two steps along his journey.� In my opinion, when this commentary speaks of different understanding, different practices, varying doctrines and varying beliefs, they are referring to the teachings of the Sacred Way."
Finally, in a concluding passage, Honen says:
"If one wishes to escape quickly from the sufferings of birth and death, one should confront these two superior teachings and then proceed to put aside the teachings of the Sacred Way and choose those of the Pure Land. And if one wishes to follow the teachings of the Pure Land, one should confront the correct and sundry practices and then proceed to abandon all of the sundry practices and devote one�s entire attention to the correct practices."
Nichiren writes
When we examine these passages, we see that Honen quotes the erroneous explanations of T�an-luan, Tao-ch�o and Shan-tao, and establishes the categories-the Sacred Way and Pure Land teachings, the difficult-to-practice and easy-to-practice ways. He then takes all the 637 works in 2,883 volumes that comprise the Mahayana sutras of the Buddha�s lifetime, including those of the Lotus Sutra and Shingon, along with all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities of this world, and assigns them all to the categories of the Sacred Way teachings, the difficult-to-practice way and the sundry practices, and urges people to "discard, close, ignore and abandon" them. With these four injunctions, he leads all people astray. And on top of that, he groups together all the sage monks of the three countries [of India, China and Japan] as well as the students of Buddhism of the ten directions, and calls them a "band of robbers," causing the people to insult them!
In doing so, he turns his back on the passage in the three Pure Land sutras, the sutras of his own sect, which contains Amida�s vow to save the people "excepting only those who commit the five cardinal sins or who slander the correct teaching."
Nichiren felt that Honen had made a terrible error in relying on the Pure Land Sutras in the way he did. Specifically Honen had rejected "difficult to practice" teachings in favor of what could only be a fantasy. As Nichiren said "these Buddhas are not related to this world." The Lotus Sutra informed his beliefs and contained teachings designed to bring salvation to ordinary people, yet Honen was turning to a Buddha promising salvation outside of this world. From a modern viewpoint, Honen was throwing up his hands at the possibility of people attaining Buddhahood through merit or in their present form and relying on salvation at the moment of death. He was teaching a fantasy approach to Buddhism. Nichiren pointed out how this contradicted the Lotus Sutra and also contradicted the inherent link between the pure land sutras and the Lotus Sutra. By discarding the Lotus Sutra as a "difficult to practice Way" Honen was slandering Shakyamuni's teachings contained within the Lotus Sutra, and thus Nichiren felt was slandering the correct teaching. Within the context of Buddhism as a whole, exclusive devotion to Nembutsu might have been appropriate, but if it meant explicitly denying the benefit and value of Shakyamuni's other teachings, then it was "slandering the Correct teaching." This mistake led Nichiren to believe:
At the same time, he shows that he fails to understand the warning contained in the second volume of the Lotus Sutra, the heart and core of the entire body of teachings the Buddha expounded in the five periods of his preaching life, which reads:
to have faith but instead slanders this sutra. . . When his life comes to an end, he will enter the Avichi hell.""If a person fails
Nevertheless, wandering "hijiri" or holy men, teaching and chanting the Nembutsu became a stock in folklore and story in the countryside, and the Jodo School acquired some similar characteristics to Western Christianity or Islam, expecially in the way it dealt with violence. It was very popular among itinerants and ignorant farmers in the countryside. Indeed it was so simple and attractive that part of the vehemence of Nichiren's denunciation of Nembutsu is balanced by his own admission that he had been a practitioner during his youth.
In Letter From Sado Nichiren recalls how he had once been a disciple of Honen's. In a sense his own teachings are part of a dialectic with those of Honen. Where Honen is this life Negating, Nichiren is life affirming. Where Honen taught "other power" Nichiren affirmed both self power and other power, and something that was neither. Where Honen taught abandoning the "hard to practice way" Nichiren taught that chanting the Daimoku seemed an easy practice but was, in fact a difficult practice. Where Honen believed in putting hope for Buddhahood in rebirth in a pure land, Nichiren taught the need to purify ourselves and thus purify this world.
After his death, in typical Japanese fashion, the followers of Nichiren and the followers of Jodo remained hostile to each other. Even as followers of Nichiren managed to confuse outsiders over whether there was any effective difference between the two faiths. Honen's Senchaku Shu was matched by Nichirenists who taught that Nichiren was the true Buddha and Shakyamuni a provisional one, and that all of Shakyamuni's teachings were heretical. Nichiren's disciples would win any fair debate they participated in with Nembutsu believers, but because of Nichirenism's support of the "Mikado" system (based on the notion of converting the Emperor), the "Bakufu" rulers tended to prefer to either play Jodo against Nichirenism, or to even, in the case of the earliest of the Tokugawas, Oda Nobunaga, and Hideyoshi, to the point of rigging debates so that the "Jodo" monks could actually win. No one was really interested in resolving any issues through a fair debate. Consequently there has been, since even while Nichiren was still alive, unwanted physical hostility between the two groups. To the point where they usually would take opposite sides in Japan's civil wars. For instance, in Kyoto, Nichirenism was strong in the city, while the Jodo sect was strong in the countryside, and when the "Evil monks," Bakunin, of Mt. Tendai literally attacked the Nichiren believers of Kyoto, they enlisted their aid.
Honen was succeeded by Shinran, who is an interesting character in his own right. Shinran's teachings were even more popular than Honen's, and were subject to even more persecution. Indeed his schools were so brutally suppressed that they went underground, with "secret shinran" schools surfacing with their own preserved Gosho and idiosyncretic teachings that had somehow survived being handed down from teacher to student for nearly 700 years.
Cannon of The Shinran School of the Jodo Sect
For a good discussion of the comparison and contrast between Nichiren's teachings and those of Honen, see this page: http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/547.pdf