The life of Shinran Shonin
Shinran Shonin was born on 21st May 1173 (1st day of 4th month, 3rd
year of Joan) in the village of Hino on the outskirts of
Kyoto.
When he was four years old, he lost his father and at the age of
nine his mother. Thus, orphaned at a young age he entered the
priesthood at Mount Hiei, which was then the main center of
Buddhist learning.
Here he was to stay for twenty years, practicing the most arduous
of physical and mental disciplines. The principal teaching of the
monasteries emphasized the purification of the self for the
attainment of Enlightenment. Never did a young priest apply himself
so wholeheartedly to all the disciplines. He soon became renowned
for his scholarship and could have easily become head of one of the
larger monasteries, but he was neither interested in position nor
in the pursuit of knowledge. His main concern was Enlightenment.
After two decades on Mt. Hiei, Shinran Shonin came to the sober
realization that Enlightenment was impossible for the common man.
The disciplines of Mt. Hiei made him acutely conscious of his own
human weakness. His life was finite; his knowledge incomplete and
his capacity for perfect goodness limited. Upon meditation he
discovered that in all his activities the Three Poisons of greed,
hatred and anger essentially motivated him.
In this state of mental anguish, Shinran Shonin renounced the life
on Mt. Hiei. His descent form the mountain was the turning point in
his religious pursuit. Shortly thereafter, he met a kindly priest,
Honen shonin, who taught a single faith in Amida Buddha and the
recitation of the Nembutsu as the very way of religious
fulfillment. Honen shonin brought Shinran Shonin face-to-face with
Amida Buddhas infinity Wisdom and Compassion. For the first time in
his life Shinran Shonin found inner peace in the faith that Amida
Buddha was primarily concerned with such as person as him. The
Buddhist life he realized he could be lived by the man in the
street without confinement to a monastery. The gate of lifes
meaning was now open to all and thousands of people flocked to hear
and accept the hopeful message of the Nembutsu.
The powerful monastic orders, however, feared a weakening of their
long established tradition and prestige and convinced the Imperial
Court to banish Honen shonin and Shinran Shonin, but the spiritual
energy of the Nembutsu had been unleashed. The teaching soon
gathered momentum as it spread from person to person and from
village to village. Especially, during his years in exile, Shinran
Shonin personally met with countless persons to awaken their faith
in Amida Buddha.
Shinran Shonin finally settled in Inada and there completed the
first draft of the Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment in
1224.
In 1232 when he was fifty-nine, he retired to Kyoto. During the
intervening years until his death, he wrote many books, which are
read and studied even today. He died on 16th January 1263 (28th day
of 11th month, 2nd year of Kocho).
Works of Shinran Shonin
(1) The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land
Way (Ken Jodo Shinjitsu Kyogyosho Monrui)
(2) Hymns of the Pure Land (Jodo Wasan)
(3) Hymns of the Pure Land Masters (Koso Wasan)
(4) Hymns of the Dharma Ages (Shozomatsu Wasan)
(5) Passages on the Pure Land Way (Jodo Monrui Jusho)
(6) Notes on the Inscriptions On Sacred Scrolls (Songo Shunzo
Meimon)
(7) Notes on Essentials of Faith Alone (Yuishinsho Mon-i)
(
Notes on Once Calling and Many Calling (Ichinen Tanen
Mon-i)
(9) Gutoku's Notes (Gutoku Sho)
(10) Gatha on the Two Gates of Entering and Leaving (Nyushutsu
Nimonge)
(11) Passanges from the Three Sutras on Birth in the Pure Land
(Jodo Sangyo Ojon Mon-rui)
(12) Notes on the Two Kinds of Merit Transference (Nyorai Nishu
Ekomon)
(13) The Virtue of the Name of Amida Tathagata (Mida Nyorai Myogo
Toku)
(14) On the Forty-eight Vows (Shiju-hachi Daigan)
(15) A Torchlight to the Latter Age (Mattosho)
(16) Letters of Shinran (Goshosokushu)
(17) Sayings of Zendo (Zendo Kasho Gon)
(1 Notes Lamenting Differences (Tannisho) - A collection
of Shinran's Teaching by Yuien