Shinran Shonin
Shinran Shonin (1173-1263)
Shinran Shonin was born at Hino near Kyoto on May 21st, 1173. Shinran was the son of Arinori of the aristocratic Hino family, a branch of the powerful Fujiwara clan. He received ordination and entered monastic life, studying at the centre of Buddhist learning on Mt. Hiei at the Enryakuji Monastery. During this time, Japanese society was in transformation and upheaval changing from an imperial ruled society to a warrior clan society. Japanese Buddhism was also undergoing dynamic transformations as well.
Transformation
After twenty years of earnest study, Shinran became disillusioned by trends on Mt. Hiei, which not only catered to the wishes of the social and political authorities, but incorporated folk beliefs, losing sight of the essential spirit of Saicho, founder of the Enryakuji monastery. Another monk, Honen Shonin (1133 – 1212) had left Mt. Hiei earlier and started teaching a radical form of Japanese Buddhism which focused on simply reciting the nembutsu for salvation as all self generated efforts towards enlightenment were tainted by human limitations and thus meaningless.
When he was twenty-nine, Shinran undertook a long retreat at Rokkakudo temple in Kyoto to determine his future course. At dawn on the 95th day, Prince Shotoku appeared to him in a dream. Shinran took this as a sign that he should seek out Honen, and went to hear his teaching at Yoshimizu daily for a hundred days. Shinran Shonin joined Honen’s movement whose teaching enabled the ordinary person to lead a true Buddhistic life without shutting himself up in a monastery.
Exile
As Honen’s teaching found increasing numbers of followers, both Honen and Shinran became the target of harassment by older established schools of Japanese Buddhism. Finally, in 1207, Honen’s Nembutsu teaching was prohibited by Imperial Edict. Several followers were executed and Shinran Shonin was stripped of his priesthood, given a layman’s name, and exiled to Echigo (Niigata, on the Sea of Japan coast). About this time, he married Eshinni and began raising a family. He declared himself “neither monk nor layman.” The contrary situation of being prohibited from being a practicing monk and his continued desire to spread the Nembutsu teachings like a monk awoke his realization of being surrounded by Amida’s compassionate activity. He therefore chose for himself the name Gutoku, “foolish/shaven.”
Although both master Honen and Shinran were pardoned in 1211, Shinran chose to go to the Kanto region spreading the Nembutsu teaching among the peasants and lower samurai classes and finally settled at Inada in 1217. It was during his stay there that he drafted his major work, The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way (Kyo Gyo Shin Sho). This essay teaches the Nembutsu of Other Power and thereby forms the foundation for the Jodo Shinshu Tradition.
Final Years
Shinran spent twenty-five years of his life in the provincial countryside. In 1232 when he was 60, he decided to go back to Kyoto, arriving there in l235. While in Kyoto, he completed many original, rich and thought provoking written works and also translated Chinese scriptures into language that the masses could read. He remained there until his passing on January 16th, 1263.
Based on and adapted from: “Shinran Shonin” http://www.hongwanji.or.jp/english/shinranshonin.html