The second aspect of our consideration of the Mahayana background of
Shinran's teaching is what I call the Logic of Compassion. Although we
cannot go into great detail, I hope to indicate in this discussion that
Shinran stands clearly within the constant effort of Mahayana Buddhism
to plumb the depths of Buddha's compassion, and to constantly widen its
embrace. Through the ages, sensitive, perceptive and courageous persons
perceived new angles and implications in Buddhist teaching by which they
expanded the horizons of Mahayana. In such a fashion, as a result of his
own religious experience, Shinran carried the Mahayana tradition to its
deepest understanding of religious existence. Though he differs at
points with the tradition, he carries forward its most profound
intention. This is of the most significance in our comprehension of
Shinshu. However, in order to make clear this evolution, we must take a
broad view of the development of Indian and Buddhist religious
tradition.
Buddhism began against the background of the emergence of Upanishadic
mysticism in ancient India, roughly during the period 800-600 B.C.E. This ancient mysticism was a spiritual protest against the
religion of the Vedas, which was aristocratic, and based on sacrifice
and magic. It was ancient sacrificial religion catering to an economic
elite and imposing an aristocratic and priestly dominance on all of the
people in every caste. However, Upanishadic mysticism undermined this
Vedic social arrangement by relegating sacrifices to a secondary
position, after the cultivation of the spirit to achieve Union with
Brahman, their name for the Absolute, the central force of meaning and
power in the Universe. The later rejection of this sacrificial system
gave rise to a doctrine of non-injury or Ahimsa which later became a
central idea in Hindu and, still later, in Buddhist tradition. The
mystical tradition in India took various forms, and there were numerous
teachers. In his own time, an age of great search and experimentation,
Gautama Buddha studied under several teachers, and he himself eventually
became a teacher in the same pattern as those others. He never regarded
himself as the founder of a new tradition, but simply as a teacher of
reform and radical new insights in the tradition into which he was born.
Upanishadic mysticism protested the elitism of the aristocratic
classes in achieving spiritual goals, but then fell into an elitism of
the spiritual and intellectually competent. So, too, did Buddhism as time
passed. Although the Upanishadic approach to religion was universal, it
was the universality of competency. It was a selective universality,
universal in time and place, but not universal for all kinds of people.
A similar pattern befell Buddhism, which in some schools taught a system
of five species of people, among whom were certain types who could not
become Buddhas. This aristocratic and individualistic tendency of early
Buddhism can be observed in the "The Dhammapada," from the
following verses:
"By one's self the evil is done, by one's self one suffers; by
one's self evil is left undone; by one's self one is purified. The pure
and the impure stand and fall by themselves; no one can purify
another." [1]
Dr. Suzuki has written concerning Buddha's parting words, where he
urges his disciples to be their own lamps and refuges:
"'Self power means 'to be a lamp to yourself,' it is the spirit
of self reliance and aims at achieving one's own salvation or
enlightenment by the practice of the Eightfold Noble Path or Six Virtues
of Perfection. If this is impossible in one life, the devotee of self
power will not relax his efforts through many lives as was exemplified
by the Buddha who underwent many a rebirth in order to perfect himself
for his supreme enlightenment. Recruits for the self-power school must
therefore be endowed with a strong will and high degree of intelligence.
Without intelligence he will not be able to grasp the full significance
of the Fourfold Noble Truth, and an intelligent grasp of this truth is
necessary for the sustained exercise of the will-power, which is
essential for the performance of the various items of morality as
prescribed by the Buddha." [2]
This aristocratic, elitist tradition has remained intact in general
Buddhism to the present day. However, within that tradition, from its
beginnings, there were compassionate persons who must have wondered what
hope the masses of people could have, if they did not possess the
economic, intellectual, spiritual or moral capacities to fulfill the
requirements of ancient religion. Such compassion found its clearest
expression in the Bhagavad Gita and, later, the sutras of Mahayana
Buddhism developed within a long social process during which the
hardening of class and caste distinctions made mobility in Indian
society virtually impossible. Traditional occupations such as hunting,
butchering, tanning and the warrior role were defined as sinful because
they involved the taking of life.
In Mahayana Buddhism, in such an environment of social rigidity,
numerous features developed which reflect a trend to absolute
universality of enlightenment and liberation. The Mahayana concepts of
Universal Buddha nature, great Bodhisattvas, transfer of merit, hoben (upaya)
and the salvation of evil people and women all pointed to the promise of
salvation and enlightenment even for the lowliest, most incompetent
persons. The "Lotus Sutra" is perhaps the chief text indicating these
teachings.
The trend to complete universality of salvation may be observed in
the story of Bodhisattva Dharmakara in the "Larger Pure Land Sutra." The
vows he offered all promise that unless all beings can share in his
attainment of enlightenment, he will not accept it for himself alone.
The practical means for sharing the benefits of the works of
salvation was the transfer of merit, a unique teaching in Mahayana. Dr.
Suzuki writes:
"The doctrine of merit-transference is really one of the
significant features of Mahayana Buddhism and its development marks the
start of a new era in the history of Buddhist philosophy. Before this,
the accumulation of merit or the practice of good deeds was something
which exclusively concerned the individual himself; the doer was
responsible for all that he did, good or bad; as long as he was
satisfied with the karma of his work, to enjoy happiness or to suffer
disaster was his own business and nothing further was to be said or done
about it. But now we have come to deal with a different state of
affairs. We are no more by ourselves alone, each is not living just for
himself, everything is so intimately related that anything done by
anybody is sure to affect others in one way or another. The
individualistic Hinayana has now become the communistic Mahayana. This
was really a great turning point in the evolution of Buddhist
thought." [3]
We will note later that Shinran initiated a further step in the
evolution of Mahayana compassion when he carried this doctrine a step
further and limited merit transference only to the work of Amida Buddha.
The concept of upaya, or hoben, commonly called Convenient Means, or
Tactful Means, is another very central doctrine in Mahayana Buddhism and
its educational theory. The gist of this teaching is that the message of
Buddha is correlated to the level and capacity of the hearer and aims to
lead the person to enlightenment. As an educational concept, it reflects
the deep compassion of those Mahayana Buddhists who wished to bring the
message within every person's reach. While the bases of universal
salvation were present in early Mahayana, they were mixed with themes of
self-realization and self-discipline which later were designated as
"self-power." These included such practices as precepts,
meditation, copying sutras, making images, building stupas and
sponsoring ceremonies. The great cave temples of India and China show
how ancient people devoted themselves to these efforts. From the most
liberating Shin Buddhist point of view, all of these could be described
as hoben, or upaya, as convenient or tactful means by which the message
of Amida's deep and non-discriminating, all embracing compassion, and of
universal salvation or enlightenment through that compassion and the
light of wisdom illuminating it, could be more readily received.
In China, the Pure Land tradition became the major exponent of
universal salvation for the masses, primarily through Tan-Luan (Donran),
Tao-ch'o (Doshaku) and Shan-tao (Zendo) in the period of North-South
dynasties and the Sui-T'ang dynasties. The teaching of Tao-sheng (Dosho)
-- that all beings possess Buddha nature -- finally became the central
thesis of Chinese Buddhism. It was in Japan, however, that the teaching
and spirit of Mahayana Universal salvation came to full clarity,
theoretically and socially. There were a number of streams by which this
teaching reached Japanese society. During the Heian (794-1185) and
Kamakura (1185-1332) eras, the teaching became more prominent. Kuya,
the priest of the market place, and Ryonin taught Yuzu Nembutsu during
Heian times. This teaching is interesting because it declared that we
all depend on each other for attaining enlightenment. This period was a
creative, rich period in Mahayana Buddhism, particularly in Japan where
priests like Genshin wrote Ojoyoshu advocating the recitation of
Nembutsu.
All the teachers of the Kamakura period appealed to the masses and
assured them that ultimately their salvation was to be realized. The
hallmark of this development in Japanese Buddhism was that no one was to
be excluded. In this spirit, Nichiren -- a contemporary of Honen and
Shinran, and himself the founder of the Nichiren sect -- is important
for his stress on the stories in the "Lotus Sutra" of Devadatta and the
Dragon girl as illustrative of Buddha's infinite compassion. According
to the Sutra, Devadatta, the symbol of the most evil person because of
his conspiracies against the Buddha, will finally attain Buddhahood. The
Dragon girl illustrates the power of faith. She was instantly
transformed to a Buddha when she believed the Buddha's teaching, despite
the limitations of her female nature. In ancient Buddhism, women were
barred from Buddhahood unless they went through many rebirths and were
born as men to follow the discipline.
Honen bears particular mention because in that same general period he
gave witness to the simplicity of his faith in his famous
"Testimony on One Sheet of Paper," stating:
"Those who believe this, though they clearly understand all the
teachings Shaka taught throughout his whole life, should behave
themselves like simple-minded folks, who do not know a single letter, or
like ignorant nuns or monks whose faith is implicitly simple." [4]
He also saw, as we have mentioned previously, that salvation had no
correlation to social position. He indicated this in an eloquent passage
in the "Senchakushu," his work setting forth the essentials of his
teaching. The passage is too lengthy to quote here, but it is one of the
most incisive, critical statements rejecting all forms of elitism. (See
Study Help.)
Shinran built on the foundations laid by his teacher, Honen. The
experience of Shinran in the northern and eastern provinces of Japan
during his time of exile and his later teaching career enabled him to
give deeper theological interpretation to the meaning of universal
compassion. As we shall see later, one of the most crucial features of
his teaching was the reinterpretation of the breadth and depth of Amida
Buddha's transfer of merit on behalf of sentient beings and the
implications which this view had for the nature of religious existence.
Because of Amida's compassion, our salvation is assured in faith and we
need not be concerned for our future destiny. Because of this, religious
practice becomes an expression of gratitude, and religion transforms to
concern for others rather than efforts for saving oneself. In practice,
in terms of the life strategies of modern men and women, this gives
existential meaning to religious practice, not as something divorced
from life itself but as integral meaning and focus for everyday living.
Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Shin Buddhism, embodies two trends
which are essential in contemporary religious life. By employing the
sword of wisdom, we continually raise questions concerning our
understanding and thought. We cut away illusion to illuminate our
perception of reality. We can never be content that we have solved all
problems and have a monopoly on wisdom. The sword cuts not once, but
again and again, deeper and deeper, helping us to see who and what we
really are. In our lives, in this world of dizzying pervasive and
expanding technology, of racial, social, economic and political
polarizations, the logic of compassion should continuously stimulate us
to see whether we achieve the broadest possible views of compassion.
Buddhist compassion is not elitist. It is all inclusive and
non-discriminating. We must analyze all our religious actions from the
standpoint of the logic of compassion. Unless truth and compassion --
the
basic essentials of faith -- are absolutely comprehensive, they are
neither the truth nor real compassion. Their development, in medieval
Japan as Buddhist responses to history, give us an insight into their
potential for relevance in the chaotic mappo times of our own day.
1. Which of the following does not illustrate the idea of complete
Universality of Salvation?
a) the transfer of merit b) universal Buddha nature c) exclusion of
evil people and women
2. The great teachers of the Kamakura period appealed to which of the
following groups?
a) the masses b) the elite c) the scholars
3. In ancient India, Upanishadic mysticism undermined the
aristocratic and priestly dominance of the religion of the Vedas by:
a) making the cultivation of the spirit to achieve union with Brahman
all important b) focusing on sacrifices and magic c) rejecting the
doctrine of Ahimsa or non-injury
4. Which of the following statements regarding early Buddhism is
TRUE? It:
a) was able to avoid the aristocratic tendency of the
Vedic religion b) like Upanishadic mysticism,
eventually fell into an elitism of the spiritually and intellectually
competent c) was completely universal in its approach
5. With the development of Mahayana Buddhism, enlightenment and
liberation became accessible to all. This trend is evident in the
Mahayana concepts of:
a) self-power and self-reliance b) social rigidity and immobility c) universal Buddha nature and the salvation of evil people
6. The trend to complete universality of salvation may be observed in
the story of Boddhisattva Dharmakara. He vowed that he would:
a) not accept enlightenment unless all beings could share in it b) become enlightened for himself
alone c) enlighten all beings first, then attain it himself
7. According to D.T. Suzuki, a great turning point in the evolution
of Buddhist thought was marked by the development of the concept of:
a) merit-transference b) non-violence c) individual salvation
8. The concept of upaya or hoben, commonly called tactful means, is a
central doctrine in Mahayana Buddhism because it:
a) limits the teachings to the priestly class b) brings the
teachings within every person's reach c) promotes the building of
stupas and ceremonial halls
9. The story of the Dragon girl in the Lotus Sutra illustrates:
a) the fact that women have to be reborn as men to achieve Buddhahood
b) that women are completely barred from Buddhahood c) the idea that
women can attain Buddhahood through faith
10. Honen also rejected elitism by teaching that:
a) salvation had no correlation to social position b) enlightenment
depended upon intelligence and social status c) evil people had no
chance of being saved
11. Shinran gave deeper theological interpretation to the meaning of
universal compassion by:
a) teaching that our salvation is assured through Amida's compassion
b) stressing the importance of self-effort c) denouncing the teachings
of Honen
