At this point, having placed Shinran within the evolution of Buddhist
history, we must take a critical look at contemporary Japanese Buddhism
and see that the full impact of Shinran's spiritual reorientation of
Buddhism 800 years ago has not been fully realized because of the
limitations imposed upon it by the character of Buddhist history since
the Kamakura period. It may appear strange here to refer to contemporary
Japanese Buddhism as a problem, but despite its profound ideals and
spiritual perspectives, as well as the history of numerous saints and
sages who have contributed to the ongoing realization of wisdom and
compassion and the renewal of tradition, 20th century Buddhism finds
itself carrying the baggage of its history and evolution in Chinese and
Japanese society. This facet must be appreciated if we are to assess
adequately the potential of Buddhism and contemporary Buddhist
institutions to cope with modern problems.
In our view of Shinshu in the modern world, we must distinguish
between Buddhism as a spiritual force and perspective, and Buddhism as a
social institution which has been susceptible to all the ills of human
institutions anywhere. Also, in analyzing the situation of Buddhism in
Japan today, we must emphasize that there is no defect in Buddhism that
is not also suffered by other religious traditions. Our criticism is not
directed merely at Buddhism. Similar questions on its limitations have
been raised by many critical Japanese scholars who approach the issue of
whether Buddhism can contribute to the formation of a modern Japan.
Demands for the modernization of Buddhism parallel demands in western
nations for the modernization of Christian traditions.
Buddhism was not originally a system-maintenance religion or
philosophy. It was designed to break through the egoisms and
complacencies which people develop as they pursue their lives and
fulfill their desires. However, in the course of time, when Buddhism
spread through Asia, it commended itself to kings and rulers as
beneficial to the state in pacifying society and bringing divine
benefits and security to society. Buddhism provided various forms of
legitimization for rulers as Bodhisattva Kings, thus strengthening their
political power. In addition, not only did Buddhism offer benefits to
the state, but it was tolerant of native religions and accommodated the
demands of local tradition. While Buddhism was not initially a religion
of funerals and ancestor reverence, it developed this emphasis in China
as a means to disprove the Confucian criticisms that Buddhism was
nonfilial in advocating monastic and celibate life which involved the
leaving of home and withdrawing from society.
We want to review this aspect of Buddhism in Japan, not as a means to
criticize Buddhism, but to put it into perspective. In our previous
chapters we have emphasized the critical, and perhaps radical, element
in Buddhism, as well as its universal, compassionate ideals. If we are
to recapture these qualities of Buddhism in the contemporary era, we
must observe and understand how they have been transmitted to us today.
Buddhist history is mixed. There are individuals, like Dosho and Gyogi,
Kuya and Ryonin in Japan, who have practiced Buddhist ideals and stand
as beacon lights for all to see and appreciate. These men devoted
themselves to the fulfillment of Buddhist ideals among the masses. They
performed social service work, or brought salvation to the masses. On
the other hand, there is the official Buddhist institution which
maintained the traditions, and provided places of practice and
cultivation. We cannot say that Buddhist ideals were absent during all
this history. However, they were placed in such a context that their
full impact could not be realized.
When Buddhism came to Japan, it had to confront Japanese religious
understanding. The Japanese generally viewed religion as a means, a tool
for gaining health, wealth and security in this world and ensuring that
evil spirits and angry deities would not endanger one's life. There are
two areas in which this outlook appears. One is the general pursuit of
benefit from religion on the individual level, from royalty down to the
lowest citizen. The second is the larger national interest in which
Buddhism promises tranquility to the state and the benefits of security
in the maintenance of life through promoting Buddhism. An excellent
illustration of this is the Nihongi, The Chronicles of Japan. In 552,
the king of Paekche in Korea sent an image of Buddha to Japan. In his
commendation, the emphasis was on the benefits to be received from
acceptance of Buddhism:
"This doctrine is amongst all doctrines the most excellent. But
it is hard to explain and hard to comprehend. Even the duke of Chow and
Confucius had not attained to a knowledge of it. This doctrine can
create religious merit and retribution without measure and without
bounds, and so lead on to a full appreciation of the highest wisdom.
Imagine a man in possession of treasures to his heart's content, so that
he might satisfy all his wishes in proportion as he used them. Thus it
is with the treasure of this wonderful doctrine. Every prayer is
fulfilled and naught is wanting. Moreover, from distant India it has
extended hither to the three Han, where there are none who do not
receive it with reverence as it is preached to them." [1]
After initial conflict with the native religious representatives and
counterattacks of plagues, Buddhism became established in Japan. It was
not until the time of Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku that Buddhism was
specifically supported and cultivated by the court itself. Prince
Shotoku, particularly, appears to have been sensitive to its deeper
ideals in his famous Seventeen Point Constitution, where he considered
Buddhism as the foundation for the welfare of the country spiritually
and morally. In the spirit of Vimalakirti, Prince Shotoku lectured on
the "Vimalakirti Sutra" and the Queen Srimala Sutra, in order to explore
the meaning of Buddhism for his time. Both Sutras exalt laypeople as
capable þ even more than monks þ in understanding Buddhism. His
Empress, Suiko, took as her model Queen Srimala of ancient India.
Nevertheless, despite this early adoption and enlightened practice of
the teachings, Buddhism was mainly used to deal with problems of illness
and natural disasters as drought or flood. For example, in an instance
when Shinto practices failed to bring rain, Buddhism was employed. The
minister Soga then declared:
"The Mahayana Sutra ought to be read by way of extract in the
temples, our sins repented of, as Buddha teaches, and thus with humility
rain should be prayed for." [2]
Images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and the heavenly kings were thus set
up. A sutra was intoned with incense, but even these efforts were of no
avail. However, the minister appealed to another deity, and it finally
rained. Later, when Emperor Temmu was ill, the "Yakushi Sutra" was
chanted. Under Emperor Temmu also, when the Empress was ill, he began to
construct Yakushiji and had 100 persons enter religion to become
priests. Consequently, or so we are told, it was assumed the Empress got
well. (A detailed record of countless such activities is in M.W.
DeVisser's encyclopedic work, "Ancient Buddhism in Japan.")
While there were occasional lectures on important sutras sponsored in
the court, the major employment of such texts was to be read or chanted
in connection with some need. It is interesting to note that the Chinese
sutras were not translated into Japanese because they were not intended
to be understood by the general run of people but only by the skilled
clergy. In view of the way individuals were drafted into the religious
life, probably not many of them could understand the content of the
text. Voluntarism was not characteristic of the early Buddhist orders in
Japan. Widows, orphans, those fallen from political favor, those
directed to become monks to achieve some state desire, were the
population of monasteries that were also, however, centers of learning,
literature, and often political intrigue for almost a thousand years of
Buddhist history in Japan.
The pattern of Buddhism's accommodation to folk beliefs is a dominant
thread in that history, based on the ancient assumption that belief in
Buddhism would yield worldly benefits which has remained to the present
day. Indeed, for the masses, this is often the chief value of Buddhism,
and some temples have these practices as their chief source of revenue.
The use of Buddhism as a source of magical protection for the state
as a whole is based on a number of Mahayana sutras such as the "Ninnogyo,"
"Konkomyo-saisho-o-kyo," "Hokkekyo" (Lotus Sutra), which promise security
for the state in return for governmental support for Buddhism. This
protection was taken quite seriously in ancient Japan and considerable
wealth was lavished on Buddhism, as is indicated in the great monastic
establishments and temples, and in the massing of large land holdings by
the temples. Such an interest was the formation of the Provincial temple
system under Emperor Shomu, centered in the famous Todaiji of Nara. A
grand system of temples, one in each province with a monastery and
nunnery attached, together with the nation-protecting sutras, was set
up. This system became a symbol for the unification and harmony of the
country, which finally had been achieved by the Imperial Clan.
In the
Kamakura period, Eisai, (1141-1215) who introduced Rinzai Zen Buddhism,
attempted to gain official approval for establishing his sect by
advocating the benefit of Buddhism for the state. He wrote "Kozengokokuron." This means that the state is protected through the
flourishing of Zen. Nichiren, in his own way, argued the same point in
"Risshoankokuron." He held that tranquility could be established in the
country only by the support of the truth, which in his case meant the
Lotus Sutra. In each case, Buddhism was to serve the national interest.
It is remarkable that Shinran, in the volume on the "Transformed
Buddha and Transformed Land" of the "Kyogyoshinsho" rejects heathen
practices which involve magic. He quotes the "Hanjuzammaikyo" (Sutra for
Meditation on Amida Buddha.):
"If, O Upasaka, you hear of this Samadhi and want to attain it
... you should take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the Dharma, and
take refuge in the Sangha. You should not follow other paths, should not
worship gods in heaven, should not enshrine spirits, and should not
weigh lucky and unlucky days." [3]
He sees magical religion as evidence of the decadent age:
"Woe the while! Priests and laymen both Good times, good days
seek, worshipping The gods of heaven and earth all, To superstitions all
sticking." [4]
The general tendency of the absolute reliance on faith
in Amida Buddha that marked Shinran's thought undercut the folk religion
base of Buddhism. Not only Shinran's movement, but Pure Land in general
was accused by traditional Buddhist organizations with being subversive,
because of their ridicule or rejection of the gods. In one of his many
extant letters, Shinran tried to meet this problem by urging his
followers not to belittle other Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and tutelary gods,
since they helped us in our karmic past when we were practicing
according to the self power. Shinran's reliance was completely and
exclusively on the Other Power of Amida Buddha.
By implication, in Shinran's teachings and writings, once faith is
attained in Amida, there need be no dependence or concern with other
spiritual forces. Although there are passages in which Shinran appears
to promise certain worldly benefits from faith in Amida, it could be
argued that despite the contradiction of such passages to the structure
of his philosophy, it may have been necessary because of the radical
tendency of his disciples.
Later, Shinran's descendent Rennyo, the eighth Abbot, picked up this
theme and asserted that singleminded, total faith in Amida made reliance
on other Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and gods unnecessary. Although Shin has
thus been freer of the folk religion element, it could not remain
totally outside the pattern. As an example from my own experience, in a
temple I once visited in the western area of Japan, the priest was
preparing for a ceremony. When we inquired into its purpose, he
indicated it was a Niwatori Hoyo, a ceremony to pacify the spirits of
chickens because that area was a chicken-producing region. The people
were anxious about this and periodically would hold such a service. Such
rituals appear quite contradictory to the teachings of Shinran who
claimed he did not say Nembutsu even once for his parents.
The accommodation of Buddhism to Japanese social and religious
sentiments has been quite natural, though meanwhile diverting the masses
from a real understanding of Buddhism. In evaluating the problems of
contemporary Japanese Buddhism, however, a major consideration which has
affected all religions in Japan is the government control of religion
which has been present from earliest ages to the end of the second World
War. Since religion serves society in coping with the unseen forces of
the cosmos, it is viewed by the Japanese as an area of government
responsibility. The centrality and absolute acceptance of the Emperor of
Japan as divine strengthened this relationship and within the government
there was the Bureau of Rites and Shinto which handled religious
affairs.
When Buddhism was introduced, it was first sponsored by various
aristocrats and royalty, but with its growth, it too had to be organized
and responsible to the government. The government determined the
positions within the Buddhist institutions and made the rules of
conduct. The concept of Buddhist ordination platforms in Japan was
related to the governmental sanctioning of priests. No ordinations were
permitted outside the official framework. Since the religion existed for
the sake of the state, monks were not permitted to preach to the common
people. Gyogi Bosatsu, a monk who disobeyed this, was banished for his
work among the people though his popularity caused the government to
bring him back to raise money to construct Todaiji in Nara. In the Taika
reform of 645 and later Soniryo, or laws pertaining to monks and nuns,
the activities of the clergy were restricted. In order to begin a new
group, one had to seek official approval, usually in face of an
opposition from existing bodies. Saicho had difficulty getting an
authorized ordination platform on Mount Hiei, though both he and the
government were interested in reform.
In the Kamakura period, Eisai was opposed by the establishment on
Mount Hiei. This led to his writing the previously mentioned text on the
benefit of Zen to the nation. Zen, however, developed in Kamakura, the
capital, because the warriors were more sympathetic to it than were the
aristocrats of Kyoto. The Pure Land exponents such as Honen and Shinran
and their followers suffered constant restriction and harassment because
of the charge by the Kofukuji in Nara that they were subversive to
public order. All of this internal opposition to either reform or
renewal resulted from the zealous defensiveness of the Buddhist
establishment. Since Heian times, the religious orders of Hiei and Nara
had developed great economic and political power. In their turn, as they
too developed, the new Kamakura movements followed the same path.
Uniting with the lower classes of peasants and samurai, they were
frequently involved in the peasant revolts protesting the oppressions of
the lords of the land and the various Shoguns. Beginning with Oda
Nobunaga onward and culminating in the Tokugawa feudal structure,
intermittent deliberate efforts were made to restrain and control
Buddhist orders because of their political activity.
The most thorough-going and successful effort to do this was carried
out by the Tokugawa (1600-1868). While many people are apt to view this
period of 250 years of domestic harmony and peace as a great
achievement, it was virtually a spiritual disaster for Buddhism which,
though appearing to be favored and treated as the Tokugawa's state
religion, was spiritually emasculated through that regime's careful
policies of restraint.
It should be observed that although earlier ages tried to limit
Buddhism's social potential, the leaders believed in Buddhism.
Internally, in the Buddhist orders, corruption did appear from time to
time. A change in the government attitudes occurred in the Tokugawa
period of Japan's history when the political leaders no longer believed
in Buddhism, but saw it as a useful tool and thus preserved it in an
emasculated way as a state religion. The basis for this emanated from
the dominant Neo-Confucian philosophy of Chu-hsi or Wang Yang-ming.
Confucians in China had always despised Buddhism and sought to undermine
it. Following the T'ang, which had greatly favored Buddhism, the Sung
era favored Neo-Confucianism which was particularly anti-Buddhist. These
Neo-Confucianist, anti-Buddhist tendencies were in turn transmitted to
Japan.
During the Tokugawa period, the revival of interest in Shinto, and
the movement to purge Japan of foreign elements, contributed to the
criticism of Buddhism. Since, however, Buddhism was a religion of the
masses, even anti-Buddhist leaders saw that it could be used to
consolidate and strengthen the hold of the government on the people. The
basis for this effort becomes visible in a code of laws enacted between
1610-25. The nature of the laws was to give greater control to head
temples (honzans) over the subordinate temples. Consequently, the
government could control the whole temple network through the honzans.
There was much emphasis placed on Buddhist learning and scholarship,
some of which may have been sincere on the part of the government.
However, since the priests were not permitted to teach the people, this
Tokugawa code of laws caused Buddhism to turn inward, and to refine or
elaborate great systems of doctrine which the common man could not
understand. Not only were the priests prevented from being involved in
social affairs, but the gap between the religious understanding of
priests and laymen widened, a particular paradox in the case of Honganji,
the followers of Shinran -- the teacher who had described himself as
neither priest nor layman and who had shared his teaching and insight on
a common level with the peasants of the Kanto area.
Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan became a mystery to the laymen, perceived
only in terms of required rituals and celebrations, divorced from the
flow of true and real life. Even today there is a considerable gap in
understanding between the laymen and the priests in contemporary Japan.
Buddhism is often largely considered a ceremonial cult, where ideology
plays no real part. This is in considerable contrast to the situation of
the Kamakura Buddhists, like Shinran himself, who entered the faith
through personal awareness and decision. During the Kamakura period, the
many letters addressed by the teachers to laymen, and the discussions in
those letters, show that the followers could grasp the doctrine and
raise questions. Thus, there was a strong ideological character to
Kamakura Buddhism, which later times reduced to sentimentality, and an
emotional buttress to the prevailing moral system of Confucianism.
Most outstanding among the developments of the Tokugawa period was
the formation of the parish system. Generally, the rules required that
with limited personal choice of doctrine, families had to register with
temples in their immediate home vicinity. All temples were to keep a
register, noting births, deaths, etc. of the parishioners. There were
even times when it was required to attend the temple, and failure to do
so opened the disobedient person to civil punishment. The Buddhist
temple in each neighborhood and village, by observing the movements of
its members, virtually became a secret police. One can imagine the
problem of maintaining the spirit of faith in the midst of such threats
and political imposition. If faith is not voluntary, can there be real
faith? If there is no faith, can there be true Buddhism?
After several centuries of compliance, however, the Buddhist orders
were completely acclimated to the demands of Japan's feudal society and
began to accept this system as the natural Buddhist way. It is also
evident during this period that the intellectual and critical
perspective of Buddhism had been rendered ineffectual for the larger
society. It is generally assumed, even today, that Buddhism has no
interest in doctrines but relies on intuition and sentiment. In itself,
Buddhism is assumed to have nothing to say on social affairs. The
Tokugawa system produced a Buddhist situation in which intuition and
sentiment are only reactive. They lead to passivity and can be
manipulated. Among the masses the knowledge of doctrine in depth becomes
rare, and a combination of sentiment, communal and family bonds
supported adherence to Buddhism. Custom and duty have been the major
motives for participation or relation to Buddhism in Japan, and the
myokonin, the person who, though uneducated, is faithful in a
sentimental way, became the ideal. In the modern period, this situation
did not greatly change. The Meiji-Showa periods were dominated by
nationalist interest, and despite formal freedom of religion, the
traditional political control of religion was maintained.
As Japanese Buddhism (strait-jacketed, repressed, codified, and
sentimentalized) entered into modern times, it faced a complex
situation. In the Meiji Era, the government decreed the separation of
Buddhism and Shinto religions with the aim of employing Shinto as the
basis of national ideology. With the disestablishment of Buddhism there
was an emotional reaction, resulting in the destruction of many temples
and art treasures. The movement to "destroy Buddha and cut down
Sakyamuni" failed because Buddhism had deep roots in the minds and
hearts of the people. However, because of this negative reaction to
Buddhism, Japanese Buddhists attempted to show that, though Buddhism was
a foreign religion originally, Buddhists could serve the interests of
the developing modern Japanese nation.
Hence, the first propagandists for the new regime of imperial
absolutism were Buddhists. In time, Buddhists recognized that Buddhism
itself was being undermined by the excessive nationalist emphasis, and
they withdrew from the propaganda role. When, finally, religious freedom
was instituted, Buddhists found themselves faced with competition with
Christianity and its highly organized and aggressive missions. In the
wave of westernization that swept Japan in the twentieth century, there
were many who looked admiringly on Christianity, which they saw as the
spiritual basis for the social and scientific development of the west.
In these critical years of the twentieth century, Japanese Buddhists
made great strides in meeting these threats through developing their own
denominational schools, and upgrading Buddhist scholarship. However, the
growing nationalism that preceded World War II subjected Buddhism, as
well as other religions in Japan, to strict government control. All
major denominations supported the government in the efforts which
eventually led to the entrance of Japan into war in 1937 with the China
incident.
It was not until 1945 that Buddhism in Japan could be freed from its
entangling dependencies on the state, and its subjection to some form of
government control. True religious freedom, in which religion could
appeal and act on the basis of the merit of its own teachings and mode
of spirituality, as well as relate creatively and critically to society
for the improvement of social conditions, is a very recent development
in Japan, and in Buddhism in Japan.
The problem in the post-war period was to recover from the shock of
disaster and defeat, to discover how Buddhism might be freed from the
legacy of political subserviency and magical interests and perspectives.
There is a paradox here. Since the wealth of the temples depends on the
services of healing, the sales of amulets, funerals and memorials,
reforms become difficult. The structures of organization of main temples
(honzan) and subsidiary temples, arranged along the earlier feudalistic
lines of the Tokugawa, have hardened into a tradition to such a degree
that change sometimes assumes the character of heresy.
As a result of such conditions forced upon Buddhism through history,
many Japanese have turned away from the tradition and entered New
Religions, where there appears to them to be more vitality and a sense
of meaning. Buddhism in the past was wedded to the family system which,
as in the west, is now breaking down as Japan becomes more urbanized and
industrialized. Japanese who seek more fulfilling relations outside the
family and village have often turned to the newer emerging movements. I
believe it is significant that there has been no new dynamic movement
emerging from Shinshu capable of capturing popular imagination as has
developed out of the Nichiren tradition in contemporary Japan. This is
striking in view of the enormous popularity of Shin tradition in earlier
ages, and the way in which Shinran was able to relate in a very deep and
real way to the needs of people everywhere.
In the view of Prof. Futaba, who has written often on the
relations of Buddhism, the state and folk religion in various periods in
Japanese history, Kamakura was the only period during which the major
portions of Buddhism were completely autonomous. This upsurge of
spirituality was eventually itself reabsorbed into the general pattern
of Japanese religion, a phenomenon called "submerged
transcendence" by Dr. Robert Bellah, who defines this as the
subordination of the spiritual dimension to social and cultural norms.
In "Silence," a story by Shusaku Endo, this tendency is illustrated.
The Endo story deals with Christianity but applies to other religions of
Japan equally well. In the story, an official describes Japan as a swamp
in which anything that enters will degenerate and lose its essence. The
thesis is, that all religions, however spiritual and ideal, have to
conform to Japanese sensibilities in religion before they can be
accepted, and in this conforming acceptance they become emasculated.
The
film "Human Revolution," earlier produced by Nichiren Shoshu, also dealt
with this tendency. Originally Nichiren Shoshu split off from other
Nichirenists because they compromised by going to Shinto shrines.
Centuries later, such behavior by Nichirenists including Nichiren Shoshu
members had become a matter of indifference. Some members went to the
shrines and others did not. However, in the film Mr. Makiguchi, the
founder of Soka Gakkai, refuses to compromise, and as a result, goes to
jail for lese majeste. Here was a sect that had lost sight of its
original principle. Later, in jail, Toda Josei, Makiguchi's assistant,
refused to recant. The official could not understand his action since,
for him, Buddhism was always a religion of compromise and adaptation. He
was, therefore, surprised to find strong conviction and commitment in a
Buddhist as a Buddhist.
Seen through the perspective of Buddhist history in Japan, and the
impact of Japanese history on Buddhism, the problem of contemporary
Japanese Buddhists becomes clear. It is to discover the basis of
personal commitment in the teachings of the pioneers of Kamakura and to
cut through the entangling web of tradition and subordination imposed by
the Japanese religious perspective. In particular, this is the problem
of contemporary Shin Buddhists and the dynamism of Shinshu as it evolves
in its true light; a viable existentially meaningful spiritual reality
for modern man. The problem is not confined to Japan and Japanese
Buddhists.
Shin Buddhism outside Japan has encountered a similar trauma
of dogmatism, sentimentality, and dependence on a tradition that was so
outwardly altered by centuries of political accommodation that the
inward strength and vitality of Shinran's teaching has been largely
obscured. The history of Shinshu in America is comparatively recent,
only during the past ninety-odd years of Japanese immigration, but it is
a history complicated by the problems inherited from the formalism of
the tradition brought to America by Shin Buddhist immigrants.
