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The Contribution of Shinran Shonin
Shinran Shonin (1173-1263) was the founder of Shin Buddhism
in Japan. His life story is very relevant to Canadian Buddhists today. He was
born in Kyoto at a time of horrific wars among feudal landlords that left the
common people dead or exhausted, and unable to grow food on the war-ravaged land.
Shinran became an orphan early in life. He therefore entered a Buddhist monastery
on top of a mountain at the age of nine. For the next twenty years, he earnestly
pursued liberation from suffering, within his monastic path and community. However, at the
age of 29, he came to a period of intense spiritual anguish. After twenty years of monastic practice, he felt himself to be hopelessly far away from Enlightenment. In fact, the more he meditated, the more his mind raged with turbulent emotions. In utter desperation, he left his monastery on top of Mt. Hiei, and descended to be among the common people in the city of Kyoto. There, he made a vow to sit in the temple of his idol, Prince Shotoku (574-621), for 100 days. He entered the temple alone, sat down to meditate, and waited for Prince Shotoku's spirit to give him guidance. It happened that on the 95th day, Shinran had a vision in which the Prince spoke to him like a loving father and said, "I want you to get married. If you are willing to do so, I will take human form again in the world of samsara, and become your wife." With this profound and frightening dream, Shinran made his final decision to leave monastic life, and to join his revered teacher, Honen was a very senior monk and distinguished scholar on Mt. Hiei who, a few years earlier, had left monastic life too, in order to minister among the ordinary people of Kyoto.
Shinran studied for six years with Honen Shonin (1133-1212). They tried together to simplify the Buddhist teachings, so that ordinary people could understand them and be relieved of suffering. In time, however, the traditional monks on Mt. Hiei become jealous of Honen's popularity among the illiterate townspeople. Honen was soon exiled by the monks as a heretic, and sent to an isolated rural area. His main students, including Shinran, were also exiled. Shinran was sent to remote Echigo province in western Japan. He found himself there as "neither priest nor lay," living among tenant farmers and their families. He was far away from the refinements and intellectual companionship of Kyoto. Shinran soon chose his wife, a young woman by the name of Eshinni who was the daughter of a local land owner. Eshinni had probably spent several years in Kyoto earlier in her life. Shinran married her, and they lived happily for many years, raising six children together. Shinran and Eshinni worked as a team to bring the spiritual relief of the Nembutsu to their neighbours.
Shinran had been guided by his vision of Prince Shotoku to view his future wife as a female incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Eshinni also saw her partner, Shinran, as an incarnation of a great bodhisattva - the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Here we see a radical new type of Buddhist marriage, based on an equal partnership between two individuals who are both pursuing the bodhisattva path. We can imagine that Shinran and Eshinni helped each other daily, as they struggled with the care and responsibility of looking after many children, and the details of domestic life.
Shinran's teaching in the rural areas was not done in temples, but in his own home, and in the homes and village meeting places of his peasant friends. Shinran and Eshinni did not place themselves above their friends in spiritual achievement. "I have not a single disciple" was Shinran's revolutionary statement. By that he meant that he viewed his peasant neighbours as equal to himself in spiritual attainment.
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