Orange County Buddhist Church

Shinran Shonin’s Early Life

     In January we observe the Memorial of Shinran Shonin, the founder of Shin Buddhism.  This memorial is called Ho-onko in Japanese.  It literally means “A gathering to repay one’s gratitude.”  In Japan at Shin Buddhist temples, it is the most important religious observance of the year.  In some cases, Ho-onko observances last several days, with guest speakers giving sermons morning, afternoon, and evening. 

     As we pay reverence again this year to the founder of Shin Buddhism, let me share the highlights of his early life. 

     Shinran (1173-1263), lived during a most difficult and chaotic time in Japanese history.  We feel that we have entered a chaotic and turbulent time with last year’s Sept. 11 tragedy, but Shinran too lived in a turbulent time of great suffering.  First, there was political instability, meaning rulers were changing, which must have meant that the common person lived in fear.  Second, it was a time of disease and famine.  Plagues could wipe out thousands of people.  I heard once that during this time period the Kamo River that flows through the city of Kyoto was once lined with the corpses of the dead from a plague. 

In addition to disease, there wasn’t enough food for the people that were living.  During Rennyo’s time, his family was so poor that sometimes he went two or three days without eating.  I can’t even skip lunch.

     People did not have the basic necessities of food, medicine, and a stable government to protect them, things that we all take for granted now.  In such an environment, Shinran was born into this world. 

     To add to his difficulties, he lost his parents at an early age.  Hongwanji history says that at the age of nine, Shinran had a deep desire to seek enlightenment.  What is perhaps more realistic is that he was orphaned at the age of nine.  In those days in many cases orphans were given to the temples to raise.  If there wasn’t enough food for even your own family, how could you take on an orphaned child?   Being orphaned at a monastery on Mt. Hiei, Shinran must’ve had the most difficult life as a child.  To begin with, life on Mt. Hiei in the monastic tradition was very strict, how much more so for the orphaned young monk.  At the very least, his childhood was not the fun and games that we have in growing up.

     During Shinran’s twenty years of monastic life on Mt. Hiei, he underwent many of the austere practices of the Tendai tradition that continue to this day.  One of the most amazing practices is called Sennichi Kaihogyo, which has been translated as the “Thousand day mountain marathon.”  It is an unbelievable practice that takes years to complete.  Kaihogyo involves hiking around the mountain area of Mt. Hiei, visiting various religious sites and chanting sutras.  This practice is done in one hundred day increments, over several years.  In total, a monk does this practice for a thousand days. 

     At the last stage of the Kaihogyo practice, the monk travels about fifty miles each day for one hundred days.  The monk has to start at about 2:00 in the morning, go around the mountain, then down into the city of Kyoto, and back up the mountain, all in one day.  He returns around evening time, sleeps for a few short hours, and begins again at 2:00 in the morning.  That is why this practice is called a “mountain marathon.” 

     During the thousand days and years of this practice, the monk is also required to do what to us seems like a suicidal practice.  This practice is called doiri.  For the doiri practice, a monk cannot eat, drink, or sleep --- for nine days.  During those nine days, the monk sits in a small temple in which he constantly chants sutras.  Once a day, the monk is required to go to a nearby well, take a cup of water, and bring it back to the temple for a water offering to the Buddha.  Although he is not allowed to drink, he must make this water offering daily. 

     Of course this practice would kill most of us, but because these monks are already hardened by their training, they are able to survive this difficult practice.  Centuries ago, the doiri practice was ten days long, but very few monks survived.  They then made it “easier” by shortening it to nine days.

     When I was in Japan I met two monks who completed the Kaihogyo and the doiri  practice.  One time some foreign students had a short weekend retreat on Mt. Hiei.  During our early morning meditation, the monk, Rev. Sakai was passing through the area we were at.  He had probably been hiking for several hours when we saw him, but he looked as though he were just out for a morning stroll.  To this day, a few monks are still practicing Kaihogyo and the arduous doiri practice.

     Shinran Shonin, however, despite his years of practice on Mt. Hiei, never found any kind of enlighten-ment through those practices.  Instead, he found himself more sunk in his own ego self.  After twenty years of such practices, he reached a brick wall, an impasse in his spiritual life. 

     It was at that time that Shinran met Honen Shonin.  Honen had left the orthodox Tendai tradition, and was teaching his own form of Buddhism, focusing on the Nembutsu.  Honen was becoming quite popular, but was receiving harsh criticism from the orthodox Buddhism.  Shinran must’ve heard about Honen from the other monks on Mt. Hiei.  But despite the negative things he must have heard about Honen from the Tendai monks, he probably was curious himself to meet Honen.  In his hours of desperation, he must’ve thought, “What could it hurt to meet Honen anyway?  I’m getting nowhere the way I’m going.  I have nothing to lose by meeting Honen.”

     Shinran is said to have had a dream that he should meet Honen.  Psychologically, he must have been thinking about Honen, wanting to meet this controversial new teacher of Buddhism.  There was risk of course.  Meeting Honen meant that he might be ostracized or even kicked out from the Tendai tradition.  But despite that, Shinran sought out Honen, and in doing so, changed the course of his life.

     When Shinran met Honen, he met the real teacher of his life.  Although there were many monks practicing on Mt. Hiei, perhaps there was no one like Honen, someone who embodied the teachings in his life. 

     Monastic Buddhism was supposed to be a retreat from the secular world.  It was supposed to be a world in which you renounced secular things, like your home, family, social status, drinking, and women.  However, the reality of monastic life on Mt. Hiei was no different from the secular world.  Monk were not keeping their vows of not drinking and celibacy.  Monks were trying to climb the political ladder of ranking within the monastic system.  In essence, Mt. Hiei was just as secularized as the secular world.  Shinran, I think, felt the hypocrisy within the monastic system and within himself as well. 

     Dr. Nobuo Haneda explains Shinran’s encounter with Honen to that of a garbage can.  Shinran was like a stinking garbage can, thinking only of himself.  Meeting Honen was like opening the lid to the garbage can and letting clean, fresh air inside.  Honen helped to open Shinran’s heart and mind to beyond his ego self, to the truth of the Nembutsu.

     To meet this breath of fresh air, to meet a true teacher of the Dharma was the pivotal turn in Shinran’s life. 

     Honen’s approach to Buddhism did not require a monastic life or difficult practices.  Honen was trying to bring a path of Buddhism to the common person.  Although he himself remained a celibate monk, he advised his followers to lead the life that enabled them to follow the Nembutsu.  Thus, to Shinran he must’ve said, “If it is easier for you to live a life of Nembutsu with a wife and family, then do so.”

     For Shinran this must’ve been a tremendous statement.  After twenty years of monastic Buddhism, after twenty years of feeling the hypocrisy of being a monk, yet feeling the emotions and passions of a human being, he was now being told he didn’t have to live that kind of life.  There was another path to Buddhahood, the path of the Nembutsu.

     With that Shinran became Honen’s disciple and devoted his life to listening to and propagating the Nembutsu. 

     When Shinran met Honen, Buddhism turned from being concepts and knowledge, to living teachings.  Passages from sutra were not just things to be chanted.  Now those same passages came alive.  In the Larger Sutra there is a passage in which Ananda praised the radiance of Shakyamuni Buddha.  Never before had Ananda seen such brightness, such radiance in the Buddha. 

     Shinran quotes this passage as a main part of his work, the Kyogyoshinsho.  For Shinran, the radiance of Shakyamuni Buddha that Ananda sees, is the same radiance that Shinran sees in his teacher Honen.  This radiant light outshines the sun and the moon.  It transcends time and space.  It is a bright and shining light of truth, of enlightenment.

Namuamidabutsu,
Rev. Marvin Harada