<!-- Unsourced image removed: thumb|right|Hōnen. -->

, also known as Genkū, was the founding figure of the , the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism.

Hōnen became a Tendai initiate at an early age, but grew disaffected and sought an approach to Buddhism that all people of all classes and genders could follow, even during the current Age of Dharma Decline. After reading Shandao's Commentary on the Amitāyus Contemplation Sūtra, Hōnen devoted himself to attaining birth in the pure land of Amitābha Buddha (Amida) through the practice of "recitation of the Buddha's name" (Jp: nembutsu) and to spreading this teaching among all people.

Hōnen gathered a wide array of followers and attracted numerous critics. He taught them all the simple practice of reciting "Namo Amida Butsu" while entrusting oneself to Amida's universal vow power. Hōnen's Pure Land teaching was very popular among laypersons, and was a major influence on the Buddhism of the Kamakura period. He was the first Japanese author to have his writings in Chinese and Japanese printed in the history of Japanese Buddhism.

After receiving many criticisms of Hōnen from various rival traditions and following an incident at court, Emperor Tsuchimikado exiled Hōnen and his followers in 1207. Hōnen was eventually pardoned and allowed to return to Kyoto, where he stayed for a short time before his death. Hōnen was a teacher to Shinran, the founder of Jōdo Shinshū, the other major Japanese Pure Land tradition. As such, he is also considered the Seventh Patriarch in the Shinshū tradition.

Biography

Early life

Hōnen was born to a prominent family in the city of Kume in Okayama, Mimasaka Province. His father was Uruma no Tokikuni, a province official who headed up policing in the area. According to legend, his mother is a descendant of the Hata clan. Hōnen was originally named Seishimaru after the bodhisattva Seishi (Sanskrit: Mahāsthāmaprāpta). In 1141 Hōnen's father was assassinated by Sada-akira, an official sent by Emperor Horikawa to govern the province. It is believed that Tokikuni's last words to his son were "Don't hate the enemy but become a monk and pray for me and for your deliverance."

Fulfilling his father's wishes, Hōnen was initiated into his uncle's monastery at the age of nine. From then on, Hōnen lived his life as a monk, and at thirteen, ordained to study at the primary Tendai temple in Mount Hiei near Kyoto. During this time, Hōnen was deeply affected by the contrast between the suffering of the common people and the lives of elite Buddhist monks and their ornate temples. He began to seek a path that would allow all people to liberation, not just the elites and the monks.

During this period, Hōnen is said to have studied the Chinese Buddhist canon five times.

A rising figure in the capital

Hōnen relocated to the district of Ōtani in Kyoto (the capital of Japan at the time), where he began to teach the simple recitation of the nembutsu to crowds of laymen and women, establishing a considerable following. Hōnen was a man of recognition in Kyoto, and many priests and nobleman allied with him and visited him for spiritual advice. The increasing popularity of his teachings drew criticism from noted contemporaries as Chikai, Myōe and Jōkei among others, who argued against Hōnen's sole reliance on nembutsu as a means of rebirth in a Pure Land. This led to a public debate (known as the Ohara Controversy) in 1186 between Hōnen and some monks representing other schools. Hōnen's popularity rose after this debate and he gained more followers.

In 1205 the temple of Kōfuku-ji, located in Nara, implored Emperor Go-Toba to sanction Hōnen and his followers. The temple provided the Emperor with nine charges alleging unappeasable differences with the so-called eight schools. Hōnen's detractors cited examples of his followers, such as Gyoku and Kōsai, who supposedly committed vandalism against Buddhist temples, intentionally broke the Buddhist precepts, or caused others to intentionally turn away from established Buddhist teachings.

Richard Bowring condenses these charges into two general forms. First is the nature of a single practice. Hōnen's emphasis on the single practice of nembutsu denied the usefulness of all other Buddhist practices. The sole emphasis on Amitābha was also coupled with discouraging the traditional worship of the kami. The second charge was that Hōnen placed the most lowly layperson on equal footing with the wisest monk, rendering the entire monastic establishment as useless.

In response, Hōnen and his followers agreed to sign the , which called for restraint in moral conduct and in interactions with other Buddhist sects, promising not to criticize or insult the teachings of other sects.

Exile and the final years

thumbnail|Honen's public preaching

The clamour surrounding Hōnen's teachings dissipated for a time until 1207, though the monks of other sects continued to critique his teaching. In this year, regent Kanezane died, and then Emperor Go-Toba implemented a ban against exclusive nembutsu. This ban was sparked by an incident where two of Hōnen's most prominent followers held a nembutsu retreat which was attended by various figures, including two court ladies. This is known as the of 1207. Hōnen is said to have responded:

While Hōnen and some key disciples were exiled to Tosa province, his movement in Kyoto remained strong. While in exile, Hōnen spread the teachings to the people he met - fishermen, prostitutes, and the peasantry. The emperor soon rescinded the exile however, though Hōnen only returned to Kyoto in 1211. In 1212, the following year, Hōnen died in Kyoto, but was able to compose the a few days before he died. On the latter point Hōnen expressed unusual concern over the spiritual welfare of women, regardless of social status. As a consequence the role of women in the Jōdo-shū sects has often been greater than in some other Japanese Buddhist traditions.

Hōnen is also known to have been skilled in attaining nembutsu samadhi and the visions that often comes with it. He is also said to have had various visions in dreams, including a well recorded vision of Shandao. His visions are recorded in a work called Sammai Hottoku Ki (A Record of Receiving Samadhic Revelation), recorded by Genchi.

  • The Collected Teachings of Kurodani-shōnin ("Eminent monk of Kurodani"): The Chinese Anthology (ten fascicles)
  • The Collected Teachings of Kurodani-shōnin: The Japanese Anthology (five fascicles)
  • The Supplement to the Collected Teachings of Kurodani-shōnin: The Chinese Anthology (one fascicle)
  • The Supplement to the Collected Teachings of Kurodani-shōnin: The Japanese Anthology (two fascicles)

There are also other works attributed to Hōnen that as not part of these traditional collections. Scholars debate the authenticity of these secondary works. One example is the Biography of Honen Shonin (Honen Shonin denki, also called Daigo-bon for short) discovered at Daigo-ji temple in 1917. This work contains numerous texts attributed to Hōnen which were written or directly transcribed by Hōnen's disciple Seikan-bo Genchi.

Teaching

thumb|A depiction of Hōnen's dream vision of master [[Shandao]]

The teachings of Hōnen are informed primarily by the Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, especially the work of key Chinese Pure Land masters like Tanluan, Daochuo, Shandao and Huaigan. Hōnen himself lists these figures as Pure Land patriarchs in his Jōdo goso den. Hōnen was also influenced by the Tendai school background in which he trained as a monk. The work of Genshin was also important for Hōnen, as he was a Japanese Tendai monk who focused on Pure Land practice.

Out of all of these, Shandao is clearly the central figure for Hōnen, who writes in his : "Shandao's Commentary on the Meditation Sutra is the guidebook to the Western Pure Land. It should be regarded as the eyes and feet of nembutsu devotees."

Relying on the Buddha's power

Hōnen’s teachings present a path designed not for religious elites but for ordinary individuals. His doctrine centers on attaining rebirth in the Pure Land through a personal connection with Amida Buddha and a reliance of his other-power (Jp: tariki). In contrast to the traditional Buddhist emphasis on achieving nirvana through individual effort or "self-power" (Jp: ), Hōnen focuses on reciting Amida’s name (nembutsu), a simple faith based practice that offers liberation to all types of people.

The basic premise behind Hōnen's teaching is an existential honesty and humility regarding our limitations to reach Buddhahood.

This attitude of reliance on other-power also serves to dissolve our attachments to our sense of self and its capacities. This is something which Hōnen believed was found in all those who practice the paths which rely on self-power and individual effort. Instead:

Other practices

Since the nembutsu is the chosen practice, the "Rightly Established Practice" (shojo no go), all other practices were seen by Hōnen as merely supportive or secondary. </blockquote>Because of his reliance on a single simple practice, Hōnen's teaching was widely criticized as "exclusive" and as neglecting basic Buddhist ethics and bodhicitta.

However, Hōnen still practiced meditative nembutsu, kept the bodhisattva precepts, shunned meat and alcohol, and continued to perform rituals, monastic ordinations and study texts. Ippen (1239–1289), another Pure Land reformer, took Hōnen’s teachings in a different direction, promoting ecstatic recitation and proselytizing through the Ji-shū movement. Even within other schools like Shingon, Kegon, Hosso and Tendai, Hōnen’s legacy and the popularity of the nembutsu contributed to ongoing debates about practice, faith, nembutsu and the Pure Land (often serving as a key opponent to define their orthodoxy). This reflects his enduring impact on Japanese Buddhism as a whole.

Hōnen’s influence can be seen in the ideas of numerous later figures of these traditions, including:

  • numerous monks of the Shinsei branch of Tendai, including Hōdō (who promoted recitative nembutsu),
  • the Kegon monk Gyōnen who wrote a history of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan focusing on Hōnen's lineage, the Jōdo Hōmon Genrushō.
  • The Shingon monks Jōhen and Dōhan who taught an esoteric form of nembutsu.

Hōnen's influence extended into secular culture as well, as can be seen from his appearance in numerous works of Japanese literature such as Tale of the Heike, Mirror of the East (Azuma kagami), and Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa).

Disciples

By 1204 Hōnen had a group of disciples numbering around 190.

  • Hōhombō Gyōkū, another proponent of ichinen-gi doctrine. Exiled to Sado in 1207.

In response these concerns, Hōnen clarified in various writings, including the Seven Point Pledge (Shichikajō seikai) he and his students signed together, that he did not reject morality and other Buddhist practices, even if his teaching entailed a focus on the nembutsu. Dōgen, the founder of Sōtō Zen, likewise criticized Hōnen's teaching as "completely wrong", claiming that repetition of the nembutsu was "worthless-like a frog in a spring field croaking night and day." Myōe's most forceful criticism was that Hōnen’s teaching abandoned the generation of bodhicitta (the mind aimed at awakening for the sake of all beings), which is the foundation of all Mahayana Buddhism. Myōe wrote that since Hōnen abandoned bodhicitta, he "was despicable, no better than a sentient rock, a priest who is no longer Buddhist, the devil’s messenger."

Notes

References

  • Atone Jōji & Hayashi Yōko : The Promise of Amida Buddha, Hōnen’s Path to Bliss (Kurodani Shōnin wagotōroku); Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2011.
  • Augustine, Morris J., Kondō, Tesshō, trans. (1997). "Senchaku hongan nembutsu shū": a collection of passages on the nembutsu chosen in the original vow compiled by Genkū (Hōnen), Berkeley, Calif.: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.
  • Blum, Mark L. (2002). The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism: A Study and Translation of Gyonen's Jodo Homon Genrusho. Oxford University Press. .
  • Coates, Harper Havelock & Ishizuka Ryūgaku: Hōnen, The Buddhist Saint, His Life and Teachings (by Shunjō); Kyoto, Chion’in, 1925 / New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1981.
  • Dobbins, James C. (1989). Jodo Shinshu: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan. Bloomington, Illinois: Indiana University Press. ; OCLC 470742039
  • Hônen : Le gué vers la Terre Pure, Senchaku-shû, traduit du sino-japonais, présenté et annoté par Jérôme Ducor. Collection "Trésors du bouddhisme". Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2005.
  • Jonathan Watts, Yoshiharu Tomatsu, Traversing the Pure Land Path: A Lifetime of Encounters with Honen Shonin, Jodo Shu Press, Tōkyō, 2005,
  • Jones, Charles B. (2021). Pure Land: History, Tradition, and Practice. Shambhala Publications. .
  • Jokai Asai (2001). Exclusion and Salvation in Honen's Thought: Salvation of Those Who Commit the Five Grave Offenses or Slander the Right Dharma, Pacific World Journal, Third Series, Number 3, 125-156. Archived from the original
  • Takahashi Koji. Senchakushu no seikaku ni tsuite: tokuni hi ronriteki ichimen o chushin to shite. in Jodokyo no shiso to bunka, Etani Festschrift (Kyoto: Dohosha, 1972)
  • SETP (Senchakushu English Translation Project): Honen's Senchakushu, Passages on the Selection of the Nembutsu in the Original Vow (Classics in East Asian Buddhism. A Kuroda Institute Book); Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press / Tokyo, Sogo Bukkyo Kenkyusho, Taisho University, 1998.
  • Sho-on Hattori, A Raft from the Other Shore: Honen and the Way of Pure Land Buddhism, Jodo Shu Press, Tōkyō, 2001,
  • Sōhō Machida, Renegade monk : Hōnen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999,
  • Honen Shonin’s Religious and Social Significance in the Pure Land Tradition by Alfred Bloom
  • Kyoto National Museum: The Illustrated Biography of Priest Honen
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