THE PROMISE OF AMIDA BUDDHA
Honen's Path to Bliss
Translated by Joji Atone and Yoko Hayashi
Wisdom Publications, Boston 2011
A book review by Mark Healsmith
Although I referenced this book extensively in my last Dharma talk it is such a wonderful and important book that it deserves a stand-alone review. This is a substantial book - 487 pages. It begins with an introduction that is itself an introduction to the historical and doctrinal development of Pure Land Buddhism and which provides a context for the translations, and concludes with detailed and scholarly footnotes at the end of the text, a glossary, an index and an extensive bibliography. For newcomers to the Pure Land tradition the 'Forty-Eight Vows of Buddha Amitabha' are also appended.
Thanks to the effort of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, the English speaking world has the translated and annotated 'Collected Works of Shinran' and the associated commentaries. Thanks to the scholarship and compassion of Professor Inagaki Hisao we have masterful translations of the three Pure Land Sutras and of much of the writings of the Chinese and Indian Pure Land Patriarchs. We have long had a good translation of Honen Shonin’s major work, 'Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu' . There have, however, been gaps in what has been available for the English speaker. Although Rennyo Shonin's letters are readily available, the record of his oral teachings is not. Until the book under review appeared the written and oral teachings by Honen Shonin that it contains had not been translated into English.
This book then is the first translation into English of what is termed the 'Collected Teachings of Honen: The Japanese Anthology'. It is only a part of what would constitute the full collected (and I think largely untranslated) teachings of Honen Shonin, but it includes a very significant body of teachings as the size of this book, but more especially the value of its content demonstrates. The anthology was compiled in the 13th century by a Jodo Shu priest and first published in 1321, just over a century after Honen’s death and is as complete as its compiler, Ryoe Doko, could make it.
Unlike Honen's Shonin's 'Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu' which was written in classical Chinese and which Honen wrote, I presume, as a formal exposition and justification for his teachings, the 'Japanese Anthology' is made up of works of formal doctrinal teaching, many letters replying to queries from clergy and lay people and records of his oral teachings. In these works Honen again and again patiently explains the simple, yet profound truth - that cleverness and learning are not what is needed to be assured of birth in the Pure Land; all that is required is to say the nembutsu. In most of these letters and essays Honen refers to the teachings of Shandao as the authority for his own understanding.
One of my favourite teachings is very short - about one page in English. It is entitled 'Instruction to Zensho-bo'. It is a jewel-like teaching. I must quote some of it.
' ... one should recite nembutsu in whatever is the natural state one was born into. [...] The wise should recite nembutsu as wise people do; the unlearned should recite nembutsu in their natural state; the compassionate should recite nembutsu with compassion; and one with aberrant views may recite nembutsu as a person with aberrant views.’ (p253)
And further.
' ...one must be both convinced that a single utterance of nembutsu guarantees birth in the Pure Land and continue nembutsu throughout one’s entire life. Further, if one entertains doubt that a single utterance assures birth in the Pure Land, every recitation of nembutsu, thus lacking in faith, becomes a futile exercise.' (p254)
A large part of the anthology consists of records of Honen’s oral teachings. From these, and in particular from the 'Dialogue on One Hundred Forty-Five Topics' the reader can glean a little of the down to earth, anti-superstitious, slightly wry and doubtless charismatic personal presence of Honen Shonin as he deals with all manner of practical and theoretical questions. There is a real feel of the warm and generous personality of Honen throughout the book though.
I'd like to end this review with two further comments. Firstly, this is an easy to read and very rewarding book important to all Pure Land Buddhists. Shin Buddhists in particular will benefit from an encounter with Shinran Shonin’s beloved teacher. Secondly I should like to thank the translators for their efforts. The English is semi-formal, idiomatic but not specific to any region. It is, simply, a joy to read.
The Way of Nembutsu Shinran and Shin Buddhism | home