Life of Shinran Shōnin

Shinran Shōnin (1173-1263) was born at the end of the Heian period when political power was shifting violently away from the imperial court and towards the warring clans. Paradoxically, this turbulent period, in which the old order was crumbling, was a period of intense renewal in other areas, such as Buddhism. In this period, Japanese Buddhism abandoned its rigid formalism to give way to new paths that made awakening available to many social groups, which had previously been excluded.

Shinran was born into the aristocratic Hino family, a branch of the Fujiwara clan. Both his father, Arinori, and his mother, Kikko, passed away in Shinran's early years.  Thus, at the age of nine, Shinran became a monk under the guidance of the Tendai abbot, Jien. The next twenty years were spent following a daily routine of intense study and ascetic practice on Mount Hiei. 

After twenty years of great effort, Shinran gave up the hope of attaining awakening through a regime of discipline and study. At the age of twenty-nine, Shinran undertook a 100 day retreat at Rokkakudo Temple in Kyoto, in order to find a sense of purpose and direction in his religious search. On the dawn of the ninety-fifth day, Prince Shotoku appeared to him in a dream. Shinran interpreted this dream as a sign that he should seek out Hōnen. Filled with resolve and after having listened to the Master Hōnen for 100 days, he joined his movement. Hōnen, like Shinran, had also been a monk at Mount Hiei, and, after leaving the mountain, he started teaching the exclusive practice of nembutsu, which expressed a complete reliance on Amida Buddha’s Vow. 

During the years he spent at Yoshimizu under the tutelage of Master Hōnen, Shinran learned the teaching of the nembutsu, debated with his peers, and eventually received recognition from his teacher. Following the conventions of the time, Shinran was allowed  to copy Master Hōnen's magnum opus, the Senjaku Hongan Nenbutsu Shu, as well as copying the portrait of his master, which meant Hōnen acknowledged his understanding and realization, and trusted Shinran to pass on the teaching to others. 

Around the same time, Shinran married Eshinni and started a family. By doing this, Shinran was putting into practice the teaching of Hōnen, who argued that Amida's vow reached out to everyone equally without discrimination, whether lay or monastic, and that following precepts was not essential towards liberation. However, this gesture was controversial at the time, since monks were expected to remain celibate.

However, the traditional Buddhist schools were increasingly jealous of the growing popularity of Hōnen, and in 1207, they succeeded in persuading the government to ban his teaching of nembutsu. Four Hōnen's disciples were executed and Hōnen and many of his disciples, including Shinran, were banished from the capital. Shinran was stripped of his priesthood, given a criminal name, and exiled to Echigo (Niigata prefecture) on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Resisting this imperial decree, Shinran did not take the lay title he had been given, but named himself Toku (literally, “stubbled-haired” or "baldie"), declaring himself to be "neither monk nor layman".

Five years later, the emperor pardoned the exiled monks, and Shinran was given permission to return to the city of Kyoto. However, upon discovering that his master had passed away, he decided not to return to Kyoto. Instead, he decided to stay in the countryside and continue to spread the teaching. In 1214 Shinran, who was by then forty-two, went to the Kantō region to share  the teaching of nembutsu for twenty years, building a great movement that included folk from different social groups.

After wandering through provincial towns and villages, Shinran settled at the age of forty-five in Inada, Hitachi Province. Although his hut was lonely and far from the cities, a large number of truth seekers, noble and humble, laymen and monks, always came knocking at his rustic door. His desire to see the spread of Amida's promise was thus amply fulfilled. It was here, at Inada, at the age of fifty-two, that he began to write his famous work Kyō-Gyō-Shin-Shō, laying the foundations of what was to become the Jōdo Shinshū school.

In the vicinity of Inada lived a religious leader named Bennen. As Shinran's teachings spread among the people, Bennen's influence began to wane. This caused Bennen's resentment to build up to the point of even attempting to kill the Shōnin. Finally, he broke into the Shōnin's hut to murder Shinran; however, as soon as he saw the Shōnin and heard his voice, the murderous intent instantly vanished. Filled with repentance, he became one of the Shōnin's most faithful disciples, Myōhō-bō. 

At the age of seventy, Shinran returned to Kyoto to begin a new life devoted largely to writing.  He did not give sermons or gave public teachings to his disciples but lived with relatives, supported by gifts from his followers in the Kantō area. His wife returned to Echigo to oversee her estate, while it was their youngest daughter, Kakushinni, who remained by Shinran’s side until the end of his days. In this period Shinran finished or developed most of his writings: he completed the erudite treatise Kyōgyōshinshō in ancient Chinese, the language of culture of the time, but also composed hundreds of musical, Japanese-language poems in which he made his teachings accessible to ordinary people. At that time, problems arose among his followers in the Kantō area, and he wrote numerous letters and commentaries addressing their worries and concerns.

Near the end of his life, Shinran was forced to disown his eldest son Zenran, who caused unrest among Kantō followers by claiming he had received secret teachings from his father Shinran. However, Shinran’s creative energy continued until his death at the age of ninety, and his works manifest an increasingly rich, mature, and articulate vision of human existence that reveals him as one of Japan's most profound and original religious thinkers.

In the winter of 1262, Shinran Shōnin fell ill and was bedridden for a short while. On the twenty-eighth day of the eleventh month, the Shōnin died and reached the Pure Land of happiness and peace at the age of ninety.  It is said that these were his last words: "When you are alone, say the revered Name and realize that you are not alone but accompanied by another. When there are two of you reciting the Name, there will be three of you: I, Shinran, am always among you." The next morning, his companions and relatives solemnly cremated his remains, in the southern part of the capital.