Nondualism in Shinran

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Duality and Oneness in Shinran s PureLand Buddhism: Toward Intercultural

Understanding of the Eastern Classics

Koji HIRAMOTO

Table of Contents

Abstract

1 Introduction

2 The Phase of Duality

3 The Phase of Oneness

4 The Relationship between Duality and Oneness

1) The Perspectives of Suzuki and Nishida

2) Shinran s View

5 Conclusion

Works Cited

Abstract

Shinran 1173-1262), one of the leading masters in the Japanese Pure

Land tradition, developed his doctrinal system to the ultimate stage in

the Mahayanistic context. His idea involves both a dualistic phase and a

nondualistic one. The absolute and the relative confront each other in the

former; and in the latter they are one. It might not be so simple to gener

alize in actuality as in appearance; however, his idea has a potential for

being a bridge between Western and Eastern cultures or ideas. In this

study, I examine the core aspect of his thought to promote an accurate

understanding of his texts based on clear and faithful translations.



Koji HIRAMOTO 7

1 Introduction

Shinran 1173-1262), one of the leading Pure Land masters in Japan,

tried to reinterpret Mahayana Buddhism in a revolutionary way and to

reconstruct it as his own doctrine of Pure Land Buddhism. t involves

deep insight for the existential reality of a human being and profound

spirituality toward the perfect liberation of the alienated self. In a cer

tain sense, he developed the Pure Land teaching to the ultimate stage in

the Mahayanistic context. Some scholars have pointed out that Shinran s

Pure Land teaching, based on Mahayana Buddhism and acclimated to

Japanese culture, shows unique doctrinal development.

Indicating the doctrinal or theoretical supremacy of Shinran s Pure Land

thought, Suzuki Daisetz 1870-1966), an eminent Japanese Buddhist

master in full activity overseas, states in uddha of Infinite Light

The Pure Land Tradition of Buddhism matured in China, but it

accomplished its full development in the Shin school of Pure Land

Buddhism. The Shin school is the culmination of Pure Land thought

that took place in Japan. The Japanese may not have offered very

many original ideas to world thought or world culture, but in Shin we

find a major contribution that the Japanese can make to the world

and to all other Buddhist schools.

He further writes in the same work:

Of all the developments that Mahayana Buddhism has achieved in

East Asia, the most remarkable one is the Shin teaching of Pure Land

Buddhism. It is remarkable because geographically its birthplace is

1 ) Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, uddha of Infinite Light Boston and London: Shambhala

Publications, 2002), 21.



18 Duality and Oneness in Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism

Japan, and historically it is the latest evolution and the highest point

reached in Pure Land Mahayana. (22-23)

In Suzuki's perspective, Mahayana Buddhism was developed to the ulti

mate as Shinran's Pure Land thought in Japan located in the Far East.

I will herein take Christianity as the counterpoint which has exerted

great influence over Western cultures and ideas. Christianity seems to

have a dualistic structure between God as the creator to save and a hu-

man being to be saved. Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), the leading philoso

pher of the Kyoto School and who was on good terms with Suzuki, ex

pounds the basic structure of Christianity in his last completed article,

The Logic of the Place of Nothingness and the Religious Worldview :

Christianity, which is personalistic, places the fountainhead of reli

gion in man's fall in an extremely acute way. Original sin s transmitted

to the descendants of Adam, who rebelled against God, the creator.

Man is a sinner from birth. Therefore there is no way to escape sin

from the side of man. The only escape is through the sacrifice of the

son of God, who is sent into the world of man by God because of his

love. We are saved by believing in the revelation of Christ. 2

With reference to the characteristics of the East and the West, Ralph

Waldo Emerson (1803-82), one of the leading transcendentalists in the

United States, points out in Plato; or, the Philosopher in Representa-

tiveMen:

The unity ofAsia, and the detail of Europe; the infinitude of the Asiatic

soul, and the defining, result-loving, machine-making, surface-seek-

2 ) Kitaro Nishida, Last Writings: Nothingness and the Religious Worldview trans. David A

Dilworth (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 79.



Koji HIRAMOTO 19

E 31ng, opera-gomg urope,

There are both a dualistic phase and a nondualistic one in Shinran s

thought. The absolute and the relative confront each other in the former,

and in the latter, the absolute and the relative are one. However, I m

afraid that there is a rudimentary misunderstanding of his Pure Land

teaching that the relationship between Amida Buddha and a sentient

being is simply dualistic.

Inthis study, taking up Shinran s Pure Land Buddhism as one of

themajor Eastern classics, I will examine the fact that there are both a

dualistic phase and a nondualistic one as the core ofhis thought ex-

pressed in his major works. Needless to say, there can be no accurate

translation without a precise understanding of both source language and

target language. I t also requires the clear understanding and the elabo-

rate interpretation of the ideas expressed in the original texts. In the last

part, I will make mention of its possibility to make a contribution toward

an intercultural study. His thought, in my view, has a potential for span

ning the gap between Western cultures or ideas which incline toward

duality and Eastern ones which partly uphold the notion of oneness as a

tradition. Obviously no stereotype is intended here.

2 The Phase of Duality

In this chapter, I will examine the phase of duality between the absolute

and the relative in Shinran s Pure Land Buddhism. To take an example,

Nishida points out the fundamental structure of Shinran s Pure Land

3) Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Oxford Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Richard

Poirier Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 295.





Koji HIRAMOTO 21

To reveal the true teaching: t is the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life.

The central purport of this sutra is that Amida, by establishing his

incomparable Vows, has opened wide the dharma-storehouse, and full

of compassion for small, foolish beings, he selects and bestows his

treasure of virtues. [The sutra further reveals that] Sakyamuni ap

peared in this world and expounded the teachings of the way to en

lightenment, seeking to save the multitudes of living beings by bless

ing them with this benefit that is true and real. (63-64)

Tannish a the analects of Shinran,6 reads as follows:

When we believe that we have been saved by the inconceivable

power of Amida's Vow and are therefore going to be reborn in the Pure

Land, there arises from deep within us the desire to say the Nembutsu.

At that moment we receive the benefit of being embraced by Amida

Buddha, never to be cast away.7

In his concept, there is a polarity between Amida Buddha to save and

sentient beings to be saved, and between the Pure Land to be born in and

the world ofbirth-and-death to leave. These notions are important and

his teaching evidently has a dualistic phase.

3 The Phase of Oneness

In this chapter, I will examine the phase of oneness or nonduality between

the absolute and the relative in Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism. There are

notions such as birth-and-death is itself nirvana, nirvana is attained

6) Tannis/W: A Primer defines the work as a record of the words of Shinran set down in

lamentation over departures from his teaching. [Yuien, Tannisho A Primer trans.

Dennis Hirota (Kyoto: Ryukoku University Translation Center, 1982), 21 ]

7 Alfred Bloom, Strategies or Modem Living: A Commentary with the Text of the Tannisho

(Berkeley: Numata Center, 1992), 3



22 Duality and Oneness in Shinran s Pure Land Buddhism

without severing blind passions, and blind passions and enlighten

ment are not two in it. Birth-and-death and nirvana, and

enlightenment and blind passions are both identical. These notions

expressed in his words seem to transcend rationality based on object

logic. I will herein cite as many instances as space permits.

Making a hymn titled Hymn of True Shinjin and the Nembutsu,

Shinran states n the chapter of The True practice of the Pure Land Way

in Kyogyoshinsho:

When a foolish being of delusion and defilement awakens shinjin,

He realizes that birth-and-death is itself nirvana;

Without fail he reaches the land of immeasurable light

And universally guides sentient beings to enlightenment. (1: 165)

He also makes a hymn in the same section:

When the one thought-moment of joy arises,

Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions;

When ignorant and wise, even grave offenders and slanders of the

dharma, all alike turn and enter shinjin,

They are like waters that, on entering the ocean, become one in taste

with it. (1:161)

Annotating the second verse of this hymn, he amplifies this spiritual

condition in Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls:

Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions Without

severing blind passions means without having sundered and cast off

blind passions. Nirvana is attained: Know that one attains realization

of the supreme nirvana. 8

· 8 ) Shinran, Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls: A Translation of Shinran s Songo

shinzlJ meimon, trans. and ed. Yoshifumi Ueda (Kyoto: Hongwanji International

Center, 1981), 71.



Koji HIRAMOTO 23

He makes verses in Hymn on the Nembutsu and True Shinjin in

Passages on the Pure Land Way

When shinjin unfolds in the foolish being possessed of all blind passions,

He immediately attains insight into the non-origination of all existence

And comes to realize that birth-and-death is itself nirvana.

Without fail he reaches the land of immeasurable light

And universally guides sentient beings to enlightenment.9

In the same work, he also states:

When, through Amida's directing of virtue to them by the power of

the Vow, the foolish beings ever floundering in birth-and-death hear

the true and real virtues and realize supreme shinjin, they immedi

ately attain great joy and reach the stage of non-retrogression, so

that without being made to sunder their· blind passions, they are

brought quickly to the realization of great nirvana. (57)

Shinran writes in ymns of the Pure Land Masters:

Knowing truly that the Primal Vow-

The perfect One Vehicle that brings about sudden at ta inment

Grasps those who commit grave offenses and transgressions,

We are quickly brought to realize that blind passions and enlighten

ment are not two in substance. 10

The note for the phrase blind passions and enlightenment are not two

in substance in the fourth verse says blind passions and enlighten

ment become one body and are not two (25).

He also writes in ymns of the Dharma-Ages:

9 ) Shinran, Passages on the Pure Land Way A Translation of Shinran s Jodo monrui jusho,

trans. and ed. Yoshifumi Ueda (Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1982), 45

10 Shinran, ymns ofthe Pure Land Masters: A Translation of Shinran s osa wasan,

trans. and ed. Yoshifumi Ueda (Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1992), 25




When the waters of the mind entrusting to Other Power enterThe ocean waters of Amida s Vow of wisdom,

Then in accord with the nature of the true and real fulfilled land,

Blind passions and enlightenment come to be of one taste.

This hymn has the note for line 4 as follows:

line : our minds and Buddha s mind become one. When we are born

in the Land of Happiness, evil and good become one taste. Blind

passions and virtues become one. 21)

Looking at these examples, it is clear that Shinran s Pure Land thought

has the phase of oneness or nonduality. t seems paradoxical from hu-

man logic or rationality ordinarily based on the duality between subject

and object. I will make reference to this point in the early part of the

following chapter.

4 The Relationship between Duality and Oneness

In this chapter, referring to Suzuki s Mahayanistic and Nishida s philo-

sophical interpretations, I will try to reveal the relationship between

duality and oneness in Shinran s Pure Land Buddhism.

1) The Perspectives of Suzuki and Nishida

Explaining the dualistic conditions of human beings residing in·this

world, Suzuki writes in Buddha. of nfinite Light:

11) Shinran, Hymns of the Dharma-Ages: A Translation ofShinran s Shozomatsu wasan,

trans. Dennis Hirota and others Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1993), 21.



Koji HIRAMOTO 25

Subject and object, before they split, emerge from where there is no

subject or object yet. This world that we take for granted and see is

intellectually reconstructed; it is not the real one. We have re-formed

it through our senses and our intellect working at the back of the

senses. We reconstruct this world and believe that our fabrication.is

the real thing. (39)

The polarity between subject and object is ascribed to their split in human

cognition. In this connection, Nishida writes in the first chapter Pure

Experience in n Inquiry into the Good:

When one directly experiences one' s own state of conscious·ness,

there is not yet a subject or an object, and knowing and its object are

completely unified. This is the most refined type o f experience.l2

Offering a further explanation of the relationship between subject and

object, he also writes in the same work:

The distinction between subject and object is a relative form that arises

when one has lost the unity of experience, and to regard subject and

object as mutually independent realities is an arbitrary view. (31-32)

Nishida, from his philosophical standpoint, criticizes the dual ism concern

ing the split between subject and object.

It is popularly believed that subject inside and object outside confront

each other and human beings generally regard both the self representing

the outside world and the outside world represented by the self as sub-

stantial. Generally speaking, human conception or cognition itself tends

to be understood as dualistic.

12) Kitaro Nishida, n Inquiry into the Good trans. Masao Abe and Christopher lves

(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990), 3-4.




From the Mahayanistic viewpoint of oneness, the world of birth-and

death is itself nirvana. This principle is the quintessence of Mahayana

Buddhism. In Suzuki's perspective, therefore, the Pure Land can be

identical with this world, even though human dualistic cognition recog

nizes them as different or separate. In this regard, Suzuki writes in

uddha ofInfinite Light:

According to my understanding, Pure Land is right here, and those whohave eyes can see it around them. And Amida is not presiding over an

. ethereal paradise; his Pure Land is this defiled earth itself. (24)

With regard to the relationship between the absolute and the relative, he

speaks in this manner:

When we say NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU, namu is self-power, or ki.

Amida butsu is Other-power, or ho. Thus, NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU is

the unity of ki and ho. This unification is the oneness of Amida and

ordinary beings, Other-power and self-power, this world and Pure

Land. So, when NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU is pronounced, it represents

or symbolizes the unification of the two. (28)

The absolute and the relative in human conception are necessarily dual

istic; however, he understands that they are nondualistic in the Name,

NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU in Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism.

Quoting Suzuki's idea of the nondualistic relationship between this

world and the Pure Land, Nishida writes in the last·part of The Logic

of the Place of Nothingness and the Religious Worldview :

This corrupt world reflects the Pure Land, and the Pure Land reflects

this corrupt world. They are mutually reflecting mirrors. This points

to the interconnectedness, or oneness, of the Pure Land and this



Koji HIRAMOTO 27

corrupt world. ( 123)

Nishida also expounds the absolute identity of negation and

affirmation n Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism through his own words. He

writes in the same work:

I think that it was perhaps only in Japanese Buddhism that the absolute

identity of negation and affirmation was realized, in the sense of the

identity of the actual and the absolute that is peculiar to the Japanese

spirit. Examples of this realization are found in such ideas of Shinran

as in calling on the name of Buddha non-reason is reason and

effortless acceptance of the grace of Amida (102).

Thus Suzuki and Nishida understood Shinran's Pure Land thought from

the Mahayanistic viewpoint of oneness.

(2) Shinran's View

I will hereafter make an attempt to examine Shinran's view of the

relationship between duality and oneness. He states in the chapter The

True Realization of the Pure Land Way in KyogyiJshinshii

When foolish beings possessed of blind passions, the multitudes

caught inbirth-and-death and defiled by evil karma, realize the mind

and practice that Amida directs to themfor their going forth, they

immediately join the truly settled of the Mahayana. Because they

dwell among the truly settled, they necessarily attain nirvana. To

necessarily attain nirvana is [to attain] eternal bliss. Eternal bliss is

ultimate tranquility. Tranquility is supreme nirvana. Supreme nir-

vana is uncreated dharma-body. Uncreated dharma-body is true

reality. True reality is dharma-nature. Dharma-nature is suchness.

Suchness is oneness. 13




Paraphrasing one after another, he reaches conclusion that the foolish

beings who dwell among the truly settled realize oneness, that is,

nonduality. This part seems to represent the vector from duality to one-

ness.

Shinran refers to the term dharma-body (Skt. dharmakiiya) in the

last part of the previous quotation. Concerning the two dimensions of it,

he writes in Notes on 'Essentials ofFaith Alone :

For this reason there are two kinds of dharmakaya in regard to the

Buddha. The first is called dharmakaya-as-suchness and the second,

dharmakaya-as-compassion. Dharmakaya-as-suchness has neither

color nor form; thus, the mind cannot grasp it nor words describe it.

From this oneness was manifested form, called dharmakaya-as

compassion.14

Human beings cannot grasp dharmakaya-as-suchness because it is

based on oneness and has neither color nor form. In contrast, they can

grasp dharmakaya-as-compassion based on duality which manifests

itself from oneness. This part seems to represent the vector from oneness

to duality.

In this connection, Shinran cites the passages from The Commentary on

the Treatise written by T'an-luan (476-542) in chapter The True Realiza

tion of the Pure Land Way n KyogyoshinshiJ. T'an-luan was the Chinese

Pure Land master and was the third of the seven patriarchs in Shinran's

13 ) Shinran, The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure and Way: A

Translation of Shim·an sKyogyoshinsho, trans. and ed. Yoshifumi Ueda (Kyoto:

Hongwanji International Center, 1987), 3:355-56.

14) Shinran, Notes on 'E8sentials of Faith l o n e ~ · A Translation of Shin ransYuishinsh

mon'i, trans. and ed. Yoshifumi Ueda (Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center,

1979),42-43.



Koji HIRAMOTO 9

Pure Land teaching. T'an-luan states in this manner:

t is because, stated in brief, they enter into the phrase one-dharma.

The preceding seventeen phrases on the land's adornments, eight

phrases on the Tathagata's adornments, and four phrases on the

bodhisattvas' adornments are extensive. That they enter into the

phrase one-dharma is termed n brief. Why is it explained that

extensive and brief interpenetrate? Because all Buddhas and

bodhisattvas have dharma-bodies of two dimensions: dharma-body as

suchness and dharma-body as compassionate means. (3:375-76)

According t T'an-luan, dharma-body has two dimensions in the same way

as we have seen, that is, dharma-body as suchness and dharma-body

as compassionate means. He continues to explicate those two dimen

sions as follows:

Dharma-body as compassionate means arises from dharma-body as

suchness, and dharma-body as suchness emerges out of dharma

body as compassionate means. These two dimensions of dharma

body differ but are not separable; they are one but cannot be regarded

as identical. Thus, extensive and brief interpenetrate, and together

are termed dharma. lfbodhisattvas o not realize that extensive and

brief interpenetrate, they are incapable of self-benefit and benefiting

others. (3:376)

f dharma-body as compassionate means and dharma-body as

suchness can be respectively regarded as representing duality and one·

ness, this part of the citation seems to show the reciprocal relationship

between those two dimensions. It well expresses the subtle relationship

between duality and oneness beyond human rationality in Shinran's Pure

Land Buddhism.



30 Duality and Oneness in Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism

5 Conclusion

Shinran's Pure Land Buddhism generally tends to be understood as

based solely on dualism formed by such antagonistic notions as Amida

Buddha and a sentient being, the Pure Land and the world ofbirth-and

death, and enlightenment and blind passions. However, as we have

seen, it has two phases: (1) The phase of duality where the relationship

between the absolute and the relative is dualistic, and (2) The phase of

oneness where the relationship between the absolute and relative is

nondualistic.

The absolute and the relative seem t be dualistic in appearance; in other

words, an existential or experiential level of the condition. From a spiri-

tual point of view, this level can be regarded as unreal and delusory dis-

crimination. In contrast, the absolute and the relative seem to be mutually

identical in spiritual reality; that is, an essential or idealistic level of the

condition. This level can be paraphrased as nondiscrimination. There

fore, whether the spiritual standpoint is taken or not, the relationship

between the absolute and the relative varies and two phases of duality

and oneness form a reciprocal structure.15 This concept is, in my perspec-

tive, at the core of his thoughts.

Thus, Shinran's Pure Land thought, as occasionally pointed out, has a

potential for being a bridge between the East and the West in respect of

whether their worldview inclines toward duality or oneness. The precise

15) Enunciating a parallel idea to this one, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in Plato; or,

the Philosopher in Representative Men

By religion, he [each student] tends t unity; by intellect, or by the senses, to the

many. A t rapid unification, and an excessive appliance t parts and particulars,

are the twin dangers of speculat ion. (294)



Koji HIRAMOTO 31

understanding of his thought, in my view is not merely for retaining the

accuracy in translation but also for acquiring the opportunity for intercul-tural understanding. For this reason, clear and faithful translations of

his work become highly important. For such translations, other than

effective performance in both source language and target language a de-

tailed interpretation of Shinran s core concept is indispensable, such as

that which I have tried to present in this study.

Works Cited

1 Primary Sources

Shinran. Hymns of the Dharma-Ages: A Translation of Shinran s Shozo

matsu wasan. Translated by Dennis Hirota and others. Kyoto: Hongwanji

International Center, 1993.

.Hymns of the Pure Land Masters: A Translation of Shinran s Koso

wasan. Translated and Edited by Yoshifumi Ueda. Kyoto: Hongwanji


. Notes on Essentials of Faith Alone : A Translation of Shinran s

Yuishinsho-mon i. Translated and Edited by Yoshifumi Ueda. Kyoto:

Hongwanji International Center, 1979.

. Notes o the Inscriptions o Sacred Scrolls: A Translation ofShinran s Songo

shinzo meimon. Translated and Edited by Yoshifumi Ueda. Kyoto:

Hongwanji International Center, 1981.

-- .Passages on the Pure Land Way: A Translation of Shinran s Jodo

monruijushii. Translated and Edited by Yoshifumi Ueda. Kyoto: Hongwanji


. The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A

Translation of Shinran s Kyogyoshinsho. Translated and Edited by

Yoshifumi Ueda. Vol. 1 Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1983.

. The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A

Translation of Shinran s Kyogyoshinsho. Translated and Edited by

Yoshifumi Ueda. Vol. 3 Kyoto: Hongwanji International Center, 1987.

Bloom Alfred. Strategies for Modem Living: A Commentary with the Text of

the Tannisho. Berkeley: Numata Center, 1992.




Yuien Tannisho: A Primer Translated by Dennis Hirota. Kyoto: Ryukoku

University Translation Center, 1982

2 Secondary Sources

Emerson, Ralph Waldo The Oxford Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson Edited

by Richard Poirier. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990

Nishida, Kitaro. An Inquiry into the Good Translated by Masao Abe and

Christopher lves. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990

.Las t Writings: Nothingness and the Religious Worldview Translated by

DavidA

Dilworth. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. Buddha of Infinite Light Boston and London:

Shambhala Publications, 2002

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Nondualism in Shinran

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