Auxiliary Practices and Deathbed Nenbutsu

Although Genshin maintained that the nenbutsu is the central Pure Land practice, he also argued that it must be undertaken in conjunction with various auxiliary practices, such as keeping the precepts, in order to ensure the efficacy of the nenbutsu. This chapter takes up the various auxiliary practices that Genshin enumerates in the Ōjōyōshū. In addition, this chapter also describes the deathbed nenbutsu ritual which Genshin also highlights in the Ōjōyōshū.

The Six Paths and the Pure Land

This and the following two chapters focus on the teachings of the Ōjōyōshū. This chapter takes up the first two chapters of the Ōjōyōshū, which describes the suffering inherent in the six realms of transmigration and the bliss that awaits all who are born in the Pure Land. The section on the six realms of transmigration includes the most famous section of the Ōjōyōshū: a graphic description of the suffering that await people who are reborn, as the result of their evil deeds, in the eight hells of the Buddhist cosmology.

Introduction

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Genshin and Pure Land Buddhism

This chapter takes up Genshin’s involvement with Pure Land Buddhism after he secluded himself in Yokawa. It first discusses Genshin’s Byakugō kanbō, his first (albeit extremely short) work on contemplating Amida, written just shortly after he turned to the Pure Land faith. Then it provides a brief outline of the Ōjōyōshū. Finally, the chapter ends with a lengthy analysis of the Nijūgo zanmaie, a Pure Land association in which Genshin took a leading role.

Zenyu, Senkan, and the Beginning of Tendai Pure Land Discourse

This chapter takes up the issue of how a distinctive Japanese Tendai Pure Land discourse was created by Tendai monks who were contemporaries of Kūya. The chapter focuses on two monks, Zenyu (913-990) and Senkan (918-983), who wrote the Amida shinjūgi and Jūgan hosshinki, respectively. They are the first extant treatises on Pure Land Buddhism written by Japanese Tendai monks. These treatises provided the foundation upon which Genshin was to write the Ōjōyōshū a generation later.

The Introduction of Pure Land Buddhism to Japan

This chapter takes up the early development of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, focusing especially on the Nara period (710-794). In this early period, Pure Land Buddhism was understood primarily as a religion to ensure the post-mortem welfare of one’s relatives and ancestors but by the Heian period, it came to be seen as a way of attaining one’s own birth in the Pure Land. By the Nara period, all of the major Pure Land sūtras and treatises had been transmitted to Japan and scholar-monks began to produce highly sophisticated studies on Pure Land texts.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, this chapter takes up two major reasons why the Ōjōyōshū proved extremely influential. The first is because it showed how people can gain enlightenment during an age in which it was believed that the spiritual capacities of human beings had degenerated to the point where it is virtually impossible to attain buddhahood. The second reason for its influence is because it presents a comprehensive and systematic typology of the nenbutsu.

Genshin’s Early Years

This chapter focuses on Genshin’s early life, from his birth up to the time he secluded himself in Yokawa in the northern outskirts of the Enryakuji, the head Tendai monastery on Mt. Hiei. It also discusses the life of Genshin’s teacher Ryōgen (912-985), since the factionalism on Mt. Hiei which was aggravated by Ryōgen’s actions to extend his authority within the monastery played a major role in Genshin’s decision to seclude himself in Yokawa.

The Growth of Pure Land Buddhism in the Heian Period

This chapter first discusses how Pure Land Buddhism was introduced into the Japanese Tendai school by Ennin (794-864) and gradually became an important presence in the school. The chapter next takes up the volatile religious situation of the tenth century and discusses how Pure Land Buddhism became widely practiced, thanks to the activities of the charismatic miracle-working Kūya (903-972). The chapter closes with an account of Yoshishige no Yasutane (931-997), a noted literati and Pure Land devotee who created the Kangakue (Association for the Encouragement of Learning), one of the earliest associations that included the Pure Land nenbutsu practice among its activities.

Hōnen’s Appropriation of the Ōjōyōshū

Finally, this chapter takes up how the nenbutsu teaching of the Ōjōyōshū was interpreted by the Kamakura period Pure Land monk Hōnen. Hōnen created a revolution in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism by advocating the “exclusive nenbutsu,” or the notion that the sole practice needed to achieve birth in the Pure Land is the recitation of “Namu Amidabutsu.” This chapter recounts how Hōnen interpreted the Ōjōyōshū in the light of his notion of exclusive nenbutsu, in order to appropriate Genshin’s text to lend authority to the exclusive nenbutsu teaching.