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浄土真宗の起こり |
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The Origin of Jodo Shinshu |
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二つの流れ |
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Two Streams |
釈尊（お釈迦様）によって開かれた仏教には、八万四千の法門（教え）があるといわれますが、それを大別すると、聖道門と浄土門に分けることができます。聖道門は、人はすべて仏になる可能性をもち（これを悉有仏性という）その立場から、自分の力で努力精進して仏になろうとするものです。しかし、そのためにはたいへんな努力を必要とするので、自力聖道門とか、難行道（困難な道）ともいわれます。
浄土門は、仏の力によって極楽浄土に生まれ、そこで仏になるというものです。そのため、他力浄土門とか、易行道（やさしい道）ともいわれます。
この浄土門は、わたしたちのような愚かで迷いの多い悪人でも仏になれるという、万民に開かれた、「真実の教え」です。この教えの流れの中心に立たれたのが、浄土真宗の宗祖親鸞聖人なのです。ただし、親鸞聖人が「浄土真宗」（単に「真宗」）といわれていたのは、その師の法然（源空）上人からさずかった浄土の教えをさしていました。親鸞聖人自身、自分はひとりの弟子ももたない、といわれていたほどで、教団をつくる意志がありませんでしたから、浄土真宗が宗名となったのは、のちのことになります。
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The teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha describe
eighty-four thousand dharma doors, or “gates” to enlightenment. These
gates basically can be divided into two groups: The Holy Way Gate and
The Pure Land Gate.
The Holy Way Gate teaches that all beings have a Buddha-nature, or the
possibility of becoming a Buddha by one’s own efforts, or self-power.
Since this practice requires arduous effort, it is known as the
difficult path.
The Pure Land Gate, by contrast, teaches that all sentient beings have
the ability to become a Buddha, (even though they are foolish beings)
and be reborn in the Pure Land through the power of Amida Buddha, or
other-power. This practice is known as the easy path. Jodo Shinshu
follows the teachings of this gate.
Shinran Shonin, the founder of Jodo Shinshu (The Pure Land True
Teaching), followed the teachings of The Pure Land Gate, transmitted to
him by his Master, Hōnen Shonin. Neither Shinran nor his disciples
intended to create a new school of Buddhist thought, but the movement,
once set in motion, eventually became the largest Buddhist sect in
Japan. |
| 浄土真宗は、浄土門の流れをくみます |
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Jodo Shinshu follows the
teachings of the Pure Land Gate |
親鸞聖人と浄土真宗
親鸞聖人は法然上人から浄土教を学びます
平安時代の末期、世は貴族社会から武家社会へと大きな転換をとげようとして、戦乱と天災があいつぎ、乱れに乱れていました。その頃、京都郊外に生まれた親鸞聖人は、九歳で出家して比叡山に登り、修学に励みました。
大正10年に発見された恵信尼文書（消息）によれば、親鸞聖人は堂僧をしており、その折に浄土教にふれられたとされます。しかし、聖人はその修行でさとりを得ることはできませんでした。また、出家して修行できない者はさとりと無縁なのか、という疑問もありました。そんな苦悶の日々の中、
聖徳太子のゆかりの六角堂に百日間の参籠をされることを決意します。95日目の暁、観音菩薩の夢のお告げなどもあり、聖人は二十九歳で比叡山を下り、京都吉水におられた法然上人について浄土教を学び
に行かれました。これは、阿弥陀仏を一心に念ずること（専修念仏）によって、仏の慈悲の力が、わたしたちを浄土へ導いてくださるという教えです。
この新しい教えは、広くたくさんの人たちの共感を呼び、受け入れられていきました。 |
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Shinran Shonin and Jodo
Shinshu
By the close of the Heian period (794 to 1192), Japanese political power
was shifting from the aristocracy to the shogunate, or samurai society.
In addition, wars and natural disasters were almost constant.
It was during this period that Shinran was born (1173) in suburbs of
Kyoto. Little is known of his early life, except that he entered a
monastery on Mount Hiei at about the age of 9. From his wife, Eshin-ni’s
letters found in 1921, we know that he was a minor priest (dōsō). It was
here that Shinran is said to have encountered Pure Land thought.
After twenty harsh years of study, practice and meditation, Shinran
began having serious questions about his inadequacy as a priest and
inability to achieve enlightenment. In order to resolve his doubts and
anxieties, he undertook the common practice of meditating for 100 days
at the Rokkakudō in Kyoto, a temple alleged to have been founded by
Prince Shōtoku and where there is enshrined a statue of Kannon
Bodhisattva (The Bodhisattva of Compassion). According to one of the
extant letters of his wife, Eshin-ni, Shinran received a “message” from
Shōtoku on the 95th day and had a dream about Kannon Bodhisattva that
led him to his future Master, Hōnen, after which Shinran became Hōnen’s
disciple, studying and teaching the single heart of the Nembutsu
concentration, that all sentient beings, through faith, have the ability
to be reborn in the Pure Land. This new teaching was widely embraced by
people from all walks of life. |
| 聖人の念仏の信み教えは広まり、親鸞聖人は浄土真宗の宗祖と仰がれます
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Realization of the
nembutsu of Shinran was spread and later he was adored as the founder of
Jodo Shinshu. |
| しかし、念仏の教えは時の権力の弾圧を受け、法然上人は讃岐（香川県）へ、親鸞聖人は越後（新潟県）へ流されました。5年後許されてから
、家族共に関東に移り、約二十年の間教化活動に励まれました。そこで、多くの人々とも語らいながら、念仏の信仰をいっそう深めていかれたのです。
理由ははっきりしませんが、聖人の主著『教行信証』完成のため、六十二、三歳の頃、京都にもどられ、著述に専念し、九十歳で亡くなりました。それまで教えを受けた子孫や門弟たちの努力によって、聖人の念仏の教えは次第にひろまっていき、親鸞聖人は宗祖と仰がれるに至ったのです。
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This “new” Nembutsu teaching, however, was subjected to much criticism,
as it undercut the traditional Buddhist establishment and power
structure of the time. As a result, both Hōnen and Shinran were exiled
from Kyoto: Hōnen to Tosa Province (currently Kagawa Prefecture), and
Shinran to Echigo (Niigata Prefecture). Both were eventually pardoned
after a period of about 5 years, and Shinran, along with this wife,
Eshin-ni and their new son, eventually moved to the Kanto region to
teach and spread the Nembutsu.
Shinran and his family remained in the Kanto area for about 20 years. It
was during this period the Shin Buddhist movement began as Shinran
taught and nurtured many others who went out teaching the Nembutsu
precepts and as he formed a “community of faith” in the area.
For reasons unknown (perhaps to complete his “opus magnum,” the
Kyōgyōshinshō), Shinran returned to Kyoto without his wife and family.
Once in Kyoto, he never left, and continued with his studies and writing
until his death at the age of about 90, his faith in his ability to
achieve enlightenment realized by the other-power---salvation by faith
alone. Through the efforts of his descendants and disciples who
continued the teachings and writings which he left for them, Jodo
Shinshu gradually spread throughout Japan, where it continues to be the
dominant religion of Japan today. Shinran Shonin is adored as the
founder of Jodo Shinshu by nembutsu devotees. |
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