Shinran Was Very Political – Where It Counted

Our denominational founder, Shinran Shonin, discerned the vast inclusiveness of the Buddha’s Vow to awaken us all, and shared it as widely as possible. 

This created political problems. Some priests and scholars of his day, such as Myo-E, condemned the Pure Land movement of Honen, Ryukan, Shinran and others because they sincerely believed it was wrong. Mostly, however, it was political resistance from elements of the Tendai and Shingon denomination that troubled Shinran and his descendants for eight generations. That political pressure was motivated by fear and greed. The established schools of Buddhism were losing members to our tradition; members who had been financial supporters of temples in the Tendai and Shingon lineages. 

Some forms of opposition can be ignored. When people criticize you just to hear themselves talk, you can “turn a deaf ear their way.”  We see such tolerance in Rennyo Shonin. When our eighth Go Monshu was told someone was criticizing him behind his back, he replied, “How kind of him to criticize me behind my back. If I make it impossible for him to speak to my face, at least he knows that, by making this criticism to others, it will eventually come to my attention and I will be given the opportunity to improve my behavior.”  

There are times for such tolerance and flexibility in the face of criticism, but there are also times to speak up for oneself, and for one’s tradition.

Shinran Shonin was not always so accommodating as Rennyo Shonin seems to have been. Shinran told us that we should have nothing to do with people who go around criticizing ministers and other Dharma teachers. When he sat down to compose his masterwork, about 20 years after the government had sent he and Honen into exile, he wrote:

“The Emperor and his Ministers, acting against the Dharma and human rectitude, became enraged and embittered. As a result, Master Genku — the eminent founder who had enabled the essence of the Pure Land way to spread vigorously (in Japan) — and a number of his followers, without receiving any deliberation of their (alleged) crimes, were summarily sentenced to death or were dispossessed of their monkhood, given (secular) names, and consigned to distant banishment. I was among the latter.”

— Collective Works of Shinran (CWS), Page 289

In the history of Japan, no one else has ever published such a harsh critique of the emperor and the government. No one else criticized the emperor as “acting against the Dharma and human rectitude.” No one in Japan, prior to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, more than 600 years later, had ever taken such a dangerous and highly political action.

This is the sort of merging of religion and politics that Shinran exemplifies. There is only one life, and we must act in it. Leave it to others to call one action “political” and another “religious.” Jodo Shinshu Buddhists simply try to act authentically in all situations. Shinran was political when he needed to be.

We should follow Shinran’s example. We must speak up for what is right in important matters. We needn’t quibble with everyone about small matters of disagreement, political, social, aesthetic or otherwise. If you think Eddie Van Halen was a better guitar player than Jeff Beck, why should that bother me? If someone else thinks that this world was created by some god, why should I take the time to disagree with them? 

But if someone wants to take charge of the reproductive life of women in this country, or if someone wants to deny our responsibility to preserve our environment, or if someone wants to oppose the right of gay couples to marry, I will speak out strongly against them. This is the sort of Buddhist I am, following Shinran’s guidance. This is the sort of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist I hope that each of you is becoming, more and more, each day.