Yūzū Nembutsu-shū

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Yūzū Nembutsu-shū ( Japanese融通 念 仏 宗) is a school of Amitabha Buddhism in Japan .

history

Founded by Ryōnin

The founding of the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū falls in the late phase of the Heian period . The central figure at this time was the Tendai monk Ryōnin (良 忍; 1072–1132; known posthumously since 1773 by the Go-Momozono -tennō under the title Shōō Daishi, 聖 応 大師), who since 1045 as a hermit north of the then capital of Japan Kyoto lived. On the 15th day of the fifth month in 1117, Amida ( Amitabha ) is said to have appeared to him during a Nembutsu meditation and explained to him the principle of Yūzū Nembutsu.

During a later meditation on Kurama-ji in Ōhara, Bishamonten appeared to him, who asked him to bring the teachings of Yūzū Nembutsu to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings into the world. So on the 9th day of the sixth month in 1124, Ryōnin went to the capital, where the Toba- tennō entered the notebook in which the followers of Ryōnin recorded themselves by name and obliged to recite the Yūzū Nembutsu daily. With further personal support from the Tennō, the following of the new school quickly grew to several hundred.

Until his death at Raigō-in, Ryōnin spent the following years on missionary trips through Japan. To propagate the new cult, he often referred to the names of eight million gods that Bishamonten is said to have given him in the fourth month of 1125 in the form of a scroll. These gods had undertaken to recite the Yūzū Nembutsu daily.

Restoration by Hōmyō

After Ryōnin's death, his student Gongen (権 現) took over the management of the school as headmaster and made the former Shingon temple Shūraku-ji (修 楽 寺) in Osaka under the new name Dainembutsu-ji (大 念 仏 寺) the main temple of the school ( it still fulfills this function today, with currently around 350 branch temples).

The award of the position of head of the school from master to student went smoothly up to the sixth head, Ryōchin (良鎮), who died at the age of 35 in 1182 without having determined a successor. He had recently bequeathed the booklet with the names of the followers to the Shinto shrine Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū . There the deity Hachiman should choose a successor.

The generally accepted selection was made just under 140 years later and fell on Hōmyō (法 明; 1279-1349), who is said to have had a corresponding dream on the 15th day of the eleventh month in 1321 on Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū, of which he was the reported to the priest there, who then handed him the booklet.

Under Hōmyō, the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū strengthened again after a long time and during the epoch of Namboku-chō received support from the Go-Daigo -tennō from the southern court, who entered the membership book with one hundred servants. Even after Go-Daigo was driven into exile in Yoshino by Ashikaga Takauji , the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū remained loyal to him there.

During the presidency of Hōmyōs, who had led a life as a monk on the Kōya-san before his time as a Yūzū Nembutsu follower , the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū experienced a close practical connection to the Shingon-shū , who used the Yūzū Nembutsu in their own rites recorded.

Restoration by Daitsū

After Hōmyō's death, the renewed influence of the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū quickly evaporated again, to which both internal disputes over the succession and the rise of other schools of Amitabha Buddhism in Japan in the late Muromachi period contributed.

The school experienced a last big boom again in the Edo period under the 46th successor chief, Daitsū (大通; 1649-1716; also known as Yūkan (融 観) or Ninkō). Before he took office, he had petitioned the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi for official recognition of the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū by the state and spent years serving as a missionary in Japan.

His main achievements include the ordination of over five hundred monks and nuns, the construction of over thirty temples (including the Enman-ji in 1702) and the writing of two major treatises: the Yūzū Enmonshō (1703), which contains the lineage of Amida was recorded in writing as the school's doctrine, and the Yūzū Nembutsu Shingenshō (1705), in which the beliefs of the school were set out.

Fonts

The Yūzū Nembutsu-shū has only a few scriptures that are considered relevant to one's own teaching. These include above all Amida's proclamations to Ryōnin, as well as his commentary on it, the Ryōgemon (領 解 文). Kegon-kyō and Hokke-kyō , and to a lesser extent the three sutras of the Pure Land (the Shorter Amitabha Sutra, the Longer Amitabha Sutra and the Meditation Sutra) are also considered helpful in understanding the teaching .

Teaching

In addition to the singing recitation of Nembutsu , which is common to all schools of amidism in Japan, the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū refers to the concept of mutual dependency and interchangeability of all forms of existence, the Yūzū (融通), derived from Kegon-kyō and Hokke-kyō , in turn, a practical implementation of the Kegon principle of the mutual connection of each phenomenon with all other phenomena (事 々 無礙, jiji muge ).

In his appearance to Ryōnin, Amida is said to have stated this as follows:

"A person is equal to all people
All people are equal to a person
One exercise is the same as all exercises
All exercises are the same as one exercise
This is the attainment (往生, ōjō ) of the strength of the other (他 力, tariki )

The ten worlds (十 界, jikkai ) are in a single thought.
And if the yūzū nembutsu is recited countless times,
all virtues will be perfect ”

In the worldview of the Yūzū Nembutsu-shū, the individual believer is inseparable from the fate of all other sentient beings in the ten worlds (i.e. the six realms plus the realms of the Śrāvakas, the Pratyeka Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas ; one from the Tendai- Buddhism borrowed concept). Through the devotion to the Yūzū Nembutsu the individual believer should give up the wrong idea of ​​his ego and through the power of the other (a term technicus in all schools of Amitabha Buddhism), i.e. H. here of the Yūzū to gain entry into the Pure Land of Amida . This effect also applies to the rest of all living beings, albeit to a lesser extent. It should be strengthened by practicing reciting in a group, the Sangha . The individual members form themselves by listing their names in the membership book, whereby they commit to a certain number of daily recitations (around 100 or 1,000).

literature

  • Daigan Lee Matsunaga and Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. II; The mass movement (Kamakura & Muromachi periods) . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1976. ISBN 0-914910-27-2 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ^ Translated and quoted from Matsunaga 1976, p. 15.