Jodo
Shinshu Buddhism was initiated by Shinran Shonin (1173 - 1263), founder
of Jodo Shin school on Pure Land Buddhism. Shinran Shonin was born in
1173, during the Kamakura Period in Japan. His teaching is based in the
Pure Land tradition as a successor to Honen Shonin. Shinran Shonin, he
developed his efforts to clarifying the necessary of being carried on
the power of the Primal Vow as the inner dynamics of recitative nembutsu.
The complete entrusting of self to the Primal Vow meant simultaneously
abandoning all need to rely on self-power. This is reason for Shinran's
stress on Shinjin (Faith), "the true and real mind of Amida Buddha," which
is the source of this entrusting. Through the working of Amida's wisdom
and compassion, we are made to say the nembutsu, affirming the enduring
power of Amida and acknowledging our limited human capacities. Thus the
central question for the Shin Buddhist become, not "How can I attain satori?"
but "How can I be carried by the power of the Primal Vow?"
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