Shōkū

Shōkū viewed the nembutsu as an act of faith that united the believer with Amida Buddha. Central to Shōkū’s teaching was the concept of anjin (settled faith), which he considered essential for the arising of nembutsu. He argued that genuine faith requires abandoning the attitude of self-power (the idea that our efforts liberate us), in favor of totally entrusting oneself to Amida’s original vow. In this framework, the believer transitions from attempting to achieve salvation through personal effort to fully relying on Amida’s boundless compassion.^[7]

信仰は、善道が説いた三つの信心によっても説明される。それは「最も誠実な心、深い心、浄土への往生を願う心」を意味する。聖空によれば、最も誠実な心とは、自力に固執せず、自らの努力の無益さを正直に認める誠実さである。^{[ 8 ]}深い心とは、常に私たちを包み込んでいる仏の本願に疑いを抱かず、実際、私たち自身の仏性は阿弥陀仏の仏性と切り離せないものであると確信することである。 ^{[ 8 ]}このように、聖空によれば、十劫前に阿弥陀仏が仏となったことで、衆生の救済は既に保証されている（無量寿経の本願に述べられているように）。したがって、阿弥陀仏の悟りが疑いようのないものであるのと同様に、信者の救済もまた、本質的に阿弥陀仏と結びついており、疑いようのないものである。彼によれば、この疑いのなさは信仰そのものと同義である。^{[ 7 ]}

松空によれば、 「南無阿弥陀仏」という六字句において、最初の二字「南無」は信者の阿弥陀への帰依を表し、残りの四字「阿弥陀仏」は仏の救済力を表す。したがって、念仏を唱えることは、信者と阿弥陀の法身との一体化を意味する。この、我々と阿弥陀との非二元性は「気法一体」と呼ばれ、信者は精神的な能力に限界があっても、仏によって体現された絶対真理と不可分に結びつくことを意味する。^{[ 7 ]}

衆生と仏のこの一体性ゆえに、阿弥陀仏への信仰を得た瞬間、私たちは永遠に阿弥陀仏と一体となり、「抱きしめられ、決して見捨てられることはない」（雪主不社）のです。この時点で、私たちが行うあらゆる行為や修行は、仏の力によって行われます。^{[ 8 ]}この時点では、念仏さえも仏の力によって自然に行われます。浄土への誕生をもたらすための手段的な修行ではなく、念仏は阿弥陀仏との非二元性の表現となるのです。聖空はこの一体性を、火（仏）が木（衆生）に火を灯し、燃やす様子にたとえて説明しています。木は自ら燃えるのではなく、燃えるためには火が必要なのです。^{[ 8 ]}聖空は次のように書いています。

when the wood turns into embers, one cannot say whether these are fire or wood: one may call them fire just as well as wood. In this, the dry wood represents mortal beings as they are unable to do any good work by themselves, being only capable of doing evils. But when they, relying on Amida, give them selves up to him, he enters into their hearts, and his enlightenment becomes their enlightenment. To give another analogy, the moon reflects itself in water wherever there is some: the moon and the water become inseparable here. Therefore, it is said that the rebirth is attained when Amida enters into our hearts and when thus our works are his and his are ours: in the unity of Amida and ourselves, Amida realises his Buddhahood and on our side rebirth is attained.^[8]

For Shōkū, Buddhahood the essence of Amida's Vow, which in turn is the embodiment of Buddhahood universally permeating all sentient beings. Thus, there is no ultimate distinction between the Amida Buddha as the liberator and sentient beings as the subjects to be liberated.^[9] Furthermore, the Amida's Vow is the ultimate source of all teachings, including the other-power practice of nembutsu, and the self-power practices (which are only manifested to lead beings to other-power nembutsu).^[9]

Unlike interpretations that saw the nembutsu as a practice which causes birth in the Pure Land after death, Shōkū asserted that salvation occurs immediately upon the emergence of faith. He thus held that once true faith arises, on reciting the nembutsu, the distinction between the believer and Amida dissolves, making birth in the Pure Land an immediate reality (sokutoku ōjō). All actions—physical, verbal, and mental—become manifestations of nembutsu and expressions of Amida’s power rather than the efforts of the believer.^[7]

Although Shōkū rejected religious practices as a means of attaining salvation, he did not discard them altogether. He engaged in activities such as extensive nembutsu chanting, scriptural recitation, monastic discipline, and temple lectures. However, he regarded these not as self-powered efforts to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land, but as manifestations of Amida’s other-power working through him. In this way, he reconciled religious observances with the doctrine of faith-based salvation.^[7]

Shōkū is also known for his teaching of nembutsu as “unvarnished wood” (shiroki nembutsu), meaning it should be free from personal interpretations and attachments to self-power practices. People who rely on their own efforts—whether through doctrinal understanding, precepts, or meditation—add their own “color” to the nembutsu, leading either to arrogance or discouragement. However, true nembutsu, as taught in the Pure Land sutras, requires no such modifications. Shōkū, like Shandao, emphasized that sincere faith and simple calling Amida’s name are sufficient for birth in the Pure Land. Shōkū saw this as a kind of unembellished practice of recitation.^[10]

Through nembutsu, even those who have lived entirely immoral lives and are in their final moments, unable to perform good deeds or understand Buddhist teachings, can attain birth in the Pure Land by simply calling Amida’s name. Those who rely solely on the Buddha practice nembutsu entirely uncolored by self-effort, much like how a child’s hand is guided in writing by a teacher. Shōkū stressed that nembutsu alone without reliance on meditative or non-meditative practices can ensure one's birth in the Pure Land, regardless of one’s background. This teaching underscores complete reliance on Amida’s other-power (tariki) rather than self-power (jiriki), though it does not dismiss the value of nembutsu recited by those knowledgeable in Mahayana or precepts.^[10]

Shoku explains his view of the "unvarnished nembutsu" as follows:

Now if a person just says the nembutsu, he or she will attain birth [in the pure land] - no matter whether the person leads a pure or impure life, whether their karma is bad or good, whether the person is of high class or low, a scholar or a fool. And yet people committed to the self-power (jiriki) method of emancipation keep on making meditative and non-meditative practices their objective. They insist that it is useless to try to attain birth without the coloring these practices give to their nembutsu. But they are all totally out of line. That is why we teach the method of emancipation by dependence upon other power (tariki) and the complete rejection of the principles of the self-power method. Now this doesn’t mean that there’s no value in the nembutsu of people either deeply or just ordinarily knowledgeable of the Mahayana teachings, or of those who keep the precepts. It’s very important to avoid all confusion of thought here.^[10]

Shōkū is known for his unique interpretation of "other-power cultivation" (他力修行) which harmonizes all practices, including the five main Pure Land practice and all practices of the threefold training (precepts, meditation, and wisdom), into a schema which remains focused on Amida Buddha. He argued that all virtuous practices are ultimately rooted in the merit of Amida Buddha, and thus, even practices traditionally associated with "self-power" could be understood as expressions of other-power faith if one approaches them with the right attitude. This perspective allowed Shōkū to reconcile the single-minded other-power focus of Japanese Pure Land with the broader Mahayana emphasis on ethical and meditative practices.^[11]

Regarding the five main Pure Land practices as taught by Shandao (sutra recitation, visualization of Amida, worship, nembutsu recitation and praising and making offerings), Shōkū writes that while only the nembutsu is necessary, one may still engage in the other four auxiliary practices as a way to deepen one's connection to Amida's vow and express one's gratitude to Amida Buddha.^[11]

Shōkū's also taught that even all the miscellaneous practices of the threefold training (precepts, meditation, and wisdom), which are not necessarily Pure Land focused, can still be adopted in an other-power mode. Regarding precepts, Shōkū equated them with nembutsu, asserting that taking refuge in Amida Buddha is the essence of ethical discipline. In meditation, he emphasized the achievement of samādhi (meditative absorption) through the contemplative practices described in the Contemplation Sutra, though he cautioned that vivid visions of the Buddha were not necessary for rebirth in the pure land. For wisdom, Shōkū identified it with the "three minds" (三心) of faith in other-power, particularly the mind of sincere dedication to Amida's vow.^[11]

Shōkū's teachings also critically addressed the conventional self-power practices prevalent in the Buddhist traditions of his time. He argued that practitioners who relied on their own efforts without recognizing the primacy of Amida's power for the Buddhist path were trapped in a cycle of doubt and attachment. By contrast, "other-power practice" involves recognizing one's own limitations and the futility of self-reliance, thereby opening oneself to the transformative power of Amida's vow. As such, what made one's practice self-powered or other-powered was one's relationship with Amida's power, rather than the practical details of one's specific practice.^[11]

As such, if one "recognizes one's own evil", sees self-power as futile, and turns to solely to Amida Buddha's power, all practices become effective through the infinite merit of the Buddha's original vow. Thus, Shōkū writes in his Kangyōsho Taii (観経疏大意):^[11]

The third mind of dedication and aspiration, means that all practices, all good deeds, the roots of goodness from past, present, and future, and the merits of oneself and others are all the merit of Amida Buddha. When one practices with a mind that separates these, it is difficult to achieve. But when one returns to the universal vow, they become one and the same.

Shōkū taught that even mundane and deluded desires could be transformed and added to the Pure Land path by relying on the Buddha. Shōkū thus taught that every moment of delusion and desire we experience could be transformed and used as part of the Pure Land path. For example, Shōkū writes:

when we covet material treasure, let us turn this desire into that for the seven treasures of the Pure Land. When we crave for some particular food, let us imagine all kinds of dainties procurable in the Pure Land. When we desire fine clothes, let us turn our minds to the divine raiments in the Pure Land. When we are affected with heat and cold, let our hearts dwell on the climate of that Land. When we long for a recreation, let us fancy a stroll with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. When we hear music on earth, let us apply our minds to the celestial music in that Land. When we see flowers, let us conceive those made of the seven treasures in the Land of Amida. When we see the sun, let us figure before our eyes the moonlike face of Buddha. In this way, whenever we enjoy anything pleasurable in this life, let us practise the Nembutsu, thinking of all the enjoyments in the Pure Land; and whenever we experience anything painful, let us also practise the Nembutsu, thinking of the eight pains suffer able in the three evil paths of existence.^[8]

Shoku's view of realization holds that through practicing Buddha contemplation, one can attain a partial realization or insight in this life. According to Shōkū, the attainment of "the patience of non-arising" (mushōnin 無生忍, Skt. anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) could be partially reached in this life, not just on birth in the pure land. He outlined two elements of the attainment of non-arising: one refers to attaining the stage of non-retrogression (a point at which one cannot regress on the bodhisattva path), and the other refers to attaining the Dharma-nature body (法性身). These are respectively assigned to the practice of the seventh contemplation of the Buddha's Lotus Throne (taught in the Contemplation Sutra), and to the period after rebirth in the Pure Land, during which one realizes the nature of Dharmakaya.^[12]

Shōkū bases his theory of realization in this life on several passages from the Contemplation Sutra, one of which states:

Seeing the supremely wondrous pleasures of that land, one's heart is filled with joy, and accordingly, at that moment, one attains the insight into non-arising.^[13]

Shōkū also relies on Shandao's commentary which states that Queen Vaidehi (the main recipient of the teaching of the Contemplation Sutra), on "seeing Amida directly" has her "heart open further" and then "realizes insight". Shōkū held that this refers to attaining the patience within the ten faiths (jūshin 十信), which are the first ten stages in the traditional East Asian schema of the bodhisattva stages. Furthermore, he held that the phrase "the mind increasingly opens and awakens to patience" in Shandao's Commentary to the Contemplation Sutra (found in the section on the visualization of the Buddha's Lotus seat) refers to Vaidehi's attainment of the first bodhisattva stage.^[13] Moreover, Shōkū also draws on the fact that the Contemplation sutra contains another passage which states that five hundred of Vaidehi's ladies-in-waiting attained the patience of non-arising after hearing the teaching on the sixteen contemplations. Shōkū interprets this passage to mean that future sentient beings, if they truly hear and internalize the teachings of the sixteen contemplations in the Contemplation Sutra, can attain the state of realization in the present life.^[13]

Regarding realizations after attaining rebirth in the pure land itself, Shōkū's position is that bodhisattvas reborn in Sukhavati reach the fifty-first stage of near-enlightenment. According to Shōkū, all beings who have attained true faith in Amida Buddha can reach this stage regardless of their position within the nine grades of birth in the Pure Land.^[13]