Kyoōgyōshinshō – General Preface and the Chapter of the True Teaching
This year 2024 marks the BCA’s 125th year anniversary and also the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii (HHMH) celebrates their 135th anniversary along with Shinran Shonin’s 850th birth year and 800th year of establishing the teaching of Jodo Shinshu. HHMH called it the triple celebration. In this occasion, I was invited as a speaker to talk on zoom about Shinran’s opus magna Kyōgyōshinshō, particularly the Preface and Chapter I – True Teaching. Kyoōgyōshinshō is not an easy writing to read, but if you are serious to know Shinran’s teaching, you must read it. One may ask, why is intellectual insight important and even necessary? Our ancestors never had such materials available, lived by their faith joyfully and meaningfully. Well, it may be true.
Kyoōgyōshinshō presents Shinran not only to be a religious leader, but also a thinker and intellect as well, also you would know soteriological structure originated from Amida’s primal vow that Shinran finally reached. There were several purposes for Shinran to compose this writing. First, he wanted to express his gratitude and benevolence to the Amida Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, and the Seven Maters, who guided him to enter the true gate toward attaining Buddhahood. Second, he needed to defend and clarify his master Honen’s teaching, particularly against the criticism raised by Myoe, regarding his assertion about Honen’s rejection of Bodhi-citta (Bodhi-mind). Lastly, Shinran encourages to take refuge in the teaching of true Nembutsu practice, criticizing the contemporary monks in the path of sages (elite monks mainly on Mount Hiei) and aspirants of the Pure Land teaching who were ignorant of the true way.
By knowing the background, you would enjoy and appreciate reading Kyoōgyōshinshō, and will see the whole picture of Shinran’s teaching.
Book Title and Style:
The original title is Ken Jōdo Shinjitsu Kyōgyōshō Monrui (Jp. 顯淨土眞實敎行證文類), which can be translated in English as Revealing the True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way. It is also referred to as the Kyōgyōshinshō (Jp. 教行信証). The text is presented in six chapters to reveal the teaching of the Pure Land Way. It is also called the “Honden” (Jp. 本典) or the “Honjo” (Jp. 本書), because the text is the doctrinal foundation of Shinran’s teaching.
The text has the style of “collection of passages” (Jp. monrui, 文類), in that Shinran quoted from the Pure Land sutras, treatises, and commentaries written by the seven Pure Land masters. There are also some of Shinran’s own comments (Jp. Gojishaku 御自釈), which are valuable to understand his teaching. Just a note, Shinran did not necessarily translated all quotation exactly the same in the original sources. He intentionally altered some for his emphasis depending on the context.
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English Renditions:
There are currently four translations in English available.
(1) The Kyogyoshinsho or the ‘Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Attainment,’ translated and annotated by Kosho Yamamoto, in 1958, 1975, published by the Karinbunko.
(2) The Kyōgyōshinshō – The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching Living, Faith, and realizing of the Pure Land, translated by Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki, published by Shinshū Ōtaniha, Kyoto, in 1973.
(3) The Collected Works of Shinran , The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way, Ken jōdo shinjitsu kyōgyōshō monrui, translated by Dennis Hirota (Head Translator), Hisao Inagaki, Michio Tokunaga, and Ryushin Uryuzu, published by Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, in 1997.
(4) Kyōgyōshinshō: On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, published by Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, California, in 2003.
Summary of General Preface:
The very beginning of the text starts with Shinran’s reflection within himself. He says that the universal Vow is a great vessel bearing us across a wide ocean, just as if the unhindered light is the sun of wisdom dispersing the darkness of our ignorance. [CWS I, p.3] Talking about the tragedy at Rahagriha, Shinran expresses the auspicious Buddha’s Name as true wisdom that transforms our evil into virtues because it is embodied with the perfect supreme virtues. The diamondlike shinjin (deep spiritual awakening) is true reality that eliminates doubt and brings ordinary people to attainment of enlightenment. Shinran then tells us that we should rejoice in the karmic condition if we should come to realize true and real shinjin and practice. The preface expresses Shinran’s deep sense of gratitude of encountering the Primal Vow, which is the decisive cause of birth for the Buddha Tathagata, Sakyamuni Buddha, and the Seven Pure Land Masters in India, China, and Japan who transmitted the teaching of the Primal Vow.
If you have the Collected Works of Shinran (CWS), please take a look at the Preface composed by Shinran. The original is beautifully written and very poetic. English renditions try to carry the meaning without lost translation.
The Chapter of the True Teaching:
The first chapter starts with the essential soteriological structure of Amida’s two aspects. Shinran says, “Reverently contemplating the true essence of the Pure Land way, I see that Amida’s directing of virtue to sentient beings has two aspects: the aspect for our going forth to the Pure Land and the aspect for our return to this world. In the aspect for going forth, there is the true teaching, practice, shinjin, and realization.” Shinran explains the rationale in the Larger Pure Land Sutra expounded by Sakyamuni Buddha, because it relates the foundational narrative concerning Amida’s vows and establishment of the Buddha’s recompensed Pure Land.
The Kyōgyōshinshō is a work of six volumes; Teaching, Practice, Shinjin, Realization, True Buddha and Land, and the Transformed Buddha-Bodies and Lands. The text is divided in two parts. The first five chapters provide an outline of the essential context of deep spiritual awakening called shinjin, arising from the Amida’s primal vow. The second division is the final sixth chapter that deals with Shinran’s view of other traditions of Buddhism called as provisional means in the Pure Land way.
We, Shin Buddhists, are so fortunate that our founder Shinran left the Kyōgyōshinshō and some more writings to share his thought and deep spiritual joy to have encountered the Amida Buddha’s teaching. At the end of writing, Shinran quotes Genshin’s words, “Those who have been born first guide those who come later, and those who are born later join those who were born before. This is so that the boundless ocean of birth-and-death be exhausted.”
Namo Amida Butsu
Rev. Dr. Mutsumi Wondra
