Honen- Japanese FigureMortal"Founder of Jōdo Shū"
Also known as: Hōnen, 法然, Genkū, and 源空
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Description
A Tendai monk who spent decades on Mount Hiei mastering every practice the institution offered, then walked away from all of it. In 1175 he declared that a single phrase, Namu Amida Butsu, was enough to reach the Pure Land, and founded Jōdo Shū to teach it.
Mythology & Lore
From Mount Hiei
Hōnen was born in Mimasaka Province in 1133. His father, a local official, was killed in a night attack. The dying man told his son to enter the religious life rather than seek revenge. The boy obeyed. By fifteen he had ascended Mount Hiei, the center of Tendai Buddhism.
He proved a brilliant student and mastered the full range of Tendai doctrine, esoteric ritual, and meditative practice. But decades of study left him unsatisfied. In 1175, reading the Chinese Pure Land master Shan-tao's commentary on the Contemplation Sutra, Hōnen found what he had been looking for. Amida Buddha's Original Vow promised rebirth in the Pure Land to anyone who sincerely recited the nembutsu: Namu Amida Butsu. No meditation, no esoteric initiation, no monastic rank. The nembutsu alone.
Hōnen left Mount Hiei and began teaching in Kyōto. The school he founded, Jōdo Shū, asked nothing of its followers but sincerity. Farmers and fishermen could practice it. So could women and those in occupations the established temples considered impure.
Exile
The monks of Mount Hiei petitioned the court repeatedly to suppress him. In 1204, Hōnen issued the Seven Article Pledge, trying to restrain his followers' more provocative claims. It was not enough. In 1207, two of his disciples caused a scandal at a court gathering, and the government acted. Hōnen was exiled to Shikoku. Several followers were executed or banished.
He was pardoned in 1211. He returned to Kyōto and died there the following year. His principal written work, the Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shū, circulated only among close disciples during his lifetime. After his death it became the foundational text of Jōdo Shū. His most consequential disciple, Shinran, carried the teaching further and founded Jōdo Shinshū.